10Aug14
Sunday consisted of taking our bikes ashore, riding next door to the Cape May Coast Guard Station (where the USCG Enlisted Boot Camp is located) to shop in their Exchange. After off loading our wares back on the boat we rode into town to explore. A few hours later, Jay called and was ready to do fuel ops. Using a friend's two fuel jugs and my four jugs, we were able to get 35 gals.; enough to top off our tanks and carry 11 gals with us.
We got underway at 18:30 Sunday evening. Weather forecast, sent via email by my meteorologist father, indicated light winds for at least the first half of the trip - it was spot on.
Very nice making our first long range passage in full moonlight.
At 23:00 we were off Atlantic City, you could see the lights of the casinos two hours before and for two hours after passing AC.
11Aug14
Around 10:00 we were cutting across the middle ship traffic lane into NYC -the Hudson Canyon to Ambrose traffic lane.
It was dead, flat, calm. Easy to see ALL the deflated balloons. About every 5 minutes we'd pass another one! And that was just on OUR course. The ocean must be covered. Mylar is the worst. After merely photographing the first few we started altering course and hooking them. Thinking of you, Bonnie! Folks, DO. NOT. RELEASE. BALLOONS! It may look cute at a fair or wedding but they all end up in the ocean.
I'm in full alert spotting the next balloon.
Our catch of the day
The wind started to pick up earlier than predicted so around 12:30 we raised sail, killed the engines, and had a quiter transit. The wind built to 14 kts and held til just before sunset. Not wanting to wrestle the sail in the dark we decided to turn on the engine again and drop the sails. The seas hitting our stbd quarter made the ride a bit jerky and one slapping the port underside kicked the autopilot out of whack "rate gyro error" huh? Had to hand steer the rest of the way to Block Island (BI). All three of us were up trying to find the correct buoy to steer towards, making sure to correct for the 2.2 kt current flowing out between Montauck Point and BI. Once we were on the lee of BI the wind and waves subsided so as to make the entrance into the Great Salt Pond at night a lot easier.
We snuck into the Great Salt Pond at 04:45, picked up the first open ball we could find ( a private ball oops) and went to bed.
***********************
12Aug14
Sunrise! There are soooo many boats here in the pond, and it's a Tuesday. The harbor master guided us to an open ball and thank goodness he did. As boats arrive they are all swirling around like vultures waiting to see some one leaving their mooring.
We took Jay ashore in the dink, and he walked to the other harbor to catch the 10:00 high speed ferry to New London, where he then took the AMTRAC train back to BWI airport station. As a retired AMTRAC employee Jay rides for free. Not a bad deal. We are so glad we had Jay crew with us. It makes watch-standing much easier and his knowledge of the route to BI RI was invaluable. Thanks, Jay.
The folding bikes are really coming in handy. We gave mastered dinghy ops and can now assemble each bike in just a few minutes. We rode to Old Harbor and then SE to the Lighthouse.
More on that to come...
No comments:
Post a Comment