Around Jersey;
Roger and Eric picked me up in the rental car in Newark, De. early Monday afternoon scheduled for an o-dark-thirty sailing departure from Chesapeake City, Md. the next morning. A fair weather window actually changed that and found us casting-off only minutes after arriving. Small Craft Warnings were up on the Chesapeake Bay side but heck, we were traveling East into the Delaware Bay so that didn’t apply, right? After an interesting 15 mile motor thru the canal that was just wide enough to share with a large car container ship, we set the genny and began running down the De. bay surfing down small 3’ waves at 9 knots. This was a cold, dark and windy night that even 6 layers of clothing didn’t do the job of keeping us warm, oh did I mention it is mid May and the temps were struggling to remain in the low 40’s ?
Strider is a fine and sturdy sailing vessel however she seemed to prefer jibes at 30 degrees rather than a dead run before the wind. Eric thankfully stayed with me in the cockpit offering support, experienced eyes and handled the sheets. Why is it that I only seem to remember the couple of sloppy jibes that I performed that night? I must admit the beautiful but soon-to-set fingernail moon was hard to enjoy due to the constant attention of steering the boat. Alright I am kinda new at this night sailing stuff but heck there were lots-o-stuff to remind me why we weren’t in any small sailboat traffic jams on this night. For me this all was a bit challenging, you know, trying to follow the changing narrow channel, and the numerous red, green, and white lighted buoys of every shape and size, dodging many ships before us and overtaking us, barges (some anchored), large active bottom dredging sites and Nuclear plants…no problem, right? All of this plus while I was having to instantly compute the sailing angles on our downwind jibes against the dark night I must admit confused me a little and I became directional disoriented once or twice. I guess this is how one gains necessary sailing experience, right? Anyway, I was content to finish our shift and try to catch some shut-eye down below. (no crews actually sleep on the first night anyway, I had been told). Captain Roger had decided to run the Yanmar to finish our now moonless leg to Cape May. Several hours later, I was startled from my berth by a distinct change in the “motor-hum”, as it sounded like we had a minor and temporary prop wrap. The boat was rockin n rollin pretty good at this point as the building seas were off our port quarter and we were taking mild bow-spray as we dipped into the troughs. Thankfully, the motor still sounded strong enough to push us into the Cape May channel, but where is it exactly? I layered-up and joined in the search which included Eric after he realized all hands on deck would improve our odds. It was still very dark as we could just make out the outline of the large Cape May/ Lewes, De. ferry terminal and finally located the entrance channel markers and headed more to port. Now on our new NE course to enter the canal, Strider was beam-on to the wind and seas, making for an exhilarating ride. Once we were in the lee of the Cape May channel the wind and sea abated but where is that old unlighted railroad bridge that we had to pass by? Is this bridge it? Is the next one a draw bridge? “Eric, check the charts”. We were now crawling along at idle speed through the canal at 3am with six eyes straining and searching for that would-be bow-bender railroad bridge. (who needs a handheld spotlight?, their overrated anyway) There it is, and good, someone thought to install some red lights on it. After successfully winding through the 3 mile canal we anchored next to the Coast Guard Station and several other sailboats at 4 am and hit the hay.
Roger not only provisioned well, he cooks up some quick and tasty food! While eating our eggs and spam we voted to weigh anchor immediately to try to beat some bad weather that was forecasted to hit the Jersey coast in a couple of days. It was now 8 am (not much rest for the weary) and I take the helm as Roger and Eric set-up the reefed main on this glorious sunny, cold and breezy morning. As we are leaving the protected Cape May Harbor the sun is glittering off the water ahead of us. We all observe cormorants diving for their breakfast in the fish-rich turbulent waters that exist where the end of the inlet widens and joins the Atlantic Ocean.
Heading up into the wind, we unfurl the genny as well and point NNE…here we go, offshore, no looking back, New York Harbor or bust! We try to set-up the wind-vane but even after many ongoing adjustments (probably operator error = me) we decide to shake-out the reef in the main and hand-steer. (remember that?) Just as Strider finds her sailing groove, pointing just off the wind, Captain Roger and Eric go below for some much needed rest.
OK, so now here I am cruising up the New Jersey coast under full sail with a healthy heel and a speed almost to 7 knots. The sea-state was the somewhat comfortable but still-know-your-in-the-ocean 3’ variety, trying to absorb the warmth of the low sun filled sky, and feeling like, how lucky am I? What did I do right to deserve this great moment? While sailing at speed, alone with my thoughts, bounding through the chop just inside of a beam reach, we were joined by several pods of dolphins off our port beam assuring us of good fortune…what can be better than this, I thought. Actually I felt like leaving the helm momentarily, and running forward on the deck to lean against the bow pulpit while reaching my hands in the air and yelling, “I am king of the world!”, but I didn’t. (damn auto-pilot wasn’t on)
Eric’s 4 hr helm-shift seemed equally inspiring for him…good challenging wind and sea conditions all-the-while rewarding him with practice and successful experience gained operating the Cape-Horn wind vane. During this shift, I did well for myself by never falling out of my berth, even during a couple of lovely jibes…who says lee cloths should be mandatory anyway?
After the winds lightened we continued our Northbound sojourn under diesel power which seemed to be running strong. (we believed we had cleared an earlier prop-snag by reversing shaft direction a couple of times)
A beautiful sunny day watching the Jersey shore towns disappear one by one…Wildwood, Atlantic City, Seaside Heights, is that Snookie?
My first ever nighttime off-shore helm-shift crewing experience from 8pm to midnight went smoothly. Motoring through relatively flat seas on remote Auto-pilot was a piece of cake. I still had to stay alert however to keep Strider on the chart-plotter coarse that I constantly monitored. This plotter was actually mounted in the cabin on a cleverly designed swing-out mounting bracket that was viewed from the cockpit while it was positioned almost flush with the companionway hatch boards. (we always kept 2 of these 3 hatch boards in place. I presumed we did this as a safety precaution, just in case of a suddenly building sea or a rogue wave) While on deck we also always wore our inflatable PFD’s which had safety cords that we clipped into tether lines attached to the boat running fore and aft on both sides. In addition to keeping her on track by pressing the Auto-pilot controls often, I think I actually felt guilty when I made a decision to steer several degrees off to starboard from our designated course (but still running parallel) to avoid a mess (8-12) of large bright red beacons that didn’t show-up on the paper or GPS charts. We all were conscious and aware of possible changeable conditions in this area of the Jersey shore due to the disaster experienced here recently by hurricane Sandy. I thought that these numerous red beacons could be new, marking not only the Manasquan Inlet but maybe also changes in shoaling or bottom depths in that area so I decided to give them a wide berth without waking a fellow crew member for consult.
After several shift changes Roger was motor-sailing us at Dawn under the awe-inspiring Verrazano-Narrows bridge which is the entrance to New York City Harbor. Boat traffic was picking up with large container ships speeding by somewhat close in the vanishing sea-room. The Sunrise was a beautiful intense red horizon followed by the large orange orb slowly lighting up the Manhattan skyline. I almost now missed the subtle darkness of the night which had your imagination filling-in-the-blanks of only the outlines you could see of familiar shapes in the distance. Numerous barges and tugboats plied the busy harbor leaving only their wakes to remind us of their passing. And there was Lady Liberty looking regal when mutely lit by the low sun and we all compared our own past family experiences while visiting this memorable location. Eric skillfully steered us now, leaving Governor’s Is on our portside while Roger cooked us great egg tortilla breakfast sandwiches…what a guy!
More crew stories…the famous Peking docked at the South street Seaport museum– a 4 masted baroque? Schooner (one of my favs). Roger has personally met and has been on committees with some of these world-class sailors and designers! Then there is the newly declared (last wk) “tallest man-made structure in the Western Hemisphere” – The Freedom Tower loomed large above everything.
While motoring up the East River and under the Brooklyn Bridge Eric said “This is unreal” and we all agreed and is something that will stay with me for some time. Eric knew the names of all the bridges as we passed under them…the Manhatten, Williamsburg and Queensboro bridges…Cool. Familiar sights pass by, the Woolworth Bld, United Nations and Eric’s fav, the Chrysler Bld. Roger points out the new park and bust statue of Roosevelt on his Is. right in the middle of the East River.
Part of Captain Roger’s expert trip planning was to arrive at Hell Gate (turbulent water area on the East R where 3 bodies of water meet) at slack tide so that when we passed by the several hundred yard psycho-tide area, the effect on Strider would be minimized. We were relieved to witness that his planning had paid off - we only experienced about a low 2 knot tide running against us and some minimal surface whirl-pooling where the Bronx R, the East R and Long Island Sound intersect. So, not so bad…actually pretty smooth going thru this area all-the-while we were sharing close sea-quarters with a nervous tug boat Captain (or he was trying to get into shape-we couldn’t tell) who was constantly walking laps around his 2nd deck area which was pushing this large barge ahead of him…kinda funny to watch him.
So as we rounded the bend, the air chilled from meeting up with the colder water of LI Sound, past Rikers Island prison and we watched jets approach right over our heads from LaGuardia Airport, and cruised North further up into Long Is Sound, my part of this trip was ending. As we saw City Is off our port bow Roger turned East towards Port Washington and my departure point. With little fan fare, (no worries) and a building wind ,he skillfully turned Strider around and abeam of the floating pier and I stepped ashore. See you guys, we exchanged waves and that was that. I walked toward shore, then turned around and watched as Roger and Eric continued their cruising plans.
A brief but memorable experience with capable, generous and kind people. Life is good.
Post script: I walked a mile to the LI train station, $8 fare and 40 min to Penn Station in Manhattan…tired and weary instead of taking 1st bus home I walked across town to catch red skytram to Roosevelt Is.,(we passed on way in sailboat) checked out park then met 2 vacationing European girls and spent the sunny afternoon in Central Park laughing and eating ice-cream…took bus home to Balto. at 7:30pm. I have felt sailboat “wobble” all day.
Thanks for sharing a good adventure and everything Roger, you’re an inspiration to me and others…you are the real deal…sail on safely my friend, to Maine and beyond.
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