Home in Mystic

     We are home in Mystic for the summer. And we got here in record time.

     We stayed in Annapolis one extra day because of forecast small craft warnings in Chesapeake Bay. It wasn't that bad but it allowed an offshore storm to move farther east and northeast and a high pressure area to fill in. I'd been watching this progress for a week with the hopes of it letting us have a smooth passage up the NJ coast or letting us go straight to Montauk from Cape May. Almost worked perfectly.

     From Annapolis we had a flat calm day to Chesapeake City on the C & D Canal. The free dock there was out of service due to repairs/upgrading. There was no deck on the new floating dock. Oh well. Not a problem, plenty of room to anchor 'though it filled up quickly after we got there.

We left at 0500 (dark) with the current in our favor and just made it through the RR lift bridge before it closed for a train. Delaware Bay was a little choppy at the beginning (1 ft) but we still had the current. When the current turned against us the chopped faded away so it all evened out. A couple of hours later the current was back with us and it took us all the way down the bay to Cape May where we decided to head north and not to Montauk direct. Going to Montauk would have meant arrival there well after dark the next day and it would take us closer to the northeast bound storm.

     We did not stop in Cape May, just kept going. We had an easy swell, occasionally 4 to 6 feet, with bare ripples from the breeze so the night went fairly well. Not our easiest passage there but pretty nice. We got to Ambrose Channel into NYC just after dawn the next day and had the current all the way through the City. We averaged 10 knots over the ground and sometimes near 12. The East River up near the northern end of Roosevelt Island was amazing to behold. Standing 3-4 ft waves with whirlpools and shears. Exciting. Hell Gate itself wasn't as bad as just outside either end of it, just very fast. It was so fast that we could have gotten to Port Washington by 10 AM if we had not decided to continue on to Port Jefferson. Chesapeake City to PJ in 33 hours. A new record! We left the C & D on Sunday and we were at PJ earl Monday afternoon.

The next day we were home in Mystic. Way ahead of schedule.

     So our summer work has started. The Pearson was in good shape but filthy. The Dean is pretty dirty, too. A new bimini project is on the horizon and then there's all our medical visits to take care of. Life on board is tough but someone has to do it.

     Next blog likely not until the end of the summer.