Oceanus is officially underway!

 Hello family, friends and faithful followers - glad you could "join" us for a while!


Our "crazy" farewell dinner (we'll miss y'all!)

After much deliberation and risk calculation (by me), we decided to take the safer and more comfortable route north up the Chesapeake Bay starting at "O-Dark-Thirty" on the morning of Wednesday, May 31 (which was yesterday, but feels like much longer ago than that).  The wind and waves were pretty rough for the first few hours, but the conditions improved greatly later in the day (thank goodness).  We made it over 150 miles, and anchored in the Magothy River just north of Annapolis MD for the first night. 


Passing under the Chesapeake Bay Bridge by Annapolis, MD

The Captain chilling out underway


Sunset on the Magothy River, MD



Today (Thursday, June 1) we headed North and East from the top of the Chesapeake Bay and passed through the C & D Canal (stands for "Chesapeake and Delaware" - the canal joins these two bays).  After a fairly uneventful run down the Delaware River and Delaware Bay, we have anchored for the night in Lewes, DE (which is known mostly for the ferry service that runs from Lewes to Cape May, NJ).  

On the C & D Canal

On the C & D Canal


We decided to explore Lewes a bit before dark (some pics below from our dinghy excursion):


Great restaurant BTW if you're ever in Lewes!


Our journey so far!!!!

Knock on wood, but all boat systems have been fully operational.  One small leak was detected and repaired in an engine cooling line on the port engine (temporary duct tape patch for now).  The new solar panels have also started chafing the bimini canvas (working on a temporary fix for that as well).  Hopefully this "repair and troubleshooting" segment of the blog will remain short and boring!!!

I'm also planning to do a small blog in the near future about how we prepared for the trip (what we brought and how we stowed it all) - plus a general tour aboard Oceanus.  I'll also figure out how to include a link to our Garmin Satellite Tracker (which provided the map above) so you can actually track us in real time to see what we're up to.

We are planning another long haul tomorrow (another 150 miles) up to Sandy Hook, NJ before the wind really picks up on Saturday.  And the first guests of the trip will be joining us (welcome Marianne and Rob! - Mark's fabulous sister and her fabulous husband).  Our hope would be to continue Northward on Sunday, but the weather may keep us in NJ for a few days.  Stay tuned LOL.

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