Rob and Serena you will be green with envy after reading this blog, after your not so good sail along the same stretch.

Sailors will appreciate this. Landlubbers well . . . bear with me.

Departure time on Saturday was delayed by 1/2 hour as the winds overnight were quite strong and the general feeling of some cruisers was to let the waters calm more. I am not sure it worked but it did give me time to finish cooking supper for the upcoming sail.

We left anchor at 1100. Sandy Hook Bay was still windy and the waters choppy. We motored to and entered Sandy Hook Channel heading towards the Atlantic. Once in the channel we hoisted sails. Jorge had put in two reefs while we were in NYC and had left them in. With the wind speed such as it was, and the engine off, we were going nowhere. Jorge took both reefs out and we opened the genoa fully. The wind filled the sails and we were off. We did motor sail to catch up to Gilbert and Diana as we had lost time while taking the reefs out. Once we had a respectable distance between Serenada and ourselves we cut the engine and sailed. It was wonderful! The winds were coming over our starboard side directly abeam, the best point of sail. After a few hours the winds did pick up as predicted to 10 to 15 kts with gusts to 20. I was at the helm when we got the first major gust and panicked. It is true, the weakest link is not the boat but the crew! Our genoa is a 150 so Jorge furled it in to about 130 and the sailing became comfortable again. The waves were less than 1 meter, about 9 seconds apart and swells very gentle. The winds averaged 16 to 19 kts and CS'ta Time averaged 7 to 7.5 kts. At one point we hit 8.2 kts in 18 kt winds. We sailed about 2 nm off the coast for the first 6 or so hours.

We sailed this way until 1800 hours. The forecast was for the winds to remain the same until midnight and then diminish. We decided to put a reef in the main and furl in the genoa a bit more just to err on the side of safety (in case the winds increased like they had the night before). We figured it was easier to let the sails out than to reef them in should we need to.

Supper was easy, reheating chunky chipotle pork chili and olive bread. No wine. We decided to keep our heads clear!

Sunset was spectacular and the evening sail was great with the winds continuing coming abeam and averaging 16 to 18 kts. The moon was 3/4 full and we followed the silver path of the moonlight down the Jersey coast. It was like the red carpet treatment for us! By this time we were approximately 3 nm off the coast.

Way off in the distance we saw lights on what we thought was the ocean. It turned out to be Atlantic City! We thought we were hours away. We were. The distance over the water is so deceiving. It took us about 4 hours to reach it. By this time it was midnight. As predicted the winds did start to diminish to about 10 to 12 kts. We started the engine shortly afterwards as our speed had dropped to 4 kts. Compared to the afternoon and early evening sail, it seemed like we had stalled. At about 0130 the winds picked up a tad and we cut the engine, opened the genoa more and sailed for another few hours when the winds diminished again. At this point we were about 4 nm off the coast. We started the engine again about 0330 and motor sailed the rest of the way with light winds of about 5 kts and still 90 degrees over our starboard side.

Captain Jorge on the graveyard shift (0330). Blinded by the flash afterwards.

 

It was on the cooler side during the evening and night sail. We had long johns and jackets on. In the wee hours of the morning we added throws to our shoulders (thanks Mary Ann your gift kept me nice and warm). By 0430 I was fading. I had a bit of a nap curled up in the cockpit. It was Jorge's turn at 0500 but being the captain, he continued to give me instructions until I finally told him to be quiet and get some rest because I was doing fine! He was so tired he couldn't argue. My turn to nap again came at 0630 when Jorge woke up. I totally missed the sunrise!

We arrived in Cape May at 0800. The channel going into the harbour was sooooo busy. We later found out there was a fishing derby going on that day. I guess everyone was heading to their favourite fishing spot early. We anchored just inside the harbour, straightened out the boat a bit, had breakfast and then went to bed from 0930 to 1200.

After lunch we lowered the dinghy and went into town. The area we walked was very quaint.

Back at the boat, we enjoyed cheese and crackers and a bottle of good wine. Dinner was again easy. Leftovers! Good thing because I was not worth very much at that point. We were in bed by 2100 and asleep by 2101.