Month: July 2018

Hard to believe the Atlantic can look like a pond

We had the option of stopping in Cape May on our way up or doing a straight shot home. Cruising friend Mike (from Luperon) had just gotten home to Wildwood and encouraged us to stop for July 4, but we knew a cold front was approaching and didn’t want to get trapped, or worse – have another snarly run up the New Jersey coast. So we opted for the straight shot to Staten Island. From a boating perspective it was wildly boring – mostly motoring with very little sailing. The VHF radio was busy though. Reports of sinking boats (my favorite was the Sea Tow captain who kept reassuring the Coast Guard that the six people AND the dog were safe and sound, plus the rec cruiser who gave the play by play commentary (‘she managed to keep her hat on coming out of the water!’), a humpback whale, and jet skis drifting having run out of fuel. The scariest though was a situation where someone 20 miles out on a fishing boat started experiencing seizures and losing consciousness. It was rather incredible to listen to the coordination between the Coast Guard, the boat captain, and the helicopter sent out to pick the victim up – makes me grateful that we have the public support system out on the water that we do.

Final sunrise during offshore run

Fixing the auto-pilot underway

After all that excitement, as we were nearing the tip of Sandy Hook, we finally caught a little bit of wind and were able to fly the spinnaker one last time into Raritan Bay. We were close to our harbor, but still out in the bay when the fireworks started – we could watch them all the way from Red Bank up and around the coast to Coney Island. Staten Island must have come into serious money, because every neighborhood was setting off their own fireworks that night – we pretended it was to celebrate our return, and it was just a coincidence that it was July 4…

Captain Matthew and first mate Dr Aramide

We had a couple of days to clean the boat and get organized before our ride was arriving, and in the meantime we heard from another friend from the Dominican Republic (Matthew, who we met in Samana). Sailing solo on his 40 foot catamaran with his kitten, Dr. Aramide (French for Kevlar), he had done a straight shot up the coast from Florida to New York. He dropped anchor in our harbor and we went ashore to have dinner at the Tiki Bar at the Marina Café (where we had gotten married almost 6 years ago). After dinner we went back to Matthew’s boat to play with the kitten and enjoy some sipping rum before coming back to our boat to pass out (it does take a few days to recover from offshore multi-day runs).

Staten Island celebrating our return – or July 4

The cold front is moving in today and it’s generally nasty weather. So we’re down below, cleaning the boat, packing up things that need to go home (round one that goes immediately and round two of ‘later’ – lots of negotiation as to what goes in which pile). We’re down to three beers, leftover pulled pork and some veggies that will make a final dinner of quesadillas tonight as we watch a movie while the next set of squalls run through.

Next up – a summary of my thoughts on this adventure and what it’s like to go through re-entry….

Spinnaker run off Cape Hatteras

The storms passed Beaufort sooner than we had expected, so we got up Tuesday morning thinking we were waiting till that evening to leave, only to have our weather router tell us we could leave at any time. We washed down a quick breakfast and got underway. We knew it was going to be a fair amount of motoring to get around Cape Lookout before we hit any wind in our favor, but it was more than expected. We weren’t able to set sail till we got up to Cape Hatteras. Luckily, when we finally did get wind, we were finally able to fly the spinnaker! It had only been a year since we had the fateful run to Block Island where it tore and we had not had a chance to use it since it had been repaired! Cape Hatteras is known for experiencing dicey weather (many people choose to go inside the ICW at this point), we found it to be a great irony that not only did we choose the outside run, but we were doing a spinnaker run to boot!

Full moon overnight sails are magical

It was back to motoring as we got close to the south of the Chesapeake Bay. We had to be careful because of the number of cargo ships moving around in the area, but it’s an easy radio call to any of them or the Virginia Pilots (think FAA for ships, managing the traffic) to steer clear of them. We talked a couple of times to a dredge that was operating outside of the channel – once to adjust course to allow him a straight shot to the dumping site, and once for him to let us know he was passing us again to head back for more dredging. All this in the middle of the night toward dawn makes for a surreal run.

Old Point Comfort anchorage

Last November we stayed on the docks of local OCC Port Commanders Greta & Gary Gustavson. They were having their docks repaired, so it wasn’t an option this time. However, we also didn’t intend to stay in the area long (and they’re seven miles down the Elizabeth River), so we opted for the Old Point Comfort anchorage just inside Hampton Roads. It’s a practical rather than a pretty anchorage (causeway on one side), but it was close to a marina where we could replenish fuel and water and use their dinghy dock. They even had a great restaurant called the Deadrise, where I had a fabulous crabcake sandwich and Trip got crab stuffed flounder.

Beautiful squalls

We were in the middle of a heatwave, but we wandered into the town of Phoebus the next day anyway. After stocking up on the few provisions we needed to make it home and a beer at Stuft (slogan: Restaurant, Food truck, Hot sauce), then we continued our trend of Mexican food at El Diablo. The hostess was kind enough to make sure we could watch the World Cup soccer matches from our table before she seated us. A few margaritas and chicarrones later, we were feeling good despite the heat.

We went back to the boat and checked on the sailing progress of new friends Lauren and Trey. They had been anchored at Cape Lookout while we were in Beaufort and had been hit by the same storms that we were experiencing. Lauren and I bonded over the Women Who Sail FaceBook group when I posted storm pictures and she added hers. Having just cut loose from Charleston on their own cruising adventure, they had already had some serious off-shore tests, including having to heave-to outside Cape Lookout for several hours rather than enter an unknown anchorage in the middle of the night in the middle of squalls. They had left several hours behind us to round Hatteras and head up to Hampton, and she and I were staying in touch whenever we had cell phone coverage.

Can’t go wrong with pancakes and bacon

It was a long slog for them, having to motor and getting caught by outgoing tides, but they finally made it in that night. I told her not to bother with their dinghy, and Trip motored over to collect them. They came aboard and we got them settled with showers and beers, in that order (because NOTHING feels as good as a shower or tastes as good as a beer after a long passage that seems like it will never end). After a good night sleep, they came back for breakfast – I made banana pancakes and they supplied the Nutella & coffee – yum! We sat in the cockpit for several hours, trading stories (despite being newbies at cruising they already had a fair share of stories, like the one above) and talking all things boats. I was rather envious listening to them – I don’t think I was nearly as adventurous in my twenties – but then again Trip and I are doing the ‘better late than never’ approach…. ?

Best thing to see when entering a restaurant