Delaware Bay

Delaware Bay   ...  Monday 8^th October 2012

If you read the guidebooks or talk to cruisers you get the impression that the Delaware Bay has a reputation for nasty seas.  We debated for quite some time about tackling this today.  Our original plan was to leave Cape May on Tuesday when the forecast was for NE winds around 10 knots. This forecast changed to N winds 10 to 15 gusting to 20.  At that point the Monday forecast (NNW winds 5- 10 knots diminishing to 5 knots in the afternoon) started to seem more attractive.  We were underway by 7 am and had reached the point at Cape May (more or less the entrance to the Delaware Bay) by 8 am, some 30 minutes in advance of the start of the flooding tide.  Our thought was that this would avoid the worst of the wind over tide effects at the entrance to the bay.  Apparently planning and forethought only get you so far.  The wind seemed to be more like 10 knots from the NE and the seas were significantly larger than the forecasted 1ft!  On went the foul weather gear to protect us from the spray.  Seasick meds were swallowed and we hunkered down behind the dodger to try to stay warm.  We raised the mainsail and unfurled the genoa hoping to sail.  The wave action meant that we were only doing about 3 knots—not enough to get us 50 miles up the bay to the start of the Chesapeake and Delaware canal(C&D canal). We furled the genoa and continued motor-sailing. Breakfast of a cold bagel did little to lift our spirits. 

Thankfully, after a couple of hours the seas started to subside which made the trip more comfortable if no warmer. As the bay began to narrow the seas continued to flatten, the wind eased a bit but the traffic picked up… We saw three barges and one huge liquified gas vessel as well as many powerboats of all stripes.  Now that we are anchored off Reedy Point, we are happy that we left Cape May this morning.  This was not always the sentiment.  At about 9:30 am Mike said he wanted to label the blog “The Delaware Bay Sucks”.


... a selection of the "delights" to be found in the Delaware Bay

Tug and Barge

Massive Gas Tanker

Nuclear Power Station

Ship John Shoal Light

Close encounters

Old Friends

Old Friends   …   Sunday 7th October

We had a really great time catching up with John Higgins and meeting his two children Dan and Emmy Lou for the first time. John was best man at our wedding on a hot and sunny day in August, more than a quarter century ago now. He is also a chemist and first met Gloria when he was assigned to work on the bench next to her in the Brown University chemistry labs. This was a scary experience for John (~ 5'9" and 170lb of pure muscle) as Gloria (~ 5'1" and 105lb of pure attitude) had started to enjoy the extra space the previously open bench provided! John claims it only took him a day or so to win her round. That's what that "rough around the edges" charm can get you! I arrived at Brown some time later and had the good fortune to be assigned the bench opposite Gloria. (No real estate issues there!). I was looking for a climbing partner and was introduced to John who by that time was working in another lab. He was also a keen climber and we became firm friends. We had all sorts of wild climbing adventures with a bunch of other good friends. Over the years we have stayed in touch and met up occasionally, both in the UK and the US, but it had been a really long time since we last got together and we had never met Dan or Emmy Lou.

It was about 7.30pm and already dark when they arrived at the marina. It wasn't a very nice evening for a dinghy ride with stiff winds blowing across the harbor. We dressed up in waterproofs and life jackets and the 10 minute journey back to the boat felt very exciting. Emmy Lou gets the bravery award - she thought we were headed out into the open ocean rather than staying in the harbor - but she never complained! Once aboard we cooked up "tri-tip" steak on the barbecue and drank a fine bottle of red wine and chatted till midnight. The morning arrived with cold showery weather, and after a good breakfast we headed back to shore. It was a great visit and we are determined not to leave it so long next time.

This afternoon Gloria and I are off to find a bar that is showing the Patriots game. We re-thought our plan to come into the marina fuel dock and decided instead to fill our diesel and water jerry cans each time we dinghy to shore.

Mike

Emmy Lou, John and Dan Higgins - Cape May Harbor

Visiting Cape May

Visiting Cape May  ....   Saturday 6^th October 2012

We awoke early to a windy blue-sky day.  After breakfast I did some cleaning of the cabin spaces while Mike tackled the bow light (red on port/green on starboard).  We had noticed on the overnight sail that this light needed some ‘encouragement’ to come on initially.  Later on we realized that it was no longer lit.  At this point, in the real dead of night with significant wind and some seas, I thought we should just leave it.  But Mike bravely went forward (using the harness and the jack lines) to give it a little more ‘encouragement’-- without success.  So we knew something was amiss with it.   Today, we found the connections looked pretty corroded so Mike worked to clean these, and then re-connected the wires to the light-- no light.  Our current theory is that the wire itself is corroded or broken or both.  So we added wire to our shopping list and set off to town in the dinghy.

We were looking for a place to tie up the dinghy but also for a location where we could meet our old friend John Higgins and his two children later.  The staff at Unsch’s marina was kind enough to let us tie up.  We acquired for 14-gauge wire at their marine shop (which seemed to have a lot of interesting stuff—like an old fashioned hardware store).  We also had a good look at the fuel dock.  This, unlike the fuel dock at EGYC, is more like a slip.  To get in to it, you would need to come along the main ‘thoroughfare’ of the marina and then turn left to put the boat between pilings and stop before the bow hit the seawall.  Perhaps even more interesting to contemplate is trying to back out of this slip and make a 90-right to starboard.  The captain thought it was do-able, the first mate was thinking, “Yes, but maybe not by us.”

After the marina it was a brisk walk to town for groceries (for our guests) and lunch, of course.  By 11:00 am Mike was already talking about lunch so this had to take priority over the provisioning.  We did find a very nice spot on the pedestrian mall that served Northern Italian food…. A walk on the beach preceded the food shopping.  It seemed a long way back to the marina with Mike carrying a ridiculous weight of food and drink. 

Back on the boat we are experiencing some very windy conditions as some squalls come through.  This didn’t really seem to make it any easier to bake an apple pie.  Now we are watching darkness fall and awaiting the call from our guests.

Cape May Coast Guard Station as seen at sunrise from our anchorage

Lunch at A Ca Mia

Congress Hall - Cape May

Beach Canopies - Cape May

Black Skimmer - Cape May

Jersey Shore

Jersey Shore  …   Thursday - Friday 4-5th October

Our original plan was to  take advantage of the sustained westerly winds that were predicted and sail from Atlantic Highlands to Cape May over two days with a stopover at Barnegat Inlet. However, the forecast for Thursday got revised to "light and variable' and the only decent westerly winds were for Thursday night and Friday morning. So we decided to take the bull by the horns and do an overnighter directly to Cape May. This opened up other opportunities and in the morning we went ashore and met up with Janet Summerly, a former high school friend  of Gloria's, and her husband Brian. It had been 37 years since Janet and Gloria had seen each other. We had a great time together going out for breakfast at a nice diner in town. The time passed all too quickly but we vowed to get back together when we come north again next spring. We spent the rest of the morning getting caught up on our laundry … well you've got to do it some time!

After a quiet hour back on board we got our act together and at 4pm set out on what is probably our longest single leg to date - about 110 miles down the east shore of New Jersey with only three viable places to stop if things go pear shaped. It wasn't an auspicious start - we were in dense fog from the moment we left the anchorage. We got one brief glimpse of the shore line as we rounded Sandy Hook. We raised our mainsail in preparation for sailing, but the winds were light and out of the south east - right on the nose so we motor-sailed! We spent the next couple of hours playing tag in the fog with with large ships, tugs and barges. This was quite tense and demanded a lot of attention, and then about an hour after dark a series of showers came through. Then miraculously as the last shower passed through the fog cleared, the wind shifted to the west and we could see stars. The engine went off at about 10 pm and we sailed from there on. We took turns on watch with the other dozing in the cockpit. At this time of year it's a long night with almost 12 hours of darkness. What a difference the moon makes! It felt like we had a friend with us. We could actually see what we were doing pretty well. From our position ~5-7 miles offshore we could see the Jersey coastline (once the fog had cleared). Atlantic City is a sight to behold at night and you can see the lights from 20 miles away. By dawn we were more or less off Atlantic City and fortified by tea and bagels we continued onwards with good winds. The next few hours were a birders delight and we got some very close views of a number of different types of land birds. These are birds that are migrating over the sea at night and then head in land in the morning. They would appear from the east and fly around the boat. Yellow rumped warblers,  golden crowned kinglet and house wren all landed on the boat and in fact a red breasted nut hatch landed on my hat - which was pretty exciting as I was wearing it at the time! We arrived in Cape May at noon and are now anchored opposite the Coast Guard station. It's hot! It's like we got took a flight from the UK and got off in Miami.  (In fact, we feel tired enough to be suffering from jet lag.) Sadly I think this weather isn't going to last. We will spend a few days here and hope to catch up with another old friend from Brown University, John Higgins.

Mike

Foggy night at Atlantic Highlands (abstract)

Atlantic city from offshore

Sunrise off the coast of New Jersey (taken at very high ISO)

Red breasted nut-hatch - one of many visitors

Passage through New York

Passage through New York   ...   3^rd October 2012

Fog wasn’t what we were expecting this morning, but there it was.  Fortunately we didn’t need to set out early, the favorable current wouldn’t start at Throg’s Neck Bridge until 11:50 am. We spent some of the morning hours trying (once again) to catch a fish with the same result as before.  You know that definition of insanity: doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different outcome.

By the time we were ready to set out the fog seemed to be lifting. We found ourselves following another sailboat out of Manhasset harbor and toward the Throg’s Neck Bridge.  As we approached the bridge we caught sight of the first barge of the day.  It seemed to be hanging around waiting for the current change.  Once it started to move though it was soon out of sight.  Looking astern, I could spy another barge approaching.  This one finally caught up to us near to North Brother Island.  It seemed to me that the river wasn’t very wide at that point…Eventually, we slowed down to let that bad boy get past us. 

At Hell Gate we really started to get the current pushing us along adding at least 2 knots to our speed. There was plenty of traffic all the way but basically the crossing of the East River was uneventful. 

As we approached the Battery, the visibility started to drop.  I thought that we were going to get a shower.  On went the foul weather gear, the expected shower never developed what we got was more fog.  This got progressively thicker making the transit of the Upper Bay pretty exciting.  The radar was showing lots of boats sending us into spasms of anxiety until we realized that they were all anchored! Eventually the GPS indicated that we were 0.2 mile from the Verrazano Narrows Bridge, but nothing could be seen.  We were on top of it before we got the first glimpse.  Thankfully there weren’t any footings near to us.

From the Narrows to Atlantic Highlands, we basically saw almost nothing.  We tried to avoid the main shipping lanes but at one point Mike said we were very close to another boat.  We made a sharp turn and out came the compressed air horn, this prompted a blast from the vessel that finally emerged from the fog, way too close to us.  It turned out to be a high-speed ferry—pretty scary - apparently they also choose not to use the shipping lanes.  Now we are anchored at Atlantic Highlands, trying to work out a plan for the journey along the New Jersey coast.  It looks like very little wind early in the day so our current plan is to leave mid afternoon and try to sail overnight and into Friday all the way to Cape May. If this works out we won't be posting blog tomorrow! 

Gloria

Stepping Stones Light - east of Throgs Neck 

Barge in the East River

Approaching the Triborough Bridge

Manhattan bridge

Manhattan skyscrapers

Verrazano Bridge

Preparing for the big day

Preparing for the big day   …   Tuesday 2nd October 2012

Today was all about getting into a good position to make the passage through the East River and across New York city tomorrow, so we planned to spend the evening in Port Washington (Manhasset Bay). After a quiet night in Port Jefferson, we pulled up anchor and were under way before 8am. The day was somewhat overcast with very little wind and flat seas. We left the harbor and motored westwards at about 6 knots, picking up an extra 0.5 - 1.0 knot from current in the first few hours. As the morning progressed the sky darkened and by noon we were back in our foul weather gear in the rain. Although you could see both Long Island and Connecticut shores it wasn't a very scenic sail because it was so misty. However, the odd barge added excitement, and as we started to get close to New York it was fun to try and pick out some of the well known towns - Stamford, Greenwich, New Rochelle. We also saw many areas where the sea was dark with schooling fish, their fins clearly visible above the surface. It seems strange to us that the most fish activity that we have seen should be so close the such an urban area. We assume that the bluefish must be running. Our journey was punctuated by a text message from Tasha … "Eggs Benedict with hollandaise sauce in the dining halls! Pomona really is the place for me". It's hard to argue with that - Is she our daughter or what! Although it was raining pretty hard by the time we turned into Manhasset Bay, we could still see the amazing homes of the wealthy that cover the  the shoreline. We anchored at about 1.30 pm having covered the 35 nautical miles from Port Jefferson in 5.5 hours. We are now about 6 miles (1 hour) from Throgs Neck bridge. We need to be there just before noon tomorrow to catch the tide through the East River. I for one am very excited by the prospect - just hope the weather / visibility are good.

Mike

"Freedom Trail" - registered in Boston - seen here off Matinecock Point. 

The light on Execution Rock - a key landmark at the wet end of Long Island Sound

Mike

West Winds

West Winds    ...   1^st October 2012

We awoke to the strong westerly wind just as the forecast had promised.  We chose to take the advice of the cruising gurus and avoid the hours of beating to windward.  Rather than continue down the Long Island sound to the west, we decided to go explore Port Jefferson.  A longish dinghy ride took us to many docks before we found the correct spot.  (Mike adds - the first place said it was OK to tie up, but it was right by the car ferry and the dock itself was pretty rough and the only other dinghy had fenders, which we did not, so we moved on. The second place, the Setauket yacht club is noted in the guide as being friendly, and they were very courteous when they told us we couldn't tie up there. Apparently, unless we were renting a mooring their liability insurance would't cover them.  I don't doubt their reasons were genuine and they did point us to an alternative spot rather than asking us to pay the $25 fee that would have been required, but what a load of bull!  Danford's Marina were happy for us to tie up and weren't interested in collecting their advertised $10 fee!) This put us into a much better frame of mind.  We found a fantastic bakery/coffee shop where we had coffee and shared a cheese Danish.  The bakery had a many pastry cases and the overall effect was stunning.  There was even Linzer tort! We strolled around the town, visited the public library and found a place for lunch.  Michael decided that he could live in Port Jefferson.  I’m still trying to figure out if that was based on the pastry shop or the restaurant where we had lunch … A second (decidedly damp) dinghy ride took us back to Cotinga.  Mike made a further foray to a pretty, sheltered cove. On the way in yesterday we had looked at this cove as a spot to anchor or moor.  We found there a large floating sign informing us that ‘taking a mooring without permission from the town officials is an offense that will result in a citation’.  There must have been forty moorings and about three boats that looked to have been abandoned there.  Go figure. 

Gloria

The excellent pastry shop in Port Jefferson

View from the bar separating Long Island Sound from Mount Misery Cove - note all the empty moorings

"Wind Bikes"

 Conch on the beach