Cruising the Maine coast in our own boat has been a long-held dream for me and my wife, Kris. Last summer we made it reality on a four-month cruise aboard Orion, our 1987 Sabre 38, from southwest Florida to Maine and back to Virginia. After traveling the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW), which provides many sailors protected—if sometimes tedious—inland passage between Florida and Portsmouth, Virginia, we found ourselves navigating the rivers, cuts, and man-made canals between the northern Chesapeake Bay and Maine.
Along the way, we learned that navigating and timing the currents and tides in these often tight waterways can be as challenging and satisfying as any offshore passage (of which we had a few, as well). From north to south, the most noteworthy of these include the Cape Cod Canal connecting Cape Cod and Buzzards bays; the passage at Woods Hole, Massachusetts, linking Buzzards Bay and Vineyard Sound; The Race at Long Island Sound’s eastern end; Hell Gate in Manhattan’s East River; the Cape May Canal that permits direct passage between the Atlantic Ocean and Delaware Bay, and finally, the Chesapeake and Delaware (C&D) Canal, which connects Delaware Bay to the top of Chesapeake Bay and points south.
In general, as we
