Whitehall, NY,
Saturday, Oct. 9, 2004
Well, we decided to do it again. Last night we finished loading
the last item on the boat and left the dock at 11 PM heading
south. The weather forecast was for stronger south winds in the
morning and we hoped that by leaving at night we would avoid the winds
and waves on the open lake section. Besides, it was a beautiful
starlight night. The waves on the open lake were a little more than we
anticipated but we made it as far as Converse Bay before deciding
we had enough night sailing and were ready for bed. There were
two other sailboats with their masts down anchored there and still had
their cabin lights on at 2 AM. They were still there when we left
this morning.
Today the wind forecast was for still stronger winds (20 to 30 with
stronger gusts) and if we had stayed at LCYC last night, we would not
have left today. As it was, we had strong head winds but not the
big waves in the more protected southern end of the lake. We are
now tied up on the Whitehall town dock having made the last lock
opening of the day at 5 PM.
Tied up on the Whitehall town dock
We should make it past Lock 3 tomorrow to Mechanicville and stay on the
town dock there. Monday we should reach Catskill and start the
process of getting the mast put back up.
The weather today was warm but is to turn colder overnight. The
fall colors are not as bright as last year and the wind is blowing the
leaves off as they change.
Fall colors on the hillside above Whitehall
More in the coming days but now to bed.
Leonard
Atlantic Highlands, NJ
Thursday, Oct. 14, 2004
We left Whitehall Sunday morning after a slight delay while I tried to
find out why the cabin lights dimmed when the water pressure pump ran.
This problem started after I replaced one of the 12V deep cycle
batteries shortly before we left home. I determined that it was not a
battery problem by measuring voltage at the batteries and the ground
connection to the engine. Apparently I had a bad connection to
cabin distribution panel and that could wait to be fixed later.
Anyway we got a later start then planned, but I thought it would be a
easy day to clear Lock 3 and get to the Mechanicville town wall for the
night. Last year we left Whitehall about 90 minutes later and
tied up just north of Lock 4 which is only 3 miles from Lock 3. I
forgot that we had arrived at Lock 4 after 5 PM which is when the locks
close for the day.
Reflections in the Barge Canal
More Reflections
About noon I worked out our lock arrival times based on our current
speed and location and determined we would reach Lock 4 at just after 5
PM. At this point, the choice was to stay at Lock 4 again or
speed up and see if we could reach the Lock 3 before 5 PM. We
throttled up and the GPS ETA indicated we should just make it. We
were doing fine until we reached Lock 4 with 40 minutes to go and found
the lock gate closed and had to wait while the lock master recycled the
lock. Most of the day the gates had been open when we arrived, as the
lock masters are aware of traffic in the canal and try to accommodate
boaters if possible. I told him we hoped to clear Lock 3 as well so he
called ahead to Lock 3 who agreed to wait for us. We did arrive
at Lock 3 by 5 PM and were through by 5:10 PM.
The weather had been cloudy all day with occasional drizzle - enough to
get the tarp out to keep us dry. As we approached Mechanicville,
it started to rain hard - fitting end to a somewhat stressful
day. The voltage problem still existed, but I wasn't going to
work on it any more this day. The saving grace was that a person
from a power boat, no less, came out in the rain to catch a dock line
for us. This was most appreciated as the dock was about 4 feet
above the deck, beyond Lynnea's jumping capacity. The rain
stopped and after supper we walked into town and found a grocery store
where we picked up a few item that didn't get brought from home.
Leaving Lock 1
Note: Indentation's are the pipe locations and blue/white markers
are grab lines.
Monday morning we were underway shortly after sunrise and were through
the Troy Lock, the last lock, by 10 AM. This trip we we were
blessed with mostly light winds which made locking through easy. The
locks have vertical pipes or cables that we put a line around from the
mid ship cleat to hold the boat in position fore and aft. There
are also long lines hanging down lock wall that we grab to keep the
stern and bow in position. As we enter, I steer and try to stop
the boat next to a pipe close enough to the lock wall so that
Lynnea can loop the mid ship line. I grab one of the lock lines to keep
the stern in because it swings out when I shift into reverse to
stop. I then take the mid ship line from Lynnea and she goes
forward to grab a lock line to hold the bow in place. When things
are under control, we push the boat off the grimy lock wall with boat
hooks. There is nothing quite like a poorly timed wind gust to throw a
monkey wrench into your locking technique.
As we left Albany, Lynnea called Riverview Marina in Catskill to
schedule the mast step for Tuesday and request overnight dockage. She
was told they would not have any one to step masts Tuesday or
Wednesday, but if we got there early enough, they might be able to get
it done today. Once again we throttled up, pushing to get to
Catskill as fast as possible. At 3:45 PM we were tied up at their dock,
and by 4:45 PM the mast was up - a record time. After adjusting
the stays and hooking the electronics back up we quit for the day and
walked in town for dinner.
Tuesday was spent getting the bimini and solar panel mounted, the sails
back on, and a general cleaning of the boat. I even found the
cause of the cabin voltage problem - I failed to connect the ground
wire to the electrical panel when I installed the new battery. A
black cable by a black battery case in a dark locker is hard to
see. This is the second time I've done this, maybe I will learn
some day to connect all the wires. After which, we took a walk along
the river bank to an overlook park and back into town to look at the
other boats that had arrived to have their masts stepped.
Catskill's park in the evening light
A view of the Hudson River and the Rip Van Winkle Bridge
Sunrise over Catskill Creek
The Catskills in the early light
At sunrise Wednesday we left Catskill in light fog heading south.
After traveling about an hour, the fog thickened and visibility dropped
to just about zero. I was steering and Lynnea was watching the radar,
when she said there was something just off starboard. Well the shore
was just off starboard as the channel was along the western
shore. Was I surprised when a large tug and barge suddenly
appeared out of the fog just off starboard. We did a close pass
and continued on our way in the fog. About 10 minutes later, we exited
the fog bank into sunshine and had clear skies the rest of the day. The
foliage was beautiful in spite of Tuesday's strong winds which took
down quite a few of the leaves. We also had no wind so we motored
all day reaching Nyack, NY, as the sun set and anchored just north of
the yacht club moorings for the night.
Looking back at another sailboat coming out of the fog bank
After a quiet night, we continued south this morning, motor sailing
most of the day in a light north wind with cloudy skies and a few
sprinkles. The weather forecast is for windy conditions to
develop off the New Jersey coast for the next couple of days so we have
decided wait for better weather before heading for Cape May. It crossed
both our minds to just keep going this afternoon, but the thought of
the wind switching to the south east and then south west winds in the
10 - 20 knot range starting around midnight, which would find us still
well north of Atlantic City having been underway for 24 hours, canceled
the notion. We are now on a yacht club mooring behind a breakwater at
the Atlantic Highlands located just south of Sandy Hook, New Jersey,
for the next couple of days. As of now it looks we will head
offshore on Sunday.
Gray skies over the mooring field at Atlantic Highlands, NJ
The Yacht Club provides launch service with their moorings so we took a
ride in this evening to check out the town. It offers the
possibility of a reprovisioning stop with a decent store within easy
walking distance as well as an new place to explore while we wait out
the weather.
That's all for tonight. Leonard
More from Atlantic Highlands, NJ
Added Tuesday, Oct. 19, 2004
Friday was windy and rainy and we didn't leave the boat all
day. Instead we worked on this web page, selecting the photos we
wanted to include. The skies cleared on Saturday but the south
winds
continued to blow. We took the launch ashore and went for a
walk up to a
overlook of the harbor. New York City was visible beyond Sandy
Hook.
Also over the mooring field, the restricted area of the navy resupply
pier and depot that we strayed into on the 2003 trip north is just
visible.
Sandy Hook, NJ with New York City in the background
Atlantic Highlands Anchorage and Navy Pier in the background
After our walk, we left the mooring,
topped off the fuel
supply, and moved to an anchorage spot just south of the
breakwater end. We didn't plan on using the launch service
anymore
and the mooring fees were a little excessive. The front came
through with a few isolated thunder showers
in the evening and the winds began shifting to the west. We
should
have a weather window Sunday and Monday for the trip off the
Jersey
coast.
Tuesday, Oct. 19, 2004
We have arrived in the Chesapeake Bay and are now anchored off Freeman
Creek on the Sassafras River. We left Atlantic Highlands, NJ,
Sunday at 10 AM for the run offshore down the Jersey coast and up the
Delaware Bay. The winds had shifted to the WSW, although 15 - 20
Knots and gusty, and we had close reach sailing conditions until past
midnight.
Because of the gusty conditions we hand steered most of the day and
were glad to turn on the autopilot when the wind dropped and
became less gusty at sunset. At about 2 AM when it got under 10 knots,
we began motor sailing as I wanted to arrive at Cape May at daybreak to
take advantage of the currents up Delaware Bay.
This trip we had clear skies and good visibility the whole night.
The lights of Atlantic City are visible from a long distance and it
took most of the night to get from first seeing them 'til when they
faded from view. It seems like you are never going to get to
Atlantic City and, once there, even longer until you are past and no
longer see it. The amount of electricity consumed there is beyond
belief for those of us who were taught to turn lights off when
you leave a room.
Atlantic City at night
From the charts it didn't look much longer to go around Cape May if you
stayed in close to shore and avoided the big ship channel, so I plotted
a course to steer clear of the shoals and entered the waypoints into
the GPS. Just as we started around, there appeared what looked
like a shoal bank out of the water at low tide ahead of us. It
was just some dredge
pipes anchored off the disposal site, and once we dodged that, it
was only a matter of watching the GPS for the course changes although
it did seem like we headed directly at the light house and shore for a
time. Another sail boat that had been anchored at Sandy Hook with
us and had been sailing behind us all night took the same track through
the shoals. I don't know if they were following us or came up
with the same plan independently. We made it without problems.
Cape May Light
We started up the Delaware just as the flood current (current going our
way) started. Once clear of the cape we were able to shut the engine
down and sail part of the way up the bay. We started motor
sailing shortly after noon as the winds became lighter to make sure we
wouldn't end up fighting the current later in the day. The
current ran about 2 - 2.5 knots, especially as we got into the narrower
portion of the bay.
Once we entered the C & D we had some interesting swirls and eddies
and had to dodge junk in the water. We saw the GPS speed over
ground touch 9 knots a few times and it literally felt like we were
being squirted out the canal. The few boats we saw heading the
other way were having a much harder time of it. They were mostly
power boats, the Annapolis power boat show had ended on Sunday and we'd
seen groups of new boats heading south during the day.
Foliage in the upper Chesapeake Bay
This trip we had a favorable current all the way up the bay, through
the C&D canal, and down into Chesapeake Bay, a first for us. The
boost the current gave us was enough to get us into the Sassafras and
set the hook just as it got dark.
The hot shower on board was a treat after our 33 hour trip, as was a
hot dinner and our
bunk. We had gone 199 nautical miles - I figured it from a
software chart program we got last February as well as from the
knotmeter reading. It was somewhat surprising that both came up
with the same distance given the strong current boost we'd had all day
which would make the knotmeter reading low as it measures
distance through the water and not distance over ground.
Today, Tuesday, we are having a quiet rainy day at anchor off Freeman
Creek on the Sassafras River. It rained fairly hard off and on
during the night and has been sprinkling and foggy so far. The forecast
is more of the same for the next few days. We are glad we left
Sandy Hook when we did. The good weather didn't last as long as
forecast and it would be miserable offshore in the rain and NE winds.
Freeman Creek in the mists
Trees in the fog on the Sassafras River
Leonard