Just before dark yesterday, I looked out over the NY lower harbor and could barely see the breakwater. There is usually 5-6 feet of breakwater sticking out - maybe a foot or two less at high tide. Today, the north winds were pushing the water down the bay and the breakwater was almost gone. Lucky for us, the wind had switched to the NE which meant the waves were coming from a shore about 1 mile away instead of 10 miles down the bay. Check out this picture with the NYC skyline in the background.
Also had a pretty sunset last night with the clouds turning several shades of red, orange and yellow.
By 8pm the winds really picked up and were holding over 30 knots. Laura and I watched the whole series "All the Rivers Run" playing off the computer mirrored to the TV. By 10pm, the boat was starting to shake from the winds running through the rigging. This usually happens around 35 knots and I can't remember the last time that happened to us.
Friday, October 11th (Day 15)
I woke up a lot during the night listening to the wind and waves while feeling the boat moving around on the mooring. The winds were supposed to be 30-35, gusts over 40 and they didn't disappoint.
In the morning, temp inside the boat was down to 64 degrees so I ran the heat from the inverter to warm things up. I don't usually do this because our batteries would be down from running everything overnight but our little wind generator had kept everything charged just fine with the big winds.
Our friends Dean and Sue on Autumn Borne left Catskill this morning to come and play off the coast of NJ with us this weekend. They had actually left their dock yesterday and used a friend's mooring in the Catskill Creek so they wouldn't "leave port on Friday" which is a big no-no for the superstitious. We left on Friday two weeks ago just to make him nervous. Geez. Is that why we've been sitting here 10 days waiting for a coastal weather window? NOT!
Winds around noontime are down into the 20s and should be gradually falling all day. Laura is making Manhattan Clam Chowder (from scratch of-course) with some fresh clams I bought yesterday in town. Laura usually cooks up a few meals that she can just heat up for us while sailing off-shore to make our meals a little easier while the boat is moving around. The chowder is supposed to be one of them but I don't think it's going to last that long.
Current forecasts show dying winds overnight tonight then low winds on Saturday - mostly from NW to N. The problem for us is the big winds over the past 4 days have really built up the seas to 8-10 feet near the coast and 20-30 foot swells off-shore. The seas will be calming all day tomorrow so our current plan is the leave Atlantic Highlands around 6pm and stick our nose around Sandy Hook to see with the seas are like. If they aren't bad, we'll start our trip down the coast which should put us around Cape May near low-tide at 2pm Sunday. Then up Delaware Bay and into the protection of Chesapeake Bay late Sunday night.
First, we'll leave our mooring Saturday morning and motor 1/4 mile over to the fuel dock for diesel, gasoline and water. When everything on the boat is full, we'll motor out and anchor in the harbor. Hopefully, I'll be able to take a nap before leaving down the coast.
Saturday, October 12th (Day 16)
I didn't sleep well last night - typical of my night before a departure. The morning brought calmer winds and seas. After getting up late, we had a small breakfast then got the boat ready to leave the mooring and motor over to the fuel dock. No problems as we slipped the mooring lines and I could see the fuel dock was empty so we should have no problem tying up. Just as we approached, a 30 foot powerboat zoomed in from the other direction and tied up. I was pleasantly surprised when he tied up at the end of the dock leaving plenty of room for our 50 foot (overall) sailboat.
The attendant helped us tie up and gave me the diesel hose then Laura the water hose. I pumped in 65 gallons of diesel which was our usage since leaving here for Catskill in May. I then filled up two 5-gallon gasoline that we had used for the generator in the past 13 days. Laura filled the water tank with about 160 gallons through my homemade water filter and we were off the dock about 20 minutes later. The attendant told me he was glad to have some business. The past 2 days nobody moved because of the high winds and he didn't have one customer. As we were leaving, I saw two other sailboats lined up for fuel. He was going to be busy today. Total bill for diesel and gasoline was $240. I thought that was pretty good.
We anchored near the highlands shore with many boats around us who had come in this morning. I think everybody is anxious to leave today after almost 2 weeks of crappy weather preventing off-shore sailing.
After anchoring and opening up the boat to air out, we dropped the dinghy and motored into the marina for a walk and a few groceries to prepare for the next week on the water. We were pleasantly surprised to see the downtown streets closed for a car show - both old and new. I especially admired a 1967 Pontiac GTO which was a sister to one I owned back in the early 70s. This one was fully restored and looked much better than mine. The '67 GTO is the middle darker one in the picture.
On the way back to the boat, we stopped at Annette and Neal's boat Amazing Grace. They are leaving today also and invited us aboard for lunch. Laura had made Annette a table runner with Fall colors to thank them for brunch and help with getting a few packages to us. Annette was very impressed with Laura's sewing skills and put the table runner out immediately. After lunch we came back to the boat, lifted the motor off the dinghy and secured the dinghy and our back deck for sea.
Since we would be running overnight, I tried to nap for a couple hours but think I only slept about 15 minutes. I watched Michael Palin's Around the World in 80 Days on the computer and figured it would help me sleep since I'd seen it several times. We have all of the Michael Palin travel shows and enjoy seeing all the different places he visits along with his great British humor.
We are making final preparations for the off-shore NJ run tonight and tomorrow and should be off the anchor within an hour. I'm looking forward to a change of scenery!
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