Cruising Tales

2011 Cruising Tales

Unable to depart per the official itinerary, Bon Vivant set out Wednesday, October 5, planning to catch up to the fleet by Friday in the West River. With no help from the wind, we made Solomon’s for Thursday night, and called to check on the main contingent. Alas, we learned that Bon Vivant had become the lead vessel, our fellow cruisers having abandoned the slog north in favor of the RRYC default cruise destination of Onancock.  Not inclined to surrender our hard-fought northerly progress, we wished everyone a fair sail to Crisfield, and headed on our own to Oxford, a port we had bypassed on past cruises for various reasons.  With most of the Strand populated by moorings, and commuting by dingy from Plaindealing Creek looking like a chore, we hecked with Tred Avon Yacht Club and found they had five visitors’ moorings for $25 apiece, just west of the ferry dock.  Plus, Friday night featured wellattended gathering at TAYC, with great bar food and hospitality. It was on to St. Michael’s on Sunday nd back to Solomon’s Tuesday.

RRYC’s Cruise to Long Island Sound & New York City

By Steve Zukor

 For a club cruise, this was quite ambitious.  It allowed cruisers who signed up to go one of two ways to get to New York City and Long Island Sound.  Both required (gasp!) OVERNIGHT OCEAN PASSAGES!  This meant having enough crew to have someone standing watch 24 hours per day during the ocean legs.  Has RRYC ever done this before??

The “inside” route involved going up the Chesapeake Bay, through the C&D canal, down Delaware Bay, then out into the ocean – for one overnight leg along the Jersey shore and into the New York City area, then up through the East river and into Long Island Sound.  The “outside” route involved going down the Bay to Hampton, then out into the ocean – for a three-day passage directly to Block Island, RI, at the northeast end of Long Island Sound, cruising southwest in the Sound and eventually arriving in the New York City area.

A good number of club members expressed interest in this cruise, but when the time to set sail arrived, only two intrepid crews actually set off – one on each route.

Stephanie Chaufournier and Lance Franke were the cruise leaders on MerSea, their Jeanneau 37, and took the inside route.  Jim Makin crewed with them from Carter’s Creek to Oyster Bay, NY and was a big help on the two overnight passages. They departed on July 17^th , sailed overnight in the Chesapeake and made their first stop in the C&D canal at the Summit Marina.  Then, they were held up by a torn sail and thick fog at Cape May for three days, had an uneventful overnight in the ocean, and made it to New York City on the morning of July 23^rd.

Ted Kvell, Coleman Brydon, and I crewed Ted’s boat, Bottlenose, a Prout 38 catamaran, and left RRYC on July 24^th.  We spent the night at the Hampton Yacht Club and set out into the ocean on July 25^th.  On our way out, we saw several large freighters and navy ships coming and going, including a submarine!  It was on the surface, going pretty fast.  The sail of the sub was fully visible, while its hull was mostly under water.  Once at sea, we headed directly for Block Island, RI, some 350 nautical miles away.

Other than being attacked by biting flies thirty miles offshore, the passage was uneventful.  (How can flies, with those little wings, find MY ankles 30 miles out in the middle of the ocean???)  We also lost cell phone and internet service at only about five miles offshore.  We were hoping for better.  Our maximum distance offshore was 60 miles.

My first night watch was midnight to 3 am.  It was creepy because I could not see what was on the water unless it had lights.  However, I soon got used to watching the radar screen for a blip.  When I saw one, I would first look in the indicated direction, then if I could not see anything, I would use my binoculars and could usually see some lights.  Then, I would check back with the radar periodically to see if any of the blips were headed our way.  None were.

On another night watch, from 9 pm to midnight, I was looking up at the stars….and saw a small meteor streaking across the sky!

We arrived at Block Island on the morning of July 28^th and anchored in Great Salt Pond (aka, New Harbor).  We relaxed on the boat for a while, then dinghyed to shore and rented bikes.  We rode all over the island – a total distance of about 15 miles or so.

It has three major light houses and we checked them out and took a lot of pictures.  It also has lots of hills, so Coleman and I were having a tough time keeping up with Ted, who seemed to have no trouble with pedaling up them.

When we came back to the boat, Ted went for a swim, while Coleman and I took naps!  Sufficiently recovered, we dinghyed back ashore for a nice dinner.

Now that we are here, our plan is to rendezvous in the next few days with Stephanie & Lance and then spend the next week or so exploring Long Island Sound with them.

July 29^th, we left Block Island for Mystic, CT.  This was the day that Coleman was going to leave Bottlenose and go home for a week to take care of a prior commitment.  He had talked my wife, Sheila, into driving his truck here to Mystic and then trading places with him on Bottlenose, while he drove home in the truck. 

After Mystic, we visited Fisher’s Island, CT, and then Watch Hill, RI, where we finally met up with MerSea.  Now, cruising together, we visited Sag Harbor, NY, Coecles Harbor on Shelter Island, NY, Joshua Cove, CT, Black Rock Harbor (near Bridgeport, CT), and City Island in the Bronx, NY.

On August 7^th, after making it through the notorious Hell Gate on the East river with up to 11 kt of speed over the ground in the swift current, we came around the south end of Manhattan, passing by the UN building and under the Manhattan bridge and the Brooklyn bridge.  We also  got our first glimpses of the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, and Empire State Building.  Wow!  We are really sailing in New York City!

We then went a short distance up the Hudson R. to Liberty Landing marina at Jersey City, NJ, and took a slip that Stephanie had reserved for us.  We settled in and then all five of us rode the Liberty Landing ferry over to the Manhattan financial center for lunch.  We sat outside under thick shade trees at “Southwest NY”, looking out over the Hudson. 

After lunch, Stephanie and Lance took us inside a nearby building that had a great vantage point for seeing the construction of the new Freedom Tower on the site of ground zero for the 9/11 attack.

On August 8, we left the New York harbor area, caught a nice 10 kt breeze on our beam, and raised the spinnaker, which we have flown on every opportunity on this cruise.  We had a good run down the Jersey shore, with boat speed over the bottom of 7.5 to 8.5 kt, including a nice following current. 

Sheila came on her first night watch at 9 pm and had an uneventful leg past Atlantic City.  All the casinos on shore were lit up.  One tall building looked like a giant projection screen, with colorful animated scenes flashing in succession.  There was very little commercial ship traffic and nothing she had to avoid.

We rounded Cape May, went up Delaware Bay, and into the C&D canal to a free dock at Chesapeake City. During lunch, a huge thunderstorm hit.  It was good to be inside.  Later, Coleman arrived in his truck.  He came to get back on the boat and allow Sheila to return home.  We walked across the street to the ice cream shop for gelatos to celebrate her successful ocean overnight and Coleman’s return.  We said our goodbyes and Sheila was off for home.

Our next stops were Annapolis (Photo: breakfast at Chick & Ruth’s) and Solomon’s Island (Photo: Bottlenose at sunrise), before arriving back at RRYC. 

The next day was the Timm’s picnic, which is close to where Ted and I live, so on the morning of August 13^th, we picked up Stephanie and sailed from the Rappahannock river, up the Corrotoman river, to the picnic, collecting Sheila and Ted’s wife, Ene-Mai, on the way.  A nice way to end our cruise.

In all, our trip lasted exactly three weeks and covered about 1000 nautical miles, half of which for Bottlenose was blue water ocean sailing.  We sailed as much as we reasonably could, usually only motoring when our boat speed dropped below 3 kt.  We also used the spinnaker a lot.  Ted said it was the most he had ever used it in the 10 years he has owned Bottlenose.

All in all, a fantastic blue water adventure!

Fellow Cruiser's Blogs

Sue and Charles sail south aboard Ariel:  http://sueandcharles.blogspot.com  

Ted and Ene-Mai's first adventure down the ICW:  http://www.svbottlenose.blogspot.com

Steve's Bluewater Adventure:  http://steveonbottlenose.blogspot.com

Follow Murphy the Sailor Dog on his sailing adventures.