Georgetown, MD, Boat Work, Weather Forecasting

Monday, October 3rd - Day 8

Air temp 50, winds N-NE@20, cloudy but rain has stopped for now, sea temp 62

Just a quick update to let our family and friends know we are safe and sound after the weekend storms.  The forecast has changed a bit (for the worse) so we paid for two more nights at Sailing Associates Marina and will be here until at least Wednesday.

It rained almost all day yesterday so I decided to add some water to our tank from the rain.  I don't recommend doing this unless your water tank(s) are very low on water and you won't be at a marina for a while to fill the tank.  But, it had been raining for several hours so the decks should have been very clean plus I had an idea to prevent "stuff" from going into our tank.  The marina here does have fresh water on the dock but it has high iron content from their well.  It even looks brownish.  Last time we were here I used a house-filter to add water from the dock and, after only about 100 gallons, the filter cartridge was red from the trapped iron.

We have a house-type filter after our water pump for our faucets and shower.  It takes the normal 10 1/2 inch cartridges and I have several spares.  The cartridges were a little bigger in diameter than our water-fill deck fitting so I used a knife to taper one end so it would fit in the hole.  I removed the deck fitting cap, inserted the cartridge and used a short bungee cord to hold it in place.  Then I plugged up the deck drain so the rain would build up into a little lake around the filter.  Here's a pic I took of the setup.  I had just plugged the deck drain (bottom of pic) so the water had not built up yet.

This setup actually worked fairly well but it took a while for the water to seep through the filter.  I think we added about 20 gallons in 3 hours.  Lots more rain predicted for today and tomorrow so maybe I can fill the tank.

I should also say we carry (2) 6-gallon jugs for drinking water.  We normally do drink the water out of the tank but won't now until we can drain it, flush with a little bleach and refill with good, fresh water.

Laura was in baking mode yesterday and cooked up something new - chocolate / peanut butter cupcakes. Somehow, she magically got the peanut butter in the middle. She brought up a batch to the marina office (that's our agreement to get them off the boat when she wants to bake) and they were highly received.  We did save a couple for after dinner...

As we've previously seen on Chesapeake Bay, the winds blew the water out of our marina last night.  We are down about 2 feet below yesterday's low tide but still floating.  It was weird to step up onto the dock.  Compare this picture with the one I posted a couple days ago.

Rain and high winds are predicted for us today and tomorrow as the remnants of Ian turned toward us.  We are hoping to leave Wednesday for the Annapolis area and should be in Reedville, VA on Friday at our friends Walter and Mary's dock.  Oh boy!  Perfect timing for Wine-Down-Friday at their local Good Luck Cellars winery.  We've had lots of fun there in the past.

Boat work

I was mentioning to Laura yesterday that I neglected to put our boat-repairs in the blog.  We have had a few problems since leaving Catskill (nothing major - knock on wood) and I've been able to fix most of them.  I like the saying that cruising is, "working on your boat in beautiful places." But, this year, we haven't gotten to warm, beautiful places yet.

On our sail down the coast of NJ, the toilet in our cabin stopped pumping water.  It uses an electric motor to pump seawater through the toilet for flushing and running our Electro-Scan waste treatment system.  I closed the seacock and pulled the strainer while underway.  It looked fine - I had cleaned all the sea-strainers as part of my before-we-leave checklist in Catskill.  While I thought about it a while, we switched to using our forward head that has a manual pump and a holding tank.  After getting to the dock here, I used air pressure to blow out the water line from the toilet pump to the sea strainer.  After a few minutes, I was able to get it working again as it sucked in some really dirty water.  The line must have been plugged with mud or something.

As we pulled into Cape May a few days ago, I noticed our steaming light 3/4 of the way up our mainmast wasn't working.  At the anchorage in Cape May I spent a little time troubleshooting and found it was getting power to the wires going up the mast.  That one I couldn't fix as I didn't have a spare light.  Because the steaming light wasn't working, on our way up Delaware Bay at night, I also turned on our masthead navigation lights.

Our shower-sump was working intermittently - I could hear it running in short spurts.  I had seen this before so knew what to do.  The pump switch is electronic and submerged in the sump.  Because it pumps scummy shower water, it gets coated in slime after several months.  While anchored in Cape May, I climbed down in to the engine room bilge, took the cover off the sump and cleaned the switch.  15 minutes later it was working great again.

Marine Weather

I've had a few questions from other boaters on the websites I use for weather forecast while traveling on the boat.  I do subscribe to Chris Parker (Marine Weather Center) which gives a broad picture through emails sent to me every day but I also use several websites for more localized forecasts.

WindFinder.com - I like windfinder and use it for my primary source of wind speed / direction and wave height.  Check out the screenshot below.  This is for Atlantic City today.  You can easily see on the left side the winds will be high 20s with gusts to near 40.  Plus the arrows show the direction will be from the NNE.  On the right side, is the wave height, period and direction.  Yikes!  8.5 foot seas this afternoon.  No thanks..

You can scroll down on this screen to see the forecast for the next several days / nights.

 

PredictWind.com - The wind speed and direction tables are easy to read and you can also get a picture of your cruising area with wind direction and speed arrows.  Below is the PredictWind "tables" screen for the same area around Atlantic City today.  Each of the several lines at the top are individual models and show very similar numbers to WindFinder.  Notice the bottom of the screen shows 10 foot seas - close to the 8.5' from Windfinder.  PredictWind also has a map with wind / sea height arrows like Windy below.

You can also scroll to the right to see the next several days.

 

Windy.com - similar to PredictWind with wind speed and direction arrows on a moveable geographical area.  You can press the play arrow at the bottom to see the forecast for the next several days.

 

I typically use WindFinder in several screens to show the area(s) we will be traveling in front of us.  Once I have a tentative plan, I use PredictWind and Windy to verify the forecast.  For the next couple days they usually agree but, farther out, they are typically different.  When they are all different for the next couple days, watch out!

Atlantic Highlands, NJ to Georgetown, MD

Wednesday, September 28th - Day 4

Air temp 55, slightly cloudy, winds from WNW @ 10-30 - water temp 67

The alarm woke us up at 5:45am and I immediately checked the weather forecast on my iPad.  It wasn't the best I've seen for sailing down the coast as it was short but doable.  We talked about our options - leave for down the coast, stay here for a better window, return to Catskill, etc.  After talking it though, we decided to get up, get the boat prepared, and go south.

I did engine checks while Laura went around and secured everything on the boat.  She even screwed in the backs of our sofa so things wouldn't go flying if we got into rough seas.  We slipped the mooring at 7am and motored out of Atlantic Highlands onto the lower NY harbor.

We rolled out 3/4 the jib to help us up the bay.  Today, same as before, this 5 miles was just about the worst part of the trip.  We pick a weather window for sailing south down the coast but we have to run about 5 miles north around Sandy Hook before we can turn south and enjoy the sailing.  As we rounded the hook, we had a terrible ride for about 15 minutes.  It was the usually crappy wind-against-current that built 5-6 foot steep seas.  We bounced around pretty good but, thankfully, it was short-lived.  As we turned south we sailed into the lee of Sandy Hook and the seas calmed to less than 1 foot.

A few minutes later we rolled out the mainsail and enjoyed one of the great parts of sailing - turning off the engine.  We had reefed main and jib for the 15-20 knot (apparent) winds on the beam which pushed our 42,000 pound boat up to 6.5 knots.  Unfortunately, we had the engine off for only an hour before the winds calmed a bit and we were down around 5 knots.  Typically, this would be fine with us but our short weather window to Cape May required we average 6.5 or we would be caught in high N-NE winds on the coast early tomorrow.  So we started the engine and motor-sailed at low RPMs which kept our speed in the mid-6s.

It was a lovely day on the ocean.  As you sail down the coast of NJ, you start south but turn SW after 30 miles.  The west winds would have made sailing SW tricky but, as we turned to the west, the winds moved to the NW (as predicted) and we were able to get help from the sails all day.  See how calm the North Atlantic was?

The boat ran great (knock on wood) and with well-balanced sails the autopilot sailed us down the coast without complaints.

Our plan was to sail all the way to Cape May (about 110 nautical miles) then anchor and sit until the winds clocked to the east and calmed a bit late Thursday afternoon.  Then we would leave the anchorage, sail around Cape May and up Delaware Bay.  We would be entering Cape May channel and anchoring in the dark but that anchorage is big and just around the corner from the inlet.  Easy-peasy....

There were lots of boats taking advantage of the nice weather and we were passed by large powerboats all day.  Here was a nice one that was really zooming.  I'm guessing 40 gallons of diesel ($200+) an hour.

Later in the afternoon, we rolled out the mizzen sail for the first time in a couple years.  It added about 1/2 knot to our speed.  The ocean calmed even more as we turned SW toward Atlantic City.  Here's another ocean pic around 3pm.

Our first ocean sunset of the trip did not disappoint.  It started out with subdued pinks and a little sliver of moon.

A few minutes later the whole sky turned pink and red in front of us.

After the Sun went down, we passed Atlantic City and all the building were highlighted by the glow.

I was able to take a nap in the afternoon knowing we wouldn't be in Cape May until around midnight.  I had a dream that the anchorage in Cape May was full and we had no place to go.  When I woke up, I thought, "That's stupid.  The Cape May anchorage is huge and we've never seen more than a couple boats there."

Just before midnight we rolled in our sails and motored into Cape May channel.  As we turned the corner toward the the anchorage, I could see all the anchored boats on our Radar.  My nightmare had come true.  We slowly motored past the 20+ anchored boats (twice!) looking for a hole where we could safely anchor. It was not to be. Our only option was to anchor behind the first boat next to the inlet and we would be exposed to the incoming swells.  After looking at the charts, I decided to think out-of-the-box and anchor in shallow water across from the anchorage.  It was wide open but we would be hanging out into the channel a bit.  It was Hobson's Choice so we dropped the hook in 10 feet of water very close to the deep channel.  Besides our anchor light, I also turned on our cockpit LEDs to make us a little easier to see.  Maybe we wouldn't get run over by a sportfishing boat heading out at 5am.  We hit the sack around 1am and I spent a restless night in the crappy anchorage.

Thursday, September 29th - Day 5

Air temp 57, mostly cloudy, winds N clocking NE @ 15-20.  Didn't get sea temp

I did get up just after sunrise to make sure we were not anchored in the middle of the channel.  No. We were still over to the side so I went back to bed.  After our late arrival (1am) and restless sleep from the exposed anchorage, I didn't get up until about 10am.  

Winds did howl through the anchorage overnight as predicted.  This is why we decided to make the long run here instead of stopping somewhere earlier (like Atlantic City).  Typically, the weather windows are so short for getting down this coast and up Delaware Bay, we make long runs to get it over.  If the winds let us, we would sail down the coast, up Delaware Bay, through the C&D canal and right through to Chesapeake Bay - about 34-36 hours from Sandy Hook or 3 days - 2 nights all the way down the coast to Norfolk.  Not this time.

Once again I spent hours agonizing over the weather forecasts.  The winds had been from the NW which made for a comfortable sail coming down the coast.  But, once around Cape May the run up Delaware Bay was mostly NW so those winds were not good for that.  The winds were predicted to clock NE this afternoon which would help us up the bay.  The low tide was at 5:30pm so, about an hour after that, we would have helping current too.  My plan was to leave around 4:30pm - 5pm and run against the current for a couple hours before the incoming tide caught us and pushed the boat up the bay. 

I was questioning my logic as I watched all the boats leave the very full anchorage during the morning and early afternoon.  What were they thinking?  The north winds and tidal current against them would make for a terrible sail up the bay.  We stayed put.

By 4pm the anchorage was empty, winds had clocked to the NE (but still around 20 knots) and I couldn't take it anymore.  Laura and I prepared the boat for some rough seas and we pulled the anchor.

I immediately turned the boat into the wind and rolled out 1/2 the mainsail.  This would be a great help getting out of the Cape May inlet as we could see rolling waves coming in which would tend to stop us with just the engine pushing.

The tide was still falling (low was at 5:30pm) so we had helping current going out.  Unfortunately, it was wind against the current again so we buried the bow a few times on the big, steep waves.  Once out of the breakwater, we turned SW and motor-sailed directly downwind to the cape.  The ride wasn't that bad!  Since the wind had recently clocked NE, it hadn't had time to build bigger seas.  They were just 2-3 feet directly behind us as predicted.  Nice!

This picture shows the charts going around Cape May.  The coast of NJ is on the right and Delaware Bay on the left.  You can see how we need to turn almost 90 degrees around Cape May up into Delaware Bay.  The yellow lines are our tracks from previous years.  The pink stars are waypoints I've put on the AquaMaps chart to help guide us around the shallow Prissywick Channel.

As we turned west then northwest to get around Cape May, our apparent wind moved from behind us to the starboard side so we were able to roll out the jib and really started moving.  The seas were a little crazy here (as usual) but once past the Cape we were in calm water with 15 knot winds pushing us up the bay with our big sails out.  We were making 6 knots over ground against a 2 knot current.  Wow!  All of my fears of high winds and big seas turned to nothing.  It was a lovely sail.  The waves might get bigger as we sailed into the more open Delaware Bay but, for now, we enjoyed the ride.

The open part of Delaware bay runs about 20 miles from Cape May north.  Then the sides (land) close in and we would be more protected from the waves.  By 6pm we were in the most open part and Laura decided to make our dinner - homemade shrimp and broccoli pizza.  She had made the dough at the anchorage this morning.  It was a little rolly as the larger waves coming on the starboard quarter caused the boat to heel over and do a cork-screw about once every 5 minutes.  She's pretty good at cooking down below at sea and has lots of experience with it.  A short while later I heard a little scream, things falling, then a lot of curses.  She had opened the refrigerator to get something just as a larger wave caused the boat to heel way over.  Most of the stuff from the refrigerator ended up on the floor.  I chucked (very quietly) as she unhappily cursed at the stuff she had to put back in the fridge.  

We both learned to take these things in stride and, a short while later, she came up with a great looking pizza and two glasses of red wine.  The seas had calmed a bit and we shared a tasty dinner enjoying one of the most colorful sunsets ever.

It had been cloudy all day and we figured the sunset would be hidden.  But, there was a gap in the clouds near the horizon which caused the Sun to light up every cloud in the sky from underneath.  Here is the start -

A short while later the whole horizon turned bright red.  This picture really doesn't do it justice because the iPhone camera was a little washed out from the brilliant reds.  But you get the idea...

The seas and our ride calmed as we motor-sailed into the narrow north end of Delaware Bay.  We rounded the Salem Nuclear Power Plant at 11pm.  The winds had veered back to the north (as predicted which is why we motor-sailed to get here quickly) and we pulled in our sails because we were motoring directly into the wind.  Just after 12pm we motored into the calm C&D Canal toward Chesapeake Bay.

2 1/2 hours through the calm canal and I was even able to get a nap while Laura navigated through the well-lighted waterway.  Another 2 hours down Chesapeake Bay to the Sassafras River and we anchored a couple miles up river at 5am.  We both slept good after all that!

Friday, September 30th - Day 6

We were up at 11am after a short sleep.  The weather forecast had changed for the worse (thank you now tropical storm Ian) and we wanted to get into a marina for the high winds and rain.

While still in bed, I called Georgetown Yacht Basin where we had stopped several times on previous trips.  They have a well stocked ship's store and a free loaner car for running around.  I got some weird beeps on the phone then a voice saying this line had been disconnected.  Oh oh....

Turns out they went out of business and were not taking transient boaters.  Well...  that sucked!  We had also stayed at Sailing Associates (another Georgetown, MD marina) so I called them.  The gal put me on hold for a bit as they looked for a slip for us.  A short time later she came back and said they had a 15' wide slip which would just fit out 14' wide boat.  No problem.  We made a reservation for 3 nights. Let's go.

We pulled anchor around 12:30pm and motored up the Sassafras River to Georgetown.  While underway, Brooke (from Sailing Associates Marina) texted us with a map of the marina and said they decided to put us on a T-head instead of the narrow slip.  That's great!  As a bonus, the wind direction for the next few days would be blowing us away from the dock so we wouldn't be grinding our boat fenders.

Just after 2pm we tied up on the east T-head.  Brooke and another person helped us.  After they left, I spent almost an hour adjusting our normal and extra "storm" docklines.  Then I was happy!

We walked up to the marina office to pay for 3 nights and take a short walk.  3 days of dockage and power for $215.  Nice!  I had forgotten how inexpensive this place was.

As we took a short walk down the road, both of our legs were a little wobbly after 5 days without coming ashore.  We only walked about 1/2 mile but it felt great to stretch and walk more then 35 feet at a time.

We ate a quiet dinner of homemade chili, watch a few of our new favorite series, "Call the Midwife" and hit the sack early.  It was a long couple days to get here.  Now we could relax.

Saturday, October 1st - Day 7

Air temp 62, cloudy, winds NE @ 30+ during the night but calming during the day - sea temp 64.

I slept really well from 9:30pm until around 2am.  What woke me up was the boat shaking from the high winds.  This usually happens with winds over 30 knots though the standing rigging holding our two masts.  It wasn't bad since the winds were just off the bow and not pushing us over much.  If these winds were on the beam (coming from the side of the boat), we would be rolling a lot with the winds on our masts.

It took me a couple hours to get back to sleep as the storms were marching through.  Here is a screenshot I took of the U.S. east coast radar from North Carolina to New York.  We are at the blue dot.  The larger storms had already gone through.  You can also see the track of what's left of Ian.

I finally got back to sleep around 4am as the winds died a bit and rain let up.  Laura got up around 9am and I fell back to sleep until 11am.  Don't forget, we had a couple long days underway and short nights I needed to make up for.

Laura made a huge breakfast / lunch of bacon, sausage, eggs, homefries and toast.  I was starving and ate it all after going out to check our docklines and fenders!  Here is Second Wind at the Sailing Associates East Dock T-Head.  Yes.  We have a "waterway smile" already after just a few days on the Hudson River, NJ coast and Delaware Bay.

The water seems high at the dock - probably from the several inches of rain we had last night.  It's only about 6" below the dock.  We might need boots soon to get off the boat.

Our current plan is to stay here until Monday (more storms tomorrow night).  Monday afternoon we will motor an hour or so back out the river and anchor for the night.  Tuesday we'll sail to Annapolis where we will probably anchor in Weims Creek.  No moorings would be available because of the boat show.  Wednesday sail to Solomons then Thursday to Reedville.  

If the weather cooperates and we can get that far, we'll see what next week brings for sailing weather.  We could leave the boat with our friends in Reedville for "a while" then rent a car to drive back to Albany for Laura's Achilles surgery.  I would probably try to find help with bringing the boat farther south (maybe Myrtle Beach?) in November where we would pick up our Winter cruise to Florida after the holidays.

If the weather next weekend is nice, we may sail the boat to Norfolk and leave her there.  We like the Atlantic Yacht Basin in Great Bridge.  The boat would be fine there for several months and I could have them haul the boat for a much needed paint job.

I'll let you know how it goes!

Second Wind Heads South 2022

Our Summer

Wow.  It's been so long since I've written the blog I'm not sure where to start.  We are currently on a mooring in Atlantic Highlands NJ waiting for a weather window to sail down the coast to Cape May - probably tomorrow.

Our summer was very nice at our normal slip in Catskill Marina.  The marina has gone downhill a bit over the past few years and the pool didn't even open until mid-July after a major heatwave.  The liner had to be replaced but they knew that last year.  Guess it took a while to make it to the top of the list.

I had surgery in early July to have a lump removed on my arm.  It seems like it took the rest of the summer for me to recover but, by September, I was walking 3 miles a day and doing aerobics again.  Pretty much back to full strength now and I was able to get a couple weeks of swimming in the "new" marina pool.

Laura had a great time visiting her son and family in Houston then on to Nashville with her two daughters and grandchildren in August.  Yes.  I survived without her for a couple weeks.

Catskill is a pretty area and we enjoy the quiet of the marina during the week when we are almost the only folks around.  Here is a picture I took of a nice sunset one night after storms came through.

I also joined the Hudson River Historic Boat Society to get a little sailing in and help a worthy cause.  They dock right next to us so it was a short walk for the sail.  They have restored and now sail the sloop Eleanor which is 105+ years old.  HERE is a link to their website if you would like more information.  I did get a nice sail with them on a sunny afternoon.  Here is our Captain and First Mate as we made our way down-river.  We did all get turns driving so I was happy.

Laura has had pain in her heels while walking and needed to so something about it.  After seeing an Ortho Doc, she needs achillies tendon surgery on both of her heels and decided to have the first one done this fall so we scheduled it for September 17th.  Her recovery includes non-weight-bearing for 6 weeks then a month or so in a cast followed by a couple weeks of physical therapy.  Our plans were to have her surgery done then I would bring the boat south with help from friends - probably in November.  Sometime after the holidays we would drive back to the boat and continue south for the winter.  This plan changed when she didn't feel good for a couple days then tested positive for Covid.  We think it came from a transient boater at the marina.  Her doctor said they would wait a month for the surgery so we now had time to get the boat to warmer waters.  She was feeling better after a few days and we had the boat stocked and ready to leave on Wednesday, September 14th.  There was an excellent weather window for getting down the coast of NJ that following weekend.

Of course, living together on a 43' boat, I got Covid too and the day we were supposed to leave I never got out of bed. It affected me worse than her or she's just tougher then I am. It took us almost 2 weeks to start feeling almost normal.  We even had help from anti-virals from our doctors. 

We saw another good weather window for sailing down the coast so we again stocked up and finally left the marina on Sunday, September 25th.  We were both still a little tired but back to about 90% of our full strength and stamina.  We hoped to get stronger as the days go on.  Motoring down the Hudson is typically long days for us but not hard or exhausting.

Our friends and neighbors Russ and Pam (Apres' Ski) joined us for cocktails Friday night and we had a cocktail with Dean and Sue (Autumn Bourne) Saturday evening under the tent.  It was nice to spend a little time with friends after isolating from Covid for the past couple weeks.  We finished each get together with the cruisers goodbye, "See ya soon!"

Sunday, September 25th - Day 1

Air temp 53, combination of rain and Sun - water temp 66 - winds S@10

I had finished the last of my "before we leave list" the previous evening - fill our fresh water tank and stow the hose.  We were up around 6:30am for coffee and readying the boat for the day on the river.  We had taken a short shake-down cruise a few days ago so we were pretty sure everything on the boat was working from sitting for 3+ months.

No problems as we backed out of the slip at 7:15am and headed down the Catskill Creek to the Hudson.  We should be able to make good time with favorable tides at this hour.

The Hudson River is an estuary with tides from the ocean causing the water to flow both up and down (flood and ebb) on the river.  You can think of the tide as a wave coming up the river from the ocean.  If you are on the river in front of the wave, you get pushed north.  If you are on the back of the wave, you get pushed south.  Heading south in a slow sailboat, you will go through two of these waves on a full day.  If you leave Catskill as the ebb starts, the boat will be helped down the river for about 4 hours then the tide will change against you for 4 hours. After that you will again be helped for several hours.

The tidal currents are 1 1/2 to 2 knots.  We left at the start of the ebb so easily made it 65 miles to Haverstraw Bay (our destination for day one) before dark.  If you left on the flood tide, it would add 2-4 hours to this trip.

It was mid-50s and cloudy when we left.  We put up our back canvas to warm up the cockpit a little and keep the cold wind out.  A little while later it rained on us for an hour or so then, later in the morning, the Sun finally came out.  Winds were out of the south so we never were able to get any help from the sails.  It was just a motor-down-the-Hudson day.

Laura is constantly on eagle-watch.  She found two eagles sitting next to each other on a tree.  By time we took a picture, one had flown away.  Bummer.  Laura had spotted 5 eagles in the first 3-4 hours of our trip.  Seems like more of them around than before.  That's a good thing!

I like watching the trains along the river.  The passenger trains from NYC to Albany (and stops in between) run on the eastern shore.  The freight trains run on the western shore.  I took this picture of a freight train just south of Newburgh going around Storm King Mountain.  It was a long train and this section was petroleum cars.

In the last week, there were several Canadian boats at our docks having their masts put up (stepped) after traveling the NY Canals.  One of the boats was interesting to us because they had the same name, Second Wind.  We chatted with them one night (from a little distance because we were still trying to isolate from our Covid) and they left a day or two before us.

On our way down the river today, I saw them in front of us on our AIS (Automated Information System for boats).  We followed them down the river all day and gradually got a little closer.  By time we entered Haverstraw Bay around 5:30pm we were only about 1/2 mile behind them and David called me on the radio.

There is a nice anchorage just off Haverstraw Bay called Haverstraw Cove.  It is a little tricky getting in because of a narrow channel with just enough water for us at low tide.  Go figure, it was going to be low tide when we got there.

I told David I was experienced with getting into the cove and he asked if they could follow us.  Sure, let's do it.  We had no problems going in even though our depth sounder was down to 5.6 feet - we need 5.5 to keep floating.  Yikes!

I let him have a nice open spot in the cove to anchor and we anchored near 3 smaller boats rafted up for a Sunday party.  In the past, we'd seen small boats anchored in the cove for weekend parties and I assumed they'd be leaving soon.  For some reason unknown to me, the smaller boats didn't like us anchoring near them and turned up the music then started blowing their horns.  We just went downstairs, closed up and had a nice dinner.  1/2 hour later I looked out and they had left to zoom back to their home marinas.  See ya!

There were storms during the night with wind and rain but we were nice and calm in this small cove.  The crappy weather forecast was why we came in here.

Monday, September 26th - Day 2

Air temp 62, sunny - water temp 70 - winds SW@5-10 increasing during the day

We wanted to catch the afternoon ebb tide through New York City so we were up early again.  We pulled our anchor at 7am and motored out of Haverstraw Cove on a calm morning.  There was a cloud hanging over the hills in front of us as we motored out.  I thought it looked cool.

Turns our Dave was up early too (on the other Second Wind) and sent me a few pictures of us heading out.  This one shows how nice the morning was in the cove.  Don't worry.  I wasn't near that tug and barge.  They were about 1/2 mile away. 

Dave and Sandra were staying in Haverstraw Bay for a few days and wanted to take the train into NYC for sightseeing.  They were going to one of the local yacht clubs to catch the train.

We had lots of dew on the windows and the clouds didn't burn off until a few hours later.  Winds stayed out of the south so, once again, right on the nose.

Not much traffic on the river this morning and we motored past the Tappan Zee bridge about an hour later.  I like the Sun hitting the cables in the morning.

A couple hours later we approached the George Washington Bridge.  It's our first good view of the New York City skyline.

River traffic pick up shortly after the George Washington Bridge with lots of ferries and private yachts zooming around.  This is why I always try to catch the helping tidal currents through the city.  I don't want to be hanging around all those boats (and their wakes) for several hours.

I had timed it great today and our speed picked up over the next couple hours.  We typically motor at 6 knots.  At one point we had 3 knots of helping current.  Laura took this picture of our new instruments.  The second one is Speed Over Ground (SOG).  9 knots.  Hold onto something!

I motored us over near the Statue of Liberty where we always try to get a few pictures each trip.  This time I got a selfie of us on the bow with Lady Liberty in the background.  Winds were 20 knots so it was a tricky picture.  Otto is driving the boat.  Otto-pilot....

Only a mile or so away from us was a large aircraft carrier I hadn't seen before.  I knew it wasn't a U.S. carrier because it had a "ski jump" on the front.  It turned out to be the British HMS Queen Elizabeth that was visiting NYC as the venue for the Atlantic Future Forum.  HERE is a link to the BBC article with some better pics than this.  But my picture has better clouds...

We were able to roll out a little jib to help a bit through NY harbor but the winds stayed close to the bow so never had a chance to turn off the engine.  Laura took this neat picture of the Varrazzano-Narrows Bridge under our sail.

Our motor-sail across the lower harbor was uneventful and we arrived in Atlantic Highlands just after 3:30pm.  Plenty of time to visit the fuel dock and fill up for our trip down the coast later in the week.  We hadn't fueled since Georgetown, MD on our way north last Spring.  The boat took 91 gallons (we hold 150) and the price was $4.98 / gallon.  Much better than the $6.80 / gallon we paid last Spring but still hurtful at $452.  Oh well....  It's only money.

In the past, the anchorage at Atlantic Highlands has been pretty full with boats and I was concerned about being stuck way out in the anchorage and exposed to all the ferry wakes.  Instead, I decided to try and reserve a mooring here and used the DockWa app to request a reservation earlier this morning for two nights.  A short while later I received a confirmation of the reservation and a credit card invoice for $120.  Geez.  I thought they were expensive before at $50 / night.  Now they've raised the price to $60.  But, it was definitely worth it to me as we motored into the harbor and counted 22 anchored boats waiting for weather to head south.  We would have been very exposed out there but now we are comfortable on a quiet mooring.

I grilled country-ribs for dinner and we had a quiet evening below listening to the wind howl.  We hit the sack early and I was asleep by 9:30pm after two long days to get there.  Tomorrow we can just relax.

Tuesday, September 27th - Day 3

Air temp 64, sunny, not a cloud in the sky - water temp 67 - winds SW-W@10-15

It was a calm night and cool enough to sleep well.  We slept in a bit then relaxed in the morning.  I put together the pictures you see above and it took me a couple hours to write this.  

We'll decide later if we want to go into town for a walk-a-bout.  The water-taxi is free for boats on the moorings so we wouldn't even have to drop the dinghy and put the outboard on.  Maybe we'll just hang.  

Plans are to head out at O-Dark-30 tomorrow morning - maybe around 5am - for the trip down the NJ coast.  We're going to try for Cape May by tomorrow night (about 110 nautical miles) and should have nice winds for sailing all the way down.  The winds are supposed to stay W to NW on Thursday which would not be nice for going up Delaware Bay.  Instead we will probably stay at anchor in Cape May until Friday morning when the winds clock to the NE and E.  Saturday and Sunday look good (so far) for sailing down Chesapeake Bay so maybe we can make Reedville, VA and our friends Walter and Mary's by Sunday or Monday.  That would be great.

Long range plans are to leave the boat somewhere and rent a car to drive back to Albany for Laura's surgery on October 14th.  We need to be there by the 10th for pre-op stuff.  My best scenario would be to leave the boat at Atlantic Yacht Basin just south of Norfolk.  It's very protected there and I might have them haul the boat and paint her while we are gone.  We'll see how far we get.

Then we would drive back to the boat after the holidays (assuming Laura is feeling good) and continue the sail south to warmer Winter waters.  I'll keep you updated.  

Hope all is well with you and yours....

New Electronics for Second Wind - Phase 2

Background

My wife Laura and I live on Second Wind - a 43' Endeavour sailboat. We've been cruising for 16 years and the boat was ready for electronic upgrades.

Last fall (2021), I removed all of the electronics and cables on our pedestal (including parts of the pedestal) then installed a new RADAR, Axiom Pro chartplotter, autopilot control and multifunction display at the helm.  

Before all this work, our pedestal instruments looked like this -

After all the tear-down and build back up, the pedestal looked like this - 

If you would like to see how the project started (before this phase 2), you can check out all the details by clicking here.

Why Phase 2?

Phase 1 was usable for cruising but someone had to be sitting at the helm all the time plus anyone else in the cockpit couldn't see what was going on with navigation ("how far until we turn?").  My plan was always to install more navigation displays forward in the cockpit so we could sit anywhere and be able to watch what was happening - even when at sea or in more open areas of the IntraCoastal Waterway (ICW).  On a slow (6 knot) boat, why not sit back and enjoy the ride?

First Step Is to Diagram the new System

From the beginning of this project, I had planned to use the RayMarine i70s multifunction displays.  I purchased and installed one of these at the helm for phase 1 and really liked it.  At the helm I was using the "Wind" screen which graphically showed wind angle and speed for sailing.  However, these displays will show just about any of the data available on the network and have many default screens that are very useful.  My only question was how many to buy and install.  I originally thought I would install (3) but after reviewing all the possible screens to display, I decided on (5) to show more navigation information.   

I had used ProfiCAD software to diagram the work last Fall and it was easy to bring up the old file and add in the new wiring and equipment.  Here's what I eventually came up with -

All the new stuff is mostly at the bottom in green.  In the diagram, I also try to identify / look up all the part numbers so I can use this as a reference when ordering the hardware on-line.  I almost always order from Defender.com but, as you will see below, the current supply-line problems hit this project too. 

 

The display titles at the bottom are what I think will be most important to me.  But these instruments can display anything on the network so this may change in the future.  Time will tell....

Getting Started

There was a great area for new instruments above our companion-way that would be visible from anywhere in the cockpit.  It only had a few instruments and most of them were antiquated or not working at all.  In the center was a huge rudder-angle-indicator that hadn't worked since I installed a new autopilot in 2011.  Here is what the area looked like before I started.  I had removed the rudder-angle-indicator and secondary depth sounder.  They were hanging by the wires because I had already started the project before remembering to take a "before" picture.  But, you get the idea....

My instruments were 99% RayMarine and I planned to extend the existing SeaTalkNG network that I installed last September to include (5) new instruments above the companion-way.   

I ordered all the cables, adapters and instruments from Defender.com.  The next day I received an email that they only had (2) of the displays.  The other (3) were backordered.  Crap.

Then I checked West Marine Pro on-line and they had (3) in a warehouse in CT.  Plus they were only about $20 more than Defender.  I quickly completed the order and received them a few days later.  If anyone is wondering why they can't find any RayMarine i70s displays in the U.S., it's my fault.  Sorry. 

Pulling the Cables

As you can see from the diagram, I needed to run (2) SeaTalkNG network cables from the engine room to the companion-way.  As I was trying to figure out the easiest way to pull the cables, I saw that the old rudder-angle-indicator had two large cables running all the way around the cockpit and down into the engine room.  After tracing the cables and going back as far as I could to the sources, I cut them and used electrical tape to join the new SeaTalkNG cables at the ends.  They were about the same size so I was hopeful there would be no jams while pulling them through.

To get from the engine room to the cockpit, there is a cable raceway in the wall between the galley and shower.  It also has an access panel so I removed the panel to start pulling the wires.  Yes.  It looks like a mess.  We purchased this boat when it was already 25 years old and several owners had a chance to add to the mix.

Laura helped by pulling the cables into the galley while I fed them from the engine room.   Then I went up into the cockpit and pulled them there while she fed from the galley.  It worked as well as I could have expected and a short time later the cables were run all the way to the new instrument spot.

Here are the cables hanging out the access port after I pulled them into the cockpit.

Now I just needed to run them the final 10 feet to above the companion-way.  Once again Laura helped by pushing while I was pulling near where the new instruments would go.

After pulling the cables, I hooked up all the connectors and adapters.  Then I connected one of the new instruments to see if my network design would work.  Success!

Mark and drill for New Instruments

You can see the big hole in the picture above that was used for the rudder-angle-indicator.  I planned on putting the middle instrument (out of the 5) over that hole.  Oh oh.  First roadblock.  The new i70s won't cover the entire hole.  We had to make that hold smaller.

After thinking about it for a while, we decided to try the most simple solution first.  We used masking tape behind the hole for a little something to use as a mold for thickened epoxy.  Then we mixed a little West System epoxy and added micro-filler to get it around "peanut butter" consistency.  I used this to fill in the edges that would be showing around the new instruments.  It seemed to work OK but didn't look great - that could be fixed later with sander and paint brush.

The next day, I sanded off the excess epoxy and it looked pretty good.  I used the existing hole as a guide for where to put the other (4) displays. 

This picture I enhanced a little so you could see the light pencil lines.  Notice I used a ruler below to line-up the boxes where the new instruments will go.  Don't forget, nothing on a boat is straight.  Both the combing (above) and companion-way (below) are curved.  I thought the instruments would look better straight so lined up everything to the ruler.  The new displays came with templates so I used these on top of the ruler to draw the boxes and circles.

I purchased a 3 5/8" hole-saw (on Amazon) which was recommended by the RayMarine installation instructions.  I then found the center of each circle (using a right angle from my drafting days) and drilled the holes.  No going back now!

Thankfully, the 3 5/8" holes were a slightly bigger than the instruments needed so there was a little wiggle-room when drilling the mounting holes.  I used clamps to hold up the ruler then sat the new displays on the ruler.  Then I used a measuring tape to fine-tune to distance between the displays while drilling the mounting holes.  It worked pretty good!

I drilled all the mounting holes and put in all the screws.  The dry-fit came out nice with less than 1/16" between the sides of the displays and less than 1/16" difference at the bottoms.  Here are all the displays screwed in for the dry-fit.

I then removed all the displays and sanded down the entire panel taking care to smooth down where we had filled the center hole with epoxy.  Next was to clean everything up with vacuum, damp rag then acetone. That took a while.  I had made quite a mess! 

Laura dug out some white Rustoleum topside paint, thinned it out a bit then used a foam brush to recover the whole panel.  It came out pretty good!

This was the end of day 2.

Final Wiring

You can see from the picture above that there are two main network cables plus (2) 5-way connectors hanging above the new work.  These needed to be mounted inside behind the instruments.  Problem is there is no bottom in that area to mount stuff - just the hatch that slides back and forth.  

I had been thinking about this for a while and decided to try double-sided tape to mount the 5-way connectors inside - above the new instruments.  I first cleaned the area with acetone to remove dust from all the work I had done.  I had some heavy-duty double-sided tape that worked well for projects like this in the past.

I connected the display cables to the 5-way connectors (these are called "Spur Cables" by RayMarine), pushed everything back into the hole and stuck them to the wall above the display holes.  Then I pulled the excess backbone cable back through to the side of the cockpit to make everything behind the new displays look nice and assure nothing will catch on the sliding hatch.

To see if everything looked OK, I stuck my arm through one of the holes and took a picture with my iPhone.  This is from the back side of the holes I had drilled for the new instruments.  It didn't look too bad.

The white and black cables hanging down will each be connected to one of the new displays.

Mount the Instruments

Next Laura installed the included foam gasket on each of the new displays while I got the cables ready for final hookup.  I connected the cables and turned everything on.  This was the first test of the new displays.  They worked!

Now I mounted and screwed in the (5) displays then clipped in the keyboards and bezels.  The keyboards and bezels snap off easily to get access to the mounting screws.

Wow.  It looked pretty nice and I was pleased with the work.  Here is the final picture showing all of the displays programmed for the screens I selected.  The second from the left is showing speed-over-ground.  It's reading "- - -" because we're not moving at the dock.

Turn everything off, install covers and sticky-tape the tilt-a-wheel gauge back onto the panel.  As you can see from the picture below, it was a great rainy-weather project that I was happy to complete in 3 days (not counting several days for design then finding and receiving all the parts).  Can't wait to get out and use it all.  Soon.....

Next project will be to install a wireless remote for my autopilot so I can sit anywhere and run the boat.  That should be easy, right?

Costs

Total cost for the project was just over $2,500.  The (5) i70s displays were the big hit at about $430 each.  I did have a few parts left over from last Fall's project that saved me maybe $150. 

Epilog

If you are interested, I've created 4 eBooks on Amazon from our cruising blog covering 10 years from buying the boat, cruising though the Caribbean and Pacific, starting / running a sailing charter business, then several boat upgrades and more cruising.  They are all under $5.  You can check them out on Amazon here.

Hope you enjoyed the blog.  Laura and I wish you safe travels wherever life leads.

Cruising Guide - Sailing Chesapeake Bay

This short guide of sailing Chesapeake Bay is designed to help cruisers who may be on their first trip.  It doesn't cover all the places to stay or see but instead tries to give you an idea of an easy way to travel this area if you don't have lots of time for sightseeing.

Chesapeake Bay runs about 160 nautical miles from the west end of the C&D Canal to the Norfolk Harbor entrance.  We have stopped and “smelled the roses” in several areas but our trip through here typically takes 4 on-the-water days.  As the bay runs mostly north – south, any day with big winds from either of those directions can make for a rough ride.  We typically sit out those days at one of the many excellent anchorages.

Our trip down the coast of NJ from Sandy Hook usually ends 32-34 hours later in the Sassafras River.  There are some excellent anchorages on the Sassafras where we’ve sat out big storms for several days before continuing.  The best anchorage is about 5 miles in around the “S” turn.  You can anchor far enough off the channel so the powerboat wakes are not too bad.  About 10 miles in from the bay on the Sassafras is Georgetown, MD.  Georgetown Yacht Basin is a good place to relax at the dock and they have an excellent ship’s store and a large boatyard if you need work done on the boat.  They also have a free loaner car which makes restocking easy from the nearby mall.  Across the river is Sailing Associates where we spent a few days last Fall.  It is a quiet marina with friendly staff and a nice pool.

Our first day down the bay runs from the Sassafras to Annapolis.  Any winds but south make for a nice sail.  We would leave at sunup so we could be in Annapolis in the afternoon and get a chance to go into town.  We almost always get a mooring from the city marina ($35 / night).  There are many moorings right in front of downtown with easy access to the dinghy dock.   East to southeast winds can bring in a swell off the bay which can make this an uncomfortable place.  If the forecast is for winds from those directions, we instead go into Back Creek all the way to the end near Bert Jablin’s Yacht Yard.  There are 5 or 6 city marina moorings there which are protected from any wind direction.  Sometimes there are no moorings available (like in September around the boat show) so instead we would go up the Severn River a few miles to Weems Creek.  This is a nice, protected anchorage with a dinghy dock near the bridge for easy access to a few restaurants, grocery and liquor store.

Annapolis has a lot to offer for cruisers and we love walking around the downtown area.  One of our favorite places to eat is Chick and Ruth’s Deli - awesome burgers and milkshakes.  You always see Navy Cadets walking around town in uniform and we’ve stopped to talk to them several times.

Leaving Annapolis heading south our next stop is usually The Solomons with excellent anchorages and a few places to get ashore for groceries or lunch.  This day is about 45nm of fairly open water so we would only go with winds under 15-20 knots and not from the south.  The course is pretty straight forward down the open bay.

The Solomons have several rivers / creeks with protected anchorages but we usually go up Back Creek and anchor in the open area just south of Anglers Pub.  They have excellent lunches and we were there one evening for dinner when they were having a Bar Trivia contest.  We ended up teaming with another couple who complimented our knowledge (they were good at movies and sports) and we won second place.  Lots of fun….

Day 3 we would sail another 50nm to the Deltaville area.  One of our favorite anchorages is around Stove Point into Fishing Bay.  Lots of anchor room here and excellent holding with protection from almost any wind direction.  Fishing Bay Marina is easy by dinghy and offers a “visitors pass” for transients – I think they were $10 each.  You can use all the marina facilities including the loaner car (somebody else was using it the day we were there) and bicycles. 

From Fishing Bay, you need to pick decent weather for the run the Norfolk.  It’s only about 40nm but it is the most open part of the bay.  Two or three times we’ve left here for the sail south only to turn around and come back when the winds were too high or from a bad direction which made the sail uncomfortable.  In nice conditions, it is a beautiful sail and I always look forward to entering the protection of Norfolk Harbor at the south end of the bay. 

Once again, we typically try to leave Fishing Bay early enough to make Norfolk by early afternoon.  We like to get through the Gilmerton Bridge (first ICW road bridge that needs to open for us) before their rush-hour lockout that runs from 1530-1730 Monday thru Friday.   If you can’t make Gilmerton before 1530, there is a good anchorage at Hospital Point where the ICW starts.  We don’t usually anchor there because many of the powerboats don’t care about the no-wake zone and it can get lumpy.

Sailing past the Norfolk Navy Base is one of the highlights of the trip south.  It’s awesome to see the huge carriers and front-line war ships at the docks.  I’m always looking up ship names on the Internet when we go by so I can what they do.

Once through the Gilmerton Bridge, we stop at Top Rack Marina for fuel and sometimes stay overnight if it is late.  They usually have some of the cheapest fuel on the ICW.  Dockage used to be free is you ate at their restaurant but now it is $50 / night.  The restaurant has excellent food but a little pricey.  There are no other stores or restaurants in the area withing walking distance from the marina.

If we have enough time after fueling (or the next day) we motor the 3-4 miles to the Great Bridge Lock.  Southbound boats enter on the ½ hour.  Traveling south, prepare to tie up on the starboard side and you don’t need to put out fenders since there are rubber strakes built into the lock.  You should have two fairly long (40’) lines ready with one tied to the bow cleat and the other tied to the stern cleat.  The lock tender will take each of your lines with a boat hook, run it around a cleat at the top of the lock and hand it back to you.  Don’t tie off this end because the boat is going to move up or down!  Hold on to each line until the lock completes its cycle.  The north side of the lock is tidal waters and the south side is not.  The south side water level changes with the wind direction so you never know if you are going to go up or down but, heading south, you typically go up. 

Once through the lock there is usually a short wait for the Great Bridge Bridge to open.  On both the east and west sides of the Great Bridge Bridge are free docks where boaters can tie up for 48 hours (but we’ve never seen anybody here checking to limit your stay).  The east (south) side has nicer docks and a visitors’ center with excellent walking trails.  We always try to go through the bridge and tie up near the visitor’s center.  This is a great area to stay a few days with restaurants, fast food, groceries, a mall and Ace hardware within easy walking distance.  If you need work done on the boat, the Atlantic Yacht Basin (across the canal) can handle almost any job and they have a good size ship's store.  One time we had to have the boat hauled out of the water there because something in the water dinged our propeller.  They were very professional.