Enroute To Block Island

At Sea, N 38 58 W 074 34

The severe thunderstorm never appeared yesterday. However, it rained all night.

In celebration of having unlimited shore power, we ran the fans, and turned on the lights,
and I backed up the hard disk We are accustomed to conserving energy. However, when I woke up this
morning the batteries were low. Oh no! The shore power cord was jostled and we had no shore power
the whole night. Oh well, no harm done.

We waited until about noon to leave because it was still raining.

While traversing Cape May harbor we enjoyed the spectacle of a 40 foot power boat who got confused over red
and green. He cruised to the wrong side of the red then abruptly slowed to a crawl because the water was shallow.
But instead of correcting his mistake, he continued on the wrong side of the red, ignoring a half dozen other
boats who passed him at regular speed on the other side of the buoy. Finally he got past the red, and since
the channel made a 90 degree turn there, he was back in the middle of the channel. However he crossed the
channel at right angles and headed for the wrong side of the next green marker. Finally, a Tow Boat US boat
had mercy on him and called him on the radio to explain which side of the buoys he was supposed to use.

Leaving Cape May Inlet between the jetties, we were rocked and rolled by excessive wakes from almost
every power boat that came by. Not a single one slowed to reduce his wake. The same thing happened to us
in Cape May Inlet last year. The New Jersey captains are the rudest bunch we've seen anywhere.

We have nearly 200 nautical miles to go to reach Block Island. There is very little wind out here and the
forecast calls for a week of 5-10 knot winds. It may take us 4 or 5 days to get there at this rate. Oh
well, it should be a relaxing time, and it would be worse to wait in Cape May harbor for better weather.
We could wait there for a whole week with no guarantee of better weather after that.

We'll see how we do on sleep deprivation. The bad part is that we'll be crossing the sea lanes for the
entrance/exit to New York City so I expect lots of ship traffic to watch out for.

Update. Now, an hour later, it is almost sunset and the wind died entirely. We are drifting backwards
in the current. If this continues until morning, we'll be back in Cape May. I found a spot on the chart
3.5 NM away where it is only 23 feet deep. We'll motor over there and anchor for the night. I don't like
anchoring at sea, but this seems like the best alternative. At least we won't be drifting backward.

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