Thursday, October 14, 2004
Cape May, NJ
A quick update:
We’re in Cape May, NJ. We were planning on heading up the Delaware Bay, but have had to hold up here on account of the remnants of some tropical storm blowing though. We hope to continue up to the C&D Canal on Saturday, after all the nasties have blown themselves out.
Heavy Seas on the Open Ocean
The trip down the New Jersey coast was awesome! The northerly cold front that blew us to Staten Island stayed around for an extra day, so we stayed put in Great Kills Harbor instead of departing on Tuesday as planned. Wednesday was still bad, but the weather was suppose to lighten by the afternoon. We decided to go.
Once underway, we had to commit to the entire distance to Atlantic City. The New Jersey shoreline is limited in terms of safe harbors. From Lower New York Harbor, the first place you can even pull in is at the Manasquan Inlet, twenty-five miles to the south. After that, there are a hand full of inlets, but most are treacherous for a boat like ours with shifting shoals and shallow waters. If conditions deteriorate while underway, we’d be safer saying out in open water than trying to run for cover.
Initially, Vanessa was very nervous about going out in such weather, but she decided we should go, as the weather was suppose to improve before clocking around on the nose the next day. If we were to go, now was the time. Since the NOAA Weather Radio continued to forecast improving conditions, we departed Great Kills at 06:00, well before the 06:57 sunrise. After rounding Sandy Hook, NJ and heading south, the sun now up, things didn’t improve as we had expected. We were sailing under our yankee head sail alone at maximum hull speed of just over seven knots. The seas were large, five to eight feet, and we would surf at times with speeds of more than eight knots! How exciting! Almost too exciting. Very exhausting. I started looking at the charts, trying to figure out where we could go to duck in for cover and some rest. As usual, once Vanessa became used to the motion, she decided it was fun and manageable. She felt we should push on. With the Jersey coast as it is, there really wasn’t any other choice. With the Cape Horn wind vane steering, the boat was performing as it was designed to as a blue-water cruiser. It was great.
All Bundled Up and Fighting the Elements on the Atlantic Ocean
After 93.4 nautical miles, and seventeen hours of constant, cold, open-ocean sailing, we turned and motored into the Absecon Inlet at Atlantic City. We anchored at the fixed bridge up stream and slept more sound than I could have ever imagined, having completed our biggest day of sailing ever. We’re very proud. We made it!
Yesterday, we were supposed to have more favorable winds in the morning. Then, they would die out and come around on the nose in the afternoon. Having no interest in going ashore to see any casinos, we wanted to keep moving. We slept in some, then motored out the inlet with the morning tide, only to find there were no winds at all. The ocean was a completely different scene from the day before – calm, tranquil.
We motored the relatively short, thirty-five mile distance down to Cape May. The skies started turning ugly, but the weather held and gave us no problems. We arrived in Cape May, with no great stories to tell.
However, we needed to do Laundry, so we bit the bullet and took a slip at Utsch’s Marina in Cape May Harbor. At the local going rate of $2.00/foot, it is the most we’ve ever paid for moorage. However, the laundry and shower facilities here are the nicest we’ve seen and the people are friendly and helpful. We’ve decided it is worth the money and are staying a second night.
This afternoon, we’ll go to the town of Cape May for some provisions. Tomorrow or Saturday, depending on the weather, we hope to continue up the Delaware Bay and into the Chesapeake.
That’s it, for now. I have to go take a shower in a real bathroom. So, you probably won’t hear from me again until I run out of soap.
-Steve