Oops, ANOTHER tow?!!.... (Calico Skies Sailing, Ep 82)

They say bad things come in threes…. In this episode we once again find ourselves needing a tow from one of our buddies, SV Avalon. We are becalmed off Cape May NJ after a rough sail in near gale force winds and a malfunctioning engine.

We attempt to start sailing up the Delaware Bay but the fickle breeze just isn’t allowing us to make progress. Luckily Andy Boy (Avalon) is right there and drops us a tow line. Avalon at 55ft, is an absolute beast. We are flying up the bay under tow seeing speeds in the 7-8 knots range! Bill wants to drop the anchor to prevent chafe on the tow line but the windless is also broken, UGH.

Unfortunately we cannot complete the tow to the next sheltered bay before night fall. As luck would have it a dense fog also descends. Since tonights stop is known to have many fishings pots we opt to drop the tow line and tie up along Avalon’s hip. This way if Avalon snags a pot and comes to dead stop we will not collide.

We make it safely to anchor and settle in for a good night sleep. The next day Bill and Andy dig into the engine to try and get it up and running. They find a faulty sea strainer and temporally bypass it so we can limp to Annapolis. Bill also finds a bad connection in the windless remote and repairs it.

We complete the journey to Annapolis without issue and happy to be reunited with good friends up arrival. Our friend (and Patron) Jeff comes zooming out in his Boston Whaler to greet us. Also onboard are Matt and Jessica (MJ Sailing), long time friends that we haven’t seen since the summer of 2018 in the Azores.

What a relief to be safely in Annapolis in the company of great friends!

0:00 Intro
1:19 Recap
1:50 Attempting to sail up the Delaware Bay
2:35 Another tow, Avalon to the Rescue
3:23 Now a broken Windless…
4:50 Preparing to transfer to hip tow to enter the harbor
7:50 entering Cohansey Cove on a moonless, foggy night
9:30 Engine Diagnosis
11:10 Engine’s fixed, time to head to the Chesapeake
14:00 Finally in the Chessy time to relax a bit
14:20 Finally back in Annapolis and reunited with our buddies from MJ Sailing

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