New York to Annapolis

Our time in New York was great but it was also time to move on.

We dropped our mooring ball early on Monday morning of Canadian Thanksgiving weekend and headed South.   As always, the skyline of New York City was impressive, as was the Statue of Liberty.

 NY skyline

Statue of Liberty

Unfortunately, the skyline was not the only thing that was impressive.  The harbour itself is very  busy.  While we were never in any danger, we also had to make a number of course changes to stay the heck out of the way of a number of ships, tugs and ferries that were entering, leaving or crossing the harbour.

Tug crossing NY harbour.  These things leave an incredibly steep wake.

We knew that our friends, Dean and Susan on Autumn Borne were going to be anchored at the Highlands, near the foot of Sandy Hook.  If the weather poor, our intention was to head there also and to meet up.

The weather promised light winds, however, so we continued directly from the 79^th Street Mooring Field to the Atlantic, intending to head for Atlantic City.  This would be a stretch to make in daylight, but we felt we could do it if we ran at 8 knots all day.

Alas, although the wind was not strong, there were two wave trains at the same time:  one  right on our port beam and the other on our port quarter.  The first made us roll – A LOT- and the other made steering a challenge as the rear end of the boat tried to follow the waves.

Before the day was through, it provided us with a good illustration that there are three kinds of things inside a boat: 

-         those things that are put away or are tied down,

-         those things that are on the floor and

-         those things that  going to be on the floor.

Chaos inside the main cabin.

The dogs were not impressed with the chaos that followed as moveable furniture moved and bookshelves emptied themselves.  Even the dingy sitting in chocks on the sunroof tried to make a run for it and, had it not been tied at the bow, might have been successful.

At this time, our new high output alternator decided to pack it in.  It had worked really well bringing the batteries up to full charge during the day.  This was the first day we had run it at 1800 rpm vs 1450 rpm.  The alternator dropped to a low charge rate, the tachometer output went wonky and the alternator became quite hot.  That evening, I swapped it for our old, low output but working alternator.

After 25 miles on the Atlantic, we took the first entrance to the New Jersey Intercoastal waterway, Manasquin inlet.  The inlet can be a terror for a sailboat.  The currents can be fierce (apparently up to 5 knots), the channel is very narrow and there are bascule bridges.  If you are in a sailboat, you had better hope they get the bridges open for you in time as you may not be able to back up fast enough to wait.  The bridges posed no problem for us, however, as we could scoot under all except for one and that one was in a much tamer section of the waterway.  Because the tide was low, we spent a lot of time in depths of 5 feet or less.  Good thing the R&B Haven only draws 3’3”. 

Unfortunately, this low water sets up some kind of ground-effect drag and chops about a knot off our speed and that meant that we could no longer reach Atlantic City that afternoon.  This was to have a ripple effect.  Because we could not reach Atlantic City that afternoon, we could no longer reach Cape May before noon the next day.  That meant we could no longer catch the tide up the Delaware and we could not reach a safe anchorage before it got dark.  That meant that we had to do the Delaware the next day, but because the tides shift a little every day, it meant that instead of riding the tide, we would have to fight the tide all the way up the Delaware which meant that we would arrive at the first really safe and easy to access anchorage, Chesapeake City, in the dusk.

And that is what we did.

After entering Manasquin inlet, we followed the inner passage past Barnegat Inlet (about 25 miles) and almost to Great Egg Inlet (another 15 miles). 

In the morning, as we headed to Great Egg Inlet, we had a choice:  follow the comfortable but perhaps risky and certainly winding inside passage or head out again to the open ocean.

As we were motoring along, I scanned ahead at the charts and had a look at SkipperBob’s recommendations.  According to SkipperBob, there was a shallow section just after the Great Egg Inlet that could be troublesome.  Just as I was pulling the electronic charts back to our current location, I glanced over at the depth sounder.   Four point five feet.  Holy *&%$#@!!!  According to the chart, we should have been in about 17’ of water.  I throttled right back and then put us in neutral as I tried to figure where to go.  The tide was still carrying us at well over a knot, however.  Then we bumped bottom, but we didn’t stick.  At about the same time, I spied two small markers way over to the side.  I have the boat some power … lots of power… and headed for those marks, hoping that if we touched again, we would once again, just bounce.  We didn’t touch!!  Phew!!

A few hundred yards later, as we approached the Inlet, we found ourselves in a position, right between two buoys, where the chart said we should be in 4’, yet the depth sounder showed 31’.

At this point, the open ocean looked like a better bet.

The buoys for the inlet are very small and are spaced far apart.  As long as you can follow them, however, they keep you in deep water.  It can be nerve wracking, however, as there are obvious very shallow spots with breakers that might be 50 to 100 feet away.  As we left the inlet, we were in one of those classical tide against wind situations where there were significant standing waves (e.g. 3 feet high) that were pretty rough to motor through.  Once we were clear of the inlet, however, things were a little rolly from yesterday’s waves but not really all that bad.

We bypassed Atlantic City, arriving at Cape May in the early afternoon.  We anchored in front of the Coast Guard Station, only to be chased out by dredging operations.  The day was pretty windy, but it was an offshore wind when we were on the Atlantic.  Had we headed up the Delaware, it would have been on the nose.  Listening to other boats and their difficulties on the VHF, we decided that being too late for the tide was maybe a lucky thing.

The next morning, we headed up the Delaware.  The day was calm.  At one point, a Homeland Security boat roared up beside up.  Once they say our Delaware registration, the roared off after giving us a friendly wave.  I bet that, had we been showing a Canadian flag, we would have been boarded.  You just have to remember that the US is a nation at war and that it probably will be for a long time to come.

SkipperBob and other cruising guides warn you that the entrance to the Cheasapeake City anchorage can be very tricky.  Accordingly, the first time we passed it, we did not even consider it as an anchorage as we did not wish to take unnecessary risks.  In reality, after entering and leaving it with a significant current, what we found is that yes, it does tend to twist the boat a little as you pass through the boundary beween the channel (current) and the anchorage (no current).  If you made the transition with some authority (speed) and at right angles, it is not a big deal.  I would recommend both the anchorage and the free docks to anyone.

The next morning and our passage from Chesapeake City to Annapolis started out nice enough, if somewhat cool, but the forecast was for rain and increasing winds.  I did not think it was all that bad until we found ourselves in the midst of a schooner race or cruise.  They were all well reefed – and these guys do not reef in light breezes.  We could not keep up with them.

Schooners racing into the early afternoon gloom.

Annapolis is a beautiful city.  But it is better when it is warm and sunny.  We were holed up for 3 days while we waited for the rain to go away and the wind to let up.  It was so cold that just inland of there, they had snow at altitudes over 500’.  In some places, in Maryland at higher altitudes, they had a foot and a half. 

We ran our generator a lot.

We did manage to meet up with our friends Dean and Susan from Autumn Borne.

Dean, Susan and us at a restaurant in Annapolis

Dean and I went to the Annapolis Power Boat show.  Needless to say, there were not a lot of attendees.  Later, they came over to our boat for dinner. 

Dean playing the guitar

You know what they say, “a day without wine is like a day without sunshine”.  Well, it may have been cold, wet and rainy outside, but it felt pretty sunny inside!

One of the good parts of holing up was that it gave Beverley a chance to work more on one of her quilts: something destined to be a very special gift for a very special person.