Maiden Voyage Plans

Wednesday, March 22, 2017

During the whole month of March we have been wanting to sail Aisling from the Riverside Marina in Delran, N.J. outside of Philadelphia to the Middle River Landing Marina in Essex, Md. which is closer to us in Towson.

We are planning to go to the Riverside Marina Wednesday, March 22.  We will do some last minute things on the boat and sleep on the boat tomorrow night.  The boat will still be "on the hard" (out of the water).   Winds are predicted to be out of the north/northwest at 17 kts with maximum gusts of 25 kts. This is more wind then we would like to travel in.  The weather is to be sunny and in the low to mid 30s 

Thursday, March 23, near high tide (around 11:00 am), the Riverside Marina will launch Aisling.  (Delran, NJ has 6 foot tides and the boat needs to be launched at or near high tide). We will then start our journey navigating down the Delaware Bay to the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal (C&D Canal) to the Chesapeake Bay and to Middle River and Middle River Landing Marina.  The length of the trip is about 100 miles.  We believe the trip will take us two days (one night on the water). Thursday the winds are predicted to be very low - 5 kts or less from the northwest. The weather is to be sunny and in the upper 30s to low 40s after a low of 24 on Wed. night. We hope to get to Delaware City (east end of the C&D Canal) and spend the night at Delaware City Marina.  

Friday morning we will leave Delaware City Marina, go through the C&D Canal and down the Chesapeake Bay to Middle River and Middle River Landing Marina.  Winds are predicted to be out of the southwest at 11 to 15 kts with maximum gusts of 26 kts. The weather is to be partly cloudy to cloudy and temperatures in the middle to upper 40s after a low of 31.  

Hans and Greta will be with us and have their first experience being in a power boat.  We will probably travel at 8 kts with a 180 hp diesel engine.  Jeff was at the boat Monday and among the things he did was to fill the diesel tank with fuel.  We thought we probably needed 40 gals to make it full.  However, he had to put 60 gals. in.  He took a 5 gallon diesel can and filled it 12 times at a filling station that had "off road diesel" fuel.  This type of diesel is the same as car/truck diesel but is not taxed.  He went to the filling station so many times that both of our bank cards refused to let him use them after about a total 10 times and the station attendant called his boss after about the 8th trip.  It is sort of comforting that bank cards are looking out for fraud and the attendant was also thinking something unusual was going on.  

We will keep you updated and let you know when we arrive at Middle River Landing Marina.