Rick's decision to stop in Sandy Hook on Saturday morning turned out to be a good one. By early afternoon, the rains came and continued most of the night. Winds came up to mid 20's and would have been right on our nose as we beat down the NJ Coast. Instead, we waited until the front passed on Sunday and decided to leave about 1400 hours in order to time our arrival at Cape May at sunrise. Our delay was rewarded by a nice sail down the coast.... a close reach @ 8-9 knots. The moon is nearly full and will be up for my entire watch until 4am. The seas were pretty lumpy when we started, but have settled nicely in the last hour or so.

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So much for warmer temps south of the Cape Cod Canal. We're enjoying a nice reach at 9-10 knots moving quickly down the Atlantic Coast of Long Island. But, it's not tropical and we're still wearing long Johns and full foul weather gear. After an unforecasted day of bashing to windward in choppy 4-6 foot seas, we were happy that the sunset brought the promised north winds and a calming of the seas. Our original target for today was Atlantic City, but we have now diverted to Sandy Hook at the top of New Jersey. Should arrive by mid morning.... in time to settle in before tomorrow evenings rain, thunderstorms, and general nastiness hits. The storm is coming north up the coast faster than originally forecast....it didn't look like we could get into Atlantic City before the fun began. Hence, the diversion to Sandy Hook. We hope to get underway again by Sunday evening.



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I can't believe the summer is over and we are taking Archer back to the Chesapeake Bay already. We left home in Cushing this morning and have been reaching along most of the day. We don't like to enter the Cape Cod Canal in darkness because the currents at the entrance can be confusing, so we have slowed down....way down... to about 5 knots in order to time our entrance at sunrise. The winds are in the low 20's with gusts near 30's on a broad reach.... Archer would ordinarily be eating up the miles at 11-12 knots. But with no main and only a hanky of the genoa showing, we can keep our speed down to our target of 5 knots. Feels very odd to be going this slowly..... but the boat is quiet and it makes for good sleeping.

I'm up for my Midnight-to-Four am watch. Moon was orange and about 3/4 full before it set an hour ago. Sky is clear so the stars are guiding our way. But it is cold! We were in long johns by noon today even tough the sun was shining brightly... and it has only gotten colder since. Time for full foul weather gear. I bet it's in the 40's!

Can wait to get through the Cape Cod Canal ...hopefully to find warmer temps on the other side.

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