Cape May to Sandy Hook, NJ: Part 1 - Claire

 Harbor of Refuge Light at mouth of DE Bay

Delayed post since spotty wi-fi, only 30 miles off NJ during my planned writing window.

Goal 1: The Ocean

Tuesday was my introduction to ocean waves. The 8-10 knot winds and 3 foot waves were rolling down the bay and gradually mixed with the ocean swells coming in. We took turns hand steering, which was a chore to keep the boat on course and not broaching. Keeping Harbor of Refuge light on our right, we bravely wove through the shallow lumps and current to take the shortcut close to the cape. We did not take the canal because our mast is too high (52' plus antennas).

this chart of Cape May 

is this view:

Wednesday morning in Cape May, the winds were light, but we each took two Sturgeron to hopefully avoid any seasickness. 

Cape May inlet marker

The planning of route on Wednesday

After breakfast and going through another checklist before ocean sailing, no matter the weather, we checked PredictWind. It said at that time mid-day, in area east of NJ to Long Island, all the wind models and combined models agreed that the next 24 hrs will have these same light winds then after that they will clock around to the northeast and go up to 25-30 knots from the stern on Thurs. We could handle that fine, but since we don't HAVE to, so we will stop in Sandy Hook, NJ, south shore of NY harbor. This leg will take 24 hours. If we wait there a day, the weather models (at that time) say we'll have ideal light winds again to get to Cape Cod Friday. Goal ETA is Sat.

Dave programmed a guideline route in Garmin and I took out the paper charts to follow along. Claire will make the next route. Outside the Cape May inlet, we discussed putting up the spinnaker and were glad we did. The wind was astern for 40 miles, then from the after quarter, so we pulled out the staysail in addition to the main. Nice efficient combo at the moment.

 

One fridge down but it's ok.

Dave ran the generator for an hour or so to charge up the batteries. We have very little battery usage since we don’t have the old refrigerator compressor cycling on and off. The fridge died 3 days before our trip, so there was no time to install the replacement we already have. We have a small college fridge and we’ll put ice in the boat fridge and freezer. We planned for this, so we are fine with it.

We took turns doing things below while keeping watch for boats and route watching. Our "third man" the Simrad autopilot does a great job. Dave made dinner again (while I did other things)! 

Just 20 more hours to go. 

We'll take down the spinnaker before dark and the rest can stay the same since the wind should remain the same.

-          Claire