July 15, 2010

We have fixed one motor, replaced our anchor, and feel a little less broken ourselves. We will head out of this wonderful marina today and hopefully make it to Oyster Bay. Everyone keep your fingers crossed and say a prayer for us.
The people here have been awesome. We are docked next to a large motor yacht with a 5 person crew. They have been feeding us well. When we first arrived the chef offered us some homemade banana bread, and it was GOOD! Yesterday, she gave us the rest of the chili she made for dinner. If only we could keep up with them, then we could follow them around and eat all of their leftovers!

July 14, 2010-Long Island sound

Where to begin! I will try to make a long story short. We have had a few problems with this electric system though out our journey, most of which, we have been able to fix or deal with. Well, one of our controllers for our electric motors died on our trip to Atlantic City. So we have basically only been able to power under one motor, which has been fine especially considering we were able to sail though NYC.

Well, when we got though the city we went to anchor off of City Island in Long Island Sound, the anchor wouldn't set on the first try and then our one good motor died on us. We were finally able to set the anchor, maneuvering with our bad motor that could only give us idle speed. Where we set the anchor was in deep water, and in hindsight, we didn't have enough chain out for the depth that we were in.

We were fine overnight. We went ashore to do laundry and get a part for the motor, and then back to the boat to try and fix our motor. While Chris was working on the motor, a small storm was buzzing by and we didn't have enough scope out on our chain to hold us in the 30+ knot winds. We had started to drag, but we didn't have any power to try and right the situation since Chris was working on the motor. We didn't want to bring the anchor up, because we would only drag faster.

We dragged down on another sailboat, their bow sprit punched a small hole just below our gunwale, and bent one of our life line metal stanchions. Over all, minor damage, and thankfully we did no damage to their boat. We did however hook our anchor on their mooring and were unable to free it, but we had stopped dragging.

Once Tow Boat arrived we had to cut our anchor and chain in order to get free. We were towed to a marina on Long Island so we could repair and regroup. We have been going over all the...would of....should of.....could of's...and have realized that the anchor and chain was a small price to pay for making a series of small mistakes.

Chris has since repaired one motor, and we are hopefully going to be getting a new anchor and chain today, then we will slowly continue on our way.

July 12, 2010-New York

We were all well rested last night, I fell asleep with Dahlia at 7pm. We got going by 6am. We finally had a good SE wind, and were able to sail out of the inlet. Although, when we turned North out of the inlet our wind died and didn't come back to life until after noon. When it did pick up, it was moving!

We sailed up to Sandy Hook, and had the current and a strong wind so we decided to keep going. (So much for keeping our days short) It was fun and scary at the same time. We had 20 knot winds and were doing 9+ knots. We had to reef the main and jib before going under the Verrazano Narrows bridge due to the 25+ knot gusts. We were still able to maintain 8+ knots of speed. We sailed by the Statue of Liberty, down the East River, under the Brooklyn Bridge, by Roosevelt Island, and into Hell Gate and only used a little bit of power to help control the boat through some of the strong rips in the current. What a truly amazing view of the city, it would have been better if it was not overcast, but still awe inspiring! I felt bad for the poor souls sitting in traffic as we were doing 10+ knots down the East River! Yeee Haaaww!

July 11, 2010

Pushing into a head wind again!! A short day, Barnaget inlet was only about 40 miles away. We had quite a bouncy ride in through the inlet, it reminded me of Ft. Lauderdale inlet. While we were cursing the ocean rollers, current, and chop, there were guys on jet skis jumping the breakers in the inlet getting lots of air. One persons hell, is another persons heaven!

Dahlia has been keeping us very busy, she is climbing on everything and is attempting to scale her gate in this picture. I have put up safety netting on the life lines, but in the event that we need to do something that requires us not being able to watch her every step, she has been relegated to the safety of her pack n' play.

July 10, 2010

We got to Atlantic City early. We plan to break up the rest of the trip into shorter legs. We are all ready for a break in traveling. If we do longer days out it only makes us want to stay on the hook longer. Slow and steady wins the race!

Chris and Deason went to shore to get pizza and candy. (I was in need of junk food) The casinos set themselves up so you have to walk through the casino in order to get anywhere, but kids aren't allowed in the casino. So as Chris and Deason made their way in, they were politely kicked out. They did manage to get to the pizzeria, and I had fresh out of the oven pizza delivered by dinghy.

July 9, 2010

Not an ideal day, but not bad either. We left the Cohansey River and traveled down the Delaware Bay into the wind again. We had the benefit of the tide, and thankfully the opposing forces didn't make the water as choppy as the day before.

We got to Cape May and anchored near the Coast Guard station. The boat anchored next to us was from Sandwich, Ma. Once we got settled we took our dinghy over to their boat to chat with them a while. Come to find out, they keep their boat at Kingman! Plus, our friend Tom Maddigan was also anchored at Cape May. He is bringing his boat from Baltimore to Woods Hole. Some how it is comforting knowing someone that is traveling the same route as us.

The wakes at this particular anchorage were pretty bad. There are numerous marinas in the inlet that have hundreds of the exact same sport fishing boats. They must of had a huge sale on sport fishers and everyone in NJ bought one. It is too bad they don't require taking a course on manners when you purchase one of these types of vessels.

At 10pm one of these special individuals shouted across the anchorage from his passing sport fisher..."I F*#$^%G HATE SAILBOATS"! I always find it amazing how a little beer and a little darkness can make someone feel so tough!

July 8, 2010-New Jersey

Had to be up and out by 8am to catch the tide for the rest of our trip on the canal. We got a good ride from the current through the canal and out to Delaware bay, but the wind and current were opposing each other in the bay which made for choppy seas.

We barely made it half way down the bay before we decided to anchor and go the rest of the way tomorrow. We were all exhausted and couldn't do another long day.

The anchorage was up the Cohansey River in Greenwich, NJ. Not much around there, but the anchor stuck well and that's all we cared about. We spent our time bird watching. There was these little birds that would hang out on the safety lines and eat all the green heads. I liked the birds for that reason alone. To Cape May tomorrow!