Thursday morning was overcast and there was very little
wind. We left ~ 5:00 AM and motored down the Delaware Bay and around Cape May.
Finally….. the ocean!! ! We raised a reefed main, unfurled the jenny, shut down
the engine and enjoyed a rousing sail north at about 8 knots, 3 miles off the
coast of New Jersey.
Atlantic City
It was time for Lois’ and my watch at 12:30 AM and my turn
at the helm. Debbie commented before giving me the helm that the stars had
vanished. Looking north, the sky had turned black all the way to the water and
the wind was picking up. We doused the main and braced ourselves for what we
thought was a squall. I checked the Doppler weather radar on my IPad but it
showed no rain at all. By now the wind was really blowing and the seas were
getting very large. It felt like we were being tossed around like a cork. It seemed
as though we would make a bit of headway and then the waves would push us
further back than where we started. We had suited up before dark with our
inflatables, strobes, whistles and tethers just in case.
For the first time, this felt like they were necessary!! This continued
until sunrise when the black cloud began to break up.
The seas were still 10-15 feet with a brisk north wind. We
continued north and found the channel to Sandy Hook, NJ. We anchored at ~7:30 Friday
morning and, after picking up everything that was not nailed down off the sole,
crashed!!
(167 nm / 25h7m)
It wasn’t until ~1:30 PM that anyone stirred. We spent the
afternoon rehashing the events of the night and planning for the next leg of
our adventure.
Since Dave & Lois were still members of the City Island
Yacht Club, and they hadn’t been there in a while, we decided to make that our
next stop. We checked the current tables and turned in early.
Verrazano Narrows Bridge Friday Night
No comments:
Post a Comment