Each stop was very different. Oddly enough, [...]]]>
Each stop was very different. Oddly enough, despite all the talk of meals, I haven’t put on weight.
Now back on land, both Helen and I are experiencing the wobblies as we get back used to being on terra firma.
Now we have the rest of the summer to look forward to. No more big trips but we may do the odd weekend away.
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We left at 6:20am made good time to the East River and got there at the best time. We actually achieved speeds of 10 knots (over ground) through Hellgate and down the East River. We got enough wind to sail under the Brooklyn Bridge, out into New York harbor and out into Raritan Bay. We had all the challenges the area offers with ferries, tankers, speedboats, barges all moving around.
As a result of the obstacles and currents, the sailing was more technically challenging than exhilarating. I had spent much of the time, like the previous day, reading and commenting on promotion forms.
Because the wind dropped, we motored the last couple of hours arriving back at our home base at 2:10pm. We had already packed our stuff so were off the boat fairly quickly going straight home.
Distance covered on day 11 was 42.3nm in 7 hours and 50 mins
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They originally had planned to be sailing that afternoon with Larry’s mother. Our original plan was to make sure we passed each other by having the chance to shout something or other. In the end, Larry’s mother was not up for sailing so they were still berthed when we arrived. We took a free berth for a couple of hours and met them on their new boat. It was a Saga 43 which meant it was 43 foot long which (by the law of volumes) meant it had two and a half times the volume of our Timeless. It was a wonderful boat and it is understandable why they are happy with it. Although I think Larry likes sailing it and Laurie likes sitting on it.
After a couple of beers and a couple of hours of chatting we bid them farewell and motored over to our mooring courtesy of the KnickerBocker Yacht Club. That evening we at a Greek restaurant in town.
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This day our goal was to reach Black Rock Yacht Club.
The wind again wasn’t terrific so we motor sailed – ie we put up the sails and had the engine on.
We left at 10:13am, covered 13.4nm arriving less than 3 hours later.
Black Rock Yacht Club was superb. It had a great pool, had a wonderful setting and a great view. We walked into town and ended up in a place called Captain’s Cove. As it was during the day, it was largely empty. It was a combination between marina, pleasure pier, hangout. It seemed out of place amid industrial Bridgeport. Still, Bob had a hot dog and Helen and I had a beer before we walked back.
In the late afternoon we had a swim to cool off, had a shower then stayed for outside dinner.
I also had a package of promotion forms delivered from work which I picked up at the club. I need to provide feedback on them by Monday evening and won’t have time on Monday at work. Reading forms while others helmed seemed the best way to accomplish this.
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This was a land day. We spent time reading and went back to the supermarket for more stuff. I tried the outboard again and it started almost straight away. I went to pick up more diesel for Timeless only to have the outboard conk out. After this I could only get it to run for a second or two.
I picked up 5 gallons of diesel in our can and rowed back to the boat. I still had no further luck with the outboard so I went to talk to the boat yard next door. They said they could look at the engine in the afternoon but could make now promises. I agreed to let them so I borrowed a cart and lugged the outboard over to them and left it there. I got a call later to say they had cleaned out the carburetor but didn’t have time to put it all back together and could I collect in the morning. This worked out ok but was a little disappointing as I had wanted to use the outboard and dinghy to explore the river.
That evening we had take away Chinese with wine on board the boat.
]]>We chose a slip at a marina closest to town. [...]]]>
and head straight for Milford where we planned to stop 2 nights. The wind wasn’t strong enough to sail so we made a beeline for Milford on the engine leaving at 5:20am and arriving at 1:35pm.
We chose a slip at a marina closest to town. We had a walk around town in the afternoon. It was hot, humid and windless. We found a supermarket where we picked up more provisions. In the evening we ate at a Mexican restaurant close to the slip and had three margaritas each which went to our heads.
Distance traveled was 40.4nm in 8 hours 14 mins.
]]>Leaving the seaport we had to wait at both bridges so our journey was initially quite slow. Heading out of the Mystic River Helen [...]]]>
Leaving the seaport we had to wait at both bridges so our journey was initially quite slow. Heading out of the Mystic River Helen got to see the sights Bob and I saw the previous day. The whole area is very scenic and full of boats.
The current was behind us, winds were ahead of us. In this case, this made for an exciting day as the current gave us a good boost making our tacks into wind quite effective. We had an enjoyable sail. We included heading through “The Race” which is a notorious area where currents merge / diverge and depths change dramatically giving rise to very interesting surface conditions. This was a good first day for Helen – I don’t think she would have enjoyed our first few days.
Essex was a really quaint little town. We only had enough time to walk down the high street and eat. This was the first time we were on a mooring ball rather than a slip. Rather than use our own dinghy, we used the provided launch to get to shore and back to the boat. Helen had decided she wanted to stop somewhere for a full day. Quaint in Connecticut also means exclusive and expensive. It was nice to take a look around, the setting was very pretty but we decided not to stay in Essex.
Upon arriving back at the boat after our meal, I tried to start the outboard on the dinghy. I couldn’t. All I managed to do was to work up a sweat which I had to wash off using the shower on the boat.
Distance traveled day 6 was 34.3nm which took us 7 hours and 50 minutes.
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We eventually pulled down the sails and motored up the Mystic River. A week earlier, we had managed to arrange a slip in the Mystic Seaport itself, the old waterfront museum. This meant we had to get past a couple of draw bridges. The railway bridge was kept normally open which was passed pretty easily. The road bridge only opened at 40 minute past each hour. We had arrived over half an hour early so we took a temporary slip just in front of the bridge and stretched our legs.
When the bridge opened it was just a short trip to the seaport where we docked with the help of shore side staff. Bob and I had 30 minutes to clean up before Helen arrived where we did the best we could. Earlier I had showered down the toilet and had already given Bob instructions that if he used the head he had to clean it all again.
Neither Bob or I had shaved until this point. I told Bob that Helen would make me shave as almost the first thing she said.
I was quite pleased to see Helen. She remarked on my tan and then told me to shave.
That afternoon we explored the museum. I was fascinated by the old wooden ships. The museum itself tells the story of the Mystic of old which was a major center for shipbuilding and commerce. This has all gone now. The museum is a collection of old ships and buildings which have been moved to the one location.
The benefits of berthing in the museum is that you get automatic tickets to the museum both for when it is open and at night. It’s quite cool to have the old seaport to yourself in the evening.
We walked into Mystic town for dinner that evening. On the way back we went to a supermarket where we bought water, soft drinks and ice for the boat. We had to walk nearly a mile with all this stuff which was a pain.Stats for today : distance traveled, 25nm in 6 hours. ]]>
We followed a parallel course to Long Island just over 1.5nms from the shore. This continued until about 9:20am when the winds began to shift. We had to head further out to get better winds.
By 2:10pm we had reached our furthest point east of our whole trip. We were rounding the tip of Long Island about 2.5nm from the shore. This was due to my caution as the GPS chart had lots of dangerous rocks further inland. In hindsight we could have rounded a lot further in.As we entered the sound I began to realize I had misinterpreted the current charts. We now had a 2.5 knot current against us which made things interesting. When we passed the buoy, 2.6nm from Montauk which indicated where we could turn in avoiding a reef, we found that under the engine, we could make very little progress. The wind was picking up and coming right from Montauk. The current wanted to push us onto the reef. We had no choice but to put the sails up again and sail out of the danger we were in.We had some fun sailing but the combination of wind and currents meant the last 2.5nm meant we had to sail 7nm. The wind did shift as we got nearer to shore so we made better progress.
Entering Lake Montauk, all the wind and current disappeared. We motored over to where we had booked a slip. This time I made a better effort at bringing us in. We had a bit of help from our neighbours for the evening.
That evening, we ate at a seafood bar, the only one we could walk to, which was full of professional charter fisherman talking fish tales. We had good food but it was a bit crowded and noisy.
Distance covered day 4 was 54nm which took us 14 hours and 40 minutes.
]]>I used this time in the morning to figure out how to use the alcohol stove. I poured in [...]]]>
I used this time in the morning to figure out how to use the alcohol stove. I poured in the fuel into the top, opened up the burner and put a light to it. I now had an inferno. What I should have done was to open the burner first so that the fuel would soak into the receptacle below. As a result of my actions, fuel had made it’s way all around the inside of the top of the stove and it was all now aflame. I felt quite glad at this point that I had bought a fire blanket. I got this out and chucked it over the stove. It reduced the flames but did not put them out. The stove got hotter and the blanket began to smolder. When I took it off, the flames whooshed up. I decided I had no choice but to use the fire extinguisher. Being a halon extinguisher, it worked very well. The fire was out. So was a lot of the oxygen on the boat so we had to open all windows and get on deck to breath.
Given that we bought Timeless to learn about living on boats, I learned some important lessons this morning. I’m now a big fan of halon and absolutely know how not to fuel an alcohol stove. I made a mental note to share this knowledge with Helen when she joined us.
In fact, both Bob and I were keeping in touch with our respective homes letting our wives know where we were, where we were heading and basically that we were safe. I reported my experience with the stove to Helen that day. I wonder what she thought.
Just after 11am we set off. Again motoring as the wind was still coming in from the north east and our movement was constrained by the channels we had to navigate.
We soon learned that we had to battle increasing headwinds and an ever present current pushing us the wrong way all the time. Our average speed would be little over 2.5 knots. We also had to deal with poor visibility, blinding and often painful rain and shallow depths. On two occasions we managed to hit bottom. In these cases, the fact that we were now experiencing the tail end of Cindy was a good thing as we had 2-3 foot waves in the waterway. These bobbed us off the sandbars we struck.
Our destination became quite a trial. Our marina was right inside the inlet from the ocean. We had 20 knot winds and over a 2 knot current. All of which conspired to make entering the marina, turning the boat into our slip and tying up a very difficult experience. Seeing all the million dollar plus sports fishing boat backed into their slips, I believed this is what we should do too. Turns out this is not easy at the best of times which is exactly what this wasn’t. We had a hell of a time trying to keep Timeless from tangling herself in the anchors hanging off the bows of the various expensive vessels there. In the end I had to fling a line round a pillar and use it as a pivot to reverse Timeless around through 90 degrees into her slip.
That night we had a very nice meal at the one and only restaurant by the marina. It would be nice because we were effectively in the Hamptons. We both had very nice steaks.
Distance covered day 3 was under 18 nm taking us 6 hours 40 minutes.
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