2008 Cruising

7/1 to 7/15/2008

This is our log for 2008; the 2007 East Coast and other voyages are now in Prior Voyages.

We plan to post and update at least weekly. We move the older portions of the log to secondary pages accessible at the bottom of the page. Join our voyage!

Updated on 01/28/2011

7/1/08 - Sunny morning, half the anchorage had headed north by 7am. At 8 we joined the exodus, heading north for Atlantic City or perhaps on to Barnegat. The wind today and tomorrow favors travel north, after 3 nights in Cape May we were ready for a change of scenery. We sailed and motor sailed the 30 miles to Atlantic City. Ruth felt a strong force drawing her to Atlantic City and I wisely complied with her wishes. We took a slip in the marina in front of Trump's marina casino so Ruth could go make a contribution to the Donald's lifestyle. She did! Miles phoned, they made great time to Cape May. Learning we were in Atlantic City they decided to made a run for it, figuring to be in well before dark. In fact they arrived about 8pm after a 14 hour day and around 117 nm. 7/2/08- We departed at 7am, hoping to make Sandy Hook around supper time. This is always the most boring part of trip. The NJ coast is a long strip of sand and condos without many harbors. Ruth's brother Pat, went in for surgery at 1:30.  It's an open heart procedure to replace his aortic valve and also to possibly have one bypass.  It should take about 4-5 hours unless they do the bypass too.  Thoughts and prayers are with you buddy! We reached Atlantic Highlands around 6pm, anchoring behind their breakwater for the night. Fired up the grille, searing a couple of steaks and downing some white wine. Ruth is pretty tense, waiting for word about Pat. We know he's in recovery, not much more than that. 7/3/08 - Up at 5:30, turned off the anchor light which Miles took as a signal of life, called to see if a 6am departure worked. We needed an early start to hit the currents right in the East River (they are as strong as 5 knots at Hell's Gate). We had about a knot of foul tide crossing Raritan Bay, picking up a favorable tide in Ambrose Channel and the Verrazano Strait. Things were going our way, we charged up the East River at 8 knots over the water, 10 - 11 knots over the bottom. Hell's Gate spit us through at  13.5 knots... felt like a power boater! We were anchored at Port Washington before noon. Ruth learned that Pat was in a lot of pain last night and that we wouldn't know more until after noon in WI. Further on Pat, they are keeping him sedated to help him mend... he's on the right path. We had a pleasant dinner ashore with Miles & Laureen as guests of David & Leslie Wollin; we'd met them during our cruise last summer. Ruth had caught the flu so we isolated ourselves while Miles & Laureen got to know them. It was nice to reconnect. 7/4/08 - Happy birthday good ole US of A! Lazy morning with light rain early, at 10 we departed for Oyster Bay with Ariel. By 1pm we were anchored among the 100's of boats vying for position to see the fireworks. There are some serious sailboats in this neck of the woods, 100 foot plus yachts. Ruth was thrilled to hear that Pat was now in a regular hospital ward and resting better. She was fidgety all morning waiting for word from the family. Miles and Laureen came over for a potluck dinner. It was excellent. Just as we finished eating the fireworks started... not Oyster Bay's, everywhere else. It didn't matter which way we looked, the sky was brilliantly colored. It sounded like a war zone. After the other displays settled down Oyster Bay did their thing - they did it very well. There we always at least a dozen rockets in the sky, sometimes dozens. Phenomenal (HiDef ?)show sponsored by the owner of a local cable company. 7/5/08 - I woke at 6 to the sound of light rain. By 8am it stopped, but the sky remained gray. It turned out to be a great day to read as showers came and went all day. Miles & Laureen went into town during a break and were rewarded with a nice warm soaking. We'd dressed the ship in flags for the 4th, fortunately we had a breeze and a break in the rain so I was able to retrieve them dry. There were a few fireworks displays around the area during the evening - nothing like the night before. There are so many towns on Long Island that they must stagger the displays to spread attendance. 7/6/08 - Foggy morning after a rainy night. We hoisted anchor late morning, joining Ariel and Summersault (David & Leslie) for the motorboat ride back to Port Washington in fog. Visibility wasn't real bad, about a half mile. Still, with the number of boats heading home after the 4th it was bad enough. Our radar screen looked like it had measles as it tracked dozens of boats moving around in the low cloud. One large blip didn't seem to be moving. I put a MARPA on it, getting mixed results as to speed. As we got closer the dark shape of a large barge and tug materialized... it was anchored. Later we passed another tow that was moving. We arrived about 1, anchoring off the mooring field and grilling a couple of dogs for lunch. The yacht club entertained us all afternoon with a series of sailboat races held in light air under the threat of showers. Good time to be reading. Pat called Ruth making her day. He's home from the hospital, wired and glued back together. Wow, they sure kick them out in a hurry. Anyway, he's feeling better daily - great news! A little later a couple dozen swans came to check us out. These are more sophisticated birds than our Midwestern variety, they swim slowly by, beaks in the air, refusing to beg for morsels - classy act. Miles & Laureen went ashore for dinner at the yacht club with David and Leslie... we declined and grilled chicken. After all the years I'd spent on business travel (often eating 18+ meals a week in restaurants) going out to eat has lost any attraction - it's more like a punishment than a treat. Ruth and I enjoy the company but dislike the crowds, service and more often than not, the food. Fortunately that attitude goes well with our fixed income. 7/7/08 - We remain under our stalled weather system. A little more sun, but gray and still. After updating our blog I worked on a circular hatch screen for Ariel; we'd patterned the screen yesterday. We went SHOPPING again today, thanks to the chauffeuring services by David. We stocked up our larder in a yuppie supermarket, then we went to a more mainstream market for some basics. We sure appreciated David's time and transportation! We returned to find the area around AA infested with Optimist dinghies - sailing school. Today they were practicing sculling - no wind. The sun came out near the end of class and a light breeze carried them home. After putting away the provisions we moved to Brewer Marina for fuel and water. Fuel was $5.90/gallon... in line with our last 2 fills but still painful - at least the water was free. It's unbelievable that we paid as little as $1.04 in 2004 when we did the loop. The good news is that we continue to consume less than 1 gallon per hour. Then again, our UK friends were use to $7.00/gallon two years ago and thought our fuel to be a real bargain. We plan to slowly work east up the Long Island Sound. We have items to pick up at Rich & Carol's in Point Judith late next week and Amy, Tom and Lofton will be joining us near Cape Cod around the 20th of the month.  Should be a blast as we'll also be able to see our friends Kenny G and Lesley (Biz friends of Ruthie's) Looking forward to it. 7/8/08 - Wow! A sunny morning! It's been a few days since we've seen that yellow orb and wasn't scheduled to make an appearance today. It was a nice treat. We drifted out of Port Washington under sail at a romping 1.5 knots, ducks were swimming by us. Our destination for the day was Port Jefferson, about a 5 hour run at 7 knots. Ariel and Summersault passed us about half way up the bay, their sails up and motors running. We fired up the iron genoa and chased after them, motoring up the Sound for over an hour. Right after Summersault retrieved their dinghy - it had come free, allowing us to catch up with the two speedsters, the wind came up to 15+ knots... we're sailing. We had 3 hours on a charging reach, water speeds in the 7 - 8.2 knot range. Summersault and AA turned out to be pretty much a match speed-wise, Ariel took off like a scalded duck, arriving in Port Jefferson a day before we started. They'd found a nice location for the three boats to anchor just off the edge of one of the large mooring fields that crowd the port. Soon we'd all congregated on Ariel, their guests for a great grilled salmon dinner put together by Laureen. Miles is now certified as an "all species" fish chef, though he notes his salmon flavored steak will not be available again - you missed it, once in a lifetime entrée. 7/9/08 - Another breezy, sunny morning. After looking at the weather for the next couple of days David and Leslie decided to return to Port Washington today. We decided to stay, heading to Shelter Island tomorrow, then on the Mystic Seaport. Ruth went on a beach glass search while I worked on three additional solar screens for Ariel. The two I'd done earlier make life so much more pleasant they wanted to finish the enclosure. It is really amazing how much more livable the cockpit is if you block about 70% of the incoming sun. We decided to stop at the Thimble Islands again, Ariel hasn't been there, then on to Mystic Seaport. 7/10/08 - Poured last night. Ruth sprung out of bed at the sound of the first drops, managing to close the ports before the sky ripped open and the deluge hit. If the boat isn't fresh water washed now it will never be. Miles stopped by to note they found that one of their ports was leaking. Hard to believe it is already approaching mid-July. Today is my brother Karl's birthday... okay, the anniversary of his birth. I still resent his golden birthday being when he was 10 while I had to wait for 28, celebrating it as an old man. As we left Port Jefferson we were overtaken by a departing ferry. It is the line that P.T. Barnum played a role in starting. He lived in Port Jefferson and his circus was headquartered in Bridgeport, CT. He wanted a faster way to get from one to the other (he also wanted to winter his animals on Long Island, but the locals blocked that scheme - missing kids and pets?). We had a lazy 23 mile sail to the Thimble Islands. Ariel had arrived earlier and we anchored behind them. The Thimbles are very much like Georgian Bay, only in compressed into a much smaller area. I like the uniqueness of these islands and try to envision them before the homes were built. We've been house cleaning, Ruth is on a rip right now trying to find something she knows we have but can't find. Hey, we are talking about a space 11' 8" by 43', tapered at both ends... even so the gremlins have room to hide stuff and they do it very well. 7/11/08 - Quiet dawn... the fiery golden sun crawled lazily into a windless sky accented with the filmy wisps of mares tails. Looks like a motorboat ride to Mystic. We headed out earlier than Ariel, knowing they'd catch us enroute. We motored and sailed to Mystic. Beautiful day with the sea a smooth as glass. The only bit of excitement was meeting one of the ferries and no being sure as to the shortest route to miss him. He went between the two boats. At Mystic we had a fast ferry cross in front of us. These are basically very large catamarans that move across the sound at high speeds, 30 knots+? We got to the Mystic sea buoy too late to make the 11:40 bridge and way too early to run up for the 12:40... so we dawdled around the buoy for half and hour before heading up the narrow twisting river. What a neat trip. We wound our way through mooring fields holding hundreds of boats. If it was built, it's there. We still got to the Mystic route one bridge 15 minutes early and had to hold our position in a narrow channel. I passed Miles and held closer to the bridge as the wind coming around a bend behind us kept turning us across the channel and pushing us down on Ariel; by passing him I got into a sheltered hole close to the bridge. Mystic Seaport was ready for us after we cleared the bridge. They had a slip at the north end of the museum grounds and were on hand to tie us up. We checked in, splurged on a sustaining membership and got our tickets to the grounds. While coming back to the boat to unload our paperwork and grab a camera Ruth got entranced by the hundreds of white and pink jellyfish that were swimming around the boat. She wondered what their names were. I explained the pink ones had girls name... Alice, Amy.... Nope, she didn't drown me. The Mystic Seaport Museum is a recreation of a sailing seaport. There are small building containing coopers, carpenters, sail makers, rope factories and of course, the shipyard. The Charles W. Morgan, last wooden whaling ship afloat, is one of their dockside displays. It's hard to believe the crew lived aboard for cruises that could be as long as six years while hunting whales and rendering their fat into oil. The berths were 6' long but the height below decks was only about 5'. I couldn't stand up anywhere below decks. Buddy held court late afternoon, attracting kids from the neighboring boats. He put on a good show and had the children mesmerized. 7/12/08 - Woke up in the museum, literally. We have a placard on our boat telling people it is a private yacht and not one of the displays to be boarded. From our boat we walk down the pier and onto the museum grounds. This morning we walked a couple of blocks into Mystic to Kitchen Little for brunch... great meal in a cute, very little, restaurant. We toured more of the museum today and visited many of their ships and shops. Very interesting displays of wooden ship building and life in a 19th century seafaring village. I told Ruth it would be pretty easy to get attached to the museum as a staffer... she responded "why not?" We took time out to visit downtown Mystic. The walk there was enjoyable in that the homes along the water all have plaques noting who built them, when and the original owner's occupation (captains, seamen, ship yard owners, merchants, bankers and so forth). Once downtown Ruth found a store she really wanted to go into and found an outfit she really liked - it followed her back to the boat. Guess we'll have to keep it (actually it's a pretty hot number on her). Our air conditioner shut down this evening, the error code indicating the unit was overheating. I checked the filter and found jellyfish gel. See copper colored pipe with snot coming out.  Cleaned that out and still didn't have water flow. Next I pulled the hoses and found the major share of a jellyfish of unknown flavor. After extracting that, taking care not to touch it, we had water flow again. 7/13/08 - Sunday morning, we've done as much museum as we can handle - brain overload. Miles stopped by this morning to relate that he had sucked up two jellyfish last night - yuck! He also noted that he has developed a 110V short somewhere... charger, inverter, internal circuits; gremlins in the hold again. We made the 8:40am bridge and threaded our way back down the Mystic River. Heading east we crossed the reef that is the eastern barrier to Long Island Sound and sailed the 13 miles to Block Island, RI. We started with 5 - 6 knots of wind and finished with 18. It was a fun sail. Our cabin smells like a Starbucks... the smell of spilled fresh ground beans permeates the air. During the crossing we dumped the coffee storage container - whoops. Makes a nice air freshener though. I need to add a net in the pantry to stop items from dropping off the top shelf when we heel. Ariel arrived before us and took a mooring. We anchored in the north end of the basin in 20' of water. I took the opportunity to mark depths on our new anchor chain with fluorescent electrical ties. Marking sure makes anchoring more positive as you can let out the proper scope for the depth. 7/14/08 - It was supposed to be a rainy day, so Miles & Laureen stopped by early to get us moving before the rain hit. They planed on showing us the lighthouse and town. I loaded our bikes in the dinghy and we headed in. The island was interesting and hilly, very hilly... we sure got our exercise on the bikes. Enroute to the lighthouse we stopped for a Pepsi and ended up having a pizza with it. Good pizza! The lighthouse is a massive brick and granite structurej; hard to believe they moved it 285 feet back from the bluff in the late 80's (bluff erosion was threatening to topple it). An automated light has replaced the keeper and the house is empty but for a shop run by a group trying to restore the keeper's quarters and open the tower for tourists. It's a worthy project. Ruth beached for a while finding very little - don't know if it was the meager tides (2') or the number of people working the beaches. We caught up with Miles & Laureen at a beachfront bar for a quick beer before we had to scurry back to the boats before the front came through. The front was a non-event, just a few light showers. We bought supper from the Aldo Bakery boat. For lack of a better name I'll call it a chicken parmesan calzone though it wasn't. We heated it on the pizza stone in the grill - Delicious! An e-mail from Rachael and Clause of S/V Kyanna revealed that they had just finished a 7 week re-fit and were heading north when a violent thunderstorm overtook them. After several near misses by lightning they took a direct hit that fried everything electrical. They are back in the yard looking at replacing everything that uses or conducts electricity. They consider themselves lucky - no one got hurt. 7/15/08 - The front last night left us with no wind... not even a breeze when we woke up. We had coffee in the cockpit and waited for ALDO to come tooling by and bought some good sausage, egg and cheese muffins and some naughty muffins.  MMMMM. I went to Ariel and helped Miles troubleshoot his shore power/inverter issues. No joy. It appears the unit has failed so Miles arranged for a new one to be delivered to Newport. We'll go to Point Judith and pick up mail and parts while they go to Newport and get the unit replaced... fun and games. We'll rejoin in about a week, hopefully while Amy and Lofton are aboard. I spent the balance of the day working on the additional solar curtains for Ariel, I need a couple of hours rafted next to them to fit the zippers and the curtains will be done. Hey, how 'bout dem Packers... Brett wants to play, the Packers want him/don't want him/can't tolerate the thought of him playing for someone else. Hell for the Packer management would be Brett's new team finishing higher in the rankings than the Packers next fall - hey der, it's only a sport. Would I watch him play for the Vikings? You betcha! Never saw a pro have so much fun on the field.

Click on the photos for an 8" x 10" view. Use Back to return to the site. Okay, I know there's a light Ahh, there it is One of our "little" neighbors in the haze Another visitor to Oyster Bay Somewhere, out there... a tug lurks What's MARPA? Our Raymarine radar has a feature that allows me to identify and lock onto a number of radar targets. Once locked on the system provides me with the targets' heading, speed along with the time and closest distance of our passing. If a vessel enters our security zone we get a dangerous vessel warning. We use this feature often in heavy traffic for tracking larger vessels, sometime even when visibility is good as it is hard to tell how fast these large beasts are closing on us. It's like having a second person watching the radar. Port Washington welcome wagon crew Summersault with prodigal dinghy Trucking along at 8 knots Port Jefferson tidal grass Part of the large mooring field at Port Jefferson, bluffs surround 3 sides Private Moorings In most of New England private empty moorings take up most of the available space. Miles likens the moorings to taking a can of spray paint out on the street, drawing a rectangle and writing you name in it. No one else can park there. It's your space, if and when you decide to use it. Do that in front of all your favorite stores and restaurants and you get the idea. Most of the anchorage space is dedicated to moorings reserved for someone... someday. At Port Jefferson 90% of the mooring field near us was vacant during the week. Private mooring differ from commercial of yacht club moorings in the probability of use.   Thimbles off Ariel's stern, by Miles AA in the Thimbles, by Miles Port Jefferson ferries crossing What's your favorite jelly? Jelly hanging out of the A/C cooling line AA dressed out at Mystic Seaport L.A. Dunton, one of Mystic's tall ships Aldo arrives with his goods Two fresh muffins coming up

Visit earlier portions of our 2008 voyage...

Boca Raton to Miami, FL - Jan 1 to 15, 2008	Miami to Key West, FL - Jan 16 to 31, 2008
Key West to Marathon, FL - Feb 1 to 15, 2008	Marathon, FL to Nassau, Bahamas - Feb 16 - 29, 2008
Norman Cay to Georgetown, Bahamas - March 1 - 15, 2008	Georgetown to Royal Island - March 16 - 31, 2008
Royal Island to Green Turtle Cay - April 1 - 15, 2008	Green Turtle Cay to Fort Pierce - April 16 - 20, 2008
Fort Pierce, FL to Savannah, GA - May 1 - 15, 2008	Savannah, GA to Norfolk, VA - May 16 - 31, 2008
Norfolk, VA to Deltaville, VA - June 1 - 15, 2008	Deltaville, VA to Cape May, NJ - June 16 - 30, 2008