We woke up in Sandy Hook on Friday (10/16/15) morning to rough sea conditions. The anchorage was exposed, the boat rolled
back and forth overnight, and we both didn’t sleep well. The sunrise was pretty, and fortunately, it was not cold.
 |
| Rough water in the anchorage |
 |
| Pretty sunrise |
 |
| They love fishing in NJ! |
By 8:30 AM we were out in the ocean, set to transit New Jersey. There is an ICW
in New Jersey but it is too shallow for most sailboats, so we need to do NJ on
the outside. As a result we pray for calm seas and a west wind. We sailed with a reefed main and full jib,
and the engine on at 2000 RPMs, just enough to assist and keep the batteries
charged to run the electronics. Seas were only 1 foot, a sunny and cool day. The
wind was much stronger than predicted, 16-18 kts with gusts of 23-26 kts.
 |
| Mid afternoon off the New Jersey coast |
The leach of the jib was torn and the leach line was
exposed. Overnight, while the sail was furled, the seams in the blue UV cover
started to unravel. As we sailed it was holding up well, no additional damage.
We re-arranged the “stores” inside the boat, since we were
at a constant heel all day, and we put more containers, especially those likely to
open and spill (oatmeal, grits, cocoa), inside zip lock bags.
It was a great sailing day! We averaged about 7 kt/hr and
made good time. We reached Barnegat Bay about 4 PM, got fuel and water, and
anchored there.
 |
| Barnegat Light |
 |
| View from inside Barnegat Bay |
 |
| Sunset in Barnegat Bay |
We would love to have visited with our friends Janice and
Rich, on Callisto, who live nearby in NJ (about 2 hours away by sailboat), but
we were afraid to stop moving. We felt like the cold weather was on our heels
and we just couldn’t afford to delay, since we left CT so late. October is
unpredictable. So this year, unfortunately, we didn’t visit with anyone. Please
forgive us, relatives and friends! We missed you!
We slept well at Barnegat Bay and were up and out by 7:15,
with the commercial vessels and fishermen. Saturday
(10/17/15) was sunny, dry and colder. (Long pants, hats, gloves, jackets and 2
fleeces). We sailed again with full main, reefed jib and engine at 2000 RPMs,
and were doing 7.5 kts or better. The engine belt started to slip (like last
year!), and we shut it off so Chuck could adjust the belt. Without the engine
we were still moving at 6.5 kts or more.
 |
| 8 AM, Cereal for breakfast |
 |
| Well heeled to port |
 |
| Well heeled to port |
We passed Atlantic City around noon. Passed several tugs and
barges, some pulling, some pushing.
 |
| Atlantic City |
 |
| Tug + Barge + Barge - a tandem! |
Another great sailing day. We were heeled over very hard to
port. One concern was finding saltwater on the floor of our front cabin. Another was finding it under
one of our floorboards, where I usually keep laundry supplies. (I hid cash
there while we were in the Bahamas, so I call this place “The Bank,” even though it's really the laundry pantry.) It’s also
where we have a depth meter that we almost changed during our haulout. So we
wondered if the depth meter was leaking, or if there was some other leak in the
water systems of the boat. I checked the hot water heater (a culprit in the
past) and my bathroom sink (another previously guilty party) but both were dry (and that water would be mostly fresh, rather than salty). We never did figure out where it was coming from (but it stopped when we stopped heeling). Your ideas are welcome. Maybe
from the bilge or the wet dry vacuum that Chuck insists was empty.
 |
| Cape May entrance |
We arrived at Cape May at 5 PM and anchored among a lot of
cruising boats, US and Canadian. Until now, we had hardly seen another cruising
boat, and the ones we saw (in LI Sound), seemed to be out for a day sail. Until
today, it was just us, the commercial fishermen and the huge international ships
full of containers. Now we were joining the cruising fleet, heading south!
No comments:
Post a Comment