Friday, May 15, 2009

Winds blew at 30 knots all night long. We awoke at 5 am to find the water as smooth as glass and pulled up anchor at 6:08 am to head out. Five minutes after leaving our quiet anchorage, we were in 4 to 6 foot seas. By 6:45 am, Maureen was seasick! She tried out her new seasickness band that delivers a shock to the wrist every couple of seconds. It gave her immediate relief, but wasn’t strong enough to keep the nausea at bay on this trip. We followed the coast line about four miles out in the ocean where it wasn’t quite as rough. Coming into Barnagat Inlet was difficult due to fog, high seas and a narrow passage. Several new buoys had been placed which were not noted on the charts or on the GPS causing some confusion. At 12:45 pm we were inside the cove and things calmed down considerably. Barnagat Lighthouse is as beautiful as the pictures portray. The town, Barnagat Light, NJ, is a quaint little fishing village and the city offers free mooring buoys so we decided to hook up and spend the night. From our anchorage we have a terrific view of the lighthouse. Three other sailboats anchored here for the night. The last boat that came in was a catamaran, Foxfire.
We tried out the shower in the head tonight and it works great! While Maureen was showering, Karen, from Foxfire, and her dog, Skipper, stopped by in their dinghy to say hello. She said that she, too, had come from Atlantic City today and that it was not a good day to be out. She had even more difficulty coming into the Inlet because the fog had gotten thicker by then. In fact, she had called ahead to request a Coast Guard escort if she needed one and Karen is an experienced cruiser. She lived aboard her catamaran for 8 years but about 4 years ago bought a place in Rhode Island. She still cruises as much as she can. Karen is also headed to Sandy Hook and said she was concerned with the weather forecast and the small craft warnings. We had also been listening to the weather and didn’t want to intentionally head out into another day like this one. We’ll see what the weather radio says in the morning.

Thursday, May 14, 2009

We woke up about 5:30 am and turned on the marine radio. The wind was beginning to pick up and we were interested in the forecast. Because of the small craft warnings due to winds and having to travel “outside” on the ocean rather than in the protected intracoastal waterway, we decided that this would be a good day to stay put and work on a few small jobs we had been wanting to do. Gale worked with his chart plotters trying to figure out more of the features while Maureen caught up on the mail, bills and correspondence.

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Today is a big day for Lucy! Gale had made up a patch of grass for her before we left north Iowa. We knew that it was going to be really hard for Lucy to make the transition from going to the bathroom outside in the yard to having to do her business on the boat, so the idea was that if we brought some real sod and put it out on the deck for her, she would eventually figure out that it was for her bathroom. Yesterday we tried to convince her to use it a few times – she would lay on it and tried to eat some of the grass, but wouldn’t “go” on it. We could tell she was thinking about jumping overboard when we were cruising through the canal at a slow speed by the way she was eyeing the shore. By the time we stopped for fuel last evening, she was fit to be tied and nearly jumped out of her skin waiting for the leash and to get to land. This morning Maureen took her right out to the grass patch on the bow and told her it was okay for her to “potty.” She laid down on it at first so we walked her around the boat and came back to it. This time she did it!! We praised her, gave her a couple of treats and went back into the cabin for breakfast. When we walked out on the deck to pull the anchor, we found that she had gone back to “poop,” too! Hurray! We know the grass won’t last forever, so the next transition will be to a fake grass mat. Stay tuned. . .
We pulled anchor at 7:36 am and motored out of port. It was a beautiful morning – somewhat cooler and breezier than yesterday. We motored most of the 41 miles to Atlantic City, but did take about 30 minutes to sail with the headsail right in front of the Atlantic City casinos. The winds were just a bit too light for the direction we wanted to go, however, we very much enjoyed having the motor off for awhile. At 4:15 pm we anchored in a small, quiet pool near Rum Point just north of the town basin where we could see the lights of most of the casinos. One small trawler came in late and anchored a ways from us.

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

An absolutely perfect morning to embark! The temperature was in the mid-50’s with clear skies and a slight haze over the water. At 6:39 am we threw off the dock lines and motored away from Delaware City. At 9:45 am we passed our first lighthouse, the Ship John Shoal Lighthouse, and slowed down to take a few pictures from the boat. The day turned out to be quite lovely with temperatures around 70 degrees and light breezes. We travelled 50 miles and entered the Cape May Canal at 3 pm escorted by a single dolphin. At Harbor View Marina we took on some fuel and then anchored across the canal in front of the Coast Guard station at 5 pm. We used 6.9 gallons of fuel for the 50 miles and enjoyed fuel economy of 7.25 mpg which is excellent. After spending a few moments to record the trip data, review tomorrow’s route and finish the boat chores, we grilled a couple of small pork chops for dinner. Maureen was in bed as soon as the sun went down and Gale stayed up for a little while to make sure that he had the route entered into the chart plotter to his satisfaction.

Monday, May 11, 2009

This morning was noticeably cooler than the last two or three. But, it wasn’t raining, so that was a plus! Maureen spent most of the day in the marina laundry room catching the WiFi signal and taking care of some mail, bills, correspondence, updating the blog and other business. Gale was busy with some of the finer details around the boat.
We met Bill Derry & Joan Meadows of St. Georges, DE, who were in the boatyard working on their 36 foot Pearson Ketch, “Windborne.” They were eager to share their cruising knowledge, especially related to the New York Harbor, and graciously invited us to enjoy a “Sundowner” with them. According to Bill & Joan, a Sundowner is the traditional evening gathering in the Bahamas where anyone interested is invited to bring an hors d’oeuvre and their own drinks to a previously agreed upon host boat and share a meal and a few hours of camaraderie. Bill picked us up at the marina around 6:15 pm and took us to their home where we had a glass of wine, a nice plate of hamburger/vegetables/guacamole nachos, and some raspberry pie. They filled us in on living on a boat in the Bahamas, gave us some ideas for anchoring spots in New York Harbor, and shared some valuable tips with us as we begin our cruising lifestyle. We hope to catch up with Bill & Joan in the Bahamas this winter!
We both felt better about sailing away from our harbor tomorrow having spent this extra day regrouping. Bill & Joan had us back at the boat by 8:30 pm so we could get to bed and rest up for our first day of cruising.

Sunday, May 10, 2009

It is a beautiful Mother’s Day morning. Gale’s big project of the day was getting the dinghy rigged up on the davits. After a bit of head scratching and some extra help from Ed, he was able to get the dinghy secured to his satisfaction. We also returned the car to the rental office which felt like another big step – giving up the wheels!! We worked very hard today trying to finish up all the big chores so that we could leave tomorrow. About 9 pm we decided that we were pushing too hard to try to leave the dock - both of us still had a few other jobs we wanted to have done before sailing. After a little dinner onboard, we worked a bit longer and then fell into bed!

Saturday, May 9, 2009

Another gorgeous day to be outside working on the boat! Gale’s major project was installing the Chart Plotter and putting a screen in the cockpit window. Maureen continued to do most of her organizing on the inside of the boat, but was able to help Gale out with the screening project.