New York City to Norfolk via Cape May

 

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?

Newport to New York City

Sailing from Newport to Norfolk in Sept turned out to be a challenge. Between the tropical storms, hurricanes, frontal systems and persistent southwesterly winds it is difficult to make your way south in September. We ended up breaking the trip into 3 legs waiting out the storm and frontal passages for periods of favorable winds.
Our first leg was from Newport to the NYC area through Long Island Sound. We had a 12 hour window of 10-15kt winds from the south which would enable us to sail westerly through the Sound. We would have preferred to have headed straight for Cape May but the southerly winds would not quite support the SW transit, the waves would have made the trip more difficult, and most important, TS Hannah was rapidly approaching and it would have been a race, into the wind/waves, to get to Cape May in time. And, who wants to be anchored at Cape May when a TS blows through? The anchorage is small, narrow and not the best holding. Instead, we went for the Long Island Sound option. It turned out to be wise.
We departed Newport at 0230 to take advantage of the outgoing tide and to be at the Race, the entrance to the Sound, at slack water (0900) and be able to ride the tide down the Sound. We had to motor into a slight headwind for the first 6hrs until the southerly breeze kicked in right about the time we arrived at the Race. It was solid fog for these six hours, but the fog cleared just as we arrived at the Race, which was great as there were about 20 fishing boats of various sizes (many too small to show up well on radar) fishing there. We had carefully passed Pt Judith harbor as a few fishing boats exited… all were talking on the radio and we coordinated passages in the fog without problem. We then enjoyed 10 hours of fine sailing down the sound with 15kts of southerly breeze on the beam and a 1-2kt current astern. The sky was blue with scattered puffy cumulus and the seas were 1-2ft, near perfect conditions. We were very happy to not be offshore motoring into the 3-5ft waves there. At sunset the wind died and we motored the final 3hrs to Manhasset Bay by Port Washington and dropped the anchor at the first shallow water on the right. We were asleep by 2400 for a couple hours of sleep before heading for the East River to catch the tide at 0400.
The next question was where to ride out TS Hannah? It was forecasted to come up the coast to the Delaware Bay area, then move out to the east towards Nantucket. NYC would catch the northwestern quadrant of the storm with winds from the east to north at 20-30kts. Following the storm there would be northwesterly winds at 15-25kts for 12-18hrs which would be perfect for taking us south to Cape May. We wanted to pick a spot to ride out the modest storm conditions, then quickly exit NY harbor and take advantage of the winds to get us as close to Cape May as possible before the winds died. My idea was to get through NYC ahead of the storm and anchor somewhere near Sandy Hook, NJ, where we would be positioned to exit quickly after the storm passed. So, at 0430 we slipped our anchor and headed for the East River.



We had a fast transit through NYC riding the 4kt tidal current down the East River and 2kts through NY harbor. Making 8-10kts over the ground, we were quickly down to the Raritan Bay. By now TS Hannah was making its way up the coast over Virginia and was clearly tracking further west than forecasted. That meant the winds would be even less than forecasted and the direction would be from the east to southeast to southwest as it passed over NY. I would need a anchorage with good protection from the south. The NJ coastline around the Atlantic Highlands looked like an excellent choice with high bluffs and trees along the southern coastline. Assuming the Atlantic Highlands port behind the protective seawall would be full, we chose to anchor off the Keyport mooring field which still provided good protection from the south.




All went fine, according to plan for the first half of the storm. The winds arrived from the east to southeast at 20-25kts for the first half of the storm from 1400 to 1800. We rode the conditions very comfortably hanging on our anchor chain, never even straightening the chain out to the 150ft of chain I had set out in 8ft of water. We read books, had lunch and dinner and watched the storm progress on the laptop via our wifi link to the internet. Then, as often seems to happen, the storm decided to change course dramatically. While it had come up the coast further west than forecasted, directly over NYC it decided to head east towards Cape Cod as it had originally been forecasted to pass over. That was not good news for us at our anchorage position as it placed us in the western hemisphere of the storm with strong winds from the north, and we had no protection from the north, in fact we had a long fetch across the entire Raritan Bay for the seas to build.
The elongated eye of the storm passed directly over us between about 1800 to 2100 providing a respite from the winds, only about 20kts. Then, the backside of the storm struck. At 2115, the winds shifted abruptly to the north and went to 30kts with higher gusts. Within 30 minutes the waves had built to 4-5ft and the winds to 35kts with gusts to 45kts. We were now on a bucking bronco as the boat pitched up and down the waves, tugging hard and sailing back and forth on the anchor chain. Suddenly, the dinghy which we had secured on the stern of our boat sitting on the scoop stern and lashed securely out of the wind began flailing about wildly. One of the lines that attached to the transom of the dinghy had broken and the dinghy was now hanging askew and being pounded by the 5ft waves as the stern of our boat rose and fell. Hanging on dearly as the stern pitched up and down, I was able to get another safety line on the dinghy front handle, then let it go astern attached to the boat by its bridle line and the safety line. It rode out the rest of the storm tethered behind us, pitching dramatically and tugging hard at its bridle, but doing ok. In hindsight, we should have deflated and stored it below. I had not done this as we were not expecting 40kt winds and large waves, but the lesson learned is to be prepared for the worst case scenario, then happy when it doesn’t occur.
With the wind shift to the north, we were now hanging on the anchor straight towards the mooring field, a direction I had not planned on. I knew after setting the anchor that we had 50ft of clearance between us and the closest boat in the mooring field, and that’s exactly where we were sitting, 50ft away from that boat – which looks real close in the dark with 40kts of wind blowing. Afraid that we might be dragging on the anchor, I started the engine and sat at the helm with that engine in gear and just above idle speed keeping the strain on the anchor line reduced and ready to maneuver should we start dragging. One of the good things about tropical storms is that the winds and rain are quite warm, in the 70s. That means you can sit in the storm for extended periods without getting chilled. Fortunately, the strong winds only blew for a little over an hour and by 2230 things were calming down. As the wind shifted more to the northwest, we were pushed by the wind farther away from the nearest boat and could relax some. It was also clear that we had not dragged the anchor at all so I shut down the engine and retired below. Within another half hour the winds were down to the low 20s, waves were subsiding and the storm was basically over. We went to bed to get some sleep before our early morning departure for Cape May.

Cape Cod to Newport

We departed Provincetown on 1 Sep enroute Newport, RI, anchoring enroute off Cuttyhunk Island. We had a brisk sail across Cape Cod Bay in blustery winds, then a nice transit through the Cape Cod Canal, and beautiful sail down Buzzards Bay until the wind finally died about supper time. We motored the last couple hours into the Cuttyhunk anchorage.



The wind came up during the night at Cuttyhunk making our anchorage site uncomfortable so we pulled the anchor at 2am and set sail for Newport, arriving at first light. Entering Narragansett Bay, one gets to observe the dramatic shoreline scenery of rocks, mansions, the bay bridge and eventually the megayachts and hundreds of other sailboats in the Newport mooring fields. We were able to moor at the Naval War College for a night and visit with some fellow Island Packet owners, then we moved across the bay and anchored off Dutch Harbor and toured the quaint town of Jamestown. Click on the title above the photos for more photos of Newport.

Provincetown, Cape Cod, Mass

Provincetown was described in the cruising guide as a "unique experience" and true to form, as we walked around town on Saturday night of Labor Day weekend, we saw numerous "unique" sights. Sunday afternoon we toured around town again and climbed the Pilgrim's Monument seeing more of this Cape Cod tourist town. If you have never been to Provincetown (as we had not), it is definitely worth a visit but, I don't think we will be returning during another holiday period. Just too many people about. The harbor and the Cape, however, are quite picturesque. I see why so many folks love the Cape in summertime. Click on the blog entry title above the photo for some more photos of Provincetown.

Heading home from Nova Scotia - Leg One to Provincetown

We got underway from Shelburne heading south on Fri morning, 29 Aug, as the forecast was for a couple days of rain in Nova Scotia followed by several days of SW winds – we figured we better take advantage of the two days of northerly winds to get south.
We departed at 0800 on the outgoing tide and headed south with a 15kt NE wind on the port qtr. We poled out the genie to windward on the port side and sailed wing-on-wing down the coast, but about 30deg off course to the east to keep the wind at a good angle on the quarter. A 49ft schooner had left with us and they were sailing with jib, foresail and main all out to stbd side. We slowly pulled ahead from them and 6hrs later they were out of sight. By noon we were off Cape Sable, ready to make the turn to the west so we jibed the main and kept the genoa poled out to the port side. The wind had built to 20kts and the tide around Cape Sable had not turned yet so it was on our nose against the wind creating some steep wave faces and a rocking and rolling ride. The waves had built to 5-7ft and fairly steep. Within an hour, however, the tide changed as anticipated and the waves smoothed out. We now had 20kts astern and a 1.5kt current carrying us along.
Cape Sable is a great place to observe sealife as the tides take the deep waters (600ft) against the 150ft ledges stirring things up. We saw several whale spouts, a couple broaches, and several seals that came close to the boat. No close encounters with whales which was fine with us.
By afternoon the wind continued to veer to the ENE and we had to transfer the whisker pole over to the stbd side and go wing-on-wing again. The wind had eased to 10kts and our speed through water to 3.5 but we had a 2.5kt current with the tide and wind blown current behind us. At 1800 the wind backed to the north so it was time to tack the genoa over to the port side. We left the whisker pole up for awhile but eventually took it down and secured it before dark as the wind was forecasted to stay in the north. The wind was down to 4-6kts and we motored for a few hours. It was forecasted to be 10-15 with higher gusts so we left 1 reef in the main as darkness fell. By 0200 the wind was up to 20 with gusts to 25 and we were glad to have the reef in. The wind blew steady all night long and continued to blow at 15kts until finally quitting at 1800 the following day. We made great progress and were only 60nm from Cape Cod when we had to resort to the engine. All was fine for a few hours until the forecasted 5-10kts from the SW became 15-20kts and opposite the tidal current. The wind kicked up 2-3ft waves with vertical faces and we were faced with bashing our way forward the last 20 miles. There was no need to go fast as it was 7hrs to dawn when we could make port at Provincetown so we bashed along at 3kts. I thought of just stopping and waiting for the wind to die to the forecasted levels, but it was supposed to be even stronger the next day, so figured we better get into port before morning. I put up the staysail, which actually provided us about .3 to .4kts of extra speed, and had the main with 2 reefs mainly up for stability. As we finally made the turn to the south seven hours later rounding the cape at 0600, the wind eased to 10kts (I suspect it was still 15+ off shore). It had been a long, tough night for the crew and we were glad to kill the engine and sail the last 2 hours into Provincetown at 3kts. I’m sure the departing sailboats, with their sails up full in the 10kts of wind were wondering why we were coming in under staysail and deep reefed main. We were just too tired to change the sails and besides, 3kts in a gentle breeze was fantastic sailing. By 0830 we were anchored off the eastern end of the breakwater, almost exactly 48hrs after departing Shelburne. I had a cup of tea, and hit the forward berth for a well deserved rest.