After a week of miscellaneous boat repairs and restocking, we left Sandy Hook on Saturday, 13 December at around 1.30pm. Exiting our wooden pile slip at low tide and with gusty winds tending to push Strider towards the dock was a bit tricky and we had to sacrifice a mooring line in the process. However, after negotiating the channel out to sea we were finally on our way again.

This time, we had no alternator troubles and were able to use the autopilot all the way. We were grateful, since the wind was 15-20 knots for most of the journey. We were heading for Norfolk, Virginia and had about 48 hours to go. Late afternoon, we hoisted the genoa and sailed on a beam reach, but disappointingly only for a few hours, since the wind turned southerly. So again we motored for most of the way, on a route about 5 Nm from the coast, passing Atlantic City with its bright lights and casinos, Egg Harbor and Wildwood with its giant amusement park and ferris wheels clearly visible.

Our night watches were pretty exhausting, especially for Ferdi (who had to keep navigating even when it wasn't his watch), since the sea was fairly choppy and temperatures way below zero (-6°C without wind chill). It was a moonlit night (a day after full moon) and on one of my watches I saw at least eight shooting stars! We had one hairy experience in that a large fishing trawler came straight for us without any apparent intention of missing us. Bit nerve wracking to see both green and red navigation lights bearing down on you at considerable speed! Ferdi had to do some nifty steering to get around the vessel, which sped along afterwards seemingly unperturbed.

In the morning, after another spectacular sunrise, we listened to one of the marine weather reports on the VHF radio and decided (prudent mariners that we are) to cut our planned voyage short and stop over at Cape May, NJ instead of Norfolk. A gale was predicted for Sunday night, but instead of helping us along from behind, we would be heading straight into it. The waves were already 5-6ft. So we phoned up some marinas in Cape May, and the South Jersey Marina at the south end of the Cape May Harbor was able to accommodate our relatively deep draft.

Getting into the harbour was pretty eventful. One of our guide books says the Cape May inlet is "one of the safest inlets along the New Jersey coast, but occasionally the wind and tide conspire to produce the 'inlet effect', a disturbing chop in the area around the breakwaters". Well, the conspiracy was against us that day. The captain had a helluva time steering us through a narrow inlet with treacherous rocks on either side, with raging, criss-crossing currents and waves causing Strider to heel at least 50° from side to side. In a confused sea, with waves coming from all directions, we literally surfed down the inlet. I was down below at the time, being thrown from one side of the boat to the other, while at the same time trying to keep the cabin and galley closets closed and preventing our stuff from crashing about (lesson - some of our closet fasteners need looking at) . Wimpie, who was doing his best to stay in the cockpit, said afterwards some local fishermen on the side banks actually put down their rods to watch the spectacle. I think they witnessed some outstanding seamanship!

Eventually we were safely in the harbour and slowly motored towards the marina down Schellenger Creek. The second leg of our voyage down the east coast of the US had taken around 24 hours (we are now about 350 Nm from Bristol, RI, our starting point). We are steadily making our way towards the warmer latitudes!