Fishing Bay, VA to Fishers Island, NY- ~425 NM – 4 Days

Day 1 – 6/21/14

We departed Deltaville, VA at 10:10 AM.  The night before we set the lee cloths/boards and laid out all our safety gear. Sean and I applied Scalpomine patches, just to be safe, as we both have had some green experiences in the past and didn’t want to take any chances on this offshore jaunt.  Sean woke at 0200 with some lower intestinal issues and hives (eek!). Not sure if it was the patch or something else (he thought maybe a food allergy) but by the morning, he seemed to be fine.  Since we weren’t in a rush, we took our time getting out of Deltaville.  Had a leisurely start; good breakfast, got everything stowed and talked over our plan of attack for the next 4 days.  We discussed the watch schedule - I would have the 1800-2100 watch as well as the 0300-0600 watch – the golden hours, lucky me!  J was to take the 2100-2400 and the 0600-0900 and finally Sean had the 2400-0300 watch. 

As we got underway we confirmed that the fuel leak repair had, in fact, held and we no longer had a leaking issue – yay!  The engine seemed to be running better after J scraped her prop and bottom.  On the way to VA we were only able to get her up to 2800 RPMs but after a quick scrape she got up to 3400 RPMs and purred like a kitten.  It is crazy how much growth had developed in such a short time.  J dove on her when we spent time in Horseshoe Bend about 4 weeks prior and it was surprising to see barnacle growth, albeit small barnacle growth, develop in that amount of time. 

As we made our way down the Bay we ran into more pods of dolphins. Nothing close to what we saw going into Deltaville, but we saw probably a dozen or so smaller pods.  Seeing them never gets old!  I feel like a little kid on Christmas every time I see them.  It was pretty zany – if you were below you could hear them pinging the hull.  The first time we heard it we had the engine running and you could hear it over the engine! 

Our first day was a long one.  We didn’t make it out the Chesapeake Bay until 9pm that night.  The winds forced us to tack back and forth down the Bay, not allowing us to make much headway.  As we approached the Chesapeake Channel - due to the boat traffic, lack of light, and point of sail - we opted to turn on the engine as we departed the Bay and went over the Norfolk tunnel.  J gave the Bay a ceremonial mooning - he won’t miss the Bays shifty winds :)  As we left the Bay we had to continue Southeast for almost three hours as J navigated the shoally shoreline.  Then we were finally able to start making some northerly progress, cut the engine, and set ASSWOP by the time Sean took over at midnight. 

Day 2 – 6/22/14

J and Sean had the first two watches.  By the time I came up at 0300 ASSWOP was set and doing an awesome job!  Talk about an amazing piece of engineering.  Best upgrade to Tango, ever!  My watch was pretty uneventful until the wind shifted and ASSWOP starting to struggle a bit.  Before I could disengage ASSWOP the heads’l got backwinded and Tango started to go in 360 degree turns.  It was bizarre. I didn’t have steerage and the only way we could maintain full sails was to be heading south, completely opposite of where we needed to be.  J had to come up and give me a hand – it took us 45minutes to get back on course.  No clue what the deal was but was grateful we were back on course and making progress in the right direction :) Other than that, my first watch was relatively uneventful and ASSWOP had no other issues. 

As the sun came up the winds were blowing 15+kts, with gusts to 22 from the NE with 4-6 foot seas.  We had some brisk sailing close hauled but were forced to tack to the ESE in order to make any headway to the NNE.  For every two miles we made going NNE, we had to sail a mile to the ESE.  It was a long day and we made slow progress.  By night shifts we had only gone as far north as Chincoteague, MD.  Unfortunately both Sean and I felt a little green pretty much all day.  At one point we considered turning into Ocean City or Cape May but after thinking it over we decided to push on.  I knew that if we went ashore we’d feel better for a day but then as soon as we went back out, it would happen again.  Sadly the patches weren’t working as well as we had hoped.  So, I broke out the arsenal.  I had the wrist bands, the ear plug in the non-dominant ear and the ginger chews.  No clue if any of them actually helped but luckily I started to adjust and acclimate to the motion; Sean wasn’t so lucky.  Throughout the entire passage he felt a little green.  The good thing is that neither of us ever actually took to chumming – no one wanted to relive previous offshore adventures. 

Day 3 – 6/23/14

As I went into my AM watch, the seas had calmed as did the winds.  As we passed Ocean City, MD a little after 0400 we were able to adjust our heading for a straight course to LI! 

We saw more dolphins off the coast of Ocean City and Cape May and quickly learned that ASSWOP really prefers at least 10kts of wind to steer well.  She maintained a decent course with 9kts, but anything under that she had a hard time. I'm not sure how much of this was ASSWOP and how much was our continuing to learn her ladylike idiosyncrasies.  

After my watch I got my appetite back and had a craving for Ramen noodles.  It’s been so long since I have had these but they are still just as good!  They make for a great breakfast/post watch meal!  I think I had them every day after that as well :) 

We were sailing a NE course with ocean swells hitting our beam and forward quarter.  We put out the poles and brought in 6 bluefish, aka the piranha of the Atlantic - all of which we tossed back.   Wow, do they have some crazy teeth!!  We also hooked something large enough to run out line on full drag until the line snapped.  We have no idea what it was but it was “the one that got away.”  We had another lure that was missing one of its hooks and had some significant teeth marks on its underside.  Not sure what grabbed that one either, but whatever it was had some pretty large, sharp teeth and was strong enough to pull off one of the hooks. 

Lunch underway was grilled turkey burgers and thankfully Sean and I both had our appetites. I was feeling good enough to go down below and make some pasta salad to be enjoyed by all for dinner that evening. Unfortunately we lost the wind in the early evening so we decided to turn on the engine to charge our batteries, heat our water for showers (an underway treat), and make some positive headway. 

My first watch from 1800 to 2100 was uneventful. It is very bizarre to see glass out on the Atlantic.  No swells, no wind – just calm…  We were under power for 16 hours so none of us slept well on our off watch periods – the engine was way too loud to be able to sleep. 

Day 4 – 6/24/14

Still under power for my second watch and now we had absolutely no wind.  While I didn’t have wind and swells to contend with, my watch proved to be interesting with other boat traffic.  I had one ship to starboard that seemed to be approaching but it didn’t show up on our AIS and didn't respond to VHF when I hailed it. Apparently they didn't feel like talking.  With no moonlight, just pitch dark skies, it was very difficult to see what direction they were heading.  I am not a fan of boat traffic at night, especially when you can’t tell what it is, tanker or fishing vessel, or where it is going.  We have a little reference chart showing light configurations but sometimes it’s hard to tell what you’re looking at.  After a while, the sun started to come up allowing me to see that there wasn’t anything to be nervous about as we had plenty of distance between us and were not headed on a collision course.  Along with the sun came some ocean swells. We were getting tossed around quite a bit and with the lack of wind, our mains’l was flogging all over the place.  When J came up to relive me we put in a single reef which helped to stabilize us a bit.  Before we left Maryland I ran out of time and was unable to sew the new slides on the trys’l. This would have been a great opportunity to use that sail as it is of a thicker grade of Dacron than our mains’l and can take more abuse.  With the beating she took, I’ll be doing a thorough inspection of the sail once we get to port and finishing the trys’l will be done before we head back out.

By early morning we were 39 miles off shore and hoping for more wind as the day progressed.  By mid-day we were able to sail a broad reach and use our whisker pole for the first time.  It’s a bit of a pain to set until you get familiar with it.  We hope that as we continue north that we’ll get additional opportunities to use it and get more comfortable with it. 

We spent the afternoon sailing and fidgeting with the whisker pole.  I was still feeling pretty good so I went below to make some dinner and do some dishes.  I was pleasantly surprised that I had no problems.  I think it just takes me a day or so to acclimate. 

Once you are more than 25 miles off shore you are allowed to discard dunnage overboard, with the exception of plastic.  Since our trash bin was getting pretty full, I went through our trash and tore into small pieces all our paper products, I took the tops and bottoms off of the metal cans and I filled any glass containers with sea water and it was all tossed overboard. It’s an interesting experience to be tossing trash overboard. Somewhat unsettling actually…

For dinner I made artichoke chicken and had used marinated artichokes in small glass containers. I set aside one, then washed and dried it, and put in one of our boat cards with a note that said “If found, please make contact”.   We’ll see if it makes its way to a distant shore – it would be pretty neat to hear from someone. 

As my first watch approached we decided to alter course from a broad reach to a beam reach and stow the whisker pole. With little experience using it, I wasn’t comfortable being topside by myself with it deployed.  If I had to make changes or take it down I would have had to wake J to help and, with the lack of good zzz’s the night before, I didn’t want to disrupt him. We figured it was just easier this time around to stow it.  As my first watch came to an end we were off the coast of LI – whoohoo!  Although, it was a bit bizarre to look at the chart and see Patchogue, NY; which isn’t far from my family, but still far from our destination :)

When J came up at 2100 to relieve me, we looked at our course and the winds and determined we could either maintain our current heading only to have to turn up later and potentially motor for 6hrs to get to Montauk, Pt, or we could turn up now and run wing and wing.  I wasn’t thrilled about running wing and wing, especially with a rolling, following sea in the pitch dark with only one person topside. But J said he wanted to at least try it so I stayed topside and helped him adjust sails.  Adjusting for wing and wing can be tricky, even in day light with little swell.  We got the main over and were trying to set the preventer but the boat started to get tossed around from the swells, the boom was flogging and lines were everywhere and J almost got tied up in the main sheet – it just wasn’t a good combination.  So we quickly 86’d that idea and decided that it wasn’t worth it.  We fired up the iron genoa and altered coarse for a more direct route to Montauk Point. 

As I took over for my second watch we were getting pretty close to Montauk Pt and we wanted to make sure we timed our arrival to reach the Point during daylight so I slowed her down a bit as we made our approach.  While coming in slower would allow us to time our approach it also meant we got tossed around a lot more.  This would have been another great time to use our trys’l for stability instead of using our main.  Thank goodness our mains’l is being replaced soon as this trip definitely took some life out of her.  Due to the seas and being under power we couldn’t use ASSWOP and our auto pilot would have had a hell of a time in the swell so I hand steered the whole watch. Talk about a long watch! 

We rounded Montauk Pt and made our way up to Fishers Island where we planned to anchor for a day for some much needed R&R before heading down the LI Sound to Port Jefferson, NY.  Navigating through Fishers Island proved to be interesting, especially when you are not familiar with it.  The waters are riddled with rocks so you have to keep a watchful eye as to where you are going. 

We decided to drop anchor in West Harbor.  We dropped the hook at 1030, almost exactly 96 hours from the time we left Deltaville, VA.  It was a cute and quaint little harbor area, well protected from the southerly winds.  There were no facilities on shore, so we didn't bother to deploy our dinghy, just remain on Tango and catch up on some sleep and let our bodies readjust to a world with less motion.  We had initially planned to only stay a night, but some thunderstorms were forecast for the following day, so we decided to take two days.  It worked out well as we all needed the recovery time. 

Love/Hate Relationship with LI Sound

Port Jefferson, NY to Fishers Island, NY

We planned to leave Port Jeff early on the 5^th to take advantage of the outgoing tide, but neither of us slept well the night before due to the swells and wind coming through the North West inlet of Port Jefferson.  Since we’d eventually be against an opposing tide on our way to Fishers Island no matter what time we left, we opted for a couple hours of additional sleep before heading out.

We tossed off the mooring at 0735 and had 15kts of wind on our nose heading out of the channel.  Again, we got lucky and timed our departure perfectly with the ferry schedule.  As we came out of the channel we turned up and began our 57NM trek back to Fishers Island, NY.  Fishers Island would be a good stopping point before we made our way further north, and it provided good holding and shelter from southwesterly winds. 

We took advantage of the outgoing current and made good headway in the morning.  Unfortunately, as late morning approached, I started to feel less than great.  Seems I spent a little too much time on land :) Actually, the day prior to our departure I had started to feel like I was coming down with a little something, so maybe it was that.  Either way, it sucked.  I tried all the tricks, but nothing really seemed to help. I’d lay down for a bit and feel better, but once I was back up, I’d start to feel sick again.  This made for a very long day for Jason as he was forced to man the helm for the majority of the day.  To add to it, the Sound decided it was going to give us a reminder of Chesapeake Bay sailing and give us shifting, inconsistent winds.  We’d go from 6kts on our stern to 20 kts on our beam back to 20+kts on our stern. At one point we were on a broad reach with 30kt gusts.  Winds were forecasted to be gusting to 25kts so we reefed from the start and I am glad we did.  We toyed with the option of shaking out at least one of our reefs when the winds got down to 6 kts, but decided against it since the winds were being so unpredictable.  This proved to be a wise choice as the winds later approached 25 kts again. 

The rest of the sail was basically a repeat of the morning – inconsistent and shifty winds.  We pulled into West Harbor on Fishers Island at 1915 and dropped anchor in nearly the same spot as the week before.  We had another long day to follow so we prepared a quick dinner, took in an amazing sunset, and called it an early night…

Here’s an excerpt from our Logbook:

Departure: 0735

Estimated Arrival: 2000

Actual Arrival: 1915

Distance: 57NM

Barometer: 1026 and rising

Wave Height: 1-3’

Wind: 5-20, gusting to 30

NOTES:

0900 – Sailing under single reefed heads’l ~5.5kts SOG, winds WNW 20-25kts

1000 – Wind shift to NW at 15kts, gusting to 20kts, double reefed mains’l, single reefed heads’l

1730 – After winds shifting from NW to W and from 30kts to 6kts, started engine and doused sails about 8NM from West Harbor

1915 – Anchored in West Harbor, Fishers Island, NY

As the placard says in Tango, "We can not direct the wind, but we can adjust our sails," or fire up the iron genny, if need be.

A Spirited Day - Fisher's Island, NY to Cuttyhunk, MA

We left West Harbor with the outgoing tides.   To navigate the rocky waters of the north eastern LI sound approaching the Atlantic we decided to motor out of the sound.  Plus, there was little to no wind to start the day so we were somewhat limited on options :)
 
We noticed that VHF channel 16 in the Sound is much busier than any place we’ve been to date.  Not only is USCG Sector LI Sound busy but so many folks hold conversations on this channel, which is prohibited – it is supposed to be used for hailing and emergency use only.  When told to switch to another channel, it is ignored and the conversation continues.  Also, I have never heard so much cursing and yelling at each other on channel 16.   I just don’t get it...  Sea Tow is equally as busy helping disabled, adrift vessels. Again, not sure what is up with LI waters that causes so many people to need USCG or Sea Tow assistance but I am glad we didn’t need either!
 
We motored for the first 4hrs due to lack of wind.  J dropped a fishing line and we had one small striped bass hit.  We got it all the way to the boat and then he threw himself off – grrr!  The winds finally started to pick up a bit so we turned up into the wind and raised our mains’l with a single reef.  Winds were forecasted to be 15-20 with gusts to 25 so we felt comfortable with a single reef.  We also let out full canvas on our heads’l and was cruising along on a broad reach at just over 5kts.  A little while later we got another hit on our line and this one was BIG!  Things got a little crazy after that.  The fish had taken out quite a bit of line and J was having to very slowly bring him in.  Tango was still making over 5kts so we had to slow her down.  After discussing a few different options we decided I’d try to heave to.  For those that don’t know that that means essentially it is like parking your boat. You’ll come to a ‘near’ complete stop.  We learned to do this in the BVI and was able to do it easily with our previous boat, Knotty.  You backwind the heads’l, ease the main so the wind falls off and set the rudder hard to windward. Well, on a fin keel this works very well.  On Tango, a full keel vessel, not so much.  We’ve hove to a couple of times in Tango but it was under main alone – we had yet to do it with our heads’l out.  So, I figured I’d give it a shot and see what happened.  I set ASSWOP, centered the main so that I could jib and backwind the heads’l.  I disengaged ASSWOP and made our turn.  With the heads’l backwinded I couldn’t yet ease the main because J was on the starboard stern attempting to bring in the fish. Our boom is so long that easing the main could result in him being hit in the head. So I had to wait until he was able to finagle the rod through the bimini, over to the other side.  Once he was on our port stern I was able to ease the main to allow some of the wind to fall off.  Again, we had never hove to in this sail configuration so this was all experimental :) I eased the main and then attempted to get her bow 50-60 degrees off the wind.  I was able to do so and while we were slowing (got down to 2.9kts) we weren’t “stopped”.    Okay, not perfect execution but it worked to slow us down enough so that J could get the fish in without losing it.  Heaving to in this sail configuration will definitely be practiced in the near future. 
 
Back to this fish…  J finally got the fish he’s been hoping for! It put up a hell of a fight but Jason – 1, Atlantic Striped Bass – 0.  He measured in at approx. 30 inches and 10lbs.  Plenty of fresh fish to last us a few meals!   J brought it up to the stern, I took the rod while he took the gaff and hooked him through the gills. We got him into the boat and J attempted to kill him with the butt end of a winch handle.  After 8 or so whacks and significant blood spatter in the well, he was still kicking.  J then ran below to grab rum. He had read that pouring alcohol into the gills induces alcohol poisoning and will kill them.   Well, no such luck either.    We thought he was done but 10 minutes later he would still flap around.  Certainly not an ideal way to put him out of his misery. It took too long and was too messy. We’ll need to figure out a better way.  J proceeded to filet him in the well as I contended with 20kt winds and 3-4 ft seas.  Fun! Not so much :)

 
This pretty much marked the end of our “easy” sailing as things from here started to pick up.  

Winds became steady at 25kts, gusting to 30kts and the ocean swells started to increase.  We had a confused sea, with swells going against an outgoing tide.  It was an exhausting, white-knuckled, hair raising few hours making those last miles into Cuttyhunk, MA.  We had the pleasure of being “pooped on” by breaking 10-12ft swells. This was like our honeymoon all over again, awwwww… 
 
As we approached shore we had to contend with not only wind and sea conditions but buoys in the water marking what we can only assume were fishing lines.  There was a working trawler that seemed to be laying line and I attempted three times to hail him on VHF but had negative contact.  We didn’t know if we were going to be in his net as he circled, if in fact that was his intentions or if he was retrieving line or laying line.  We were being tossed around 45 degrees due to the swells and when dealing with buoys, this is not fun. 
 
We finally got close enough to shore where we were a tad bit more protected (though not much) and was able to furl our heads’l and then turn up, through buoys mind you, and drop the sail.  Once secure we were able to come about and head for the harbor.  There are two harbors in Cuttyhunk – one outside the break water and one inside.  The harbor inside is made up of moorings and looked very full so we opted to anchor in the outside harbor.  The breeze was still flowing through at 20+ kts but at least the swells had diminished.  Even with a few boats in the harbor, anchoring was a bit of a challenge.  Took us a little bit to find just the right spot, between two other boats before we could drop the hook and breathe a sigh of relief.  

 
While the sail was a “spirited” one, it was also a good learning experience as we uncovered some things that need to be changed.  First, our dinghy on deck needs to change. The heads’l (Genoa) sheets kept getting caught on the stern pontoons.  This is both bad for the dink, as the lazy sheet flogs coming down the swell and unsafe, as it pulls the dink a bit off the deck.  Not sure what we’re going to do because we don’t want to tow it either and our wind vane prohibits us from having dinghy davits (which I don’t think we’d do anyway, even if we didn’t have ASSWOP).  Our current dink is too big to fit on our amidship cabin top and we currently have our generators stowed there in an ISOPOD…. So, we’ll have to figure that out.  It may mean getting rid of our inflatable and getting a hard dink. 
 
We also had issues with our Genoa sheets getting caught on our flag halyard cleats. This was easily fixed today – J just loosened them and shifted them a bit more inboard.  Our last big issue was our Genoa sheets getting mis-wrapped in the self-tailing winches. When the line is wet it, if you don’t use your other hand to guide the tail, it will wrap on itself causing a hell of a mess which is very difficult to release under pressure.   In conditions like we had yesterday you don’t have a second hand to be using.   We’ll take a closer look but this may be fixed by adjusting the trailers on the winch itself. 
 
We’ll stay here for an extra day to recover as both of us are extremely sore and let some of the heavy winds (today is 20+ again) pass through.  We wanted to deploy the dinghy today (which we verified survived the beating yesterday) and head to land but with the heavy and gusty winds we’ve decided that isn’t such a good idea.  

Update: We enjoyed some gunwale delivery (read: home delivery equivalent for cruisers) raw oysters courtesy of Cuttyhunk Shellfish Farms floating raw bar. Super tasty oysters - we just couldn't say no ;)

 
Tomorrow we plan to head to Onset, MA – a short 23NM jaunt across Buzzard Bay.  It will be nice to have a short day with better conditions!
  
 
Here’s an excerpt from our Logbook:


Departure: 0715
Estimated Arrival: 1800
Actual Arrival: 1800
Distance: 60NM
Barometer: 1028 and rising
Wave Height: 1-3’, rising to 6-8 with a half dozen or so that reached 10-12
Wind: West winds 10-15 increasing, WSW 15-20 gusting 25kts, steady 25kts gusting to 30kts
NOTES:
Exciting sail!  High winds and large swells against opposing tide coming into Cuttyhunk. Tight anchorage even with only 3 boats.
1030 – Winds consistent at 12-14kts. Raised sails (single reefed mains’l, full Genoa) and secured engine.  Making ~ 5kts true on broad reach.
BOAT ISSUES DISCOVERED: Flag Halyard caught Genoa sheets; Dinghy pontoons (transom) caught Genoa sheets; Genoa sheets mis-wrapped when wet (sheets or trailers?)

Recharge in Port Jefferson, NY

Departing Fishers Island

We reviewed the charts and checked the currents as we had previously read that the LI Sound currents can be either your best friend or your worst enemy. We had a 55mile sail ahead of us to get to Port Jefferson, NY, so we wanted to time our departure with the currents.  We weighed anchor at 0515 and got under way. Once in the LI Sound we were cruising along at 7.4kts – at her hull speed!

 I thought we were making great speed and then, before I knew it, she was up to 8.8kts!  It’s a bit surreal to be going along at that speed when we normally cruise at 5-6kts.  Actually, the trip up we averaged 4.5-5kts.  So compared to what we had grown accustomed to during the previous week, it felt like we were making ludicrous speed! Prepare to go to plaid (Spaceballs enthusiasts will get it).
 
We made it to Port Jefferson Harbor in just under 10 hours.  We lost the currents and wind a few hours out of Port Jeff, so again, we were forced to motor or arrive in an unfamiliar and busy port after dark.  We opted for the former.  As we approached the inlet to Port Jefferson we got lucky and the outbound ferry was just on its way out as the inbound ferry was on a course to pass a few hundred yards off our bow, allowing us to follow her in.   While the channel going in is sufficiently wide, it doesn’t allow for both a sailboat and ferry to comfortably pass (at least I would prefer not to attempt it!).  We read reports of shoaling on either side of the channel so we didn’t want to risk being outside of the channel markers.  Timing, though, was in our favor.

First step on solid ground in 6.5 days! Can you say serious case of land sickness?!?!

 
Port Jefferson Harbor is a great port of call!  We picked up a mooring ball near shore and ended up with a pretty sweet spot.  The Ferry runs every hour starting at 0600 until 2200 and comes back in every 1.5hrs, so while it’s a busy harbor, other than the horn blow at each departure, it’s not overly loud or rocky and rolley.  The Setauket Yacht Club has a launch that takes you to and from your boat – this was very convenient as it meant we didn’t have to launch our dinghy and lower our 93 pound motor.  We planned to stay in PJ for the week or so (weather permitting) to allow us time to catch up with my family.  So far it’s been a wonderful trip.  The weekend was filled with non-stop family time!  Great food, great craft brew, and lots of laughs!  PJ is a wonderful little town and, for any cruisers passing through the Sound, I highly recommend it.  All the restaurants are amazing and not too expensive, the people are friendly, and the atmosphere is great. 

At the beginning of the week our crew, Sean, decided to head back to MD.  While we wish he could have stayed longer, family and work stuff dictated he return much sooner than planned.  So Monday AM we took him to the rental car facility and said our goodbyes.  While in NY we were fortunate to get a car from a family friend to use for the week – it has been awesome!!  Thanks Greg.  It has allowed us to get around, run to WM for a few items, re-provision, and visit family without having to ask for rides or pay for cabs. 
 
The weekend was also filled with meeting other cruisers. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, one of the things I love most about cruising is the people you’ll meet.  We met a couple at the club lounge that was actually on the mooring next to us.  So we did what cruisers do and exchanged boat cards.  Turns out they too are headed to Maine for the summer!  Will be a lot of fun to run into them again as we hop up the coast.  Funny enough, they are also from New Bern, NC!  We’ll be spending some time down there on our way south in the fall and we definitely plan to catch up with them.  Soon after meeting them, we met their buddy boat, also super nice people who we look forward to catching up with in ME! 
 
As the week has progressed we’ve gotten into a routine. I am working remotely, so in the AM we’ll have a nice breakfast together then I get started on work while J either reads or tinkers, trying to reduce Tango's always present and never complete to-do-list.  He finished his class this past weekend so “school’s out for summer!!!"  He can actually read for enjoyment now and wasted no time in picking up his first pleasure book which he finished this morning.  Come lunchtime we'll hail the launch and run into town for a quick bite to eat.  After lunch it’s back to work until dinner, which has been enjoyed with family almost every night.  

Love this I'll' man!

 
We planned to leave LI on Wednesday but with Arthur approaching we plan to hunker down for a few more days and leave first thing Saturday AM.  

We’re still trying to nail down our next stop but think we’ll head back up to Fishers Island, then to Cuttyhunk Island, MA then wait in Onset for the right tides to go through the Cape Cod Canal.  From there we’re not sure where the winds will take us. We hope to take a look at the charts tonight and get a better idea of our plans for next week.  We’re both very anxious to get to ME!!!

 

UPDATE - We met George on his Tayana 37, S/V Peace & Quiet, our last day in Port Jeff. He is a fellow member of the Seven Seas Cruising Association who is making some repairs and, with any luck, headed to Maine in a few weeks.  He was kind enough to share some cheese and crackers over some beers in the cockpit and provided us with a bunch of great information about some of his favorite spots between LI Sound and Canada.  He also informed us of the Islesboro Gam being held the first weekend in August, which we look forward to attending.  We hope Peace & Quiet requires a simple fix and look forward to seeing George again when our wakes converge in ME.  Cheers!

We made it!!!

After 4 days, approx 425 miles we are rounding Montauk Pt, Long Island!!!! Whoohoo!! 

Today we'll anchor on the west side of Fisher's Island, get some rest and then tomorrow head to Port Jefferson. 

Details to follow! 

Hard to see but across the way in the haze is Montauk Pt Lighthouse. 

Happy, happy!!!! 

Highs and Lows... Point Lookout Marina, Ridge MD to Fishing Bay, VA - 48.9 NM

Day 1 of our adventure north and it has been filled with highs and lows.


First Low…..   We left the dock under power and something seemed a bit off with the position of our wheel when we were maintaining a straight course – we were a couple of spokes further over than we normally are.  Jason dove on Tango about a month ago to liberate the running gear of a fine batch of barnacles and to replace hull and prop zincs, so it hadn’t been long since any growth had been removed.  While this was odd, it didn’t alarm us - there was no shimmy in the wheel, engine temp seemed fine and we had full steerage; she just didn’t sit where she normally does.  However, once we put up sails it seemed to be a bit better so again, we weren’t overly worried but it was something we definitely planned to check out once we got to Norfolk. On a positive note, this resolved after a couple hours of upwind sailing, which leads me to…
 
First High…  The morning started off lovely!  We had a beautiful sunrise to see us out of the Potomac River and into the Chesapeake Bay with apparent winds of 10-15kts.  For the first half of the day we were sailing along, beam reaching and close reaching, and making between 5.5kts and 7.3kts SOG - it was wonderful!  We got ASSWOP set up and proceeded to take turns between watching for tankers and monitoring the helm, relaxing, and taking naps while ASSWOP did all the work :)

Second (small) Low…The wind gradually decreased until we found ourselves in 1.9kts of wind making 1.0kts over ground at which time we decide to fire up the iron genoa.   Because of the sweltering heat (had I mentioned it was the hottest day we’ve had yet this spring at 95F) and lack of wind, we decided that instead of motoring all the way to Norfolk, and arriving sometime after 2200, we'd divert and spend the night in Fishing Bay, which is off the Piankatank River in Deltaville, VA.  This would allow us to top off our fuel, get out of the heat (read crank the air conditioner), and finish up a few small projects. 


Second High… While entering the Piankatank River we saw a spectacular pod of dolphins.  Sean spotted a couple of fins in the distance and maybe 30 seconds later you could see them popping up all over the place!  This pod had to have at least 75 dolphins in it – it was amazing!  A few of them decided they would show off - rocketing out of the water and entertaining us with repeated tail splashes.  I managed to snap a couple of photos but, unfortunately, I never use the video feature on my Canon, so when I thought I was recording, I actually wasn’t (oops). I did manage to get a bit of video, but by the time I figured out that I wasn’t recording, they were a good ways off our stern, so not sure how good they came out.   I’ll share some of those pictures once we make it to LI as I still have to download them from my camera.
 
Third Low…  We pulled into one of the marinas to fill up our fuel tanks.  We’ve been having some issues with a small fuel leak in our starboard fuel tank at the low point drain for a while now, but we thought our recent repair did the trick.  Not so much…  We put in about 5 gallons so we could see if the repair held, then filled the port tank.  Upon inspecting, we didn’t see any diesel leaking out, so we thought the repair was good. We put in an additional 35 gallons or so, paid up and then gave it one more look…  Sure enough, leaking like a sieve….  Grrrr!  We went through a few options, but none of them worked.  We were able to slow down the leak slightly so we lined the locker with trash bags and fuel diapers and planned to get up to the boat yard office first thing in the morning to see if they could help us out. 
 
Thankfully the yard was available and they came down yesterday morning to take a look.  No problem and he sounded pretty confident about fixing it for us.  The downside is that he couldn’t get to us until yesterday afternoon.  So J spent the AM doing schoolwork, I did work-work, and Sean did some writing. 
 
We attempted to get our fuel polished before we left our marina but the pump wasn’t working properly so we took this opportunity to get our fuel polished as well.  Yesterday afternoon two guys from the boat yard came back with the fuel pump, polisher, and tools and we got to work.  We were able to drain our starboard tank into a clean 55gallon drum, remove the plug, and inspect the damage. Sure enough, the threads were damaged which was allowing fuel to seep out.  One of the guys went to go see about getting a new plug while we got to work polishing the fuel in the port tank.  45 minutes later, as a crazy storm rolled through, our fuel in the port tank was polished and done! Side note on the crazy storm, lightning struck the Oyster 66 next to us – talk about scary!  All you saw was this bright light, heard this horrendous crack, then saw smoke coming off the top of his mast…No Bueno!  

Starboard Fuel Tank - the leaking tank. 

Port Fuel Tank - Located under aft berth. 

Anyway, back to the fuel saga….No joy on the plug, which means we couldn’t leave this morning. The good news is that they had the plug on hand at 0730, when one of the guys from the yard knocked on the hull.  

They were able to clean the threads on the tank with a tap and reinstall the plug that had been slathered in pipe dope.  They waited until this afternoon for the dope to set up, then waited, holding our breath, as they pumped the diesel back into the tank…NO LEAKING!  This means we will be casting off tomorrow morning (in showers and thunderstorms, of course) with a destination of Long Island - YAY!


This stop means we won’t get to stop over in Norfolk which is a total bummer as that would have allowed us to see our wonderful sailing friends Jeff and Shelley.  We met them last year on our Memorial Day cruise, right before we headed out on our honeymoon. They, too, were newlyweds having been married just a few weeks before us.  We immediately hit it off – it was like we had known each other for years. Even though we’ve only seen them once since then, while they were passing through Solomons on their new-to-them Catamaran, they are one of our closest friends - unfortunately living a state away :) We’ll be coming back through Norfolk on our way south in the fall, and definitely plan to catch up with them then, but still very disappointed we won’t be seeing them this time around. 
 
Third (small) High…  We feel like all this has been a blessing in disguise.  It allowed us an opportunity to get the fuel leak fixed properly and get the fuel polished.  It also gave J some additional time to complete his schoolwork for the week, allowed us to further troubleshoot the prop situation (read as Jason dove and scraped barnacles off the prop, rudder, bottom, and speed log), run our new stays’l halyard, treat the leather and zippers on our full enclosure, do some food prep for the passage and gave the weather some time to cool down.  We were looking at high temps and no wind in the Atlantic and now, after giving it a couple of days, the conditions seem to be changing in our favor, predicting 10-15 knot winds most of the trip and relatively calm seas.  Only down side is we’ll get a bit wet leaving tomorrow, but that’s a small price to pay for 3-4 days of smooth sailing.  Next entry will be from Long Island!!!


 


 


 

 

Meet Our Crew

Meet Sean….  We call him "Mongo"........... Just Kidding ;)

 

Sean is making the trip north with us and we are thrilled to have him as crew!  Complete disclosure:  this will be the longest offshore passage J and I have made. On our honeymoon we did just over 30hrs offshore and went out maybe 15 miles.  This time we anticipate anywhere from 3-5 days offshore and we’ll be out approx. 100 miles. So, while we are capable of doing it ourselves, it will be very nice to have a third set of hands aboard (read 6hr blocks of sleep as opposed to three – sweet!)

We’ve known Sean now for almost 5yrs, he is a fellow sailor, was the best man in our wedding and he and J are tied at the hip and he is a teacher so he’s off for the summer.  For these reasons, it only made sense for him to tag along.  

He’ll be with us as we make our way north and then stick around for a while sailing in and around Maine and up into Canada.  Hopefully on the weekends I’ll get to go out and join them as well - someone has to work!   

Cast Off!

Well, it's been fun Southern Md....  0525 this AM we left where we've (more so I've) called home for a long time. 

We had a beautiful sunrise to send us off.... 

1st stop, TBD. Right now we're getting a few more knots of wind than predicted, and we're making 6.7kts over ground. We may be able to make Norfolk today if these conditions remain, we'll see... It is the Chesapeake Bay so you never know ;) 

Message from the Trenches

So… We really need to be better about keeping this updated and we plan
to in the coming weeks.

Things have been very busy here so just a quick update. Since the
beginning of the year our lives have been CRAY-ZEE! We went from
looking to buy a house in Maine (yes, shocking and you’re probably
wondering where the heck that came from – long story…), to placing
offers on three different houses (all of which did not pan out – sign
perhaps?  We think so…), then ultimately deciding to move to
Pensacola, Fl. J resigned from his job, has been back in school full time finishing his undergrad, my job has been
super busy and lately has been in a state of transition and on top of
all that we are planning to cast off our lines on MONDAY!!! Yes, you
read that correctly – Monday, as in three days from now! So, our
plans as of now (cliff notes version) are as follows:

Depart the Chesapeake Bay next week and head to Norfolk. From Norfolk
we’ll jump offshore and make our way North to Long Island where we’ll
stay for about a week or so visiting family and some fellow Mason
owners. From there we’ll hop along the coast and make our way to
Belfast, Maine where we’ll stay for the summer.  Lots of fun stuff
planned for this summer!

Come fall, approx 1 October, we’ll start making our way back south.
Route is still TBD but we’re thinking the ICW for portions of the
trip, making stops in New Bern, NC and Charleston, SC to see some
family and friends. From there we’ll jump offshore here and there as
we make our way to Key West. We’ll definitely stop there :) From
there, the final leg will be to Pensacola, FL where we plan to stay
for the next 3-5 years. J is going back to Grad school full time and
I’ll be working from home. We own a house in Pensacola so we’ll be
living in the house while we are there but Tango will be at a nearby
marina and we plan to spend as much time on her as possible. While the
house is super cute and small (well, small for houses but palatial
compared to our current living conditions) part of me is going to have
a really hard time not living aboard so I think we’ll find ourselves
back on Tango quite often.

So, just a quick update on where we are and what’s going on. I will
try to make another post to share what projects we’ve been working on
and accomplishing prior to our departure but seeing as time is getting
very short, not sure if that will happen before we shove off.

We have SO much left to do before we head out (isn’t that always the
case?) but we are very excited for this next chapter and plan to be
better about sharing our adventures with all of you (well, all 5 of
our followers, hah!).

" 'Tis the season, to be merry... That's my name... No $hit..."

This is probably my favorite time of year.  Likely because with it brings some of my favorite memories.  

As a child, I vividly remember getting a knock at the door, only to open it and see a bag full of goodies and, when we ran outside, to see who delivered it, all we heard in the distance was the sound of jingling bells.  To this day, my parents still claim they, nor the neighbors, had anything to do with that bag of toys :) 

The stockings...oh the stockings.  Once all of the presents were opened, we'd all settle in to open our stockings. This was my favorite part of Christmas morning and something that, to this day, I still look forward to.  

As time has gone by new memories and traditions have formed.  I got older and began to appreciate new things - like the annual charity Christmas party my family used to host when all of us were more centrally located.  This was such a great party!  We'd have amazing food, do a Chinese raffle, I'd sell raffle tickets in my crazy Christmas hats, the kids would get a visit from Santa and it wouldn't be a party without Gramps getting out on the dance floor and doing some ballrooms moves with the kids.  This was a special event, not only because it brought together all our family and closest friends, but all proceeds went to a family in need.  It was an amazing experience that, at a young age, helped lay the roots for the person I am today.  

More traditions that hold a special place in my heart are our Christmas morning Dirty Santa gift exchanges and watching National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation at least once, but usually twice (that and A Christmas Story are by far the best holiday movies in my opinion).

The holiday season brings Christmas music and those that know me well know that, if I had it my way, I'd be listening to Christmas music before Thanksgiving. But once Thanksgiving passes, watch out and be prepared, because this is all I will listen to.  There was a time in my life when I would even work out to Christmas music... yes, that's right.  You'd be surprised how well Mannheim Steamroller can motivate you when you're doing front squats :)  

Now, the holidays are a time for new traditions with our amazing friends and being with those that you love the most. It really isn't about the gifts or the fanfare.  We've actually gotten away from a lot of the "giving gifts, just to give gifts"...  Sure the little ones still get a gift or two and immediate family will usually get a little something, but I struggle with giving gifts just to give a gift. We have so much already, we don't "need" for anything - instead fund a water project or give to a local food pantry.  According to the National Retail Federation, it is estimated that over $602.1 billion will be spent on holiday gifts and goodies this year. In 2012, holiday sales racked an astounding $579.5 billion.   Can you imagine what we could do with that money if, just for one year, Americans donated all that money to a good cause???  

I digress...  

This being our fourth Christmas living aboard, I can tell you that Christmas on the boat is magical. Not sure why.  Perhaps it's the smaller space - everything is softly illuminated and cozy. I've always loved white lights, I think there is something so peaceful and soothing about them.  So, down below we have lots of white lights and, since we obviously don't have the room for a large tree, we've got our authentic Charlie Brown Christmas tree.  Each year we add an ornament and I think we just might have enough branches left to last us through our upcoming cruise.  We've already discussed it, and the tree will be one of the few holiday decor items we bring with us when we go.  

Our trawler lamp makes it extra toasty!!

And the stockings were hung with care...

Authentic Charlie Brown Christmas Tree

So, while life here is still insane (it's finals week and J and I are both swamped with schoolwork), we can see the light at the end of the tunnel. This weekend marks the end of the semester so hopefully next week we'll be able to find some time to stop and smell the mistletoe or sip some eggnog or some other warm adult beverage (hot buttered rum?) by the trawler lantern fire.  

An elf got in!  I think this elf is trying to be a Santa look alike with that beard!