Day2-3 southbound
12 October 2009 | Cape May, NJ
Al
We got underway at 0438 from City Island right about the time we planned. Had a mostly uneventful trip down the East River, though my first trip at night and likely getting a fair current earlier than planned shortened the travel time past Laguadia and Rikers Island so I found my self nearly aground in the mud of some nameless little bay in the river. Realized my mistake early enough to avoid any delay. Turns out it wasn't going to be our last close call with the bottom this day.
Tonia came on deck to give me a second pair of eyes so all went well
from then on. We got 3.5k of fair current through Hell Gate, got tossed about by the currents as we ran down the East side of Roosevelt Island, all more or
less expected events.
Maddie got up and came on deck as we passed the Staten Island ferry terminels and Battery Park and ran past the the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.
The rest of the trip down the Hudson and through the harbour went well, we set sail shortly after passing under the Verezonos Bridge and had to tack once to allow a tug and barge to pass down the main channel as we approached the
channel to cross after which I thought we had good water to sail for Sandy Hook and the ocean, I was wrong and we found one of the only two shallow spots in
the area. We bounced twice and I got lucky and turned towards deepvwater not really knowing where it was and we were off and away.
We had a fair wind, a light westerly as we sailed down the Jersey shore and hopefully a good sign of things to come on future trips I caught a Little Blue Tuna which gave us a half dozen nice steaks.
As the day worn on the wind clocked northwesterly and we stayed about 4 miles off shore, nice sail until after midnight when the wind shifted more northerly, got colder and stronger.
The weather forecast at midnight for the next 24 hours or so was good to continue on to Norfolk, VA so we made the decision to continue on instead of stopping in Cape May, that idea lasted until I tried to charge batteries when I realized the batteries were lower than expected. The engine started ok but wasn't charging the batteries, no idea why and by now the seas had built such as in the dark I wasn't going to try to solve the problem so we headed for Cape May.
We arrived off the inlet at 0400 and elected to heave to and await first light, the wait was 2 very cold and rough hours. The seas were uncomfortable due to the shallow depths.
At 0700 we entered, found a slip, found a loose belt and solved the charging problem, plugged into shore power for heat and to charge up the batteries, got a long HOT shower and walked over to the commercial fishing supply shop and bought a warm knit cap.
We are tied up at Utsch's marina, friendly people and a nice bottle of wine for forgetting what last night was like.
Forecast isn't good until Wednesday for going south so we'll enjoy Cape May for a day or two.