Originally, I had planned to depart New York at 0200, as soon as the winds shifted to the northwest. According to the forecast, this would give us nearly 24hrs of northwest winds and allow us to sail to Cape May. However, we were exhausted by the stress and efforts to get through TS Hannah, so I decided it would be better to get a couple more hours of sleep before departing. We awoke at 0600 and were underway by 0630, heading south with 20kts of westerly winds pushing us along. It was not to last though.
By 1100 the wind was down to 10kts and by 1400 it had come around to the southwest preventing us from sailing on course. We resorted to the motor. It was a rough ride with a southeast swell and southwest waves of 2-3ft and steep enough to smack the bow and slow us down. I decided to move us in closer to shore in hopes of finding water with smaller waves. I think it worked somewhat. By 1730, the wind was back to the west so we secured the engine and were sailing again. We watched a pretty sunset and were able to keep sailing along, on course, until 0130 that night when the wind came back around to the southwest and slowly died. It was back to the motor but we were only 30nm from Cape May and not in any hurry to arrive before daylight so we just puttered along. As the sun came up, the wind backed around to the northeast at 6-8kts and gave us a slight push as we motored the last few miles into Cape May. We were anchored and ready for a nap by 1000.
We remained at anchor at Cape May that day and all the next as the wind blew from the south and a frontal system with thunderstorms moved through the next afternoon. This was our first afternoon of rain since departing Yorktown a month ago. It rained until about 1600, then was completely still with no wind at all. Good time to be sitting at anchor and not trying to sail someplace.
Cape May is a convenient place to anchor in that it is just about midway between Norfolk and NYC so it breaks the trip into two 24hr trips. Additionally, it is right along the trackline, not more than an hour into and out of the anchorage and back on course. However, it is a small anchorage, often crowded, and not the best anchor holding ground. Arriving at 1000 in the morning, we had the anchorage to ourselves for the day, until boats started arriving off the ocean later in the afternoon. We had put out nearly 100ft of chain in the 14ft depths and taken two attempts to get it to set properly and in the right location. Retrieving the anchor after the first failed attempt, I could see the bottom was a very soft mud. The weight of 100ft of chain would hold us in place in the sticky mud as long as the winds didn’t go much above 20kts. Also, we had to place the anchor exactly at the right location to give us swinging room between the shallow water near shore and the busy channel to the west. Our second attempt was successful. Over the next two days we watched each boat come in, drop an anchor and less than 50ft of chain and immediately secure below. I’m sure none of them knew how iffy their anchoring security was. The next day when the thunderstorms rolled through we had winds in the 20s with gusts to 29kts. Everyone was in their cockpit, but no one dragged.
Initially it looked like another early am departure, around 0200, to take maximum advantage of the northerly winds which were forecasted, but when the latest forecast arrived it reported two full days of northeast winds expected. That would provide us plenty of time to get to the Chesapeake and up to Yorktown with a respectable 0600 departure time. We were able to nap, read and play some dominos during the day taking advantage of the day spent at the anchorage with no commitments. We also were able to get a good night’s rest and were ready to go the next morning for the last leg of our month long trip.
Wednesday morning at 0600 we found blue skies and a brisk northeast wind, perfect for our southwesterly sail down the coast to the mouth of the Chesapeake. We were underway in short order and zipping down the coast, across the mouth of the Delaware Bay and heading for the Chesapeake. The mouth of the Delaware is one of the rough areas along the coast where strong tidal currents running into and out of the bay can be opposed to the winds, causing steep wave faces. The waters are also quite shallow and full of shoals that push waves up higher in places. It is not a place to be in a storm as we had found out in an earlier trip in 2004. Today, however, the northeast winds were perpendicular to the current and the waves were benign. The 15-20kt NE winds had created a 1kt surface current running southerly that helped speed us along. We poled out the genoa to windward and sailed wing-on-wing down the coast, making about 6kts STW and 7kts SOG with double reefs in both sails.
I started with double reefs, knowing we could let more sail out if required. As the wind built to 20kts plus, we were doing fine with 2 reefs. Later in the day the winds moderated to 15 and veered more to the ENE. I let out the staysail and we kept our speed up with 3 sails pulling us along. Towards evening the wind backed to the NNE and the staysail stopped drawing, so we furled it in and let a reef out of each sail, still keeping our SOG up in the 7kts. It was a fast trip and our ETA to the Chesapeake moved up from 0600 to 0200. While it was a rolly ride downwind, it was a great finish to our voyage with a fast, easy transit down the coast. It was not to last.
At 0100, we found ourselves approaching Cape Charles. Both Sue and I had thoughts of an easy, enjoyable sail across the Chesapeake to our berth in Yorktown, tidying up the boat and getting all our gear prepared for unloading when we arrived at the marina just after dawn. Then, the dark clouds ahead turned out to be heavy, tropical rain. It started pouring and blowing, shades of TS Hannah although winds were only in the 20s. We rounded the Cape and headed for the Bay Bridge/Tunnel in blowing rain from the beam and quartering seas. It was fitting we got rained on returning to the Chesapeake as, if you recall, we got drenched from thunderstorms on our departure from Cape Charles on the way north. We motored through the Bay Bridge with limited visibility, then once we were clear of the bridge and shallow water, we got out on the foredeck and retrieved the whisker pole, then set the sails with 3 reefs in each and sailed across the Bay at 5kts and sharp, breaking waves on the beam. Fortunately the rain let up but there was commercial and tug traffic to contend with as we crossed the shipping channels in the bay. Having now been up for 24hrs with only a couple short naps, we were a couple of tired, wet sailors making our way down the Poquoson River for the final leg home. We made the turn into Chisman Creek with the wind still blowing at 15-20 and skys misting, made an easy decision that we were not pulling into our slip in present conditions and dropped the anchor and went to bed.
Six hours later the sun was out, the wind was down and we motored the final mile to our slip and were home, secured to a dock for the first time in 31 days.We now have 30 days to get ready for departing southbound for the Bahamas this winter. Where does the time go?
