Cape May to Burlington

Sent 5/25/2007 from Nyack, NY

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This will be a quick note (for me) since it's been a long day.

We had a delightful sail once we got out the Cape May Canal yesterday until 0530 this morning when the wind finally gave up the ghost for a few hours. We were north of the Manasquan Inlet and had a boost from a current much of the time. Most of the time was spent with only the jib poled out since having looked at the projected currents at NY harbor it made no sense to hurry only to fight maximum ebb current from the Narrows northward. Even without the main, our speed was between 4-6 knots.

It was nice to be going with the wind again, especially since there were waves and swell which gave us a rolling motion. This was much preferred to the pitching we had on the run down the Delaware. I guess the wind god must have felt we'd paid our dues. We were surprised to see sail boats motoring north during the night with no sail up. A jib out would have given a boost, and it was a beautiful night.

Watching the head boats fishing in the lower harbor we saw fish being pulled out one after another. We'd never seen anything quite like it. I suspect there were some happy fishermen aboard. We weren't sure if they were chummong the water or if the fish were just hungry. We shut the engine down when the wind returned and hoped for a sail under the Verrazano Bridge and past Manhattan. However the fluky winds returned, maybe it has something to do with the topography. We dropped the main and started motoring after we cleared the bridge just before noon.

Temperatures approaching 90 were expected for the next couple of days until another cold front arrived Sunday night. It was chilly offshore last night and since we were going down wind, the dodger doesn't provide any protection and the water is still cold, so there's layers of clothes to be shed as the day progressed.

WWII planes flying in formation over the Statue of Liberty

There was a lot of smog in the city. The smell and various pollutants was pretty obvious after having clearer conditions for most of the trip. We saw Navy vessels decked out in bunting for the Memorial Day parade on the weekend and we got to watch of a group of 6 WW II era planes practice flying in formation over the city and harbor. We'd heard there might be tall ships as well, but when Leonard checked on line there was no mention of them.

Fireboat cruising the Hudson

We might have hung around if tall ships had been included, but dealing with a crowded harbor for a military only parade sent us on our way north. The harbor was awash with wakes from all the various ferries, tour boats, tugs and tows and those with power boaters who took the day off. The water was so churned up it was difficult to tell when or if we picked up the flood current. It didn't seem to arrive on schedule, so we got to spend lots of time watching the city slip past.

Staten Island ferry making a close pass

We're officially back in inland lakes and waters territory having slipped under the George Washington Bridge around 1530 (I was asleep and the Captain didn't log the time). I woke up to noise on the deck and no engine. Leonard decided we had enough wind to sail with the current up past the Tappanzee Bridge where we'll anchor for the night off Nyack.

Locust trees in bloom along the Hudson north of NYC

We're thankful for the good trip up the coast and looking forward to a good night's sleep. We'll continue up the river in the morning and aren't in a big rush since we may not be able to get the mast stepped before Tuesday what with the holiday weekend. With a bit of luck we should be home by the weekend.

Added from Home

I am way behind since I sent the message that we arrived home before I finished writing up the journey. Since we're home, we've been buried under all the chores both at home and onboard Antares. By nightfall I'm still operating on "cruiser's" time and have lacked the energy to sit down and finish off the trip.

We considered continuing up the Hudson past Nyack to Haverstraw Bay where there is a nice anchorage we've not used. The GPS indicated it would take another hour plus to reach the anchorage which would put our arrival time after sunset, so we headed in at Nyack for the night. We were too tired to check to see if we could pick up a mooring at the yacht club there, so we dropped the hook just off the mooring field. As I was fixing dinner, we were hailed back on deck by a passing boat. He wanted to know if we'd been at Cave Cay in the Bahamas (the last place we anchored before heading S to George Town.) When I said yes, he indicated he'd been on one of the boats that had been anchored by us. A small world.

We were up at daylight, heading up the Hudson in hopes of catching a bit of favorable current. I called ahead to Riverview and scheduled the mast stepping for Memorial Day, with us arriving by mid day the day before to give us time to get all the necessary preparation work done.We anchored behind another N bound sailboat before reaching Saugarties, on a side channel.

S/V Mystic sailing on the Hudson

We watched the Mystic, a sailing tour boat we've seen at Sauagerties, tack back and forth on the river. As they approached the bridge just S of Saugerties, a Sea Tow vessel approached them. Apparently they had managed to run aground on a mud flat, and the passengers were taken ashore. They finally got enough tide to float them free just before dark. I imagine the passengers had a great story to tell once they got back to land.

Once again the weather forecast wasn't being cooperative, so with rain in the forecast, we got under way early in hopes of getting the sails packed before it began raining. We arrived at Riverview by noon and managed to get the sails down and bagged, the solar panel stowed and all the prep work done in record time and before it rained.

The boat that had been anchored by us arrived in the afternoon. It was a Swiss couple aboard MOMO who were enroute to the Erie Canal to cruise the great lakes prior to shipping the boat to the west coast for a trip to Alaska. They had spent 5 years outfitting the boat, an aluminum hull that had been built in Germany. They had met another Swiss couple who had done a similiar around the world trip who had made the trip sound both enticing and easy. They said the worst weather and sailing conditions they'd experienced so far were off the New Jersey shore. That crossing the Atlantic had been easy by comparision. They'd been a few days ahead of us and had the strong NE winds we'd experienced in the Chesapeake .

A bike ride to the park overlooking the Hudson River

Catskill's Main Street

We took a ride on our new bikes once we got our work done. On the way through town we discovered Catskill was having a Memorial Day celebration with live music. There were also artist designed cats all along the main street similiar to the mermaids in Norfolk or the cows in Chicago. Some of them were very interesting and amusing. A lot of folks were busy taking pictures of them, so we joined in the fun.

The Cheshire Cat

The Time Flies Cat

The rain finally arrived during the night. It poured off and on until morning. We were glad we'd gotten our work done early. With the rain, the wind had died, so when the couple on MOMO started to pack their sails, we went to help. They were glad for the help, since this part of the adventure had been glossed over by their mentors. With 4 of us we managed to flake and roll their sails in short order before gettng our mast stepped.

Positioning the Mast on Deck

We were stepped by 1030 and had the cradle and mast lashed on the deck by noon. We debated heading out, but knew the current was flowing south and the thought of all the holiday river traffic made the decision to spend another night at Catskill an easy one. After lunch we went to watch MOMO's mast being stepped. It was going smoothly when the sound of emergency vehicles filled the air, headed in the direction of the marina. The "fire" boat came tearing down the creek, ignoring the no wake restrictions. Luckily it was, as Mike, the marina owner, said, just a $500 boat with $1000 worth of decals on it, and the wake, while irritating wasn't that significant. Once the mast was on the deck, we took our bikes to check out all the emergency vehicles at the public launch area at the park across from the marina. The rumor we'd heard was a body had been found.

Mike getting MOMO ready to step the mast

Other than a lot of emergency vehicles and people, there wasn't much to see, so we took another ride through town and out to the grocery store. I'd seen a sign for a nature preserve along the river, but we didn't find the preserve and finally headed back to the boat, stopping for a cremee on the way.. There are a lot of hills in Catskill, and we seemed to have ridden up and down most of them.

As I came out of the shower I met Leonard heading to the fuel dock with our stash of wooden plugs. He said something about a boat sinking at the dock, so I headed over to see what he was talking about. Apparently while he was sitting on the boat, a "muscle" boat had gone up the creek when its engine started missing. A minute later they yelled they were sinking and wanted Mike to come tow them to the marina. It was only across the creek, but by the time he got them to the dock they were inches from going down as the water level was just below the engine air intakes. By the time I got there, they had the pump out hose, the bilge pump and another electric pump that were slowly making headway removing the water. The depth sounder plug had popped out of the hull, leaving a hole over an inch in diameter under the waterline (think gyser). one of the guys onboard dove under the boat and wedged in a plug which stopped the water. After managing to get one engine running, they puttered off the the launch ramp at the park to put the boat back on the trailer.

Mike was shaking his head as he tied up his skiff. He said they had no idea how close they'd come to losing the boat, and he'd been afraid his boat would be pulled down with it when it went. I asked if every day was like this for excitement, to which he said more than you'd think. We also found out that the excitement earlier in the day had been a collision of 2 boats on the river. One woman had been bow riding and her foot had been driven through the hull of the other boat on the impact. She'd been flown via helicopter to Albany and it was possible she'd loose her foot. It was obvious we'd made a good choice to stay off the river on the holiday - there'd been a solid stream of boats coming and going behind us all day long, not unlike Ft. Lauderdale, only smaller vessels.

We rode over to the launch ramp to see if we could get the plug back. It turned out to be under one of the pads on the trailer. That might have been the reason the depth sounder had worked loose in the first place. Later, we saw the boat parked at the marina to be fixed.

We also heard an amusing tale from a retired firechief in Catskill regarding accidents and saftey on the river. At a meeting with state officials, they wanted to know how the local folks planned to handle an emergency possibly involving barges and hazzardeous materials on the river. The chief said he'd call the Coast Guard, but was told that was an inadequate response. It was up to the various towns to have an emergency preparedness plan (unfunded of course) in place. He said he thought a minute before announcing he had a plan. The state folks were impressed with the fast response, but not with the plan which was to push the "emergency" across the middle of the river so that it would be someone else's problem. Life can be interesting in small towns!

Rip Van Winkle at the head of Main Street

We headed north bright and early knowing we'd be fighting current most of the day. With longer hours in effect at the locks, we hoped to reach Fort Edward. We spent the day locking through with 2 other sailboats. While locking through, the men on the boat ahead of us wanted to know how far we planned to go. Talking to him it became apparent that he expected marinas and fuel to be readily available along the canal. He hadn't done his homework before they started N, it wasn't apparent to us if they even had a chart, much less a guidebook. They were bringing a boat up to Essex, NY, from Long Island Sound and had never been on the canal. He was dismayed to learn the closest marina was at Whitehall, some 5 hours away (we'd just past one of the small marinas that actually carry diesel and not just gas, but he didnt want to go back through the lock). We all stopped after locking through lock 6, about an hour short of Fort Edward, just after 2000. The lock master told the man if he had a jerry jug, he could stop at Fort Edward and get diesel at a gas station in town.

Morning Reflections in Lock 6 at Ft Miller

In the morning, we went for a walk while the other boats headed N. When we reached Fort Edward, the boat was tied to the bridge fender, but it wasn't apparent how they got ashore since there was still water between them and shore and they had no dinghy. We were amused because less than a quarter a mile further is a public dock with access to town. Sometimes it's worth springing for a guide book. As we approached the lock 7 we heard them call the lock tender and we waited for them to lock through with us.

We planned on one more night on the boat before we reached LCYC. When the wind blew a bit out of the north as we approached Crown Point Bridge, we opted to drop the hook on the VT side, south of the bridge. The other boat had stopped at Whitehall for fuel and we didn't see them until they passed us after we'd anchored. About 20 minutes later they came back under the bridge and anchored just north of us. I guess Essex was too far, and it feels even further if you have the wind on your nose. We spent a quiet night in spite of the traffic on the bridge.

After clearing the Crown Point bridge we encountered fog on the lake, luckily not so thick that we'd need the radar which along with all the other things on the mast, was disconnected. On our way past Converse Bay we were hailed on the VHF by Pierre, the diver at LCYC, welcoming us back to the lake. He had looked up from his work and recognized Antares as she slipped through the fog. We also did a dance with one of the Essex ferries which was approaching the VT shore while Leonard was talking to Pierre.

We were tied up at the LCYC dock by 1230, having completed our latest voyage. Shelurne Shipyard was able to schedule us to have the mast stepped on Monday morning. For once the weather cooperated, although that wasn't the forecast. There was virtually no wind which makes it much easier to drop the mast on the keel step. We noticed our wind direction instrument was at an odd angle prior to getting the mast up, and although we "fixed" the problem once the mast was stepped and it was wired up it was no longer giving any readings.

Apparently a pin got broken in the connector at some point. This time Leonard got to go up the mast, his first trip. After looking at all the options, including upgrading the unit since replacement parts for our series are unavailable, and using a spare, not quite right unit, from SSY, Leonard finally found something he could use to replace the broken pin. Another trip up the mast and we have an operational unit for the time being. His engineering background usually finds a way to juryrig what could otherwise be an expensive fix.

The boat is almost back in shape. We changed the engine oil, it looks like we don't burn or loose much. The stainless has been cleaned as have the decks and cabin. I need to do a sewing fix on the window treatments as the cords that hold the shades either up or down, have started to break. We also got new covers on the cushions below, which look great. A little more work and it will almost look like a new boat.

Leonard thought perhaps we didn't need the solar panel on the lake, but after a weekend cruise to Valcour, it became obvious that we're accustomed to our toys, and most of them take power, including the computer. That meant replacing the plastic box that covers the wires (the little screws had rusted up) and drilling out and replacing couple of screws that had corroded on the support pieces. We also need to replace some zippers in the dodger and bimini that are on their last legs due to ultraviolet damage.

While it's good to be back on the lake, we're glad we made the journey. We enjoyed meeting new and interesting friends, discovering new places as well as stopping at some favorite haunts. It's a good feeling to know we've been able to deal with situations as they arose without needing to get assistance. I guess independance is part of what sailing is about.

This year we were blessedly free of major equipment failures. The wind generator worked fine and the new glass mat batteries were easily recharged with the smart alternator. Other than the wind indiator which had worked fine for the trip, a device that holds a cockpit hatch up broke. After looking in the catalogues and seeing the cost of a replacement, Leonard devised a fix after drilling and tapping for a larger size bolt. Our new hand held VHF will be returned to the vendor since it's under warranty. For some reason it is very particular about which channels it will receive, a real pain when you need to use it. Fortunately we had our old one along which works fine if we remembered to recharge the AA batteries every night.

We traveled 1,303 nm last fall from Burlington to Fernandina Beach and, this spring, 2,870nm from Fernandina Beach to the Bahamas and back to Vermont for a total of 4,173 nm. As Leonard said, it's a long trip. Another tidbit from the captain: Diesel usage was 105 gallons last fall and 198 gallons this spring, giving us an average 13.8 nm/gallon.

Lynnea Rosner

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