Sometimes the Stars Align

Since our fateful overnight, we have fared most nicely. Luck has been with us, each day working out as it should. Even the five days we were "stuck" in Northport were pleasant. There was a nice little town and the beach for the dogs. They loved that - they also love their supper which they had to get while underway because of the long day today.

It turned out that by taking that overnight hop from Castine to Cuttyhunk, we easily dodged any possible problems from Hurricane Bill, ran through Hell Gate on the East River with favorable current, and today were able to position ourselves behind Reedy Island which is near the C&D Canal allowing us to get to the Chesapeake Bay tomorrow. By moving today we escaped days of rough seas, beginning tonight, that would probably have stranded us in Atlantic City for some time.

So I'm wondering, were the 10 hours of feeling seasick that night worth the "luck" we're experiencing now? It's easy to downplay that experience when the sun is shining and the seas are calm. It's also the sort of lapse of memory that can lead us to poor decisions. For now, I'll enjoy our luck and remind Dylan, the Celtic god of the waves, that we did name our puppy after him. Oh, and I'll keep my seasick medicine close.

The reason we're at the beach...

Today was a good day. As we figured, the forecast was too rough for us to transit down the New Jersey coast. It's looking pretty good for tomorrow so we're planning to pull up the anchor at 6:00 am and start heading toward Atlantic City. Taking some advice from people who grew up along the NJ coast, we'll stay a little closer to the shoreline than usual. The new NW winds developing today will keep the seas down there and it should be a pleasant 80 mile ride.

We have exceptional internet and phone connectivity here at Sandy Hook. Karen and I are using a Verizon MiFi which is giving us high speed access to both laptops at the same time. It's just like we're connected to a real DSL line.  Absolutely incredible.

So the weather is wonderful. It's 80 degrees and the sea temperature is in the low 70's. I was interviewed by phone for an upcoming article in PassageMaker magazine about mobile phones on boats, internet connectivity, and ActiveCaptain. All I did was talk about the things that we're actually using on our own boat. It was a fun interview.

Karen was just asked by Nor'easter Magazine to write a monthly column about coastal cruising from a woman's perspective. She wrote most of the first article - an introduction to our boat, crew, and about being lucky...

Sandy Hook is a 7 mile stretch of beach coming off the ocean side of New Jersey. It is kept pretty wild on the Atlantic side and is dominated by a Coast Guard station on the protected, western side. Tomorrow we hope to get to Atlantic City. Sunday looks possible to go through the Cape May canal and continue up the Delaware Bay to anchor behind Reedy Island. That would put us one short hop across the C&D Canal before entering the Chesapeake Bay.

By the afternoon, the beach was calling to us. Well, more the dogs than us but it was calling. As soon as we finished lunch, both dogs looked like they expected to play. Who were we to deny this? Down came the dinghy to a couple of fiercely wagging tails.



There are a bunch of other boats anchoring in the immediate area tonight. As the sun is getting lower, more and more boats are here for the night. Everyone who's been waiting to head south along New Jersey knows that tomorrow is the day we've been waiting for.

I think Karen is right.  We are pretty lucky.