11/20/2009, Cape May, NJ
It has been another long day. We had originally thought to be staying the day at Barnegat and heading out to Cape May overnight, but then we realized that the distance between the two was only 60 nm and do-able in a day, a long day, but do-able. So, we did even though we got a late start. The wind made for either a beam or close reach and was a steady 15 kts true so we easily sat on 7+ knots and often went higher.
We all decided that it was time for a "Hollywood" shower, and Screech needed to do a laundry, so we went into a marina (gross extravagance) and relaxed after a day at sea. We had the crew of Screech over for the breakfast that we didn't have in the morning when we decided to head out at the last minute. Nothing like omelettes and sausages for supper!
Our options for tomorrow are governed by the fact that we have two days to travel before another storm front comes through, neither of the "crews" enjoy traveling at night if it can be helped, and the direction and strength and strength of the wind over the next couple of days. WE are trying to decide if we will be doing an overnighter or not; an up the Bay or not; or a motor or motor sail, or sail.
Sorry for the short post, but we'll let you know how we make out.
| 09-10 Cruise |
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11/19/2009, Barnegat Inlet, NJ
Another quick note while I have the internet connection (Bless these wifi booster antennas and bless those folk ashore who haven't secured their routers).
Yesterday we went as far as Atlantic Highlands. What a place! In season you can anchor and it's free but that's the last thing that is - $15pp for a shower! The only good thing about the marina is that the fuel is cheap - $2.81/gal which is the least we have seen so far this year. The yacht club here was pulling boats so there were quite a few moorings available so we took one and no one came out to chase us off or ask for money and although we called the club no one answered or called back, so that was free, this time. Normally they are $45/ni.
The next day we decided to accompany Screech to Barnegat Inlet and the small anchorage behind it, and about noon one of the bolts that I had installed on the autohelm to make the temporary repair when it was knocked off the bulkhead on the lamented trip to Bermuda, sheared off so I had to manually steer the remaining part of the trip. We also had the very unnerving experience of a collision at sea. We were tottling along at about 7 kts when - BANG.....Bang...BU-BANG-BANG. I immediately put the engine in neutral and watched a very large piece of wood (4"x18"x12') bobbing in the wake. No damage that we could see other than some scraped paint and it wasn't the first time that I blessed the yard that built Nelleke and her ¾ to 1" thick fibreglass hull.
As we were approaching the Inlet there were a couple of locals that heard us on the VHF and came up to give us directions into the harbour. Very nice of them indeed! That didn't happen last year so we now have a great impression of the folk here.
I have made another temporary repair to the autohelm mount and I have had the wake up call to make the whole thing a lot more solid. I know what I am going to do, I just have to extract digit and get on with it.
We're not sure what we are going to do tomorrow. The weather is going to get ugly on Sunday night so we need to be somewhere secure. My preference would be to be in Norfolk, but I have concerns about the autohelm. If it fails again and I have more than 3 hours of steering to do I will not be happy.
| 09-10 Cruise |
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11/18/2009, Port Washington, NY
I am writing this early Wednesday AM still at the dock in Port Washington so I can have an internet connection. These ISPs continue all down the coast and I am going to experiment with the username and passwords that I now have for both Fusion and Beacon. It will be interesting to see if the provider had geographic limits to what they provide in each area.
We spent last night cuddled up in the cabin watching the tube while Mary Lou and Jay went off to visit their son Jack and meet THE GIRL. Sometimes it's nice to have a quiet evening watching programs. HULU is a great resource if you have a good wifi connection and last night we did. If you aren't aware, HULU is a streaming internet program provider and you can watch TV shows, movies, documentaries, etc. It has become very popular here (not available in Canada to my knowledge) and is a great way of catching up with our favourite shows (House, Grey's Anatomy, Private Practice). The only thing is, I have heard that some Brainazoid in HULU has decided that they are going to start charging a subscription for its use. That doesn't make business sense to me since each of the networks carry their own streaming video site. The only thing that I'd miss by going to the networks is the movie downloads and with over 800 DVDs aboard we don't use that feature anyway.
At any rate, we will be slipping lines and heading through the East River, commencing at 09h00. The first part will be pushing a current but when we get to the race at Hell's Gate it should be slack water which should make everyone more comfortable. Slamming through there at 14 kts SOG was fun once but sometimes the eddies carry you awfully close to stone walls and abutments for my liking. Thanks, but a nice sedate 6-8 kts will be fine. Once on the other side we may decide to stop in Atlantic Highlands and continue the next day or carry on directly to Cape May. If we chose the latter, we should be there by noon tomorrow. In either case, there is not likely to be another posting until sometime tomorrow if we can get a connection.
Tally ho!
| 09-10 Cruise |
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