NY Fairy Land

At Sea
N 39 18 W 074 25

Last night it was like a fairy land as we passed Manhattan after dark. The lights of the cities were as impressive as you could imagine. They substituted for moonlight in illuminating the river. As we passed ground zero, the empty hole where the WTC towers stood is even more apparent at night as I sailed past at 23:00.

I thought that late at night that the traffic would be less. Ha! I was dead wrong. We had to dodge numerous dinner cruise boats that wandered aimlessly. There was also much more tug boat and barge traffic than during the day time. It took full concentration to avoid any collisions and I had to make 90 degree turns and 360 degree spins a few times to avoid the big guys. None of the big boats showed any signs of yielding to a sail boat that had the right of way.

We encountered 5 tides in the 19 hours since leaving Poughkeepsie yesterday. A flood, an ebb, another flood, another ebb, and a final flood. How could that be? There are only supposed to be four in 24 hours. Ah, but we were sailing down the river and encountering tidal surges as they worked their way upstream. If one sails toward Albany with enough speed to match the tidal surge, one can "surf" the same flood surge all the way to Albany, therefore encountering zero changes in tide direction.
It is the Doppler effect carried to extreme.

Finally, as we rounded the point in Sandy Hook NJ at 01:30, I looked ahead and saw only blessed black. No lights, no vessels of any kind were ahead, we were finally at sea again.

The winds had been against us, a strong southerly flow, all day. The forecast called for the winds to shift to west after midnight. Sure enough, around midnight the winds became westerly 0-5 knots. We had the choice to anchor at Sandy Hook, or to anchor in place in the bay, or to just drift, or to try to sail, or to motor. The flood tide was just starting and if we waited in place it would soon become two knots carrying us back in to New York. Therefore I gave it the gas and we motored away
for a couple of hours to get out of range of the New York Harbor tides. Just about 03:00 the wind picked up nicely, and soon we were under sail making 6 knots toward Cape May.

Unfortunately, during the day today the forecast wind of NW at 20 knots actually turned out to be S at 5 knots. We didn't move very fast after lunch. Now, it is almost dark. We just passed Atlantic City. I'm debating whether or not to stop in Cape May for the night. We could stop in Cape May or we could just stay at sea heading for Norfolk. The forecast for the next 4 days is for very light southerly winds -- not favorable for us. On the other hand, we should be able to make the 120 miles
in 4 days even under unfavorable conditions. If we get becalmed we could always approach shore and anchor at sea to get a night's sleep. Worst case, we could motor another 100 miles or so.

The temperature has been great. I was comfortable in a t-shirt all night and all day long. This afternoon I set up a sun shower and luxuriated in a 116 degree F shower on the forward desk. That warm water feels so good.

Despite the calm weather, we heard reports of two boats sinking in and near the ocean inlets. In both cases the crew and passengers were rescued OK. Perhaps that's normal for New Jersey. I heard one humorous exchange in the case of the second sinking. I first heard the Coast Guard calling Tow Boat US (who rescued the people) asking if he had the survivors. I then heard the Tow Boat base station calling to tell the people that their mother was on the way from Philadelphia brining dry clothes.
Ha ha -- very contrasting perspectives. While the captain is on the VHF radio calling for rescue, his passenger must have been on a cell phone calling his mother to complain that he got wet.