Rough and confused

The seas today were rough and confused, about a 4’ swell, 20 knot wind, thunder, lightening and rain, oh my. I was pleased that no Dramamine was needed.  I did get sleepy since we were up at 5:15 am so I did have a nap.  I tried to capture the confusion of the water but you just can’t see it in the video.  When we arrived here in Delaware City, DE about 1:30, we were behind a rather large catamaran.  We had to wait our turn out in the mouth of the river while they got fuel and docked.  We listened to the dock master explain the very unusual docking method to them over the radio.  It sounded like an E Ticket ride in Disneyland.  Then it was our turn, we had our radio headsets on and we were ready to follow his very exact instructions.  We had to stay 20-30 feet away from the buoy coming in, not 31ft or you’d be in the muck, stuck in the muck, haha.  We came in to the dock (one straight line, 2200 feet or .4 mile long) bow first, tossed the dock crew a couple of lines and they tied us off at the cleat.  I’ll try to explain this….the bow lines stayed on the cleats, we released the rest of the lines and our stern got intentionally caught by the current, going 2-2.5 knots (that’s a lot!).  The raging current pivoted us out and around 180 degrees so our bow is now heading out towards the way we came in.  Hope that makes somesense, I tried to video it, but much like trying to capture the rough seas, it’s hard to grasp what the current is doing to the boat.  We have heard about this docking maneuver from a handful of boaters we have met in other places and it sounded amazing.  It was!  After we got settled, got all of our switches flipped and our lines tidied up, we hooked Ellie up and went in to explore town.  Their locally famous ice cream store was closed😢 and most of all the other stores were closed also. The houses were old and cute and fun colors.  We took a very tired Ellie back to the boat. So after all is said and done, Painkiller handled very well and nobody needed Dramamine.  Today we went 57 miles, 7 hours, from Cape May NJ to Delaware City. PS Welcome Ron H!Rough seas.

Today’s ride.

The current at the dock.

This cool old brick building was refaced.

Sunset.

Tide is out, 4’

Sunset again.

Painkiller.

The paint on the door faded and then the sticker came off.

Grant and Ashley’s little Harrison, 3 1/2months.

Maybe fall color is starting?

Just liked this picture.

The neighbor behind us.

Newest grandson, Harrison.

Wouldn’t those make good Xmas tree ornaments!

We went by the nuclear reactor again.

David steering this morning.

This poor lady is balanced out on the bow of this catamaran cleaning something.

I really liked this “color palette “.