Since I try to keep our blog entries readable I will relay much of our story in more than just this one report. Unfortunately much has happened that hasn't been reported and the articles will be out of sequence.
An early morning view of Wildwood from the sea.
We made it to Block Island just off the New England coast below Newport. We got here today after a 28 hour motor from Cape May. The trip was about 205 nautical miles which was an average of over 7 kts.We had to motor the entire way because there was very little wind. It was mostly 5-10 kts from directly behind us so we could have sailed but it would have taken twice as long to get here. There was one period when the wind was blowing 10-15 behind us but it didn't last.
View of Montauk Point at the end of Long Island.
Our plan was to leave Cape May about 0700 on Monday so we could catch the outgoing tide and get an early jump on the trip. Something we've learned around these waters compared to the South is that on weekends the small boat and personal watercraft traffic is immense and many of the operators have no regard for the consequences of their actions. As a result navigating around them especially when operating space for us is limited raises the difficulty in close quarters so by leaving early we could minimize the amount of other traffic.
Well, about 0630 a thunderstorm came through and we decided to let it pass before leaving. So about 0730 we started to get ready and finally got out about 8. It was raining but that ended quickly and in a few hours the clouds passed as well. Our course was a straight line from the end of the channel at Cape May to the entrance of the channel into Block Island so we set the cruise control and watched to ensure there were no obstacles as we went.
Another hazard to navigation being built. The bases for a wind farm being developed off Block Island.
We passed the south Jersey resort towns of Wildwood and Atlantic City and then began to get farther offshore as the land fell away. Many fishing boats along the Jersey coast. We also had a pair of dolphins swimming with us for a while as we passed Atlantic City. The Atlantic City skyline.
As the day got later we moved out into the New York shipping lanes and watched thunder storms develop onshore and move away. Fortunately our weather was clear and there was a beautiful moon lighting up the sea. We had one close encounter with an inbound freighter from Germany that we had to slow down to stay back away. As it was we came within a half-mile of it and the wake really rocked us.
A Monday evening storm over North Jersey.
On my midnight watch I saw some dolphins swimming with us and the only other exciting thing was the autopilot alarm going off shortly after I had fallen asleep. Then later Linda awoke me to tell me the steering wasn't holding. But after looking for causes I decided to reboot the autopilot and it worked fine.
We came into Block Island with abundant sunshine and a nice breeze. We were planning to anchor but decided to get a mooring as it would be easier to get on and off in the morning. So after an overnight passage we relaxed and napped this afternoon. Tomorrow will be an early departure as we need to make it through the Cape Cod Canal before high tide at 1715 a distance of about 60 miles.
This evening we had some heavy weather move through. We watched severe weather on the mainland during the evening newscast on the Providence TV station. There was even a report of a tornado which is really unusual in New England but none of the weather made it here.
Tonight there is a cool breeze and a beautiful sunset. So long as there's no fog in the morning we're good to make our cruise tomorrow.
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