Damn. Damn. Damn.

We’re 0 for 3 on our overnight passages this year. Normally there is nothing better than sailing along at two in the morning with a full moon or a star-studded night. Gliding along and enjoying the solitude.

Not this year. You’ve already read about our first overnight to Block Island where we turned the spinnaker into a drogue. And the second overnight from Maine to Boston with crazy winds and seas. Well our run down the coast of New Jersey to the Delaware Bay fared no better.

Maureen & Stephen – our farewell crew

After a ten day at-home-intermission, our friends Maureen and Stephen were kind enough to drive us back to the boat and provide a proper farewell. We spent the day stowing our gear and provisions and getting everything ready. We got a solid night sleep, had a great breakfast, and left late morning. Trip anticipated a 30 hour run, getting into Cape May inlet mid-afternoon the following day.

Yikes – In our harbor a sunken boat clearly marked by mooring balls

And the first few hours were a lovely sunny sail across Raritan Bay out past Sandy Hook. And then things changed. We had known the forecast wasn’t optimal with 3 foot seas and southwest winds. But the seas had a long interval (which makes them easy to ride) and we could sail hard on it to make use of the southwesterly winds. But as usual the actual weather had other plans for us. The easy 3 foot seas were more like 4-6 with a 3 second interval, creating quite choppy seas. And the winds were pretty much from the south, exactly the direction we needed to go. Motor sailing into the wind and seas only got us 2 knots (you can walk faster). So we decided on a series of longer tacks off-shore.

My studly captain – you’d never guess how rough things were at sea

The long tacks did make things more comfortable and we certainly moved faster, but it was still a rock and roll ride. To make matters worse, when we tacked back to land we not only lost speed, but also found ourselves moving northwest instead of southwest. Three miles forward, one mile back. A day and night of this and by the next morning we were discouraged to find we had only made 35 of the 100+ miles we wanted.

We were tired and cranky so we looked at our options. Too much of the New Jersey coast line is shallow – much too shallow for us to consider stopping to rest. Atlantic City was an option, but we wouldn’t get there before sundown and I HATE going into new anchorages at night. The winds and seas had calmed a bit and we were able to motor sail so we opted to plow on through a second night. I finally remembered that we had a sleeping bag down below which I pulled out into the cockpit for whoever wasn’t on the helm to tuck into and rest. It’s amazing how warming up can improve a mood.

at least sunrise was enjoyable

After a second night of being sore and cranky – I studied the charts and found a different option. Lewes Delaware was the very bottom  of Delaware Bay and further south than Cape May (an additional 10 miles – what was I nuts????), but it looked to be a much easier in and out, with a series of breakwaters that would provide protection from any seas. We wouldn’t have to worry about the availability of anchoring options in Cape May or the heavy commercial traffic.

We got in late afternoon in time for a long-deserved cocktail, dinner and some much needed rest.

When I started the blog I mentioned that cruising is 95% boredom and 5% terror. Funny enough we’ve had 6 days (tops) of uncomfortable sailing out of being on the water 120 days – puts us right in that 5% range. Like I was planning or something.

As much as sails like this suck, I do remind myself that at no point did we ever feel unsafe. The boat performed spectacularly, we managed all the right sail configurations at the right times, so things were uncomfortable but not dangerous. Being wet and tired adds to the crankiness, but it eventually ends. And I promise Trip and I are still married and talking to each other.

Enjoying sunset once we anchored