6000 Nautical Miles!

6000 Miles!

It was hard to pick a good title for this blog update, because a lot has happened since our last update, and we've come a long way, baby!  Besides 6000 Miles! it could be Sailing with a Pup Tent OR Two Steps Forward, and One Step Back OR Weather Waiting...Again OR Rain, Rain Go Away OR Last Ocean Passage OR New York, Here We Come!   Whatever the title, here's what we've been up to:

Wednesday, May 17, 2017, continued

It was a hot, hot day in St. Michaels--33 degrees, and felt like 39 (according to the Weather Network).  After all of our work was done, we walked through the shops on Talbot Street, looking for shade.  We bought some herbal teas--one to help me sleep and one to ease Carey's aches and pains. Then, we stopped at the Lighthouse and enjoyed sesame encrusted tuna and filet mignon.


Thursday, May 18, 2017

We left the dock at 8:10 with the smell of fresh baked bread wafting up from the galley.  We ate on the road.  It took a couple of hours to get out of the Miles River and back in the Chesapeake. It's such a winding river that we had to motor the whole way.

Just after 10:00, we finally turned northward up the Chesapeake. The winds are blowing 15 knots from the south, right on our stern, so we continued to motor.  Very soon the winds reduced to 9 knots.  We went under the William P. Lane Bridge at 11:45.  We have current helping us along, so we are moving at 7.5-8 knots per hour. Love it!

After lunch, we put out the sails just to give us a boost.  We ran the engine at 2200 RPMs and our SOG was 7.4.  Not bad. Saving a bit of fuel and still moving along quite well.

By 1:50, we were close to our destination. Since it was still early, we decided to go further. We veered toward the east shore and headed for Worton Creek, another 7 nm.  We were more abeam of the wind then, so we tune off the engine and were still moving at over 7 knots.

Then, we decided to go a little further--to Bohemia River.  This puts us much closer to Cape May, so if the weather forecast looks okay, we may do the long trek through the C&D Canal, down the Delaware Bay, and around the hook to Cape May and the ocean tomorrow.  With the longer days of sunlight, we have more options than when we came south.

We didn't stop!  We kept going until we arrived at the Summit North Marina in the C&D Canal at 7pm.  Once we had decided to go on, I made supper and we had it on the way.  This cuts down lots of mileage for tomorrow.  We travelled 75 nautical miles today.

The Summit has beautiful floating docks.  It was very calm there, almost nonexistent current, and we had a gorgeous sunset.

Friday, May 19, 2017

We got up at 4:45 this morning. We were hoping to take advantage of the strong ebb tide current in the Delaware Bay.  The Delaware has 6 foot tides--huge!--so it has a strong current when coming in or going out.  We'd like it helping for most of the trip instead of against us.  High tide is at 5:37 am and low tide is at 12:43 pm.  By the time we get out of the C&D Canal, we should catch the tide just right.  Sunrise was at 5:44, and was beautiful.

Best laid plans. When we got out into the canal, at 5:20, the train bridge (which is always open except for trains) was down. Grrrrr.  I called the bridgemaster who said he would open it as soon as the train went through. When was he expecting it?  Soon.  Hmmmmm. We idled in the canal, waiting.  By 5:45, the train had rumbled through, the bridge had sloooooowwwwwlllyyyy opened, and we were through.

In the canal, we were going against a 1 knot current. It was 7:00 when we exited the canal and entered Delaware Bay. 60 miles to go.  By 7:15, we were getting 1 knot of current helping us along and at 7:40 we put up the sails. 9 knots of wind on a close reach, and we were moving 8.6 SOG. Woohoo!  We love positive currents. We actually hit 10.5 knots SOG today!  Amazing.

The Erie Canal opens today...but we're not there yet.  We are still 230 nautical miles away, as the crow flies. Too bad we're not crows!  Speaking of birds, Carey saw a number of bald eagles and blue herons, and a white swan on the C&D Canal.

The Delaware has a lot of shipping traffic, so we try to stay just out of the channel. We have two sailboats ahead of us today.  We'll try to catch them, of course.

Just as the wind died down and we were about to switch to the "big guy," we saw a hump back whale!  He was less than 150 feet away. Oh, my, so cool.  Later, we saw dolphins, too.

We switched sails and picked up speed again.  Lovely day for a sail. Small swells, comfortable wind, fast current.  When the wind died down somewhat, we motorsailed.  By noon, it had totally died, so we furled the sails and motored. By then, the tide was against us, so we revved it up to 2500 RPMs.

The flies have returned, and they bite, so Carey spent a few hours with the flyswatter.  They are such pests, and they are the worst when the wind is this calm.

At 1:00, the Cape May light was only 3 miles away.  We saw several more dolphins near the mouth of the Delaware and a bunch in the mouth of the Cape May inlet. It took two hours to get around the cape, so we didn't anchor until 3:00 pm.  After dinner, we lifted anchor and found a new place not far away.  The original spot was a little too close to another boat, the channel, and a rusted barrel in the water.  The new spot was much better.


Saturday, May 20, 2017

We had quite a storm overnight--lightning, thunder, and extremely high winds.  Good thing Mr. Mantus dug himself in deep!  Even so, we were up a lot, checking things out. We are anchored near two other Canadian sailboats (Perfect Match and Magica), and we're glad that nobody dragged overnight.  I had a huge sinus headache all night, so that didn't help my sleep, either.

This morning the winds continued. We are swinging madly and there are whitecaps in the anchorage. Cape May is a very busy port and there are tugs, dredgers, fishing and pleasure boats constantly going in and out.  It looks like we may be here for a few days.

I made a big breakfast this morning with all of Carey's favourites--hash browns, sausage patties, eggs over easy, coffee, orange juice, and toast.  Delicious!

When we are at anchor, we are constantly looking at landmarks (other boats, channel markers, crab pot markers) to check if we are dragging.  Around 10:30, I noticed that the Norwegian-flagged sailboat in the anchorage seemed much closer than last night.  However, we had all swung around 180 degrees, so it was easily explained away.  Then, at 11:00, I noticed that he was right beside us, and into an area that I thought was getting very shallow.  We wanted to alert him, but knew he'd have his VHF radio off, so Carey suggested calling the Coast Guard.  We did, and told them that a boat in the anchorage was dragging and asked if they could send a boat over to hail him.  Shortly afterward, a Marine Police boat showed up.  They motored up close to the Norwegian boat and blasted their horn until the captain came on board. Immediately, he realized that he had dragged.  He was all by himself, so we were worried about him lifting the anchor by himself in these strong winds, and not being blown into shallower water, but he was able to do it and motored away to safety.  He went further upriver to find a different anchorage.  Our good deed done for the day (although it was part self-preservation), we went back to work.

I finally got rid of most of the headache by 11:00, so I was ready to start working.  Carey vacuumed, I made raisin bread, and we both did several other chores throughout the day, including checking the weather several times, of course.  We had lots of distractions, though.  A power boat that had anchored nearby called TowboatUS and had to be towed away; a sailboat left the inlet when we knew they would encounter high winds and swells; a few more boats came in (presumably from Delaware Bay, because they came from the east, not the ocean inlet); several Coast Guard boats motored by; and the big tugs were constantly moving their dredgers around.

After dinner, we watched a couple of sailing yachts come in.  They looked frozen, wearing their full foul weather gear. Haven't they heard of the pup tent?  We sail with a full canvas enclosure, our pup tent, so that we have protection and climate control in almost all weather.  I feel sorry for these poor souls who have to sail in the elements all the time.  Cold, wet, and exhausted.

This anchorage is starting to get as packed as a sardine tin. Many of us stayed an extra day, waiting for a weather window, and now newbies have arrived and squished in to a small area.  One sailboat took over an hour to find a spot, dropping and lifting their anchor numerous times. Well, at least it's entertaining!


Sunday, May 21, 2017

It was very noisy most of the night with the waves slamming into the stern and the wind blowing.   We tried to sleep in a bit, and by the time we got up most of the other boats in the anchorage were gone. Only two remained--Magica, one of the other Canadian boats and another sailboat. We ate breakfast before we left and headed out of the inlet at 10:00.  As we were leaving, we saw the Canadian boat, Perfect Match, coming in.  Carey hailed them on the radio and they said that they had left an hour and a half before, but it was just too uncomfortable for them. Not dangerous, just lumpy and uncomfortable. Their boat is a little smaller than ours, and RC Wings doesn't seem to roll as badly as some others, so we decided to carry on.

When we got out, it was about what we had expected--lumpy, rolly, and swells just off the nose.  As long as we can keep the bow from slamming down too often, we can put up with this.  (Every once in a while, we get a huge swell that we seem to launch over.  Those ones aren't any fun.)  We have 33 miles to go today to get to Atlantic City, so it should be a fairly short day compared to some of the others we've had lately. Unfortunately, to catch the swells at the right angle we had to lower our speed. Our SOG was 3.5-4.5 and RPMs were 2200.  We prefer to go at 6 knots per hour, so we were hoping to speed up once we made the turn around the point, which is 4 and a half miles away from the Cape May inlet.  We have 16 knots of wind, but it's right on the nose, so we are motoring.

It was around 11:30, when we were able to turn a bit west.  This helped a bit, but the swells seemed to be getting bigger as we went along. The forecast was for 3.5 foot swells from the north, which is almost on the nose.  It is do-able, but not comfortable, as we are rolling and rocking. Plus, we have to deal with every "tenth swell" which is two or three times the height of the normal swells.  Usually, they come two or three in a row.  We have to brace ourselves and hold on constantly.

By 1:00, the seas were building and knocking us around a lot. For lunch we had prepackaged snacks--granola bars, Balanced Breaks (cheese, nuts, dried cranberries), and water.  When I offered to make something for lunch, Carey said, "No knives!  It's too dangerous to use a knife in these seas!"  Okay, then, prepackaged it is.

We finally arrived in Atlantic City at 5:50.  It was a terribly uncomfortable ride all day, so we were tired out.  We had to go around a huge dredger to get to the small, narrow entrance to the anchorage.  It's high tide, and they have a four foot tide here, so we should be okay, but this anchorage is very shallow, so we are moving cautiously.  We crept in slowly and found a spot to anchor.  However, the depth gauge only read 8.6 feet and this was at high tide!  Gulp!  Oh, well, we may be sitting on the bottom at low tide, but we were too tired to move.  We settled down, had supper, and went to bed early.

We have now travelled over 6000 nautical miles. Woohoo!



Monday, May 22, 2017

We got up at 5:30, did engine checks, and slowly crept out of the anchorage at 6:00.  Phew, we didn't go aground. That was a relief.  By 6:20, we were heading out of the inlet following two big powerboats. It's drizzling this morning and chilly.  The swells are big, but not breaking so far, which makes a huge difference.  Around 8 o'clock, we put up the sails and turned off the engine.  We are getting 10-14 knots on a close reach.  We have a double reef in the jib and a single reef in the main, and we're moving well.  We're heeling a lot, which isn't great with the swells on the beam, but we haven't had any breaking waves hit us abeam yet.

It was so cold and rainy that at 10:30, we donned our full foul weather gear.  That's the first time on this whole trip.  Much more snuggly with these on.

We turned more north at 11:00, once we were past the point at Barnegat Inlet.  We shook out the reefs and were sailing on a beam reach with 8 to 10 knot winds. 

The swells calmed down throughout the day, although we still get that rogue wave that hits us broadside and wakes us up.  The swells also turned more on our hind quarter, so today it was MUCH more comfortable than yesterday.  Just a gentle rocking from side to side.  The wave period makes such a big difference to the swells.  These swells are further apart, so we're not crashing into or over them.

Around 1:30, the winds suddenly calmed and turned astern, so we furled both sails and turned on the engine.  We revved it up so that we could get over 7 knots per hour. We want to get there as quickly as possible today.  It's been raining all day, sometimes pouring and sometimes drizzling.  Everything is damp and dripping, and we're chilled.  Unfortunately, without the main to stabilize us, we really roll back and forth with the swells.

At 5:15, when we were about two miles from the New York Harbor entrance buoy, a pod of dolphins swam in front of our boat.  What a great way to welcome us to New York!

 At 6:00, we rounded the Sandy Hook buoy and headed for the anchorage, which was another 45 minutes away.  We dropped the anchor at 6:45. We had just completed our last ocean passage (at least for this particular trip).

When we arrived, everything was wet. We laid out the cockpit cushions all around the salon, and set up our Mr. Heater to warm us and dry them. Worked great on both counts.

We travelled 84 miles in miserable conditions, so we were tired out. We had a quick supper, turned off the heater (too dangerous to leave it on untended) and went to bed.




Tuesday, May 23, 2017

We were up, had breakfast, and were ready to go by 8:20.  I called the fuel dock at Atlantic Highlands Marina to see if they were open, and he said to come on down. When we got there, a large powerboat was at the fuel dock. I radioed in again and asked for a time estimate and the dock guy said it would be about ten minutes and asked if we could idle in the basin until the dock was clear.  A half hour later we were still waiting just like last September when we were here. Déjà vu all over again. At 9:10 the boat cleared the dock and we moved in.  We fueled up and were on our way by 9:30.  On to the anchorage at Haverstraw Bay on the Hudson River, 50 miles north.

We went under the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge (which connects Staten Island and Brooklyn) at 11:20am.  This bridge was the longest suspension bridge in the world at the time of its completion in 1964, surpassing the Golden Gate Bridge by 60 feet.

We were going against a 2+ knot current through the Narrows under the bridge.  Our SOG was 4 knots, but our boat speed said 6.8. Yikes!  Good thing we fueled up!

We were prepared for the hectic insanity of the New York Harbor that we had encountered last fall when we were here.  We were here on a Sunday, though, and today is a Tuesday.  We can't believe the difference!  It's still full of boat traffic, but not nearly as crazy.  Staten Island Ferries are large, fast, and imposing, and they don't seem to care who is in front of them. We tried to get out of their way.

It was after noon by the time we motored by the Statue of Liberty and the Manhattan skyline. The current is killing us!  We are only going 3.8 knots here. At this rate it'll be midnight before we reach our anchorage.

Unfortunately, we were only going at 3 knots for quite awhile. We didn't get over 4 knots until 2:20 in the afternoon. We are either going to have to find a closer anchorage or continue on in the dark. The Hudson has lots of flotsam and debris in the water, so we will have to really watch so we don't hit anything in the dark. The alternatives for anchorages are at Nyack, just after the Tappan Zee Bridge, and at Croton Bay (near Sing Sing prison), about five miles south of Haverstraw.   At 3:30 we finally started going 5 knots per hour and I had renewed hope that we might make it to either Haverstraw or Croton.  At 4:40 I noticed that we were getting over 6 knots. Woohoo!

Around 5:30, as I was about to serve supper in the cockpit, Carey yelled to come up.  When I went up into the cockpit, we were being pulled over by a police boat.  Wow, that's a first for us.  (Carey must have been speeding!  Haha.). They hailed us on their loudspeaker, saying, "Captain, put it in neutral, and we'll come alongside of you."  Carey complied and they pulled up beside us and tied off on our cleats. They asked for our cruising license, passports, and proof of boat registration. These are all Customs items.  The officer was very polite and friendly.  He checked and recorded all documentation and then handed everything back to us.  They took off their lines and, once they had motored away, we could resume our travels.  Of course, by then, our supper was cold. Grrrrr.  (Of course this would happen when we're trying to make up time.)

We only had about eleven more miles to go to reach Haverstraw Bay so we moved on and ate our cold meal.  We anchored at 7:30.  Finally, a spot for the night.  It's so nice having these long days of sunlight, because we can go further, if needed.

Wednesday, May 24, 2017

Lotsa Flotsam

We lifted anchor and left the bay at 7:05. Once again, we had breakfast on the go.  However, we had to take turns eating.  On the Hudson, one person needs to be on watch all the time. Besides having to navigate the many bends and turns in the river, we also have to avoid hitting the flotsam--floating debris.  There are many floating twigs and chunks of bark, but it's the large submerged logs that are the biggest peril.  Some logs are waterlogged and just below the surface, which could cause great damage to our hull if we hit them. I wouldn't want to be in a fast power boat going up this river.

Today, we are hoping to travel the 60 nm to get to Hop-O-Nose Marina in Catskill, NY, where we will have the mast taken down.  First, though, we will have lots of work to do to prepare (i.e., remove the sails, fish the lines, disconnect the wiring in the mast, set up the wooden mast cradle, etc.).  (Sidebar: There are several places around New York that have "kill" in the name--Kill Van Kull, Bronx Kill, Peekskill, Fresh Kills and many more--so I looked it up.  A "kill" is a creek.  The word comes from the Middle Dutch word "kille" meaning riverbed or water channel.)

We are moving right along this morning, because we caught the flood tide which is giving us a boost of an extra knot.  Woohoo, we love speeding along at 8 knots!  The tide will turn around 1:15, so we're getting as far as possible before then.