July 27th Update - Off Montauk Point, Long
Island, New York
8:30am - Whew! We made it. We are
actually sitting on a private mooring in Great Salt Pond, hoping
the owner doesn't show up. We attempted one anchoring in
the fog just east of the channel but there were too many boats.
We came west of the channel and saw some empty moorings and
decided to go for it. What is the worst that can happen?
They kick us out. So, we will wait it out here and find a
new spot once the fog lifts. Joe is going to write the
account of our ordeal in the fog so check back soon.
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3:30am - Fog! Fleece and fowl weather
gear. We are following closely behind Claude on Cenou.
He has been up here many times before and has lots of experience
with fog. I never would have guessed we would run into it
but half way into my watch I lost sight of Cenou and started
having a hard time seeing anything on the horizon. I could
make out the line of the horizon so I didn't think it was fog.
Of course we were sailing along in 20+ knots of breeze doing 8.5
knots. It never occurred to me to drop the sails but the
first thing Joe said to me when he came up to check out the
situation was that he didn't want to be going that fast in those
conditions. I guess that is why he is the Captain!
Our first ocean passage has been otherwise
uneventful, thankfully. It will take about 48 hours total
for us to travel the 290 miles or so from the Marina in the
Chesapeake and Delaware Canal to Block Island. We are
passing Montauk Point, the Eastern most point on Long Island, on
the last leg of the trip into the harbor at Block Island, Rhode
Island. Yesterday was forecast to be the hottest and most
humid day of the summer so far, but we had glorious weather
about 35 miles off the Atlantic Coast of New Jersey. The
wind died around 4am on the 26th and we wound up motoring for
about 6 hours until it picked back up around 10am, but the
temperature didn't get above 83 on the boat all day.
Although there was some brief discussion late Monday afternoon
of heading into Cape May because of possible thunderstorms, we
were able to download current radar maps and listen to the
Marine forecast on VHF and determined that the storm that was
closest to us was heading southeast and we would be out of its
path. So, we stuck to the original plan (for once) and
kept on sailing!
The trip down the Delaware Bay was hot and
full of biting flies. Thanks to our neighbors at the Marina,
Sharon and Rudy, we had watermelon and
turkey salad to compliment our other leftovers for lunch and I
did not have to cook. The girls entertained themselves
with their rock collections, books, and "Spirit" on DVD.
We had some huge ships pass quite close by in the channel.
One of them hassled us, saying we had 10 miles on either side,
why would we want to sail in the middle of a commercial channel?
He did have a point, although it is nice to have the
navigational marks in the channel to rely on to keep track of
your progress. Anyway, we were a little more mindful of
these huge commercial vessels after that.
We rounded the point off of Cape May around
8:30pm, just as it started to get dark. This was my first
experience with night watches, although Joe had done some both
on this boat, bringing it home from Florida, and on previous
sailing trips on other boats. I was excited and a little
nervous. I took the first watch from 9 to midnight.
It was dark. The moon didn't rise until about 11pm and
even then it didn't put out much light until it was a lot higher
in the sky. Everything seems so much more ominous in the
dark! We were traveling very close to our companion ship,
Cenou. I soon realized it was difficult to tell exactly
how close we were to each other. Finally, when I could see
the reflection of their stern light in the water in front of my
bow, I decided it was time to change course by a few degrees and
get a little separation.
I have to say, however, that it was very
comforting to have another set of eyes looking out at the same
horizon and just a radio call away. When a huge barge came
into view, Claude deciphered the lights and let me know it was
heading east about 2 miles off our bow and was not a concern.
I think that was the only traffic we encountered on my first
watch. We had great wind for the whole three hours.
We had put a precautionary reef in the main before dark so I was
not concerned when I saw the true wind speed hit 25 knots.
That is when our boat manual says to put in the first reef.
It never got any stronger than that. The wind was
basically behind us, which is not the fastest point of sail.
The highest boat speed I saw was 9.61 knots. Still, not
bad. Joe spelled me at midnight and did a five hour watch.
Unfortunately, the wind died for him and it was not nearly as
much fun.
The second night watch passed much the same
as the first. Our ETA at Block Island is basically dawn,
so we are splitting up the watches more evenly - Christy until
midnight, Joe until three and then Christy again until we start
getting close to the approach to Block Island and we need two
sets of eyes and hands on the boat. Hopefully, the kids
will sleep through it all. They have done a good job
learning to leave us alone when we are handling sails or
navigational issues so we can't complain at all.
Joe promises to write an update soon.
He has been working hard to make sure that all the systems on
the boat are in good working order. I am pleased to say
the boat is performing wonderfully. We started out with a
fabulous boat, added a few key upgrades, and everything is
functioning exactly as it should. Joe tried the water
maker for the first time today and begged me to take another
shower so he could make more! He is doing a fabulous job
as Captain. I could not have found a better companion for
this crazy journey.
Thinking of you all. Thanks for the
emails - keep them coming!
Christy, Joe, Cassie, and Juliana
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Next entry >>>>>>>
Many thanks to our friend Craig Homenko for his
assistance in setting up the website.
We also would like to thank our buddy Scott Brunner who
has been kind enough to host the website on his server.
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