Transiting the East River, New York City

Transiting the East River, New York City   …   Sunday 30th June 2013

We thought long and hard about whether to make the passage through to Long Island Sound today or wait for tomorrow. The weather forecast was reasonable except for the prospect of thunder storms, and in the end we couldn't convince ourselves that Monday would be a lot better. Timing the transit through the East River is critical. If you arrive at the Battery on the southern tip of Manhattan two hours after low tide you can catch favorable currents all the way through. If you ignore the tides you can end up fighting up to 5 knots of current as you try to make your way through "Hells Gate". Today the timing worked out well with low tide at the Battery at 9am, so we felt that if we reached there by 10.30 or 11 am we should be through to Long Island Sound and safely anchored before the afternoon thunderstorms set in. We hauled up our anchor at Atlantic Highlands at 7am and headed north for New York. Of course what the "perfect plan" for transiting the East River fails to mention is that to get to the Battery at the required time you will have to fight formidable currents through the Narrows and into the Upper Bay just to get there. Our highly sophisticated chart plotter suggested we should be bucking 1.5 knot currents. However, our speed through the water was 7 knots and our speed over the ground dropped as low as 3.5 knots … you do the math! We had planned in some time for adverse current and did make it to the southern tip of Manhattan in good time. I was so excited about the prospect of taking photos but the visibility couldn't have been worse. Actually, as Gloria pointed out it could have been worse - total fog. As it was, the conditions were hot, airless and smoggy. Once in the East River we made excellent progress and it took us less than 2 hours to reach Throgs Neck Bridge at the eastern end of the river. At this point the channels opened up and the wind was blowing steadily from the south so we decided to extend our plans and sail onwards to Oyster Bay, about 12 miles to the east. However, after about 15 minutes we took another look at the sky and the storm clouds gathering, changed our minds again and headed south into Manhasset Bay. It was just as well we did because a short while later we realized that we had torn the trailing edge of our genoa. We furled the sail and continued under main alone and then engine to anchor off Port Washington. After a cup of tea and some lunch we unfurled and dropped the genoa to inspect the damage. Mostly it appears that the stitching has pulled out from a strip down the trailing edge. We contemplated re-stitching this by hand but figured that we might be able to do a couple of feet per hour and the tear is maybe 40 ft long! So we "folded" the sail and man-handled it down the companionway and into the aft cabin. The genoa must weigh about 100lb and doesn't exactly pack up neatly. Lets just say that we won't be putting anything else in the aft cabin for now. For the rest of the trip we are going to have to use our small stay-sail hanked on to the inner forestay. It's a real pain that this has happened, but it would have been much worse if it happened earlier in our trip.

Mike

40 49.079 N, 73 42.666 W

Passing under the Verrazano Bridge   ... we were there first!

Tug and Barge off Manhattan

Manhattan skyline

Abstract buildings NYC

Abstract buildings NYC _ 2

Squash the genoa into the aft cabin and there's not a lot of room left for anything / anyone

A Day Sail

A Day Sail   ...   Saturday 29^th June 2013

I can’t remember the last time we went out for a day sail.  It was probably back in July of 2012.  It’s a fun change to sail without a destination and time pressures.

Our friend John Higgins, his son Dan and daughter Emmy Lou joined us in the afternoon.  We pulled up the anchor and went for a sail around Raritan Bay. The forecast hadn’t been very promising—scattered thunderstorms but the afternoon turned out lovely. We had enough wind to move the boat along well without worry about being overpowered.  Both Dan and John took a turn at helming the boat. We couldn’t persuade Emmy Lou to try it though.

In the later afternoon we came back into the harbor and dropped the hook in almost the same spot (A powerboat had the audacity to take our spot). After a delicious barbeque on the boat, we took the dinghy to shore then walked into town for dessert—ice cream. 

It was great to see them.  One of the great things about this trip has been re-connecting with old friends.  I’m hoping that we can do a better job of keeping in touch going forward. 

Our ambition for tomorrow is to make the transit of NYC via the East River.  The timing of the tides looks favorable if we leave here about 7am.  It’s a time that seems almost civilized.

Gloria

John Higgins and his son Dan ... despite what the photo might suggest John is a wonderful well balanced individual ... but he has something of a pirate in him!

Another lovely sunset in Atlantic highlands

Clean and Polish

Clean and Polish   …   Friday 28 June 2013

We spent most of today on board doing boat maintenance. In particular we worked on cleaning and waxing the fiberglass gelcoat in the cockpit and polishing the stainless steel of all the deck fittings. These are actually quite big, time consuming jobs. Overall the boat is in good shape but there are a few things that need attention in the near future. The canvas dodger is pretty much on it's last legs and we'll try and make a new one when we get back. Similarly the insect screens that fit in the hatches need re-designing and replacing. By far the biggest job is re-painting (Awlgrip) the boat. There's no question that it needs doing, we knew that when we bought it, but it's a really expensive job. We got to talk to the Awlgrip representative when we were down at Wilmington Marine and he told us a few things that we didn't really want to hear! Firstly, he looked at Cotinga and said there was nothing that could be done to improve the current paint and that it was at the stage where deterioration would start to accelerate and potentially impact the layers underneath making it more costly to re-paint. Secondly, he confirmed what we already had heard that our red (claret) color has the worst durability of any of the colors and that dark colors in general can increase the temperature of the hull to above the recommended limits of the underlying gelcoat. So all in all we are pretty certain we do need to get the boat re-painted and we'll probably go for a lighter color - much as we like the claret.

After a hot day of work we got cleaned up and took the the "Dumb Dog" into the dock and walked up through town to a restaurant called the "Navesink Seafood". On "Trip Advisor" it is rated as the best restaurant in Atlantic Highlands and we weren't disappointed. We both started with Manhattan clam chowder and then Gloria had Grouper Francaise (fish dipped in egg and sautéed with a lemon sauce) whilst I had seared tuna with ginger, soy and wasabi. Both dishes were excellent. We wandered back to the dock in the rain, but at least today there was no thunder and lighting.

Mike

Thunderstorms, laundry and lunch

Thunderstorms, laundry and lunch   ...   Thursday 27^th June 2013

Just when I sit down to start the blog, another thunderstorm rolls in.  Yesterdays’ storm was a little earlier—before sunset.  The lightning was amazing.  Mike and I stood in the cockpit to experience the storm.  The one flash that was simultaneous with crackling noise made me retreat into the cabin.  So far this one is just warming up.  That’s okay with me as I am sitting right next to the mast.  I find myself wondering if a T-storm a day is going to be the new pattern.

This morning we inflated the dinghy and puttered to the dock to go do the laundry.  We knew where to go, having done laundry here back in October.  Pasted to the door of the laundromat was a sign say “Will be right back”.  Something about the place led us to suspect that no-one had “been back” for quite some time.  Mike trotted across the street to inquire. Rumor has it that the laundry closed down in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy.  We traipsed back to the dock with our dirty clothes and returned to Cotinga.  Hand washing some items seemed the only solution.  We draped the wet clothes over the life-lines and gave the boat a real live-aboard look.  It seemed amusing that we went all the way to the Bahamas and always found somewhere to wash our clothes.  Once we got back to New Jersey, we had to resort to hand washing.

We met up with my friend Janet and her husband Brian for lunch.  We tried to go to the most highly rated place in Atlantic Highlands--a fish restaurant.  Despite driving back and forth past the claimed location, we couldn’t find it.  I think it might have been a case of “Laundromat syndrome”.

The Thai restaurant was still in operation and served up a fine lunch.  It was great to chat with Janet and Brian, hearing about their Hurricane Sandy adventures.  After lunch, we brought them out to the boat for a tour.  I think they found the boat “deceptively spacious”.  That being an old UK real estate phrase roughly translating to “pretty darn tiny” 

Gloria

Boat returning to Atlantic Highlands harbor during a thunderstorm

A view across the harbor after the storm had passed

Close to sunset - Atlantic Highlands

Norfolk to Atlantic Highlands

Norfolk to Atlantic Highlands   …   Monday 24th - Wednesday 26h June 2013

After our arrival in Norfolk on Sunday we went ashore on the Portsmouth side of the river and visited the "Mile 0 marine store". The man who owns and runs the shop, Bob McBride, is nothing short of amazing. Not only is very helpful in the store but he also ran us out to the supermarket in his car, waited while we did our shopping and then dropped us back at our dinghy. He offered to run us anywhere else we might need, and in case your wondering, it's not that we got unique treatment, Bob seems to try to help out all boaters in this way. The following morning we started to prepare for our departure and noticed that the people on a boat anchored close to us were having trouble with their outboard (their primary engine). Having been the recipient of so much help from Bob yesterday we felt we too should spread some good will. I jumped in the "Dumb Dog" and motored over to the boat. Apparently there are three people on board - Carlos and his girlfriend (who I didn't meet) and their friend Dave. Carlos jumped into the dinghy and I ran him over to the dock so he could go and buy new spark plugs for the outboard. Their boat, a ~22ft sailboat, had been purchased at auction by Carlos's girlfriend and the three of them are planning to take it down the ICW to their home town of St Augustine. The only problem (actually not the only problem!) is that they need to be there by 4th July. I could see a few challenges - firstly the boat looked in terrible shape, secondly, I strongly suspect that none of them have any sailing experience and thirdly, it's 750 miles - which means they would need to cover more than 100 miles a day on the ICW, where night-time travel is not recommended. Anyway, I left Carlos on shore with directions to the marine store and then came back and picked him up a little while later. When we got back to the anchorage we both realized that their boat was dragging it's anchor and was now out in the main shipping channel. I had been reluctant previously to tow them with our dinghy, but now it was an emergency and left little choice. I found that I couldn't tow them with the "Dumb Dog" facing forward because it would just spin round under the load, so I ended up towing them with the dinghy going backwards. In fact it worked surprisingly well and we were able to get their boat onto a free public dock in Portsmouth. At this point I said goodbye to Carlos, who seems like a really nice guy. He says he's going to text me when he reaches St Augustine - but I half expect to read about them in the news!

Gloria and went back to shore for lunch, eating in a fine German restaurant called the "Bier Garden" which we had discovered on our way south. We ate Rouladen and Saurbraten with red cabbage, sauerkraut and spetzle. The food was fantastic and I also had a beer, just one of the 385 different varieties that they have on offer! Now that's my idea of a good place! We got back to "Cotinga" at 1.30 pm, hauled up, deflated and stowed the dingy on the foredeck and did one final check of weather and tides before departure. At this point I realized that I had screwed up my interpretation of the current tables - unlike wind, where the reported direction is where the wind is from, currents appear to be reported in the reverse, i.e. where the current is going. This meant that rather than leaving at 6pm as planned, we needed to get going immediately in order to catch the last of the favorable current down the Elizabeth river and out of the Chesapeake Bay. We had decided that we would skip going back through the Chesapeake Bay and down the Delaware river. The Chesapeake Bay is a lovely place to cruise, but the Delaware river is not. As John and Gail, the couple we met the other night, put it - the sailing community  is widely divided on which are the best cruising grounds but pretty unanimous that the Delaware Bay are the worst cruising grounds. Instead we chose to go offshore up the coast of the DelMarVa peninsula towards Cape May and if things were going well that we would not stop at cape May but keep on going all the way to Atlantic Highlands,  just south of New York City. From Cape to New York we have no choice but go offshore because the ICW through New Jersey is too shallow. 

At about 2.30 pm on Monday we hauled up the anchor and headed out down the channel, motor sailing with the assistance of the genoa and also current. It took us less than 3 hours to reach the gap in the  Chesapeake Bay bridge where we raised our main sail, stopped the engine and started sailing proper. Conditions were good with ~ 3-4ft swells from the south east and steady southerly breezes. Unfortunately the wind didn't last and by midnight we were once again motoring with main up. The nights went well - it is close to the longest day and also just past full moon, so with clear skies it was actually pretty bright. Gloria and I took it in turns to do 2 hour watches and we both actually slept during our off periods. In the morning the breeze picked up and we were once again able to sail for a couple of hours, before it became too light to make good progress. So we spent most of Tuesday motoring with main sail up to help reduce the metronome like oscillation as the swell rolled through. Later in the afternoon there was again a period of reasonable wind and we were able to sail wing on wing down wind for a few hours until it petered out once again. At this point we picked up information from the Sirius satellite maps showing thunderstorms all over our projected route, so as the sun went down behind Atlantic city, we put a double reef in the main and committed to a night of motoring. As it turned out most of these storms dissipated and we never got wet.  Monday night, south of Cape May, had been very quiet in terms of boat traffic, but on Tuesday night, north of Cape May, it was different story with a lot of large vessels. At about 3am on Wednesday morning the long awaited strengthening of the winds finally arrived and we able to sail the last 40 miles or so up to Sandy Hook. In fact the winds became quite strong, 15-20kts out of the west, and initially we were flying along at over 7 knots even though we still had a double reefed main. Later in the morning as the winds settled we took out the reefs and continued to make fast progress northwards. Our timing was good (pure luck) and we were able to pick up the flood tide going round Sandy Hook and into New York Bay. The seas in the inlet became very choppy for a couple of miles with strong wind over strong tidal currents, but it didn't take us long to get through. Once inside the Bay we turned south for Atlantic Highlands, NJ and anchored behind the protection of the breakwater.

We both feel quite tired after our two night passage, but also very pleased that it went so well - a good boost for our confidence. We covered about 250 nautical miles in 42 hours. Neither of us felt seasick, we both stood watch and managed to sleep when we were off-watch and we prepared and ate simple decent food. We were a little disappointed to have used the motor as much as we did (about 25 hours), but we sailed as much as we could and were willing to switch over from engine to sail whenever conditions allowed, day or night. We're just too impatient to bobble up and down in the swells making minimal speed. Sadly we didn't catch any fish even though we trolled our homemade green fringed lure! Also somewhat surprising is that fact that once out passed the Chesapeake Bay Bridge we did not see a single other sailboat. 

We'll spend a few days here in Atlantic Highlands before making our way over to New York City and up through the East River.

Mike

40 24.965 N, 74 01.343 W

The "Eye of Mordor" - sunset off the DelMarVa Peninsula (Monday 24th June)

Sunset off the DelMarVa Peninsula (Monday 24th June)

Dusk - off the DelMarVa Peninsula (Monday 24th June)

Atlantic City, NJ at sunset (Tuesday 25th June)

Gloria in the cockpit early Wednesday morning   .... just prior to "bacon butties"!

Full sail, close hauled, 7.5+ knots approaching Sandy Hook (Wednesday 26th June)

Many Bridges, a Lock and a Barge

Many Bridges, a Lock and a Barge   ...    Sunday 23^rd June 2013

My advice to mariners is “don’t get into a lock with a barge”.  Here’s how it happened.

We had fifty statute miles to travel today.  We weren’t overly worried about the distance, we forgot to take into account the bridges.  The first swing bridge was at Mile 20 (i.e. thirty miles from our starting point).  This opened only on the hour and half hour.  We had to dilly-dally a bit not to be forced to do circles in front of the bridge.  The next bridge was five miles away and according to our guide only opened on the hour and half hour.  We couldn’t possibly cover 5 miles in 30 minutes so we slowed down and ambled toward the bridge.  Once we got close we spoke to the “bridge tender” on the radio.  She informed us that the bridge was opening “on demand”.  So much for the guide-book. 

The next obstacle was the bascule bridge and lock combination.  The bridge was due to open at noon.  We followed a powerboat up to the bridge and looked back to see a second powerboat nearing our stern.  Considerably further back was a barge being pushed by a tug.  Strangely enough the bridge didn’t open at noon but waited until the tug drew up.  Once the bridge opened, we steamed through with the powerboats.  The lock operator informed us that we would have to “get out of the way” of the barge, which would enter the lock first.  In our case this meant moving over to the extreme right side of the canal and trying to “stop” without loosing all steerage.  A long barge going slow takes a fair while to move past.  Those were some tense moments.  Then we were allowed to move into the lock.  The line at the bow wasn’t long enough to reach from the boat to the bollard on side of the lock and back to the boat.  After a mad dash, I found an additional line to join to the existing one.   Meanwhile Mike was having similar problems at the stern.  Once the boat was securely tied up, we waited for the water level to be lowered.  The sun was beating down on us as we inhaled the exhaust of the tug.  Once the lock gates were opened, the tug moved off first and we waited for the way to be clear.  

Then ensued a mad sprint to the next bridge.  This one would only open on the hour.  If we missed the one o’clock opening, we’d have to wait an entire hour.  Our thought was that if we could just stay on the stern of the tug, we would get through.  More very tense moments were had.  The rest of the trip we were following this tug and barge.  By the time we had dropped the hook off Hospital Point, I felt in need of medical attention.   

Gloria

36 50.719 N, 76 17.995 W

Norfolk at night from Hospital Point anchorage

ditto

ditto

... and with double exposure