Sail Vicarious

Join us as we refit our 1975 Fisher 37 and explore the world.

S/V Vicarious

Who: Spencer and Kathleen
Port: New Bern, NC
18 August 2015
01 July 2015 | New Bern
05 May 2015 | Bridgeton Boatworks, NC
01 May 2015 | Bridgeton Boatworks, NC
06 April 2015 | New Bern, NC
18 November 2013 | Tahiti Beach
18 November 2013 | Tahiti Beach
18 November 2013 | Man o War Cay
18 November 2013 | Man o War Cay
14 November 2013 | Hope Town
14 November 2013 | Marsh Harbor
26 October 2013 | Charleston SC
01 December 2012 | Annapolis, MD
05 October 2012 | New Bern
20 August 2012 | New Bern
07 February 2012 | New Bern
29 January 2012
24 October 2011 | New Bern, NC
20 October 2011 | New Bern
16 October 2011 | Neuse River, NC

Darkness and current

25 September 2011 | Along the New Jersey shore
Spencer
It is 0730 and we are motoring south along the NJ coastline.

Backing up a couple days... we sailed from Mystic to Port Jefferson, NY and planned to make a pre-dawn departure to catch some of the current in the Long Island Sound moving towards NYC very early in the morning. I let Kathleen stay in bed and took care of the usual items in the pitch black darkness at 0500. It was the darkest that I have "seen" ever in our cruising. I slowly motored out the long, narrow, rock-lined entrance to Port Jefferson - quickly scanning instruments, radar, blinking red and green buoys and the occasional spotlight sweep for any unlit traffic and the unlit buoys. Once clear of the rocks, I pushed up the power and moved out into deeper, safer waters... Later in the day I had all the sails up while we motored, to save about 50% on fuel burn.

The plan was to anchor in a small bay just a few miles before Hell Gate and catch the early morning current through, but as I studied the currents, I saw that we could continue on and have a sleigh ride right on by NYC and over to Atlantic Highlands - saving us a day! We were joined by another sailboat that slowly passed us and made a wrong turn near the gate towards Rikers Island prison! I watched them turn a quick 180 and they decided to follow us the rest of the way - good idea - we've now done this trip several times.

We set our anchor among about a dozen other cruising sailboats in Atlantic Highlands, NJ and watched a couple depart for an appartent night run down the coast. We had a restful night and were up at 0500 to start on our 13 hour run south.

The question right now is - can we get into Little Egg Harbor Inlet and anchor in a strange, questionalble anchorage area in order to be near to where my sister has rented a house with her family. If it works out, we could be walking distance from her. I plan to call Boat US when we are close to the "uncharted" inlet and ask them about the entrance - we are also timing our arrival with a rising, near high tide. Our backup plan is to go another hour south to one of our favorite anchorages - The Cove in Atlantic City!
Comments
Vessel Name: Vicarious
Vessel Make/Model: Fisher 37
Hailing Port: New Bern, NC
Crew: Spencer and Kathleen
About: Spencer is a USMC jet pilot and Kathleen is an RN. We plan on departing New Bern, NC Spring, 2010 after Spencer retires from the Marine Corps. We are filming the entire process and have a DVD series of the work we are doing on Vicarious, which is available at: www.sailvicarious.com.

S/V Vicarious

Who: Spencer and Kathleen
Port: New Bern, NC