Sunday 9-26-10

We've ended our seventh day of our cruise south on the C & D Canal which connects Delaware Bay with Chesapeake Bay.

We started out on Monday with a long, rough, FANTASTIC sail from Mystic to Port Jefferson. Best sail in years. Longest sail ever.

Tuesday we motored in no wind to Port Washington. The last few miles the water was a dark red. Like a gazillion gallons of blood was in the water.

Wednesday we left our comfort zone and headed through NYC. Turned out not to be too bad. Ended up at Atlantic Highlands where we had a 45 minute adventure as a really bad storm went by around 8:15. We were fine but two boats that were not as well prepared came close to hitting us. Close doesn't count. 

Thursday got us to Atlantic City after dark. A challenge but all went fine.

Friday got us to Cape May after a late start due to dense fog. We got underway after visibility improved to 1/4 mile.

Saturday was a nice day and we stayed in Cape May for sightseeing and fuel. We should have left.

Sunday was way worse than forecast. We went around Cape May in 20+ kt. winds, 6 ft seas and 10 ft depths. Then it got bad. A major bash for more than 15 miles; a decent motorsail for 15 miles; a minor bash for 10 miles; then an easy go of it for the last 5 miles and the first half of the C & D Canal. Second half of the canal starts tomorrow. So does three or four days of stormy weather.

People in Delaware are not very helpful. Or friendly.

A long week and a lot of miles. A lot of fuel burned, too.

Shorter travel days planned for the next few weeks.

Thursday, 9-23-10

As I write this were about 5nm off the coast of NJ motorsailing between Manasquan and Barnegat. Haven't decided how far we'll travel today/tonight.

Yesterday we went through NYC. About 3 hours not counting the delay at the Roosevelt Island Bridge. West side of the East River closed due to the UN being in session. All in all not bad and we were lucky not to have any major traffic conflicts in any narrow spots. First time through Hell Gate went well.

We went to Atlantic Higlands, Sandy Hook, NJ and anchored. A major T-storm just missed a direct hit and we "only" got 40kt winds. We stayed secure but two boats in front of us dragged anchors and came close to hitting us which would have been very bad. Very, very bad, but nothing happened. Our prep payed off and we went back to bed after 45 min. Almost an adventure.

Next adventure is deciding what our next harbor is and when. After dark???

Underway at last

After many years of planning, hoping and working towards this day we are finally underway. So far it's not much different than other sailing trips since we will still be in L. I. Sound until at least Wed. Today is sunny but it's pretty boisterous with winds over 20 kts. Seas are choppy but only about 1 ft. Due to the direction of the wind.

I plan to update at least weekly, on Sundays, or as often as interesting things happen.

Three week summer cruise

     Our 2010 vacation cruise just ended. Okay. It was Carol and Heather's vacation. I don't think it can be a vacation for me if I don't work.

     The cruise didn't start out so great since Piggy Sue died aboard Infinite Improbability while underway heading for Point Judith, RI. She almost made it to 19 years old, way beyond normal life expectancy, and didn't really suffer at all. Just an uncomfortable last night and morning. She was buried on an uninhabited island she had visited many times during her boating life.

  

        The cruise improved after that. A relaxing week going around Narragansett Bay with good friends from the Waterbury Power Squadron. It included taking Mike and Ann Marino's kids sailing. Excellent crew! And also included side trips on a powerboat (Thanks, Jon) to Bristol and Fall River. I was made to take the helm of said powerboat for a while. I hope there are no photos!

     Carol and Heather joined me in Newport to take their vacations. Had an adventure before they were aboard as a large powerboat anchored too near me. When a storm and wind shift occurred no one was aboard it and I had to move to save our boat from damage under very adverse solo conditions. When confronted the next day they were extremely indifferent to the danger they caused me. #@#!!*&@ powerboaters!

Newport after a cold front.

     We then headed to Onset, MA. A long leg but a nice sail. Then we went through the Cape Cod Canal to Provincetown. Spent three nights there and went on a whale watch.

     Then it was back through the canal to Onset. Heather had to rent a car there to get back to Brooklyn. 

     After Heather left, Carol and I just had a lazy cruise around Buzzard's Bay. Had a very interesting sail from Hadley Harbor to Padanaram but Cleo (the cat) didn't like it much. She got seasick. Yuck! First person who can pronounce Padanaram who is not named 'Guay' wins a prize.

     A long leg from Cuttyhunk to Mystic ended this cruise. We had severe weather around us at times during the three weeks but never a direct hit.  Never more than a few hours of rain a couple of times and only one very foggy leg trying to outrun a thunderstorm to Cuttyhunk.

      All in all, a nice cruise except for our loss at the very beginning. Piggy Sue was with us a long time and passing away while aboard and underway was a very fitting end.

     Next up? A couple of short weekend Power Squadron events and then preparing for a major life change... Living aboard and cruising south for the winter.

The summer so far

     Our summer vacation cruise is just about a week away so a recap of the summer so far might be in order. It will be Carol's vacation cruise since I am on a permanent vacation ;>))

     Memorial Day Weekend, Heather joined us on a trip to Montauk, NY. Got a little sailing in but as usual it was mostly motorsailing. Spent a little time at the Ditch Plains beach and Heather got a some photos of a reasonably well known actor. She totally missed his hot wife who was nearby. Go figure. BTW the definition of a reasonably well known actor is... one that I've heard of (and seen on TV, at least) but not a movie mega-star. Heather also got the chance to meet up with some friends who were vacationing in the area. A very light wind on the return trip gave us a chance to play with (for the first time) our spinnaker. It worked, got dried out, but was not a great success. Plus, Carol hates spinnakers.

     The third week in June had us in West Neck Harbor at Shelter Island, NY. We met the Squadron there for a raft-up and we all had a grand time. One minor issue was dragging our anchor Saturday morning when three boats were rafted with us. Two more than I like but it's hard to say no. Re-anchoring solo was not a big deal and then another boat came to raft with us afterwards but we had no further problems. We had our usual get-together in the afternoon and had two dozen people aboard. A drop in participation from last year. The other major event was the discovery of how many barnacles we had growing on the bottom of our boat. They were huge and covered large sections of the hull. We got started on scraping but ran out of air and energy before the job was done. Blood was shed. Mostly by me. Didn't do the barnacles any good, either. On the voyage home we caught an unidentified fish (maybe a Coho) near The Ruins near Gardiner's Island, NY. Released it.

     We just got back a few days ago from a mini-cruise to Port Jefferson, NY. for the 4th of July holiday. We left on the Thursday before the holiday weekend and sailed (sailed!) towards Mattituck, NY. We got as far as the eastern end of Plum Island before we ran out of ocean and had to turn west into the wind and motor the rest of the way. Quite typical. A mile or two from the Mattituck Inlet entrance we caught a bluefish. It was about 16-18 inches and we should have kept, filleted and ate it but we were so close to the end of this leg of the trip we didn't want to be bothered. Released it. Going down the creek Carol suddenly asked about the low hanging power lines and the height of our mast. I had gone under (and cleared) the wires last year and felt we would be okay but I didn't remember if the height of the tide would be an issue. A couple of minutes of nervousness but no wire touching was the result. I found the info on the chart after we were under and saw we had at least 13 feet of clearance under the most adverse possible conditions but it sure looks closer! While anchoring we got a lobsterpot buoy caught in the port prop. No damage but someone missed seeing it ahead of time. A quick free-dive got it cleared. The next day we headed out to go to PJ (Port Jeff). Motored right into the wind the whole day. Caught another bluefish when we neared PJ. This one was maybe 12 inches and we let it go, too. Getting too picky.

Heather came to the harbor by train and we spent three nights anchored there. Decent fireworks on Sunday (the 4th) night. Finished the bottom scraping job with no further bruising or bloodshed. Monday there was no wind on the Sound and we headed back to Mattituck under power. Caught another bluefish as we got close. This one was less than 12 inches and we let it go. Decided we should not have let the 18 incher go a few days ago. We anchored and Heather quickly jumped off the boat to catch a train back to the City. Tuesday was another H-H-H and low wind day and we finished our trip back to Mystic. Did NOT catch a fish. I guess the lure doesn't work anymore. Maybe it's broken. We had an encounter with an unescorted submarine. We got a 500 yard warning from them and altered course even though we had the right-of-way. Post 9/11 rule... stay away from warships. It was brutally hot for the third straight day, even on the water. Carol did some trolling (dangling feet in the water) while underway even though we encountered sharks shortly after doing this a year ago.

The only major down note of the summer is the end of my relationship with the Meriden Humane Society. They decided that nepotism and egos were more important than a core of four dedicated cat volunteers. People who were there many hours a week and donated items and money became redundant over a parody of ridiculous postings of sophomoric rules. Too bad. One of my fellow volunteers donated hundreds of dollars and hours a month but was unappreciated and unwanted. This is a 'no-kill' shelter but not always a 'no-suffering' shelter. Many damaged people running the place. Animals sometimes are undercared for as a result. 

A Fishing Trip. Really?

     Our first cruise in the season was a fishing trip.

     Fishing? Me? Really?

     Yup.

     Mike Guay and I took Infinite Improbability to Block Island to join members of the Waterbury Power Squadron on the First Annual (if the wives allow it again) Men's Fishing Trip. Friday 21 May (Heather's Birthday!) we headed out early and when we got out to Block Island Sound we started trolling two lines behind us. We were motoring because of absolutely no wind but cutting back our RPMs to a better fishing speed. After being enroute for about 8nm the breeze picked up and we decided to reel in the lines to prepare to sail. That's when a Striper (Striped Bass) hit the lure Mike had put on my fishing pole. After a little scramble to get the boat organized I reeled it in. First time for me. Never fought a fish before. And it was a fight. This guy was not interested in being dinner that night. But he was.

I thought the fish was 3 feet long after we measured it but after being 'consulted' by experienced fishermen I found out it was 36 inches. Go figure. No matter the length, it was delish.

     Saturday the squadron guys went out on three boats for the actual fishing outing. Two boats were owned by big time fishing guys, the third was a cruising tug style vessel. I was with one of the fishing fanatics (finatics?) and Mike G. was on the cruising boat. We caught one skate. The other fishing boat caught a skate and one other non-edible species. The cruising boat caught 10 fish but only two were edible and they were not of legal size and were also released. 6+ hours, no keepers. I guess this is fishing. I caught one the first time out (enroute) and thought that's how it's done. Apparently not.

     We were fishing on the north side of Block Island, east and west of the north reef. It was so foggy we didn't see anything most of the day. I guess it was too foggy for the fish to find the bait. The bait was squid from Stop & Shop. We would have been better off making calamari for that nights dinner than fishing with it.                                                                                                                                                               

    On Sunday we headed back to Mystic and again it was very foggy. 1/4 to 1nm visibility but with a light breeze. We sailed a slow (trolling) speed but caught no fish.                                                                         

     All in all it was a great weekend, fog aside. Got some sailing in. Learned about fishing and fileting. Hung out with a diverse group of guys who love the boating (and fishing) lifestyle. What could be better?                                              

        

New Season

     It's finally the start of a new sailing season. We hope this will be an endless season as we plan to move aboard our boat full time and not winter in New England again. If we never winterize, the season never ends.

     The boat overwintered in the water in Clinton, CT. so didn't have a launch. Just uncovered it. De-winterized the engines and freshwater systems and ready to go.

     Well, not really. It still needs a lot of cleaning.

     Regardless of status the boat had to be moved by 15 April and on Wednesday the 14th we did just that. With the help of Frank Krapf, a Waterbury Squadron member, we headed for Mystic on a beautiful sunny day.

     Motorsailing until the Conn. River and then a nice sail to the New London area when we started motorsailing again until the Fisher's Island Sound area.

     Then came our first adventure of the season. We came into our mooring area at dead low tide and knew we were going to go aground. When the inevitable happens, you're still annoyed at the inconvienience. A couple of hundred feet short of where we were going to anchor we got stuck. Had to wait about 90 minutes for the water to get deep enough to move to the proper spot. The downside to having a relatively inexpensive mooring in a pretty and protected area is not always having enough water to float in.

     It is almost guaranteed this will not be the first time Infinite Improbability will be aground this year. It may be a common occurance once we get to the ICW.

     Now if we could just get the house, land and other boat sold.