Antares

I hadn't had a chance to update this since Saturday. Sunday was a nasty day; it rained all day and night. The main project for the day was to fill the tank with water. Something that is usually simple took several hours because at this time of the year the Marina shuts down the water pipes (so that they don't explode). So no water in the slip. We had to move the boat (with 20 Knots of wind and 2 Kt current) to the launching platform, flush the tanks, fill them in, and come back. We had a nice lunch at the same place we went the first night though.

Back to the boat late afternoon the question was whether we should depart Monday, as originally planned. The weather forecast was not good -- a low system was passing through and on top of strong winds we were going to have a snow storm. We would have stayed but one day lost implied less favorable conditions for the leg down the New Jersey Coast. So we had a bottle of wine and went to bed early planning to get up at 5:30am to get going.

And that is what we did. When I went out on deck in the morning the boat was covered with sleet and it was raining. There was no wind though and after preparing and drinking our coffee we took the boat out of thee slip and motored downriver to the diesel station. It was 7 am and, no surprising, nobody was there. But there was a sign with a phone number that we called to ask for help. When help came, two guys who were quite surprised to see a boat leaving at this time of the year, it started to snow. While the tanks were filled Juan David and I installed the "jack lines" (lines that go from the bow to the stern so that people working on deck can hook to them and don't go over board). It was 8:30 when we left the dock on our way to City Island.

The forecast was 100 percent accurate. The snowstorm increased in intensity and the wind picked up. Visibility was less than one mile. At first we were motoring and using the autopilot but as the seas increased it couldn't handle anymore. So we took turns steering the boat 1h each (the picture is Juan David) in his first shift. It kept getting worse until around noon. Then the sky started to open up until we could see the land and far to the west the lines of New York City. We put two reefs on the main and one in the genoa and under 25Kt of wind from the North we were sailing at 6 to 7 Knots under a sunny afternoon. It was 5:30 when we docked in City Island, very happy to have left Branford and made it safe. After cocktails we had dinner and went to bed early.

We had a good night sleep although it was windy and a bit rocky. Today, there is little wind though and it is still sunny. I just finished my coffee and will soon start preparing for the second leg. The plan is to motor down the East River to New York Harbor and then to Atlantic Highlands where we will spend the night. Departing time, 11:30....