May 25-26 -- Cape May to Atlantic Highlands to Our Home Mooring at City Island -- 115 and 34.6 Miles

John's boat's chartplotter, though the same brand, is different from the one installed on ILENE. John never got comfortable with mine: He asked "Don't you have pages and scroll between them?" "No John, but by hitting "display" and two other buttons you get the same effect." This put me in mind of my own discomfort in using the more advanced plotter on Pandora last fall, which was unfamiliar to me. Familiarity breeds comfort.
John and I had several debates during the day. He is more cautious and prevailed upon me to adopt the plan which appeared to be safer. I am not an autocratic captain. I welcome and listen to suggestions from others, especially knowledgeable sailors like John, While responsible for making the final decisions (such as the passage around Cape May right off the beach), I frequently adopt the suggestions of others. I had plotted out the distance and figured that at the 6.5 knot planning speed, if we left Cape May at five in the afternoon, we would be leaving by daylight and arriving at a buoy off Sandy Hook, 109.8 miles away, in daylight at ten the next morning, in time to catch the incoming tide through New York Harbor. This gave us plenty of time after sunrise in case we were going too fast, and we could always slow down by reducing sail. John listened carefully to the weather reports. They predicted stronger winds at night as compared to by day, though both from the south, so they would be pushing us and not requiring us to beat. He said that if we motor sailed and could make eight knots and left at 5:30 in the morning, we could get in before dark at 8:30 to an anchorage behind Sandy Hook marking the southern entrance to New York Harbor. I agreed to this plan and we got underway at 5:30 AM for a daylight passage.
In fact, we did not anchor until sixteen hours later, at 9:30 PM, about an hour after dark, because of three factors: First the wind was too light, at first, to move us at quite a fast enough speed, even with the motor.  We were running away from the wind on almost a dead run, with the big ocean waves rolling the boat and shaking the wind out of the sails, reducing apparent wind speed. In fact we took down the main because it was useless and proceeded under only the small jib and motor. Second, all of a sudden the engine shut down and it took me about five minutes to switch from the tank of fuel we had been using to the other tank, locate the hand lever on the engine which is used to pump fuel to the engine, pump this lever 30 times and restart. That lever is small and in a wickedly devilish location: I can reach it but not see it and have to grope blindly around the starboard side of a very hot engine to find it. We could not be out of fuel in the first tank having filled it only two days before, so a bit of impurity in that tank, such as water, must have been shaken up by the rough seas to cause the problem. Third, about three PM, out of nowhere (though we were passing over big ocean roller waves), the propeller rattle reappeared suddenly, with a vengeance, and we cut the engine speed from 2700 rpms to 1500, which slowed us considerably. I immediately replaced the small jib with the genoa and with the wind picking up considerably, we got most of our speed back.
In the morning we saw this rig,

with a pipe floating on the water between the two vessels. This may have been an oil spill containment operation or dredging. Just don't cut between the two vessels! [An astute reader has advised that it is dredging  -- not to make the ocean deeper but to recover sand blown away by Hurricane Sandy to rebuild the beaches. Thanks for the input Jeff!]

I had studied a recommended anchorage off the Coast Guard Station on the west side of Sandy Hook near its northern tip. This was recommended for easy access, not far from the route between NYC and the Atlantic coast of NJ, except in westerly winds, which could build up a big fetch crossing Raritan and Sandy Hook Bays. John said, "Yes, but it is also exposed to southerly winds if they are as strong as 35 knots, which are predicted." So again I listened to the wisdom of my cautious crewmate and we traversed the three miles further south to the anchorage behind the seawall which runs EW along the southern coast of Sandy Hook Bay, protected from the southerly winds by the massive Atlantic Highlands. We had rigged up and tested the million candlepower flashlight to have it readily available if needed. Arriving at the seawall there was what appeared to be a large dredge in its entrance and we could not determine whether to try to pass north or south of it, so we anchored outside the seawall. This would have been foolish in northerly winds which would be trying to push us into the seawall, but the southerly winds made this an easy roomy anchorage. Seventy feet of snubbed chain in 13 feet of water. A sixteen hour day, followed by leftovers, which tasted even better a day later.
The next morning was the final passage of this winter's cruise. We had a big leisurely breakfast and I gathered many of the things I planned to take home before a 9:30 departure. This departure was half an hour before planned and 2.5 before ideal, due to a mistake I made in reading the currents in Eldridge's great tide book. I used data from Sheepshead Bay rather than from Sandy Hook,  and they differ. And we had up only the small jib and double reefed main in anticipation of heavy winds from the south in the crowded twisty upper harbor. But those winds had not arrived yet, the tide was adverse, and with low rpms, it took us three hours to get to the Battery.

 Along the way we saw West Bank lighthouse, one of several in New York's lower harbor, two massive DDGs departing from fleet week in the city, and a good looking Coast Guard Cutter.





A NYC fireboat was giving the Navy and Coast Guard vessels a full water cannon salute. We thought that we might benefit from this display as a welcome back but as soon as they passed, the Fireboat shut down and moved off.

The high speed ferry ripped past us, returning to Atlantic Highlands for another load of commuters to wall Street.

And of course the unmistakable skyline with the Freedom Tower towering above all the other skyscrapers from the background.

About then the flooding tide cut in, whooshing us up the East River and through Hellgate. Once past the Gate there was plenty of wind on a beam reach for the last half hour or so of glorious sailing to ILENE's mooring. We arrived at 2:30 and we're off by 4:30 driving to our apartment in John's car by six and a delicious dinner at a Greek restaurant in the neighborhood. Grilled octopus salad anyone? I love the fact that my longest cruise ever ended with such a terrific sail with the small sails giving us all the speed we could handle.

Cruising is great but Ah Home! Stay tuned, this blog will continue during the summer season and, God willing, beyond.