Monday, May 13th to Sunday, May 19th - Sailing Associates Marina, Georgetown, MD (Days 41 to 47)
Weather was cool most days and we ran the heat for a bit in the mornings to warm up the boat. There were a few storms that passed through but it was the north winds that kept us here since we couldn't go up the coast with winds on the nose. The marina is kind-of isolated and quiet. It is also fairly inexpensive with the weekly rate only about $60 / day for us. This is compared to $130 / day we paid at Myrtle Beach Yacht Club.
Tuesday afternoon we picked up a rental car for personal business in New Jersey. It was crazy trying to get a ride 12 miles to Middletown, DE where we reserved the car. I tried Uber and Lyft with "No drivers available" until I selected the premium car on Uber which was twice as much as the normal car $21. We eventually got to Enterprise only 30 minutes late but then had to wait 15 minutes for an agent then another 15 minutes to have the car cleaned. The Uber driver we finally got also ran a taxi service so I used her for a ride back to the marina after dropping the car off two days later.
Here was a pretty sunset under the clouds on Thursday (5/16).
Laura was in baking mode Friday and made these yummy chocolate cupcakes with whipped ganache center and coffee (ermine) frosting. They were yummy but so rich we split one each night for dessert the next couple days. I think the marina staff also benefited.
Eagles were fishing around the harbor all week and Laura got this picture Sunday of two sitting together with her Nikon camera.
Here is another picture of them after they had an argument....
Laura and I took a few walks around the area and I worked on the boat (always!).
One problem that started about a week ago was the engine was taking much longer to start after turning the key. Instead of the normal 2-3 seconds, it was now turning over for 10-15 seconds. I became increasingly worried that one of these times it wasn't going to "catch" and we would be stuck somewhere without an engine. While we had the rental car, we went to Walmart for groceries and a few other things so I picked up a new starting battery because our current battery was 9 years old. After installing the new battery, the engine did turn over faster but still took 10-15 seconds to start.
I then changed both fuel filters and checked the air cleaner. No help with those so I had to put my thinking cap on. The engine did seem to be running a little rough after it started so I thought maybe changing the fuel injectors would help that. These injectors had only been in use since last November but they had been rebuilt in Albany 4 years ago. I didn't understand how the injectors could run great but not want to start. I figured it was worth a try since I had the spare parts.
After changing the injectors the engine started right up. I thought that maybe it was still warm from before so I waited 3 hours and tried again. Still good! Next morning - still good! Nice! It's been good ever since....
We had lunch at the Sassafras Harbor Cafe (just down the street) just once because they were only open on weekends. Even the marina office where we stayed was not open on weekends. Things around here were pretty slow.
We spent 8 days at the marina because of "wrong" winds and seas for moving south down Delaware Bay then traveling north up the coast of NJ. I try very hard not to do this trip in sections because we could get stuck in Cape May or Atlantic City for over a week waiting for the next weather window. For example, I'm not looking just for good weather to get down Delaware bay to Cape May. I try to wait and find weather that will get us all the way to Sandy Hook in 2 or 3 days. That didn't happen until the second week here. We also have to time our trip for the right tidal current down Delaware bay as the currents there can be 3+ knots.
It looked like Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday next week would all be nice with calmer seas and winds not out of the north. Sunday we prepared the boat (and us) for leaving in the morning. It was a nice stay but we were anxious to go.
Monday, May 20th - Georgetown, MD to Delaware River, DE (Day 48)
Light winds. Mostly cloudy. Temp 65. Sea temp 68
37 nautical miles today. 1,319.5 total trip miles
Tides on Delaware Bay were not good for us the next few days (seems like a theme this trip?). The ebb tide current started around 11am or 11pm. If we took the 11am, we might make Cape May anchorage before dark but wouldn't make Atlantic City. So, plans for today were to get to the top of Delaware Bay and anchor until the tide change around 11pm. If we waited until the 11am tide tomorrow, south winds would build in just a few hours after we left the anchorage and the trip down the bay would be terrible. We "bit the bullet" and decided on the overnight cruise - not one of our favorites.
We left the dock in Georgetown at 8:15am and motored with a little helping current the 10 miles to Chesapeake Bay. It was cloudy, calm and cool on the water. I think I started out in sweatpants but changed to shorts a little later.
When we entered the Chesapeake and turned north, the current was against us and would continue against us the rest of the day except for the last hour or so.
There were a few other boats around and we entered the C&D Canal about 2 hours later. When we went in the canal, the currents were maximum against us as we slowed to 4.5 knots. But, they would get gradually better the next few hours so we slowly picked up speed.
I didn't want to anchor in our normal Reedy Island spot because it's dangerous getting out of the narrow channel in the dark and south winds later in the day would kick up waves there. Instead, I decided to try a new-to-us anchorage just north of the C&D on the Delaware River. We anchored near the red "X" in the screenshot below.
The Delaware River is on the right and the C&D canal comes in from middle left. Where we anchored was north of the C&D breakwater so we had good protection for the forecast south winds this evening. It turned out to be an excellent anchorage and I was even able to lay down for a couple hours in preparation for our overnight cruise. Pea Patch island was just north of us. I love that name.
The anchorage was fine but the winds were not. Windy.com, PredictWind.com and Windfinder.com all agreed that the south winds would just be down on the bay and would dissipate around 10pm. We had 12-15 knot south winds at the anchorage in the evening. By 11pm the winds were still blowing but I decided to take the chance and head down the bay anyway. They were going to die, right?
Tuesday, May 21st and Wednesday, May 22nd - Delaware River, DE to Atlantic Highlands, NJ (Days 49 and 50). Start of week 8!
58 degrees. Light winds and fog with south winds building Wednesday afternoon.
167 nautical miles today. 1,476.5 total trip miles
We pulled up the anchor at 11:45pm last night and headed down the Delaware Bay. Turns out the winds did die a little while later and the ride was quite nice for a couple hours as the current picked up and we eventually hit over 8 knots.
Laura went down for a snooze as I dodged 6-7 big ships and tugs with tows. I don't run our little sailboat in the Delaware Bay ship channel but we've seen plenty of other cruisers that do. They are constantly getting called by the big ships to get out of their way. It's way too busy in the ship channel and there is plenty of water for us 1/4-1/2 mile to the east so we only have to worry about the ship wakes - not the ships themselves.
Maybe 3 hours after leaving the anchorage the seas became very choppy. We were getting a 2-3 foot swell right on the nose and the boat started "hobby horsing" on them. This happens when the waves are a perfect distance apart to make the bow fall into the opening between the waves then push it back up 2 seconds later. A few times we buried the bow in the next wave. This wasn't fun anymore. Laura came up and said, "What's going on?"
The hobby-horsing wasn't constant but maybe every 30 seconds we'd fall into that pattern then the boat would slow from 8.5 knots to less then 6.
My only explanation was maybe these were leftover from the south wind pushing against the southbound current a few hours ago. They should die.
Over the next couple hours they did get better then eventually went away all together. About the same time, our almost-full moon was taken away by the fog which settled in around us. There was a tug and barge 1/2 mile behind us and they were totally hidden in the fog.
We have excellent radar and I know how to use it. There was no danger of running into something but it was just not a lot of fun. Now the cruise had settled into a video game I was playing with the radar, chartplotter and autopilot. Somewhere in here Laura took over for 2 hours and I was fast asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow. I came back up to relieve her and was feeling much better. It was 5:30am and starting to get light out so that also helped.
Shortly after 7am I ran our course around Cape May through the Prissywick Channel. This is sometimes high-pucker-factor because it take us 1/4 mile from the beach and we can see the waves crashing. Not this time.... I couldn't see the beach in the dense fog.
The current had turned against us a couple hours ago so we had slowed to 4.5 - 5 knots. As we turned NE toward the Cape May inlet, our speed increased back to our normal 6 when we were far enough from the Delaware Bay entrance.
Ok. Now what's the plan? After checking off-shore forecasts up the coast, we decided to keep going another 5-6 hours to Atlantic City. Winds this afternoon would be increasing from the south which would help our boat speed (we are a sailboat) but also build the waves / swell. Tomorrow didn't look any worse than today so why not anchor in calm waters for the night and make a long (11-12 hour) run tomorrow to Sandy Hook?
Check this out.
I know it's hard to see but this is the after-effect of purchasing Mylar balloons that float away into the sky when the little kids let go. "Isn't it pretty floating up there?" This is a Mylar balloon floating in the ocean 5 miles off-shore. It won't ever go away. It will float out here for a long time. We see these in the ocean all the time and it saddens me.
As the morning progressed, the south winds did pick up and we were able to make great speed motor-sailing with the main and jib out on a broad-reach (winds coming between the side of the boat and the stern). Apparent wind was only 6-7 knots so not quite enough to sail more then 4 knots without the motor.
We were both able to get a couple hours more sleep on the rock-a-bye-baby boat.
We approached Atlantic City at 1pm. I checked all the forecasts again. Crap. Now the winds tomorrow were supposed to be near 20 while today they were only 14-15. That doesn't seem like much difference but keep in mind the force of the wind increases to the square of the speed. A 20 mile per hour wind is not twice as strong as a 10. It's 4 times! This is why hurricanes and tornadoes are so destructive. A 100 mph wind has 25 TIMES the force of a 20 mph wind.
You probably already guess it but we decided to keep going instead of taking the chance of a wild ride tomorrow or having to sit for several days waiting for better winds and seas. We should be anchored in Atlantic Highlands around 1-2am. It would be a late night but not an over-night.
Here was Atlantic City as we passed by. I thought this picture was cool with the puffy cloud line over the city.
The winds increased a little later in the afternoon and we couldn't keep both sails full as we turned more north. Eventually, I rolled in the jib and we just motor-sailed with the main.
It was a colorful sunset over New Jersey.
The winds continued to slowly increase over the next few hours and I think we both took short naps. A few hours later, the boat was moving around pretty good on the increasing (3-4 foot) swell behind us but we were making good speed - 7-8 knots most of the night. True wind was now in the low 20s - exactly what we didn't want to travel in tomorrow.
It was a rolly tide to Barnegat Bay with the boat starting to corkscrew down the follow sea. I was thinking of pulling in Barnegat to anchor for the night and I spent a couple hours looking at the charts and reading reviews. I had good charts for the entrance and anchorage but finally decided to keep going because tomorrow was not going to be nice either.
As we turned another 20 degrees north passed Barnegat, our ride became much better because the seas were now almost directly behind us. Yea!We had the almost-full moon keeping us company tonight. No fog.
Just before midnight we passed the 24 hour mark from our anchorage on the Delaware River. We had run 160 miles averaging 6.7 knots. I'm not sure that's a record for us but it's gotta be close.
As we approached Sandy Hook the winds increased to 15-18 on the port beam (out of the west). I'm guessing the hills of Atlantic Highlands were affecting the speed and angle of the wind. I was hoping the south winds would help us sail around Sandy Hook. You guessed it - once again we timed it perfectly with the maximum tidal current against us.
The winds actually died as we turned into the Sandy Hook channel so we pulled in the mainsail and motored at 3.2 knots into the 3 knot tidal current. It was only for about 1/2 hour as we turned south around The Hook toward Atlantic Highlands and our anchorage.
It was a pretty view of the New York City skyline behind us.
As we approached, I could see several boats on our radar already anchored near Atlantic Highlands but there was a nice hole for us to just pull in near the breakwater and drop the hook with nobody near us.
We dropped anchor at 1:15am and quickly cleaned up the boat and hit the sack. We both slept great!
Wednesday, May 22nd - Atlantic Highlands, NJ to Halfmoon Bay, NY (Day 51)
Cool in the morning but warming. Sunny with SE winds 10 increasing to 20 in the afternoon.
49 nautical miles today. 1,527 total trip miles
Wouldn't you think after traveling for 2 days with minimal sleep we would sit and relax for a day? That was the plan as we slept in and relaxed in the morning.
After breakfast and some relax time, we pulled anchor and motored over to the Atlantic Highlands Marina fuel dock. This would be our fuel for the summer and get us back here in the fall.
I was very excited to see the one anchorage site behind the breakwater was open. I was hoping we could fuel up then anchor over there with protection from all the powerboat and ferry wakes. The wakes had woken us up several times in the early morning.
No problems as we slowly motored to the fuel dock which I could see was wide open. Just before we got there, a small powerboat went in and tied up on the west end. Still plenty of room for us. Oh no! Another larger powerboat zooms over and ties up filling the rest of the 80' dock. What the &$^*$! This dock was empty 30 seconds ago.
We slowly puttered around waiting for the dock to open up. 15-20 minutes later the smaller boat leaves so I pulled over to get fuel. Now we only had about 30 feet of dock for our 48' boat. No worries. We wouldn't be staying long. The fuel-dock worker was very surprised when we pulled in and tied up. He said a couple times, "I thought you'd wait for the other boat to leave..."
The boat took 92 gallons of diesel which was our usage for the past 2+ weeks since Great Bridge. It was $3.75 / gallon. Much better than the $5.50 we heard they were charging north of Catskill! We didn't need water or to get rid of garbage - we were only 3 days out of the Georgetown marina.
Just as we were leaving the fuel dock, these "Cyber-boats" went by. I think they were Navy patrol boats in town for "Fleet Week". Wouldn't it look cool to tow one of these with a Cybertruck?
As we motored back to the anchorage from the fuel dock, I could see my favorite little spot was still open. We quickly motored over there and anchored. No ferry wakes getting us tomorrow morning!
Tides are not good for us getting through NYC tomorrow (of course). The flood current starts at 6:30am but that's 3 hours from us. Our current plan is to relax the rest of the day and set the alarm for 4:30am tomorrow. We'll leave at first light which would put us in NYC around mid-current so it will help us for at least 3-4 hours. I hate early alarms...
A couple hours later I'm checking weather and see tomorrow has a large chance of thunderstorms in the morning. Yuck! Hmmm. The flood tide in NYC also starts around 5:30pm today. That's about 3 hours from us and it was now 2:15pm. Perfect?
I went through all my forecasts and saw that it seemed much better to go past the city today than tomorrow in storms. Plus, I wouldn't have a 4:30am alarm to keep thinking about all night. Laura and I (mostly me) decided to go now. I think it only took us about 10 minutes to get the boat ready.
The winds were only about 12-14 at the anchorage but I figured they would be a little more once we approached the Verrazano Bridge. Boy, was I wrong....
We rolled out the jib once we were out of the harbor and zoomed across the lower bay at 7-8 knots. I wanted to get into NYC as soon as possible so we'd have a chance of anchoring before dark near Haverstraw Bay. It was a not-so-bad ride as we motor-sailed up the lower NY bay and took the last turn toward the bridge. Now it was bad. What I hadn't figured was we were still experiencing ebb current (water coming out) against the 15-20 knot SE winds. This built close, steep seas about 4-5 feet on our starboard quarter. Now the boat was doing "death rolls" down the waves (30-40 degrees each direction) and the stern was getting pushed sideways with each wave. Laura was downstairs trying to keep everything from flying around and we really hadn't secured everything for this ride like we should have.
I really have to hand it to my RayMarine autopilot. It actually handled the boat great. I might have done a little better because I could anticipate what the waves were doing but I would have gotten tired quickly doing full turns of the wheel every couple seconds.
Eventually I turned the boat slightly west of the bridge and the ride was much better as the waves were almost directly behind us. As we got closer, I was able to work the boat a little farther north and under the bridge. Things calmed down almost immediately. It was like turning off a switch. What the heck was that?
Laura put away clothes and re-positioned furniture that had gone flying with the wild boat and we settled down to motoring through a busy harbor. Oh yeah. The 20 knot winds we had before the bridge were now only 4-6 so not a lot of help there.
We eventually worked our way across the harbor so we could take this "selfie" with Lady Liberty. There were so many tour boats zooming around, I needed to take this picture quick and get back to the helm. Only after did I realize I cut my head in half.
No problems the rest of the harbor other than dodging ferry's and everybody's wakes. An hour or so later I took these pictures of Navy ships at the cruise boat docks. They were in town for "Fleet Week". This is not something you see everyday in New York City.
Once passed the George Washington Bridge everything calmed down and we had a very nice evening motoring up the river. We even had snacks then dinner while underway.
I took this picture at 8:30pm after we passed under the Tappan Zee Bridge. (Yes. I know it's not called that anymore but I don't care.)
We anchored in Halfmoon Bay at 9:30pm. (Yes. In the dark again.) and we immediately hit the sack. There were showers predicted for tonight and a severe thunderstorm warning for tomorrow. Our plans are to catch the morning tide up the river and we should be in Catskill by dinnertime tomorrow. But, ya never know....
Thursday, May 23rd - Halfmoon Bay to Haverstraw Cove (Day 52)
Cloudy with storms. Calm winds. Temp 70 going to 80.
4 nautical miles today. 1,531 total trip miles
We got up at 7:30am to get the boat ready for the 8:30am tides up the river. We had slept well except for the boat rolling with several boat wakes in the early morning.
As we motored north from the anchorage, I checked the weather radar on my phone. Oh oh. All that "red shit" was heading right at us.
There is an excellent, 360 degree protected anchorage just across Haverstraw Bay from us. It is called Haverstraw Cove and we've been in there several times. After thinking about it for 10 minutes, I finally made a conservative decision and bailed-out to the protected anchorage. We were able to get into the harbor and drop anchor just before the rain started. 1/2 hour later it looked like this outside.
Full disclosure - I thought I had taken a movie of the storm but forgot to slide the iphone to "video". It only took this one picture. Bummer.
The storms came through big-time for the next couple hours. Finally, by 11am it started clearing and the winds calmed. Hmmm. Should we go now and maybe try to make Kingston anchorage before dark? It was pretty nice out now.
Are you crazy! We're in a beautiful anchorage where no boat wakes can get us. I'm not making another "change of plans" today. We'll leave tomorrow morning for Catskill. Plus, this gives me several hours of downtime to catch up on the blog.
In a couple days, I'll post the last day(s) of our trip along with trip stats. That's it for now. Maybe it's time for my first cocktail in 4 days?
No comments:
Post a Comment