Halfmoon Bay to Atlantic Highlands

Day 2 - Halfmoon Bay (cont....)

We sat out the storms and big winds in our nice calm anchorage 1/2 mile west of Halfmoon Bay Marina.  As I was writing the blog in the early evening, our Honda eu2200 generator died and I figured it was out of gas.  It had been running our heat for several hours and I had just turned on the water heater for showers.

After posting the blog, I went out on the back deck and filled up the generator with gasoline then pulled the starter rope a couple times.  Running out of gas empties all the fuel lines so I figured it needed several more pulls to get the gas into the carburetor.  Well....  after 50 or more pulls I knew something was wrong.  

I removed the fuel line going into the carb and there was gas.  I squirted a little gas into the carb, pulled the starter rope and the engine did run a few seconds.  The problem was now isolated to the carburetor.  I pulled the carb off the engine to bring downstairs, take apart and clean out with carb cleaner.  I figured running the engine out of gas had sucked up something (dirt, grit, etc.) from the bottom of the fuel tank and maybe clogged the carb jets.

This was the first time I had taken the carb off our 1-year-old eu2200 but I had done this several times with our old eu2000.  After taking the float bowl apart, I squirted carb cleaner through all the lines.  Then I started putting it back together.  Oh boy.  The o-ring around the float bowl was too big and wouldn't stay in the groove.  With Laura's help I used some grease to keep the 0-ring in the groves and a heat gun to soften up the rubber.  It took us about 1/2 hour to get the o-ring into the grove and put the float bowl back on.  Success!

When I went out on the back deck it was dark already so I set up a few lights to see what I was doing.  I had removed the electronic governor from the top of the carb and, now that I looked closely, it wasn't very clear how it went back together.  I tried a few options and eventually had to call Laura again to assist with holding a tiny spring in place and the flashlight while I tried to squeeze everything back together.  I even tried searching on YouTube for videos on putting the governor back together but couldn't find one.

After another 1/2 hour Laura had an excellent suggestion of trying a different assembly strategy and it worked the first time.  Thanks Baby!

I gave the engine about a 50 / 50 change of starting after I had it all back together.  With all the problems we had, I figured something wouldn't be right.  Second pull and it started!  We ran the heat all evening watching TV down in the salon.  It was toasty....

Day 3 - Halfmoon Bay to Atlantic Highlands

We both slept well last night and the weather seemed better this morning.  Time to go!

After engine checks (added a little oil and tightened new alternator belts), we pulled anchor and motored south.  Winds were mostly on the nose so no help with the sails.

About an hour later we approached our first bridge of the day - Tappan Zee (I know it's been renamed but it will always be the Tappen Zee to me....)

The river wasn't quite as empty as Friday with a few more commercial and pleasure boats around.  It was a quiet ride and the tidal ebb current helped us zoom through New York City.

I think this building in Jersey City is cool.  We called it the Ganga Building.  Would you want to live or work here?

Manhattan from the south.

Winds were from the SW most of the day (right on the nose) and picked up to mid-teens in the afternoon.  As we turned more south under the Verrazano Bridge, we were finally able to put out about 3/4 of our jib and we zoomed the rest of the way across the lower harbor to Atlantic Highlands.

Those that know me understand I am big on planning.  We had been watching the weather for the next couple days and had scheduled to be here today for the off-shore window down the NJ coast tomorrow.  The window still looked good with NW winds helping us down the coast.  But, they would also be N to NW when we took the turn around Cape May and up Delaware Bay.  Anything more than 10 knots winds on the nose and we have problems motoring into them.  If the winds stayed N to NW for Tuesday into Wednesday, it might be better to just keep going to Norfolk.  We've done that trip several times.  It's about 260 miles and takes us 3 days and 2 nights from Sandy Hook to Norfolk off-shore.

So.....  Sometime tomorrow when we are sailing down the coast of  NJ, we need to decide if the winds down Delaware Bay will be light enough for us to motor against.  Or, we will keep going down the coast of Delaware and Maryland for Norfolk on Wednesday.  Stay tuned for the result!

Since we might be spending the next 3 days off-shore, I decided to fill up our fuel tank at the Atlantic Highlands marina.  $3.94 / gallon for off-road diesel.  Geez!  But, we only needed 56 gallons from our fill-up here last June.

Pretty sunset around the clouds at the Atlantic Highlands anchorage.

We relaxed, watch TV and listened to the wind howl during the evening.  Big winds (20-30 from the SW) continued all night.

Day 4 - Atlantic Highlands to ..... 

It was a quiet morning as we prepared the boat for our off-shore run.  No hurry as we were waiting until late morning for the 20-30 knot winds to die a bit and hopefully turn more to the north for better sailing.  Once we get around Sandy Hook and turn south, it should be very nice sailing in the lee of the land.  WindFinder predicts 2 foot, 8 second seas and falling during the day.

I worked on the blog while Laura cooked up a storm.  She is preparing our next 2 nights dinners so they can just be reheated at sea.

Generator is still running great.

Ok.  Time to post the blog and finish my preparations for the ocean.