False Start

The dodgy nut holding the transmission coupling came loose again, so I'll be here at least another day. I may try to reuse the one I have, but will wait to talk to a mechanic before I decide. I'd actually be more comfortable with a new one, so that's probably what I'll do.

So, I'll be here at least another day, perhaps two or three. It's a little expensive, but well worth it in the long run. It'll also give the weather a chance to warm up. We had frost this morning, but it should be about 10 degrees warmer today. Needless to say, I don't like frost.

Staying Inside

The weather has been pretty bad lately, so all of us, me and four other boats, have decided to sail up Delaware Bay, through the C&D Canal, and down the Chesapeake. The weather down the coast toward Norfolk isn't expected to improve anytime soon, and the anchorage here is too small and unprotected -- every single boat out there had to go into a marina to ride out the nor'easter that just roared through.

We all plan to leave well before dawn tomorrow morning. I'm probably the slowest boat, but think I can make all the way to Chesapeake City with everyone else before dark. If I can't, there are several places I can anchor for the night before continuing on the next morning.

I might stay there for a few days to take care of a few things. Other than today, the weather's been too bad to do anything other than sit and wait. I walked into town and picked up a few things along with Roger and Dale this afternoon. They're both singlehanders, and Dale has a really nice dog that Zoe got to play with.

I just finished getting everything more or less ready for tomorrow. Now I'm going to take a shower, my last for a while, then take Zoe for a walk before hitting the rack. I'll probably walk around the deck first to make sure I haven't forgotten anything first, otherwise, I won't sleep well.

I had dinner with a nice Canadian couple in the slip next to us tonight. In fact, that's the second time -- they invited me and Roger over last night too, and Roger had the three of us over the first night we got here. a couple time, and at Roger's the first night here.

We also traded a few books. Last night, they gave me a copy of 1491 -- the year before Columbus arrived -- and tonight, I gave them my copy of Chichester's Gypsy Moth. I haven't had much time to read lately, but as soon as I get a little ways into the Chesapeake, I hope things will settle down a bit -- there's been just too much excitement, weather-wise, lately. I'm still working on Robinson Crusoe.

Dockside

I'm dockside at a marina in Cape May. We had a bit of adventure last night, and with more high winds expected, I decided it wasn't safe to share a small anchorage with the same neighbors I spent most of last night dodging.

I'm too beat to write about it now, but Roger has a pretty good description here if you're interested:

http://forums.hunter.sailboatowners.com/showthread.php?t=135160

He was a few hundred yards away, so I'll fill in the details later -- I'm just too tired right now.

Cape May

We made it to Cape May on Sunday, and are now at anchor in Cape May Harbor, just off the Cape May Coast Guard Station. It's well protected here, but there's a lot of traffic through the harbor, so we're taking a few wakes. We lost track of the Canadians shortly after rounding Sandy Hook, so we came straight here without stopping at Atlantic City.

The Cape May station is a recruit training depot, so I get to see and hear a lot of familiar things. It's impossible to really compare, but it seems a little tame compared to my days in MCRD, San Diego, 31 years ago -- different service, different time. I'm only a few hundred yards offshore, so I get to watch formations and hear what sounds like PT. I also enjoy reveille and taps. Always enjoyed that aboard ship as well.

Perhaps I should get some recordings and play them throughout the day, e.g., "Reveille, reveille, reveille, all hands heave out and trice up. Sweepers! Sweepers! Man your brooms...." I also liked being in foreign ports where we'd play both national anthems when raising the flag in the morning -- promptly at 0800. Either that, or bring a wave on board as a mate, and have her do it.

Trip watch:

We weighed anchor and got underway at 0845 Saturday morning. I'd planned to sail along with the two Canadian boats, but they had a falling out just after we cleared the breakwater and turned into the wind to raise sail. I was a few hundred yards back, and didn't realize anything had happened, but after I caught up with them at the anchorage here at Cape May, John came over and filled me in.

Apparently, his main got stuck about half way up, so he went forward to clear it -- no big deal, I have the same problem from time to time. However, while he was freeing it, Len's boat bumped into him. John was in the lead, so he had the right of way. I'm not sure what Len was doing, but he should never have gotten that close. John was livid and took off. By the time I rounded Sandy Hook, he'd motor-sailed far ahead, and disappeared over the horizon within a couple hours.

I didn't know what was going on at the time, but there wasn't much wind, so I was only doing a little over 3 knots. I spoke to Len on the radio, and found out he was motor-sailing. I figured they'd planned to motor-sail all along, and since I don't do that, I wouldn't be able to keep up unless the wind picked up to at least 10-15knts. I still didn't know there'd been a problem, but told Len he should probably catch up to John -- Len didn't have any charts -- because I wasn't going to use my engine. Had I known they were no longer on speaking terms, I would have told him to stick with me.

Anyway, he motored off, and as I said, I didn't see either of them again until I anchored. However, the wind did pick up a little later, and we did better than 5 knots, sometimes better than 6, for the rest of the day, and throughout the night. I guess those few miles they picked up motor-sailing were just too important to them.

The sail was pretty uneventful except for a few times when mega-yachts passed close by at 20+ knots and gave us big wakes. I didn't want to go too far out, makes the trip longer, so we stayed about 5 miles off until it got dark, when we slowly let it increase to about 10-15. I think we were a little over 10 offshore, and 15 from Cape May at sunrise.

We passed Atlantic City around midnight, and could have made Cape May earlier if I stayed in a little closer, but I was getting really tired, and having trouble staying awake, so I hove to a couple times, and steered a bit more easterly to get some sea-room. Unfortunately, I couldn't get her to really heave to, so we ended up fore reaching at 1-2 knots while I took a break and made coffee. The wind was about 15 knots most of the night, but as I approached and dawn broke, it died off fairly quickly.

Once the sun came up, everything was fine. It had gotten really cold during the night, mid-40's I think, but by noon, I'd stripped down to shorts again. We steered straight for Cape May, but as soon as we got within a couple miles, around 1000, the wind died completely.

I could have motored in and anchored in less than an hour, but prefer to sail. We were still making way, 1-2 knots, so we just hung out, cleaned up from the night before, had some coffee, and enjoyed the sunshine.

I hooked up the wind vane as the winds abated a little after dawn. The winds were light enough to play with it and get it adjusted, and after a few minutes, she was working perfectly. Even after the winds died down, she kept us orientated to what little wind was left. It steers much better than I do.

The wind finally shifted around 1400, and I could see there was a breeze a few hundred yards south of us. I tacked and tried to reset the wind vane, but she didn't work well at all on a port tack -- needs some more adjustment -- so I pulled it up and hand steered the rest of the day.

We weren't making enough way to have steerage, so I pulled out an oar and began to paddle. That gave us enough to get over the hump, and we found the wind within about 30 minutes. It slowly picked up, and kept increasing as we got closer to shore.

In fact, for a while there, it was stronger than the day before, and we was peaking close to 6 knots, pointing as high as we could. I'd wanted to round the cape, but after an hour, realized I'd never make it before dark, so I tried to come about and sail back up to the harbor entrance which was now less than a mile west of us.

Unfortunately, my roller furling jammed, so I pointed into the wind, lowered the main, and was going to try to lower the genoa too, but she was flogging so badly against the spreaders, I was afraid she might get torn apart. So I figured it was time to start the engine, and I pointed her away from the wind and ran with it. This gave us a much lower apparent wind, 5-10knts, and allowed me time to lower the genoa and secure it on the foredeck -- the netting really came in handy.

Then we turned and motored into the harbor and anchored on the south shore near the coast guard station. I noticed the Canadians were already there, and got an obscenity laced history of the preceding day's incident from each of them in turn, mainly from John.

No one got hurt, so it shouldn't be that big of a deal, however, I did have trouble convincing Len later that he was really at fault -- the vessel being overtaken, John's, always has the right of way, especially if he's under sail. In any case, I'll give both of them a wide berth from now on. In fact, I pretty much give everyone a wide berth.

Float watch:

I have a few things I need to do before getting underway again, but after the nice trip down, we'll probably do another overnighter outside down to Norfolk later this week or early next week. We've got a bit of wind right now, which shouldn't be a problem, but I'm not in any hurry, so we'll wait it out. This is also a nice place to fix things and finish up a few projects.

In particular, I need to stow things better, adjust the wind vane, and install the tuner and antenna -- had to pull down the dipole because I was afraid it would chafe my sails. Unless I can figure out a better way to hang it, I'll have to leave it down unless we're at anchor or in light winds.

I also need to pull my foot pump and fix it. It pumps okay, but since I attached both it and the electric pump to the same feed line, the negative pressure created by the electric pump caused the check value to fail. So any time I pump any water, I have to pump it all the way up. It's just sorta annoying, and hopefully easy to fix without having to buy anything. I never use the other pump, but did run it to test the wiring I fixed the other day.

Zoe watch:

Well, she didn't enjoy the trip that much, but likes it here. Part of the work I want to do before we leave is making things a little better for her on the next leg. I've got some ideas, but want to run them by her first -- it's important for her to feel good about whatever we do.

Frost Warning and Other Weather Issues

I got a signal report from Harry last night after I repaired my antenna. I had been checking and re-tuning the rig so I could pin the turnbuckles, so I dropped the boom down to the deck in order to take tension off the mast, but forgot to loosen lower line on the antenna. In doing so, I broke the thin speaker wire I'm using for my dipole. I pulled it down and re-soldered it once I'd finished the rig, but wanted to make sure I was still getting out.

Harry told me I was coming in fine, pretty much like normal, then asked me if we were still in the same place. I told him yes, but we'd be leaving in the morning -- I'm up early waiting for it to get light right now. Then he mentioned that we'd been here a long time, and I told him we'd been waiting on the weather. Harry served on board an aircraft carrier, and although they can, and do, go out in any weather, it's a little different for a small sailboat, especially this time if year. In fact, for us, pretty much everything, including destination, is dependent on the weather.

Right now, we're trying to balance two things (three things if you count repairs). First of all, with hurricane season active through the end of November, we don't want to go too soon. However, as it gets colder, the weather windows get shorter and less often. We missed a short window at the beginning of the week, but hope to take full advantage of this one.

Len, one of the two Canadians anchored nearby, came by just before dark last night, and told me they were only going as far as Atlantic City today, and on to Cape May tomorrow, i.e., no overnighters. He also invited me to go along with them. This is Len's first trip, but John, the other skipper, has done it many times.

We'll see how it goes, but unless I just can't keep up, I'll probably go along with them at least as far as Chesapeake City, which we should make by Monday or Tuesday. That'll put us a few days from Norfolk, but we'd have to wait there for the next window anyway, so why not do it in the Chesapeake.

Oh, and speaking of weather, there was a frost warning on the weather report this morning for Sunday night. I think it was for northern New Jersey, so it shouldn't affect us here or in Cape May, but it's definitely time to get out of here -- my decks are down right dangerous when covered with frost.

It's getting light, so time for that second cup of coffee.

Leaving Tomorrow

I've been watching the weather, and it looks like the window down to Norfolk should last through Tuesday afternoon. At four knots or better, that should be plenty of time, but since I don't really know what sort of speed I can maintain, and I don't want to get caught out in the system that should arrive around Wednesday, I've decided to go through the C&D Canal and down the Chesapeake.

There are two Canadian boats anchored nearby, one of which is skippered by a very experienced sailor named John, and that's what they plan to do as well. Although, in their case, I think it has more to do with enjoying a leisurely trip than it does with the weather. Like me, they're both singlehanders.

It'll take a few more days to get to Norfolk, but hopefully we'll arrive about the time the next weather window starts to open up.

Gear watch:

I'm going to try to superglue my starter switch, and if that doesn't work, I'll use some 5200 -- might use the 5200 anyway. (5200 is a permanent adhesive caulk used extensively on boats) I'm just waiting for the wind to lay down a bit before tackling it and making final preparations for tomorrow. I thought about buying a new one, but it's just the plastic mounting threads that broke, the switch itself is fine.

I was planning to send my Gill offshore jacket in today, but don't really have time. It's only a few years old, most of which was spent in the closet of my Manhattan apartment, but one of the wrist closures has separated, and it's leaking badly around the neck. I've always noticed there was a problem with the way the neck was sewn on, but never gave it much thought. However, I think it gets pinched and rubs -- all the lining has worn off on the inside.

I spoke to one of the warranty reps at Gill yesterday. She was very nice, and suggested I send it in. I may try while we're in the Chesapeake, otherwise, it'll have to wait till we get to Houston. In the meantime, I can still use it in dry, windy weather (best jacket I've ever owned), but will have to use my North Face jacket when it rains. (I've actually got a really good offshore jacket I bought in France over 10 years ago that's still waterproof, so I might try it too, but it doesn't breath well)

I'm sure I'll find some combination that works. I got soaked during the gale on Wednesday, and there's nothing worse than being wet and cold on a boat without a heater. So anything's better than that.

Zoe watch:

She's hanging out on deck in her life jacket, tethered to one of the lifelines. I want her to get used to it so there won't be any issues tomorrow. It doesn't seem to bother her at all, and she might even like it with the winds we're getting today.

It's gusting to about 25knt's, but mostly pretty calm at around 10-15. Since it's from the west, the breakwater's keeping the waves down. However, we are hunting a bit. Unfortunately we lost the other bucket I was using as a sea anchor during the gale. It really helped, but can't be used in rough weather.

I saw it float by while we were taking some of the larger waves. They were about 5-6' with a period of 2 seconds, which ripped the handle right off -- sorta reminded me of the bull at Gilley's. Maybe I can get a real sea anchor while we're in the Chesapeake.

Windy Day

It's about 0200 local time, and I'm still up waiting for the wind to shift so I can adjust my anchor rode. We had a lot of wind yesterday, and several boats got into trouble, including mine.

I had out 100' of chain, which would normally have been sufficient, but with 25-30 knot winds, gusting to almost 40, and breaking waves up to around 5-6', it wasn't enough. In fact, I started to slowly drag long before it got really bad.

These winds weren't as high as the ones we got with Irene, but the waves were nearly as bad and lasted a lot longer. Several boats dragged, and one called the Coast Guard for assistance. He was by himself too, but had a bigger, newer, nicer boat, and everything, including his engine seemed to be working okay, so he was eventually able to re-anchor. He had to run his engine for a few hours just to hold his position.

As for us, we were being blown slowly past a winter stick -- they pull the mooring balls in the winter and replace them with sticks that can't get ripped off by the ice -- and decided to let out more chain, both to stop the dragging, and get away from the stick. I didn't want to hole the boat. Unfortunately, there was already a lot of tension on the chain, so I had a bit of a problem -- I actually almost lost it, but after over 100' of 5/16" galvanized chain ran through my bare hands, the thin line I had tied to the bitter end held it long enough for me to pull in about 10' and secure it -- that left about 190' out. Hopefully, there won't be another time, but I've had all day to nurse my bruised hands and think of a better way to do it. So if there is another time, I won't make the same mistakes.

After a while, I could see we weren't dragging any more, but it sure was a rough ride. I should have known better and moved back over to Horseshoe Cove, but didn't realize how bad it got here when the wind blew in from the east.

The wind's starting to shift to the south, but the high hills are shielding us, and it's nice and smooth now. I just need to make sure we don't bump onto that winter stick or the channel marker as we swing back to the east. I've already pulled in about 25', but may need to pull in more. The winds will shift to the south-west today, so I'm worried the extra rode will put us on top of the channel marker.

I'd just re-anchor now, but my ignition switch broke off this afternoon, so I can't use the engine till I replace or hot wire it. It shouldn't be hard to fix, but I don't feel like doing it in the dark.

Well, time to go back on deck. I think I can hear the winter stick bumping up against the hull -- it's almost 0300 now and the tide's going out.

Atlantic Highlands

After waiting out the fog for a couple days, we moved over to Atlantic Highlands on Friday. Now we're just hanging out, working on the boat, and waiting for the weather to improve, hopefully by Saturday.

I've actually gotten a lot done while we've been here, including re-tuning the rig, replacing the alternator belt, cleaning the fuel filter bowl, wiring up a new bilge pump, remounting the radar reflector, cleaning the prop and bottom, and climbing the mast to add a block and halyard for the topping lift. I still need to do about half a dozen things before we leave, but at least all the hard stuff's out of the way.

Departure watch:

It looks like the high coming across the southern US should get here around Friday night, so we're planning to leave Saturday morning. We'll head down the coast and either go in at Cape May Sunday or continue down to Norfolk -- just depends on how things go. In fact, if things continue to go well and the weather holds, we might not pull into Norfolk either. It's good to have options -- it's a boat, so you need to be flexible. (hope that doesn't mean coming back here, but you never know)

As always, you can keep track of me here:

http://www.winlink.org/dotnet/maps/PositionReportsDetail.aspx?callsign=NV5L

I try to update my position daily when underway,

Zoe watch:

She's doing great, but seems to be getting a little restless. I think I'll take her ashore tomorrow for some exercise. There's a sandy beach a few hundred yards away, so that should work out well, assuming the weather holds. It's a little too cold to swim, though I did go in for about 30 minutes the other day to inspect the bottom and clean it and the prop. I might go in again and get her nice and clean before we leave -- I just knocked all barnacles off the prop and big stuff off the keel.

Waiting for Fog to Lift

We need to move to a better anchorage behind the breakwater at Atlantic Highlands today, but have to wait for the fog to lift. We'll sit there until the weather breaks, probably Sunday or Monday. Since I'm just hanging out, I figured this was a good opportunity to catch up on the Zoe watch.

Zoe watch:

When we pulled into Huntington last week and tied up to the public dock, Zoe got to go ashore -- in every sense of the word. We picked up a mooring that night and stayed a couple more days, but after her time ashore, she held out for another visit.

At about noon on Sunday, I motored over to the dock at Gold Beach to dump my trash and top off my water tanks. As we approached, I shutdown the engine, threw the stern line to a guy on the dock, then jumped off with the bow line.

However, as soon as my back was turned, Zoe jumped off and ran down the dock toward shore at full speed. It took less than minute to secure the boat and follow her, but she'd already disappeared and was taking care of business.

It was a beautiful day, so there were lots of people around who helped point her out. I picked up after her as I followed, so she got another head start on me, but when she stopped for a second time, I caught up. There were other dogs around, so she got to socialize a bit on the way back to the boat.

Once we got back, she curled up on the deck in the sun and went to sleep while I rinsed the deck and filled my tanks. After that was done, I collected all my trash, mainly cardboard containers from the shopping the day before, and stepped onto the dock. Someone asked me about my wind vane, so I quickly explained it to him, then headed up the dock towards the dumpster.

About that time, I heard a splash, and someone yelled there was a dog in the water. Zoe had heard me talking and didn't want to be left out, so she jumped ship, but didn't quite make it. There were several people around, and they were all concerned and excited, but Zoe's such a good swimmer, she just swam over to me and I pulled her out. I'm glad it was such a warm day, because after that, we were both soaked.

I put her back on board, found her leash, and took her with me to the dumpster. After all the excitement and exercise, she slept all the way back to Oyster Bay.

So that's two escapes and one dog overboard (DOB) in one day.

Sandy Hook

We made it to Sandy Hook yesterday, and anchored right as the sun was going down. There was a full moon, but the weather had started to deteriorate a little after noon, so it was completely overcast by the time we got here. The wind picked up a bit too, and is now gusting around 20kts from the east. I'd hoped this spot would offer some relief, but Sandy Hook is too low to provide much protection, so we're getting pushed around a bit.

I wish I could say that the trip was enjoyable, and uneventful, but if I did, I'd be shining you on. I did enjoy it, Manhattan and the Statue of Liberty are beautiful from the water, but with the wind and waves, and especially the wakes from large vessels passing close by, we had engine trouble from start.

We got up before sunrise, weighed anchor, and got underway by 0745. It was blowing about 15kts, and a little choppy, but not bad at all. It took about 30 minutes to round the point at Throgs Neck, where SUNY Maritime is located, go under the bridge, and enter the East River (which isn't really a river a all), but even during that short time, I noticed the engine sounded a little strange -- periodic, short, slight, losses of power.

It didn't take long to realize what was happening. All that bouncing around had mixed up the sediment in the bottom of my fuel tank, and it was clogging the filter, preventing my engine from getting any fuel. At first, It wasn't too bad, so I decided to continue on -- I still had time to turn back and sail out if need be.

However, I got passed by a couple of large, fast moving vessels (for some reason, they only seem to have two speeds, stopped and full throttle). We bounced over their wakes, and the engine began to cut out and almost die. I did what I could to keep her going -- didn't have up any sail or much room either. Luckily, there was a shoal on the outside of the bend on the north side, so we limped over there and anchored.

I quickly changed the filter and bled the petcock -- spilling a bit of fuel into the bilge, but I'll deal with that later. Then, I had the bright idea to check the other filter on the engine. It was fine, but because of how it's made, checking the filter means you have to bleed the air out of the system, which took me another 30 minutes.

At this point, it was already 0930, and I'd wanted to be at Hell Gate by 1011, which was still about 8 miles away, or 2+ hours at the speed I'd been able to maintain. After a bit of thought, I decided to give it a whirl. I wasn't yet at the point of no return, and as the tide turned, I'd be able to pick up speed with the current. Also, the current isn't too bad an hour or so either side of the ebb, so if I could make it by say, 1130, that was still good.

So, I quickly weighed anchor and was underway again by 0945.. Everything went well for the next half hour, but as I approached Riker's Island, an alarm went off. I'd been running her at close to full throttle, 3,000 rpms, and she was overheating. I shut her down, and pulled the engine cover off to make sure I'd reopened the seacock for the raw water intake. I'd closed it while I was running the starter to bleed the fuel lines. It was open, and everything else looked fine, so I left the cover off and restarted her to see if she was still pumping water -- perhaps the impeller had failed.

The alarm was still sounding when I looked over the stern, but she was pumping water just fine. About that time, the alarm stopped, so I left the cover off and got underway again -- there's not much ventilation down there, so I'll have to fix that at some point. For right now, running her at lower speeds or with the cover off seems to work. I also decided this might be a good time to raise the main, just in case. It doesn't take long to raise her, but in confined spaces, every second counts, and anyway, it can't hurt. I got her up quickly and left her up for the rest of the day.

I continued on, passed between the two brothers, and noticed my SOG was averaging better than 6kts. I was overtaken by the Seawolf, a 60+' commercial vessel, between the two bridges off Ward Island, and spoke to him on the radio. I told him I was having some engine trouble, but was okay, and he told me that there wasn't any traffic up ahead and that I should be fine if I stayed off to the side.

A few minutes later, around 1130, I passed under the second bridge and was in Hell Gate. Other than a few small power boats and the Seawolf up ahead, it was wide open. The problem with Hell Gate is the current, which can run almost 5kts, and it makes a sharp turn. It was running around 3knts when I went through and climbing, which was a good thing because it helped me maintain almost 7knts all the way down to the tip of Manhattan.

However, about the time I cleared Roosevelt Island, I passed more boats and the engine problems started again. I didn't actually loose it, but did shut her down once and try to sail. Unfortunately, there wasn't any wind to speak of, however, I was still doing better than 3knts with the current. I restarted her after a few minutes, and she seemed to run fine again until the next guy passed and buffeted us with his wake. I cut back on the throttle, let the boat settle, then continued, which seemed to work fine. This became SOP for the rest of the day -- every time I took a large wake or heard the engine bog down, I'd cut power, let things settle down, the increase throttle slowly -- not only does the sloshing mix up the muck in the tank, it also washes off the filter if there isn't too much suction. I had to do this at least a dozen more times before I got to Sandy Hook, limiting complete failures to only two or three, but she always started back up.

It was a good learning experience, but I think I'll wait a few days before the next lesson. We've got a small craft advisory in effect for at least the next day or so, and I figure it won't lay down enough for me to go out until at least Sunday. I have a few more things I need to do before I go out anyway, so this'll give me plenty of time.

The list is short, but includes securing stuff in the cabin, making final adjustments to the rigging and pinning and taping the turnbuckles, re-rigging my jacklines, and PM'ing the engine again. That's only about a day's worth of stuff, but I've got three, so I'll try to do more planning as well.

Trip watch:

We got a late start on Sunday, 1330, and with little or no wind, only made it back to the mouth of Oyster Bay a little after dark, 1930. We anchored there, and since it was just off the Sound, figured it was a good place to start out for Throgs Neck the following morning.

I fixed a couple rigging problems I'd noticed on Sunday, then weighed anchor and got underway by 0830. We motored out of the bay, and other than the last 30 minutes, sailed the entire way. The wind finally died as we approached Hart Island, so we motored the last mile or so and anchored in Eastchester Bay just north of Throgs Neck right at dusk.

After I shut off the engine, secured everything, and reported my position, I heard water trickling, and upon investigation, found the bilge half full. The stuffing box for the rudder, which always leaked a little, had loosened and was leaking about a gallon or more an hour. Not enough to really worry, but enough I make me go ahead and fix it in the dark. I didn't want to chance getting my feet wet the next morning.

I pulled everything out of the port cockpit locker, and crawled down with my headlamp and a pipe wrench. It was a little tough to get to it due to all the drain hoses in the way -- when I had reinstalled it a few years ago, all the hoses were out. I loosened the locking nut with the wrench, then tightened it by hand and stopped the leak, then re-tightened the locking nut, but it was tough to tell how good of a job I did. I'll take another look from the other side today, but had no leaks on the trip over yesterday.

Zoe watch:

I let her sun herself on the foredeck for the first part of the trip, but as we began to get bounced around, I brought he back into the cockpit, put the life jacket on her and tethered her to the wheel pedestal. I even put mine on once we got into the lower bay, just in case...

I have more Zoe stories, but they'll have to wait till the next update -- including 2 escapes and one dog overboard incident in Huntington.

Fixin to Head South

Well, it's finally that time, and we're fixin to head south. Kieran and his two boys took me shopping today, and I got pretty much everything I needed for the trip.

The only thing I couldn't get was a wet suit, but that's not a big deal -- the water's not that cold yet. I'd wanted to clean up the prop and depth finder this afternoon, but ran out of time. It'll be really nice and warm tomorrow, so I may try to do it either before I leave or after I anchor.

I did get all my provisions stored, but will probably need to adjust everything to trim the boat and make it easy to get to. It looks like the bow is sitting a bit low right now, but it's hard to tell -- the boot stripe may not be accurate.

Radio watch:

I picking up another net this evening after the sun went down -- couldn't really do any more work anyway, so it won't affect my departure. I'd also spoken earlier to Michael, KC2QYR, who's moored about a mile away. I really enjoyed talking to him, and he gave me some good advice about going through Hell Gate.

Trip watch:

I plan to fill my water tanks tomorrow morning, and bring the dinghy on board. I also plan to PM my engine in the morning to make sure it's ready to go.

I still haven't decided, but I may try to go through Hell Gate Sunday night to take advantage of the great weather. Another option would be to go through Monday morning, then continue directly out into the Atlantic in the afternoon. Either option would help me make Cape May before Tuesday night when the wind is expected to pickup.

Anyway, I plan to keep my options open and play it by ear, but I'd really like to take advantage of the weather while it lasts. I'll continue to check in and post my progress, plans, and positions with the MMSN, so you should be able to follow me on shiptrack or winlink.

Back to Huntington

I finally made it back to Huntington yesterday. The weather cleared up, and it was a beautiful day -- really enjoyed the sail over. It should stay nice up until Wednesday, so I'm going to try to run all my errand today, then go with Kieran and his kids to Costco tomorrow morning for provisions, and sail back down to Throgs Neck either Saturday afternoon or Sunday morning. I'll anchor there for the night, pass through Hell gate the the following morning, then sail down to Cape May the next day. Not sure where or how far I'll go after that, but at this time of year, it's all dependent on the weather.

Coneys is letting me stay on an empty mooring for a couple days, so I'm sitting near the north end of the harbor just off the Gold Star Battalion Beach while I'm here (don't know the history, but will try to look it up). It's a little far to the town dock, but the harbor is well protected, and I don't have to worry about the anchor, so I'm happy to have it.

Once we picked up the mooring last night, Zoe and I took the dinghy down to the dock and had dinner at the Rock. It was the first good meal I've had in almost three months. Kieran came by to say hi, and Zoe got to see her friend Frazier, a big English bulldog. I also got to watch the first few innings of the Tigers-Yankees game, but we were both so tired, we left after the 4th inning. We had to take the dinghy back to the boat in the dark.

Radio watch:

Unfortunately, I need to send my new Icom IC-7000 back for service. I'm not sure what happened, but the internal amplifier stopped working, so I'm only putting out an ultra QRP signal (QRP is ham-speak for low power, normally <10 watts -- I'm probably putting out less than 1 watt). There's a UPS store within walking distance from the dock, so I'll pack it up and send it in sometime today. Hopefully, I can get it back somewhere along the way, perhaps shipped to a marina or a fellow NCS along my route. Otherwise, I'll have them send it to Paul's business in Baytown.

For the time being, I'm using my marine rig, an IC M700Pro, which still works great. However, without the filters, I have trouble hearing the really light stations, and without compression, my transmission doesn't have quite as much punch. I'd gotten it setup to the point that if I heard them, they heard me, and vice versa, but with the marine rig, it's sorta a crap shoot. I think I can hear more than can hear me, but both are noticeably less than the 7000 which only puts out 100 watts. It's a really nice radio when it works.

Reading List

I haven't made much headway on the "Texas List of Unrequired Reading" this summer, but did make little progress lately, especially while my iPhone was down. I recently finished Feilding's "Tom Jones," which is on the list, as well as Sabatini's "Captain Blood," which mysteriously isn't. I liked both of them, but have to admit I prefer pirates to aristocrats.

I started Defoe's "Robinson Crusoe" yesterday before the iPhone came back. I'm obviously familiar with it, but don't think I've ever read it, at least not all of it. I'm starting to get busy making final preparations, but hope I can finish it before we get underway.

If you're interested in what Texan's read, you can find the list here, http://shirl.com/utreading/Unrequired.html, or ask Mr. Google.