What a beautiful morning! The sun is shining, the sky is blue, and the Jofian is afloat in twenty feet of water!
Roy checked the boat for damage. One of the running backstays had pulled loose from the deck. That was the only damage he found that resulted from yesterday's near catastrophe. He also found a problem with the autopilot, but that was unrelated, and he was able to repair it fairly quickly.
Our purpose in coming to Wilmington was to visit our "Corporate Headquarters" (Yacht Registry) and to pick up any mail that might have arrived for Jofian, Inc., so we took the bus to Baynard Boulevard. We had been speculating as to what the office would look like and were pleasantly surprised when we saw it. The Yacht Registry has its own small, attractive building in a residential area. The people there welcomed us and showed us around. As soon as we said we were from Jofian, Inc., they knew we had come for our mail, but there wasn't any mail for us. The gave us two nice T-shirts.
On our way back to the boat, we stopped at a Woolworth's for some ice cream, but it was nearly noon, so we ate lunch instead.
When we were back on the Jofian, Roy did some more work, and I plotted our course to New York and began typing yesterday's events for the log.
Since we didn't want to overstay our welcome, we decided to move the boat to the barges the Port Director had said we could tie to. We said our goodbyes and took off, but when we saw the barges, we decided not to stay there but to go on down to Delaware City, where there are marinas and fuel docks (where have I heard that before?)
We zoomed down to Delaware City, but before entering the channel, we called the marina on the VHF. That's when we discovered that the VHF wasn't transmitting, even though reception was perfect. Now we know why we weren't able to talk to the Marine Operator, the Seagull, etc. Fortunately, we have a back-up, hand-held VHF, so we were able to communicate with that. The woman at the marina said she didn't have a slip available, but we could raft to another boat. She assured us there was seven to fifteen feet of water in the channel, so we started into it, but just as at Chesapeake City, we immediately went aground, but Roy was able to back the boat off. So much for Delaware City and its marinas and fuel docks.
On our way to Delaware City, we had passed a schooner that was anchored near the entrance to the C & D Canal, so we went back there and anchored, too. A young man from the schooner, "Genevieve", came over in the dinghy and talked with Roy for a while. He had recently been discharged from the Navy in San Diego. The boat belonged to his mother, who lived in Florida, and they were on their way to New York. There was a problem with the engine, which he had to fix as soon as it cooled off. He was concerned about the strong and contradictory currents in the area, so he discussed anchoring with Roy. When he returned to the "Genevieve", he called us on the VHF a couple of times, so that gave me an opportunity to further check the transmission. It was definitely not functioning on the wall-mounted VHF, so we had to use the hand-held.
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