Sandy Hook, NY

Friday July 5, 2013
40 26.490 N
73 59.831 W

Up at 5:15 AM and underway at 5:40 AM. We are getting good at early starts. We don't talk much, we just stumble thru our jobs and get underway. We were up late watching the fireworks last night so getting up early was a bit of a drag. (On the other hand, the Collingwood game was still underway so I enjoyed watching the live scores for the last quarter.)

"Deidre! There is a boat in front of us! Can you see it?

The morning was fine if a bit on the foggy side. The wind was still coming out of the South and there was a 3' to 4' swell. We had to head South into the swells as we came out of the shipping channel and it was a bit uncomfortable, but once we turned East and then progressively North the boat settled down well. We seemed to get a small push all day and finished the 83 NM in under 12 hours.

We made the turn around Sandy Hook at about 4:30 PM and made our way to the anchorage in Horseshoe Cove. Its a good anchorage except that a high speed ferry passes about every half an hour about 2 miles away, and 15 minutes or so later we roll around like balls in a bucket.

There it is! Turn to port!

We enjoyed a beer on the aft deck as the sun fell. After dark there was another fireworks display to our North and we enjoyed that. Then I found "Foyles War" on Public TV so we were happy campers.

We still have a problem re the Erie canal. As an interim plan we will motor into the upper harbor tomorrow and see if there is room to anchor near the Statue of Liberty. Its the July 4 long weekend, so finding room is a bit of a long shot. If there is no room at the inn, we will head up the East Rive on the tide and spend the night on a mooring ball in Port Washington.

Sunset, Sandy Hook

Brigantine Bay Anchorage

July 2, 2013
39 23.238 N
74 24.544 W

We both slept like logs last night and were not up and functioning till after nine. After attending to a few duties (washing the sheets and getting them into the dryer, filling the water tanks, tidying up the lazarette after a couple of boxes had fallen over, vacuuming and etc) we headed out for blueberry pancake breakfast.

The harbormaster was a nice guy and he came over to let us go at 2PM. The wind was back up again. (I wish I had a weather station. I can only guess at the wind strength. But it must be 20-30 kts) First we headed over to the Golden Nugget marina for a pump out, then over to an anchorage on the other side of the entrance. Took us two tries to get the anchor set (And I am still not totally convinced) The wind is still very strong. We are just going to have to wait this weather out. I hope Deidre has enough books.

Bright lights of Atlantic City from the anchorage

Now Wednesday morning: The wind went down with the sun and we had a restful nights sleep. The weather forecast is holding up OK for Thursday, July 4, although it was very foggy this (Wednesday) morning and that would mean a hassle getting out of this anchorage - it has a narrow entrance and there is all sorts of dredging equipment staged right in the way.

We only have a few of neighbors in the anchorage - two trawlers and one yacht. We talked to the trawler and followed them in yesterday. I assume we will all be leaving Thursday.

Now Wednesday night. The wind has not let up all day. The forecast for tomorrow is still OK, but the wind will need to drop before we pull up the anchor in the morning. I got lots of good admin done today, so not a wasted day..

A new potential problem is developing. The Erie Canal has been closed for ten days because of flood damage. The New York Barge Canal Authority is not saying when it will open, just that it is closed, in typical Government style. If all goes on schedule we will be at the east end of the canal in 5 days.

Thursday Morning: Thank heavens, the wind is down and the sun is out. The anchor can have a well earned rest. We have decided to stay another night because:
1. Erie Canal is closed for now so there is no hurry
2. The weather actually looks a bit better Friday
3. Now the wind is down we can launch the dinghy and have a look around, and do some shopping
4. There will be a big fire works show tonight and Deidre loves fire works.

Locals fishing with a net
Reminds me of photos from Asia

Thursday Night: Quite a few boats anchored in the bay to watch the fireworks.

Five sail boats rafted together. They did not invite us!

Atlantic City

Monday July 1st, 2013
39 22.598 N 
74 25.263 W

Tough day. We did not get to Atlantic City until 8 PM and we are really tired. The conditions were difficult most of the day but our plan worked well. We "only" ran aground once but I fear it was on rocks or a rock shelf and it did not sound nice. As soon as conditions allow I will dive under the boat and see what damage I did. One other time I felt the boat hit something although we still had water under us. Bottom line is that we had to be 100% alert for 8 hours in poor conditions and it was not much fun. At one point the rain hit us so hard we could not see the bow.

Waterfront living, NJ style

The waterfront real estate in NJ is quite different from Florida. Not mansions with sweeping lawns down to the water, but clapboard houses squeezed together and right over the water with runabouts in docks. There were hundreds of runabouts and wave runners.  The cold wet weather was probably a blessing keeping them all off the water.

The ICW coming through Atlantic City almost looked European (if you squinted your eyes and tightened your sphincter) because the canal was quite narrow with houses jammed together on the water. There were a lot of bridges, and they slowed us down. At one spot we saw black kids playing cricket in a park alongside the ICW.! (Jamaicans I assume). We also saw what we assumed was damage from Sandy.

Governor Christie must have stood on this deck!

Realizing we would be tired and arriving late I reserved a spot at a marina. But the staff left at 6 PM so we had to secure ourselves. The marina was just inside the entrance and the wind off the Atlantic was blowing so hard. Tide Hiker was leaning over 10 degrees when the wind was abeam. When I went up to the bridge to dock the boat my hat blew off.

Often there are some other boaters around who can take a line, but not this time. In this situation, I drive the boat, Deidre either lassos a cleat, or steps off onto the dock with a line when we are close enough. As I maneuver the boat she calls at the top of her lungs "5 feet" then "3 feet" then "2 feet". Fortunately the wind was right on our bow so approaching the dock was easy enough.

Deidre has just put a frozen pizza in the oven and its starting to smell great. Then its bed.

Another bloody bridge in AC

Sunset Bay (Day 2)

Sunday June 30, 2013
(Still at Sunset Bay)

Wet pirate ship

Its grey and now its raining. There is only one desperate wave runner (thank goodness) but the pirate boat is out on its route. Good sleeping, eating and blogging weather and it will keep all the holidaymakers off the water.

I have just calculated that Tide Hiker averaged 1.886 gallons per nautical mile since our last fill up. That includes generator use. (For you dirt dwellers, that equals 2.17 statute miles per gallon.) I am pretty chuffed with that result.

We have now made contact with two trawlers heading north up the ICW and I have two phone numbers to call tonight to see how they manage. This section of the ICW is regarded as impassable for boats our size, which is why we are waiting here for decent weather to go outside. Hurricane sandy did more damage and created more shoaling.

Not a wasted day. I have re-installed the wifi aerial (recently returned from the manufacturer) and it is working. I have investigated a small leak in the lazarette and it seems resolved. I have studied the tide for tomorrow and we have a plan to try the ICW to Atlantic City. The weather is getting worse rather than better. It's no big deal because the Erie Canal is closed, damaged by weather. I am starting to think "global warming" has arrived!

We have a plan to leave tomorrow and take the ICW rather than go outside. The NJ ICW has a bad reputation for lack of maintenance and shoaling. Sandy made it worse. So we plan to leave on a rising tide at about Noon and make it to Atlantic City by 7 PM.

Cape May

Saturday June 29, 2013
38 58.350 N
74 50.676 W

We were up at 5:30 AM and under way at 6:00 AM. The dock master turned up to help us turn the boat around and handle lines - what a good guy - I had been thinking all bloody night about turning a 49' boat in a 70' wide channel with a strong current. We did it with a bow line on the dock and it was a breeze.

Some interesting old lighthouses

We appeared to hit the Delaware at slack and enjoyed the ride as the tide and current did its job.At one point we hit 10.6 kts which is light speed for us. Overall we covered the 49 NM to the Cape May entrance in just 6 hours. The wind picked up after lunch.

Cape May is like Rosebud for New Jersey folk. (Sedona for Phoenix people? South Beach for college kids?) We had arrived on a weekend in the summer. The weather was not great but the water was crawling with just about anything that floated. In general it is probably fair to say that NJ people (like new Yorkers) have little interest in the the COLREGS. (Road rules for the water)

Drifting in the channel

But first we needed to get fuel so we bought 537 gallons at "Miss Chris" marina. Then we headed thru Cape May to what looked like a decent anchorage about 5 miles up the ICW. As mentioned previously, Cape May is a summer "vacation place". There seem to be a million boats with no-one on the same page as us. Tide Hiker has a pretty serious  air horn, and I used it several times to assert our right of way.  If the fish bight best in the channel, then that's where you fish.

We made it to the anchorage. I would describe it as an "urban anchorage". As we arrived we probably disturbed a dozen wave-runners, 1/2 dozen power boats pulling tubers and at least one pirate boat. We could here the music drifting over the water from the waterfront bars and restaurants. Took us two tries to get the anchor to stick (I hope it did). The weather forecast for the next 4 days is bad - too bad for the Atlantic for sure - so this may be our home for a while so I need to learn to like it.

Mason has learned to smile

Delaware City

June 28, 2013
39 34.262 N
75 35.421 W

We were a little late getting underway from the West River anchorage. The weather settled down overnight so we had enjoyed a decent nights rest. But we wanted to get into or past the C&D Canal so we had a long day ahead of us.

Once again we were lucky with the tide and for most of the day Tide Hiker was moving a knot or so faster than cruising speed. The tide eventually turned against us as the Bay narrowed and we entered the C&D. There was some sort of weekend festival at Chesapeake City and so the "free dock" was full (although I recon the last boat arrived minutes before us. Damn!) So we decided to take a slip at Delaware City Marina, right at the east end of the C&D. This place had a bit of a reputation because it was located on a narrow canal (maybe 75' wide) with a very fast current but with a good dock master.

All of those 3 assumptions turned out to be correct. But as we made our way thru the C&D the weather turned really ugly. Once again the National Marine Weather Service was advising listeners to move into their basements! Great advise for us. Amazingly, so far the storm cells were passing left and right of us, and they were rather spectacular. There was a report of a funnel cloud near us. Lots of lightening. As we approached the marina canal entrance I was very concerned. The wind was blowing the tops off the waves. We had worked out that the dock we would tie to would be up-wind and that 200 yards down current from the dock was a low fixed bridge. I was imagining disaster.

Looks nice now - we are leaving!

We could see the storm cells on the radar. So I called the dock master and said we would wait for a gap between the cells to enter the canal. We did not have long to wait. The wind dropped and we scurried into the canal. The dock was about 1/2 mile in and two guys were waiting for us. I basically pointed Tide Hiker at the dock and slammed the starboard transmission into reverse at the last minute to pull in the stern. Everyone scurried, and we were in! Miller time!

It looked like a cute little town. The marina gave us coupons for two crab balls at "Crabby Dicks" so we walked into town for dinner. What a great spot - Friday night crowd, a band, a crazy waitress who was a lot of fun and good food at a decent price. After dark the thunder storms dissipated.

Fun lady. Crazy, but fun.

Tomorrow we head down the Delaware. The tides are very strong so timing is important. We decided we had to leave at 6AM so we were in bed early

West River

Thursday June 27, 2013
37 59.772 N
76 32.494 W

Very weak internet signal here.
We pulled away from Olverson's at 7:40 AM. The weather forecast was a bit  confusing - "Small Craft Advisory" all day but only 15kt winds from the south with maybe gusts to 20 kts. The wind would be on our stern so we decided to get rolling. We could always bail out at the Solomon's if it got bad.

Power boat making a hard go of it

The morning was perfect - sunny, gentle 10 kts from the south. We made good time, we had the tide for a couple of hours. The wind came up in the early afternoon and apposed the tide, the sky and water went grey. We retreated to the pilot house early afternoon as rain threatened, but not much came of it. There were thunder storms all around but basically missing us. As the tidal current turned the water laid down and conditions were OK, just "dreary".

We had a long day planned - about 10 hours and 70 miles. As we reached the entrance to Rhode River a special bulletin came over the radio - "severe Thunderstorms and Tornado warnings". That got our attention! We scurried into the anchorage and dropped anchor - making darn sure it was set with both engines in reverse at 1,000 RPM. We are well protected from about 300 degrees. The warnings expire at 10 PM, so 4 hours to go. Calm as a millpond right now.

The good news is that the TV picked up 60 channels including PBS and we will enjoy two episodes of Inspector Morse tonight. Deidre has been cooking pork chops in the crock pot all day, so I am puckered up for dinner.

Tomorrow (Friday) is another long day, we want to maker it to the C&D Canal. Then down the Delaware Saturday to Cape May and then we are only two days from new York.