Home Again!

A sailor’s dilemma:

Option A: Depart Tuesday, August 20, and head home with head on forecasted southwest winds but low wave heights and 9 second wave intervals, or

Option B: Wait for possible following northeast winds with higher wave heights and 4-5 second wave intervals that may come this weekend after a forecasted weather front moves through on Friday

Well, Option A won after much pondering and study of weather forecasts.  We departed Block Island on Tuesday morning and motor/sailed parts of the way but mostly motored.  There was a beautiful full bright moon shining all of Tuesday night. Surprisingly, we saw no ship traffic but there were at least two dozen fishing trawlers dragging their nets as they zizagged around us through the night. Perhaps the full moon made fishing catches better or maybe they are out there every night, we aren’t sure?

On Wednesday afternoon we were offshore of Atlantic City, NJ.  It seemed like a foggy horizon welcome home for us as we could barely see the huge high rise casinos on the beach in the haze.  Look closely at the photo and you’ll see the top of one highrise casino.

We decided to stay in Cape May an extra day and were glad we did when the weather front moved through on Friday afternoon.  It brought skies like we have not seen before. As the clouds moved over the harbor, tour boats were rushing for their docks.  The crewman is out on the bow sprit of the ship tying down the sail, which he would normally do back at the dock, trying to beat the storm.

These storm clouds were impressive.  They rolled over us anchored in the harbor and hovered just above the ocean off shore.

Fortunately the storm cells only poured rain on us.  We were glad to be safe at anchor in the harbor instead of still coming down the coast. This was the worst storm we have seen on our trip. We were amazed to hear no distress calls to the Coast Guard on the VHF radio. Perhaps the storm just looked worse than it was, at least we hope so.

Two things surprised us about our trip to New England.

1. Above Cape Cod Canal during our routine bilge checks in June, we found a cup or so of water where there is usually none.  It took us a few days to figure out that the cold seawater temperatures and high humidity was causing water to condense below our hull water level and drips were running down into our bilge and accumulating.  This continued until we were returning back south to Portland in August.  The sea water temperature had increased and humidity decreased enough so that it was no longer a problem and the bilges were again dry.  This was a learning experience for us.
2. The New England area was interesting and beautiful to explore but we found it difficult to find  lots of places to anchor.  The guides said “take a mooring” and we now understand that is what most boaters do to visit. The places we would often like to anchor were usually filled with lobster floats, or were very deep up to shore with rocky bottoms or already filled with private moorings for rent. We are a bit spoiled by having many anchorages available in the Chesapeake Bay that are more shallow with a good holding mud bottom.  It is always fun to see how boating differs in other areas.

After a roaring sail up the Delaware on Saturday and colorful fireworks off the shore as we were anchored on Bohemia River for the final night of our trip, we returned to the marina on Sunday.

  

We have had a wonderful boat trip enjoying the opportunity to visit new places and meet new friends.  As always, we may travel east and we may travel west, but returning home is always the best!  The Chesapeake Bay is pretty special!