We began May in Buck Island, North Carolina almost finished with the ICW. We arrived just as the wind picked up, seeing 26 knots as we anchored. It was a bit of a wavey night but not a bad place to sleep before continuing on.
The following day, we made it to the free dock at the Great Bridge. Our friends on Sandpiper had arrived to the dock earlier in the day and called us as we were approaching. We weren’t sure if there was space for us but Dan and Holly ensured us there was enough space at the end of the dock and caught our lines for us as we came in.
We stayed on the free dock for two nights. The first night we enjoyed sundowners aboard Sandpiper and got caught up with Dan and Holly. The following the day they had rented a car and invited us to join them for a trip to Kitty Hawk to visit the Wright Brother’s Memorial.
It was super interesting to learn about the first flight and how it all came to be. The four of us had a really nice day together and it was great to visit a place we likely would not have ever visited if not for being on this journey.
From the free dock we continued on past Norfolk and into Hampton Virgina. Norfolk is mile 0 of the ICW so we had officially finished the ICW and entered back into the Chesapeake! We celebrated with a beer we had brought back from the Bahamas as we were now in a different body of water!
The weather had taken a turn and our next passage was cold, cloudy and rainy. We headed to Deltaville and tucked ourselves into Jackson Creek to wait out some wind and weather. Dan and Holly were not far behind and arrived into Deltaville the following day. We had another nice evening with them, enjoying sundowners aboard Resande. From here we will continue north with plans to take Resande back to the Great Lakes. Sandpiper will be sold here in the Chesapeake so from now on we are on our own, leaving our cruising friends behind.
We left Deltaville with dead calm conditions and motored our way up to Solomon’s. We enjoyed this small town on our way south and were happy to be back here again. We visited one of our favorite pizza places we had found on our way south, Cryptic Pizza. It was just as good as we remembered! We had a nice, hot sunny day to walk around town. We re-supplied with water and diesel and relaxed on the boat for rest of the day.
The following day we were supposed to get strong storms but when we woke up the forecast had changed, the storms split and went north and south of us. We had breakfast and then decided to head north to Annapolis. Unfortunately the wind was right on our nose for most of the passage so we were motoring once again to make it in by dinner-time. Once we turned in towards the city we were able to actually sail the final hour of the passage which was lovely!
On our way south, we were in Annapolis for the fall boat show. That was really fun but the city was so crowded! We had never been to Annapolis before that and this time around it was great to explore the city without all the boat show buzz. It is a great city to walk around and we had some days of really nice weather. We enjoyed some local oysters, trying to get all the seafood we can before leaving the salt water.
From Annapolis we were near the top of the Chesapeake. The upcoming passages include getting through the C & D canal, down the Delaware Bay and then up the Jersey coast back into NYC. We were in a well-protected anchorage in Annapolis so we decided to wait out some weather and leave once we had a nice stretch of forecast to complete the next legs of our journey.
After a full week in Annapolis, Erika was getting antsy to move again. We beat directly into the wind 18 miles to Rockhall. We spent two nights on the free dock/wall here to wait out some north wind before continuing on. Rockhall is a very small town, cute to walk around but most of the shops were closed as we wandered through. We grabbed a few groceries and just relaxed on the boat before some big days of moving.
Our next passage concluded the Chesapeake and we headed through the C & D canal into the Delaware Bay. We refueled in the canal and then anchored at the top of the Delaware for the night.
The following day we took the calm weather and headed down the Delaware. We intended to get to Cape May on this passage but we were making great time so we decided to head all the way to Atlantic City. We arrived after dark but thankfully the city provides alot of light and we were familiar with the anchorage. It was a very long day but now we were only one long day away from NYC.
The next two days brought north wind so we waited in Atlantic City for our window to take our final passage on the ocean to NYC. The weather was cold so we mostly just stayed on the boat. We only left briefly to fill our jerry cans at the 24/7 self-serve fuel dock.
After two days in Atlantic City we had a window to head north. We pulled the anchor up and were on the move by 5am. We had building wind throughout the day, coming from the south. We motor sailed all day to ensure our arrival before dark.
We had a great day on the water! We spotted a humpback whale as we arrived to New York Harbor. We watched it jump out of the water twice! We managed to get a photo of at least its back fin. By 6pm we had the anchor down in Coney Island Creek and had completed our final passage in the ocean.
The following day we were up early to take the incoming tide and current up the Hudson River. We passed by the Statue of Liberty with sunny skies and light traffic. Once again it was really cool to see it from our own boat and then pass by NYC, admiring the skyline.
Once out of the city, the Hudson River valley is really pretty. On the way south we had cold, rainy weather through much of this section but this time around it was sunny and warm! The day ended with us going by West Point and anchoring at Breakneck Point, surrounded by high rocky hilltops.
The next day was rainy with storms rolling through. We looked at the radar and decided to leave early to continue up the Hudson, seeing that the further north we were the less the storms seemed to be. Through the rain we headed to Catskill which is where we will have our mast taken down so that we can head back through the Erie Canal. We also officially passed the salt water/fresh water line of the Hudson, entering back into fresh water this day! That was super exciting, we began polishing and cleaning rust stains off all the stainless around the boat.
We arrived into Catskill mid-afternoon and settled into our slip. We began removing all the sails and prepping the boat for our mast to be taken down the following day. After all the hard work we treated ourselves to dinner and beers at the local brewery.
The next day we got to work making our mast cradle so that we can travel with the mast on deck through the canal. Once we had that all set the marina staff used the crane to take our mast down. It was a very long day but finally we were ready to head back through the Erie Canal. We once again treated ourselves to dinner out and took a final walk around the cute little town of Catskill.
With all our chores completed we headed out the following morning. This was our final day on the Hudson River. We went through the Troy lock and were officially out of the tides and tidal currents! We arrived to Waterford which is mile 0 of the Erie Canal. We stayed in Waterford for two days to give ourselves a break and wait out some gusty wind which makes locking more challenging.
We enjoyed our time walking around Waterford, we visited the nearby Cohoes falls, which is the second largest waterfall in the state of New York. Next to the present day locks you can see where the original canal and locks were located. It was nice to not move for a couple of days to recharge before beginning our journey through the canal.
We left Waterford at 8am as soon as the locks were open. We had a big day for our first day locking through. We started right away with the flight of five, which is five locks right in a row. The day in total was 39 miles on the canal, going through ten locks total! We were exhausted but we arrived just in time to cook dinner, shower, relax and go to bed.
The next day we made it through five more locks, arriving to Little Falls. This was one of our favorite towns on the way through the canal in the fall. We planned to be here for two nights. We didn’t move at all the following day, we did a couple little projects in the morning then walked to town for lunch at yet another of our favorite pizza places we had discovered in the fall. While we were anxious to keep moving through the canal, we had a very important errand to complete the following morning so we relaxed on the boat the rest of the afternoon/evening.
The final day of the month, we have a very important task to complete in town before we can continue on. Back in Deltaville we had sent family to look at several houses for us in Muskegon as we are planning to move to the lakeshore once we arrive back to Michigan. We ended up loving one of the houses, putting an offer in and having it accepted! Today, May 31st we are closing on our new home, using a mobile notary so that we can do the closing while on our journey back to Michigan! After our closing is complete we will be continuing on down the canal! We are planning to go as far as we can today before the locks close at 6pm.
While we still have plenty of adventures with Resande as we go through the Great lakes this summer before returning to Muskegon we are super excited to be living so close to Lake Michigan! We will continue to share our plans for land life 2.0 as we get closer to home.
May 2024 Cruising Stats and Spending
April 2024 Back in the U.S and Northbound on the ICW
June 2024