2008 Cruising

9/15 to 9/30/2008

This is our log for 2008; our 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

9/16/08 -  A light layer of high clouds broke up dawn as I started our coffee. Bradd & Maeve came over to say goodbye as they were heading to Cape May today. They needed to get to Annapolis early to do some boat maintenance and get ready for the show. We'll join them a few days before the show to help set-up and staff the booth. I had a maintenance down day. Started with an engine oil change, then installed the auxiliary alarm (so I can hear when our systems are calling for attention). We joined Rich and Carol Wellman for a great dinner and a little baseball. They are such a wonderful couple to spend time with.  Rich and I watched baseball and swapped lies while Ruth and Carol worked on a jig-saw puzzle. About 9pm we headed back to the boat - early departure tomorrow - it's hard to leave, fortunately the Wellman's will be leaving soon and may overtake us after the Annapolis show. 9/17/08 - Another beautiful morning. Rich called a little after I got up to relate we'd left a load of wash in the dryer. He wanted to bring it down before we left. I suggested that maybe Ruth was trying to move in with them. After getting our clothes we headed out at 7:30am, stopping for diesel and water at Snug Harbor near Galilee. By noon we were entering Stonington Harbor where we turned east and backtracked into Watch Hill Cove. Miles elected to stay in Stonington as the Watch Hill channel is fairly shallow. We will have to wait for a rising tide tomorrow to get out. Miles wanted to know why we went there - because we can and it sounded neat (it was beautiful - islands, a pretty little town, great sand anchorage). We dropped the headsail after lunch for an hour's work... wrong, 3 hours later we hoisted it. Good thing we took the time, the strong winds forecast for the next several days could have resulted in major damage. I had the sewing machine on deck and was repairing leach cord tears most of the afternoon. Roller reefing is hard on the tapes that reinforce the edges of the sail. I think when we get to Boca we'll need to get it to a sailmaker for an overhaul. We figure we've the equivalent of 15 Great Lakes seasons on the sail. Dinner was barbequed ribs from the grille, baked potatoes and peas... doesn't get any better. Well, its dark o'clock, time for bed. The days are definitely getting shorter. Sweet dreams! 9/18/08 - Sunny with wisps of light clouds high overhead. It's cool and crisp, a fall morning. We'll wait a while for the tide to come in before we take to long shallow channel back to the sound. Our destination in Hamburger Cove, just past Essex on the Connecticut River. If not there, Duck Roads. We eased out of Watch Hill Cove at 9am on a rising tide. The water was up about 1.5' and we worked our way out never seeing less that 9.5'. Strong NE winds, 15 - 20 knots made for a fast trip to Duck Island, by 2pm we were dropping anchor next to Ariel. Enroute we'd made speeds has high as 9.5 knots over the bottom aided by strong westerly currents. What a fantastic sail. We noted a couple of seams we'd missed in the genoa sun shield. We'll have to drop it again when the weather permits... too much wind today. Such is... Miles and Laureen came over late afternoon. Been a while since we've seen them. Lots of catching up to do. 9/19/08 - We left Duck Island at 9am bound for Fort Jefferson We'd delayed departing to allow the air to warm a little and the winds to abate. The winds did too good a job of abating and we ended up motor sailing much of the 30 mile trip. Mid afternoon we were anchored behind the bluffs on the eastern side of the harbor. Miles & Laureen stopped by with an invitation to have a cookout on their boat, BYOM (bring your own meat), Laureen provided the rest. A pair of swans came by while we were having sundowners. They received a few cracker treats before we headed into the cabin for dinner. It was a fun evening, giving us a chance to catch up with them during the time they were in Newport and we were at Point Judith. 9/20/08 - The swans came back to Ariel to beg for breakfast. Miles played bull fighter with them for a while. Yes, he still has all his fingers. The swans heard Ruth laughing so they came an begged from her by rapping on our boat. Another later start, just 20 miles to cover today so we again waited for the day to warm a bit. We've had the diesel heater running the past few nights for Buddy. If we didn't have a parrot I think Ruth would get one for the heat. Another day of sailing dead downwind with not enough wind. We arrived in Oyster bay with our batteries fully charged. At least we got to sail half the distance. We saw our first high performance powerboats in months. They had a poker run going on and you could see the boats scream by with a stream of burnt dollars in hot pursuit. Noisy but still fun to watch. Even more fun to watch were the fleet of small spinnaker boats that was racing in Oyster Bay. These were very evenly matched boats so there was a lot of tight action at the buoys. We went to town with Miles & Laureen for a walk-about, ending up at an Italian restaurant / sports bar. Actually it was a neat place and the food was very good. Ruth was celebrating a nice sale she'd made so she took me to dinner - kewl. 9/21/08 - We woke to a sunny clear autumn day with just a light fog dancing on some of the smaller coves around the bay. Coffee and a little reading in the cockpit... pleasant way to greet the day. If I were a rich man I'd live like this. We headed for Port Washington around 10am, motoring as there was little wind. The day was perfect for power boats and they were out in force. Both our boats took a little side trip when we prematurely turned, entering the wrong bay... oops. Even with the side trip it was only a 2 hour jaunt. Anchored just off the yacht club mooring field we settled down for some serious reading before going to Ariel for drinks with Miles, Laureen, David and Leslie. 9/22/08 - Sunny, warm and windy... guess Mother Nature knew we wanted to drop the headsail again to fix 2 panels we missed the first time. An e-mail from frat brother Bill revealed they were in Newport to pick up guests for the New York run. I'm guessing we'll meet up in Annapolis. 9/23/08 - Another beautiful autumn day. Too windy to work on the headsail. I finished Ariel's solar screens while Ruth worked at pushing paper. Then I went to work on the turtle for our gennaker. It turned out to be a bigger job than I had anticipated. You could say the turtle was slower than expected. Miles and Laureen went to a museum in NYC with Lesley, Ruth begged out to try to move some paper. We learned today that two NNYC sailors will be in Oyster Bay for the national match races this weekend... this is big time, kudos guys. Mark Johnson and Gerry Gavin will be racing against well known names like Dave Perry and Dave Dellenbaugh - these are top sailors. This is the big times! We are watching the weather, we are two bays west of them and will return to cheer them on, weather permitting. We went into the town dock with our dinghy. Nice facilities and only a couple of blocks from the Shish kabob House, Fish kabob House and Mediterranean Market; not to mention the Stop & Shop and a dozen Italian restaurants. They also have guest moorings for transients; we'll have to remember that. 9/24/08 - Sunny clear, autumn morning. I spent most of the day finishing the new turtle for our gennaker (that I have yet to repair). The sun had totally killed the old bag. The new one has features to allow the sail to dry... good move Barry. Ruth worked at paper and did our books today. It was too windy to work on the headsail, we'll save that for another day. At least I have the main cabin back to a livable state - Ruthie's my friend again. Yaaay, we got the pump-put boat today. Relief! Next we'll need water. Every week we need to restock and "unload" the boat... not like a house where your utilities are apparent only when the bill comes due. Finally, about 5pm I had a drink and settled down, the new turtle is done and the cabin is back in order... even Buddy let out a sigh of approval. We are getting in a time crunch. The weather off the New Jersey coast is gale from the NE, not the kind of wind we'd like to have on our jump to Cape May. We've got to watch ourselves and make sure we get to Annapolis before the show. 9/25/08 - The day dawned windy and cool with a light overcast. I fired up our diesel heater to take the edge off in the cabin - Buddy muttered her approval. We're still in Port Washington waiting for the weather to clean up along the New Jersey coast. NE winds with gust into the 40's have stacked the seas up to 8-10 foot. Two other storms are moving north toward the Carolinas. Looking ugly up to Sunday. Fortunately Port Washington is a great place to get stuck; most of what we need is within walking distance of the town dock - restaurants, Stop and Shop groceries, hardware store. The town has transient moorings near the town dock - very convenient. Miles & Laureen went to a movie last night, Ruth opted to stay aboard and read. I joined her. There is plenty to do here... Miles got a haircut yesterday, Laureen had her hair done today. We still have some repairs to do on our Genoa if the wind dies down enough for us to work on it on the deck. Our chances are not looking good for the next few days. I spent the major part of the day working up some canvas designs and estimates couple with phone calls about Ariel's heater. Yes, all play and no work makes ... 9/26/08 - Morning snuck up on us as it wasn't much different than last night. Wind howling through the rigging, rain sounding on the cabin and ports, boat careening about on the anchor and grey skies. We have our Nor'easter... though not as nasty as many we've been in it's a good excuse to stay below. We have spotty internet in Port Washington; sometimes the signal is strong but usually it's off the bottom of the scale. This works for e-mail but not for the web. At dusk Ruth brought out a movie and the TV, we snuggled in to watch "Just Like Heaven", complete with snacks and drinks... nice way to spend a wet evening. 9/27/08 - A grey shroud greeted us as we awoke. Water dripping off the rigging tapped out a somber melody on the bimini and deck. On the positive side the wind had diminished. It misted and sprinkled all day long. We laid low until 6pm, joining Miles & Laureen for a run into the Port Washington Yacht club where David picked us up for dinner at the Wollin's place. We had a great evening, David and Lesley are gracious hosts... especially taking into account they'd had a yard sale most of the day as they prepare to move from their house to a condo. They'd decided the house was too big for the two of them and too tempting to others given they spend winters in Naples. By 11 we were back on the boat - a late night for Ruth and I. 9/28/08 - Yet another grey day. Kyle is about 300 miles east of us with it's eye on Maine... thank you please. We lucked out and were able to start moving again. A 9:15 departure put the currents with us on the East River. We were a little early so we didn't get the strongest currents and had to settle for a high of 11.5 knots over the ground. When we passed the Riker's Island prison barge we noted their parting lot was filled with ambulances and squad cars... lots of flashing red and blue lights. Someone must have complained about the accommodations. Rain and  mist shrouded the city, clearing slightly as we traversed NY harbor. The Queen Mary  2 was anchored just above the Verrazano Straits bridge. Her sleek lines reinforce that this was not a cruise ship, a floating condo, this is a sleek greyhound design to move people across the Atlantic in style. Mid afternoon and we were at the fuel dock in Atlantic Highlands taking on water and the lowest priced diesel we've seen in a long time, $3.74/gallon. We moved out to anchor in 15 foot of water (high tide). Our neighbor, Flying Pig, called over that he had 200' of chain out (in a crowded anchorage) and was worried that if the wind clocked we'd be in his way. Given the space he'd staked out we moved outside the harbor and anchored in 15' of water. If it's the same Pig that was in Marathon last year he became notorious for running into a charted reef while crossing the Keys. Led to a tow and extensive yard repairs - maybe we were still too close. We talked to Miles, Ruth and I are considering starting a 20 hour run to Cape May tomorrow, bypassing Atlantic City. 9/29/08 - In rained off and on all last night. We awoke to find the sun hadn't gone out after all. Nice to see it again, even Buddy is more animated. Dawn revealed that Ariel had departed at dark 'o clock enroute to Atlantic City. We left at 8:30am with Cape May as our destination. The wind was 8-10 knots off our aft quarter so we sailed until it dropped to 5-6 knots, then motor sailed to just off Barnegat Light where Ruthie caught a nice sized Blue fish... what a fighter, ran out almost all her line before it tired enough that she could start to haul it in. As you can see from the photo it was over 2 feet. That said, we got two excellent fillets from it. Now we need Maeve's secret recipe for cooking it. As darkness blanketed us we were sailing again, about 2 - 3 miles offshore; amazingly we could hear the roar of the surf created by the 4 - 6 foot swells were were traversing. We held our speed to 5 knots so we'd reach Cape May as dawn broke. The lights of Atlantic City marked our 11pm passing... we waved to Miles & Laureen. We were standing approximate 3 hour watches, one of us at the helm and one in bed sleeping. Around us a group of about a dozen other sailboats pushed southbound. It was fun listening to them checking in on each other on channel 78. Barge traffic was heavy all night, there was always s couple of southbound tows moving with us and periodic northbound ones passing through the group. Their light arrangements told us if they were north or southbound, pushing or pulling their load. Around midnight a Coast Guard security announcement on channel 16 revealed that the C&D canal we needed to traverse to get to the Chessie was closed indefinitely due to a petroleum barge grounding. Several boats called for more information but the Coasties weren't saying much... Homeland Security is pretty tight lipped. If it stays closed we'll have to run down to Norfolk and come back to Annapolis, a run of 260 miles, 160 more than via the C&D - not a nice thought. Ruth called the Corps of Engineers and learned that they had re-floated the barge and were waiting for the Coasties to reopen traffic as there was no longer any reason for the canal to be closed. 9/30/08 - We arrived off the Cape May breakwater entrance at 5:30am in the dark. The current running up Delaware Bay was in our favor as was the wind so a half dozen boats bobbed around in the ocean waiting for daylight so we could enter safely. Then the Coast Guard reopened the C&D Canal. We decided to go for it - feeling rested after a great night of sailing. We motored most of the day meeting 6 ships and a handful of tugs pushing petroleum barges. By 1pm we were passing through the C&D canal in the company of a petroleum barge, arriving at the Bohemia River around 3:30pm. Another sailboat was anchoring as we entered the shallow bay. We went further in and dropped our hook. I decided to take a cat nap (Ruth took one in the morning), we'd been moving for 31 hours taking 3 hour naps when off watch. I awoke to find we had seven new neighbors. Ruth noted that several more had passed by. I guess that the short cut around Cape May put us at the head of the pack. Thunderstorms were lurking around us as we read for a while then crawled into bed. Once my head hit the pillow I never heard a sound until dawn.

Click on the photos for an 8" x 10" view. Use Back to return to the site. Our headsail needed a little TLC to protect it from catastrophic failure Sailor's equivalent of a ring job, crab-like, Mr. Flexible sews on Another Adventure's deck Fort Jefferson welcome wagon by Miles Ruth feeds the beast by Miles Swan begging for breakfast Morning mist at Oyster Bay Foggy morn, Port Washington Ariel rides at anchor in misty dawn Fort guarded the East River entrance Throngs Neck Bridge marks entry to the East River heading west Yellow  Cab, East River style Queen Mary 2, New York harbor Ruthie's Blue fish, nice catch We're stylin' now, hiked up jammies at the helm, Erkle lives! Putting it in perspective... Sometimes life's like two ships passing in the light...

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
Cape May to Point Judith, RI - July 1 - 15, 2008	Point Judith to Gloucester, MA - July 16 - 31, 2008
Gloucester to Acadia to Portland - August 1 - 15, 2008	Portland to Gloucester - August 16 - 31, 2008
Gloucester to Point Judith, RI - Sept 1 - 15, 2008