Sept 20, 2011

Today was a successful failure, we left Port Jefferson today at 12:00 after filling up with fuel and water, but quickly realized that once we were out of the harbor the wind was more out of the west than we had anticipated. So we were beating into a head wind in the rain and cold, and decided to turn around an go back to Port Jeff.
It all turned out really well, once we got back Chris made homemade brownies, and Deason brought me to shore so I could finally get our laundry done. The other reason I prefer warmer temperatures is less clothes= less laundry! It had even stopped raining, so I got to walk around and explore the town a little. I found a great bakery, a Starbucks, and even brought back a pizza for dinner....it was a very successful day in my opinion!

Sept 19, 2011- New York

We left Niantic today at 9:30. It was forecast for 10-15 knot winds so we decided to put up our main sail straight away. It helped a little, but we ended up motor-sailing the whole way due to the wind barely blowing greater than 8 knots.
It was sunny and warm (finally) and the water was pretty flat for our trip across the sound. We even tried to trawl a fishing line to see if we could catch dinner, but we failed in our fishing attempt. We need a little more knowledge. We have a trawling rod, but it needs line and we didn't have the right tackle out, but Dahlia had fun trying with what we had anyway.
We got to Port Jefferson and got the anchor set by 5:30, and Deason was kayaking by 5:35. The harbor is surrounded by amazing houses on high cliffs, and clean beaches, and it is large enough that you would probably never have to worry about finding room to anchor. The large car ferries that run through here can't even take away from how great an anchorage it is.
We also got to use our early Christmas present from Chris's parents. They gave us an ICOM718 HF radio and tuner, and Chris's Dad made us 20 meter and 40 meter antennas that we can hoist up with our gennaker halyard. We were able to contact him tonight on our first attempt at setting everything up, and he sounded just like he was sitting with us. It is comforting to know that if we are way off shore we can still contact people on land. Thank you Nana + Grampa for the great gift!

Sept 18, 2011-Connecticut

We got to sleep in today! I love when we have to wait for a favorable tide before we leave, especially when it allows us to sleep past 7am. The current at The Race, which is between Fishers Island and Montauk, can get up to 4knots, which can either really help you or really hurt you. When we did haul anchor, it was cold and cloudy, but I had gotten a good night sleep so even though the weather was sore, I was not!
We put our head sail out as soon as we got out of the harbor, and we motor sailed for a little ways before we realized that we should have put up the main sail too. As soon as we got out of the lee of the Island the waves size picked up and it would have been really difficult to raise the main sail and keep the boat pointed into the wind to do so! The couple who we met the night before, had left at the same time as us, but they were smart enough to put up their main sail just outside the harbor, and then proceeded to blow by us under just wind power.....oooppps! We were happy motor sailing, and were even up to 9 knots of speed at one point, thanks in part to The Race current.
We had a short run up to Niantic, and the sun even came out for us as we got to our intended anchorage. The down side to being boat bums is that we had no idea what day it was, and decided to take a 3mile dinghy ride over to the town to do laundry and get some grocery staples.
Even though it was well before 5pm, everything but restaurants were closed. Then we had a wet dinghy ride back to the boat, beating into the wind, as Chris said..."good initiative, bad judgement"! Oh well, we'll do laundry tomorrow!

Sept 17, 2011-Rhode Island

We decided against long hauls for now. I am going to speak for myself by saying I don't have it in me. These last few nights the wind had picked up after midnight and as a result it had severely deprived us of sleep.
We left Tarpaulin this morning at 7am, the seas were calm and it wasn't quite so cold, but we had already decided that we would stop at Block Island for the night. We had light winds out of the NE so we put up our sails to see if we could sail. Our boat is kind of heavy and needs at least 10knots of wind to really get going, but with 8 knots of wind we tried anyway. We were going okay for a while, but then the winds died and we had to motor the rest of the way. To be perfectly honest I wasn't complaining. Sailing is a lot of work, and I was tired and grumpy! I started the day off in a foul mood (I am blaming lack of sleep), and I ended up snapping at Dahlia for getting yogurt on Deason's journal. Of all things, it wasn't as if it couldn't just be wiped up. In the end, I realized how foolish I was when Dahlia looked up at me with her big eyes and said "sorry mama"! Amazing how a two year old can put you in your place, by being so humble. I was able to snap out of it after that.
Then, we were all cheered up by a little bird that flew into our line bag. It took a quick nap then hopped around our cockpit for a while, and didn't seem to be confused, hurt, or frightened, it actually just seemed curious. It hopped around Chris's feet for a while and even took a perch on the wheel! He finally flew off after checking out most of our boat.
We arrived at Block Island around 3pm, and we had the pleasure of meeting a couple who just sold all of their stuff and now they are living on their 44ft Lagoon, hopefully we will see them again as we are both heading for the Bahamas!

Sept 16, 2011

It has been a rough couple of days having to say goodbye to everyone. I didn't think it would be as hard as it was. We are all pretty affected by our goodbyes, even Deason. We all had a great summer and that is something that we are all having a hard time letting go of.
We were going to leave yesterday, but there was a gale force wind warnings for last night so we decided to stay put. Good thing, it was blowing like mad last night. I am not sure if that was the entire reason for me not getting a good nights sleep, but I am going to use it as an excuse for now.
It isn't easy leaving the dock, it is too easy to get use to the securities of being tied up and having access to whatever, whenever we want. Laying in bed last night my mind was running with all the what ifs. That is the other down side to the comforts of the docks, I imagine all the worst the ocean has to offer. I didn't have half of those thoughts on the trip up when I we were actually out there on the ocean.
We left early this morning in the middle of the out going tide at 6am with a beautiful sunrise, and every hope of making it to another state. We were unsuccessful in making it to another state! The seas were nasty and choppy from a night of heavy winds, so we bailed into Tarpaulin Cove (our favorite), we will try again tomorrow. All the small craft advisories are suppose to be gone by 8am tomorrow. The winds will be out of the NE, and we should be able to make a good run. We have all sorts of plans, but like today, sometimes mother nature has other plans. We are never opposed to going with natures plans.
The sunrise this morning was amazing, but man was it cold. It was in the 40's, bbbrrrrrr! Good thing Chris kept his winter hat around. They weren't kidding when they had forecast a cold front.
The kids didn't mind the cold, they even insisted on taking the dinghy to shore to see the cows. Hopefully, by this time tomorrow we will be off shore heading south, or at least have made it to Rhode Island!

Sept 12, 2011

New batteries are in...now if the weather forecasts for this week stay the same we might be heading out this Thursday!

Sept 10, 2011

We took a little trip over to Tarpaulin Cove again. We had such a terrible rainy cold week, and the forecast for the weekend turned out to be a little modest. The weather people had forecast partly cloudy with highs in the low 70's. They were wrong. It was beautiful and sunny and about 78-79 degrees. We made the last minute decision to go, and luckily Chris's aunt and uncle and his parents were willing to come along. I am embarrassed to say that we have been here all summer and this is the first time that we have taken his parents out on the boat.
Chris's family was brave enough to go swimming, while Dahlia and I opted to kayak to shore. As a side note...I love the kayaks and they aren't even that difficult to get on and off the boat. We spent the day swimming and eating, and then waited for the tide to change before we made our way home.
Well, the tide changed and the wind picked up and we got pretty beat up on the way home. We had the current with us but we were beating into the wind, so the opposing wind and current made the seas really choppy and confused. It is only about 6 miles away, but we were getting slammed and could only go about 4 knots. Chris's family was thankfully unfazed and seemed to be having fun, even though the spray was coming over the bimini top to the back of the boat and the secured TV came crashing down.
Then, as we were coming in to dock we were too far off so we had to try a second attempt. In the process Chris tells me that he has to go to the bathroom really bad and can't hold it any longer. So, I had to take the helm. We had just passed our dock, and surrounding our dock is a mooring field. I knew there was an empty mooring off the starboard side, but couldn't see it so I couldn't turn off that way. I had to turn in a small area just forward of our end dock, another dock and the mooring field. For most experienced captains this would not have been a big deal, but I was nervous. I either need more experience piloting or will have to put Chris in diapers. More time at the helm is probably more practical.