6 - "Start spreadin'the news... We arrived today!"

"We're gonna be a part of it... New York, New York"!!!! 

We made it to New York (or at least Sandy Hook, NJ just outside of New York Harbor). Because we had a great weather window (Sunday and Monday early were forecasted to be great but late Monday into Wednesday looked iffy),  we  Left Cape May on Sunday morning with about 200 feet (or less) of visibility due to really thick fog.  Honestly, it may have been advantageous because we couldn't see both sides of the somewhat narrow and very rocky jetty that lined the inlet so it wasn't as scary to traverse as it was coming in with 25 knot winds, huge waves and clear skies!

We ended up motoring the first three hours or so because of the poor visibility.  Finally the sun came out, the fog lifted and we shut off the engine.  The weather couldn't have been more perfect!  We had a 10-15 knot southwesterly wind and clear skies.  The trip was about 100 miles and we calculated that it would take us about 20 hours.  With the perfect winds, we ended up have to drop the forward sails and let the mainsail out to slow us down (GPS had us arriving in the middle of night and we didn't want to enter a very busy and new to us inlet at night).  What a treat!  About 3am, we were treated to the 3/4 moon setting to the west and  the Manhattan skyline just ahead of us.  The sun came up about 5:30 just as we reached the mouth of the New York Harbor.  It was spectacular.  Couldn't help but wonder how many natives have actually seen the city from the water with the sun rising over it!!!!

Anyway, we made it and can't wait to see what's in store!  As the song (sort of) goes, "If we can make it (to) here, we can make it (to) anywhere"!

Until next post!

5 - Well Toto, we're not in Kansas anymore!!!!

What a wild ride!  We took off from Cocoa Village on Sunday morning (thanks to Betty Flowe our personal astrologer for helping us with our timing) and made it through the locks and through the last bridge at Port Canaveral with 5 minutes to spare before they shut down for their curfew to allow for the really big boats to load up their cruisers!  We headed straight out the port and by 11:15 am, we were in the Atlantic Ocean northbound with all 3 sails full.  Our boat is cutter rigged so we have a jib, a staysail (much smaller jib sail) and of course, our main sail.  Engine turned off, we were in heaven.
With a northerly wind, we decided to sail east to pick up the gulf stream.  Worked perfectly.  We reached it about the time the winds shifted to the east so we could sail north (the direction we wanted to go).  With the gulf stream pushing along with an extra 3-4 knots of speed, we were flying along showing speeds of up to 12 knots (averaged about 8-9 knots).  We'd planned to sail for a couple of days and then pull into Beaufort, NC inlet to rest before continuing on.  But we were having so much fun, the wind was perfect and we had the gulf stream pushing us along, that we decided to stay out.  At one point we were about 140 miles from shore but then we gradually started coming back west and, of course, the land started coming more east so we averaged something less than 100 miles from shore.

On day two, we saw our first dolphin and even got to see the "Green Flash" as the sun set!  It was so cool!  We kept sailing and marveled at the still blue waters (definitely not the FL Keys or Bahamas) but, hey, way better than we'd seen for the last month or so.  We made great timing and had amazing weather for the first four to five days.  We'd be sailing along with everything from 10-15 knots of wind and then no wind for a couple of hours and then it would start all over again.  All in all, it really was practically perfect conditions other than being really cool at night.  We used the no wind hours to run the engine to make hot water for our showers so we could warm up.  We saw several pods of dolphin (very different from the Bottlenose dolphins we're used to in FL).  My dad looked them up for us and we think they are White Sided dolphins.  Very playful and jumped completely out of the water a lot! Really loved seeing them.

By day six, the weather was changing and we went from little to no wind to about 20-25 knots with gusts up to 30 knots.  At one point, we had double reefed (that means to shorten the sail to make it smaller so that the boat is not overpowered) the main sail, kept only the smaller staysail out and we were still averaging 6 knots of speed (with no more gulf stream because we were only about 30 miles from shore at this point).  We heard on the marine radio that there was a small craft advisory in effect for the area so we decided to head into Cape May, NJ inlet to "ride" out the weather.  Found a great anchorage just inside the inlet and instantly fell in love with the town.  It's so cute and it really looks just like the pictures we've always seen of New England seaside villages.  We're only staying here for one day (we'll be back this way as we head back south so we'll explore more then) to let the weather pass us by and then we'll take off tomorrow morning for NYC.

Until next post!

4 - Repairing your boat in exotic (or rather not so exotic) places!!!

We've often heard that the definition of cruising is "repairing your boat in exotic places."  Well, after a little over 6 weeks in south Florida, we sailed back into Cocoa Village Marina  to attack our boat list (things that broke and things we broke).  We hit something on our way south (somewhere just north of Vero Beach in the Intracoastal Waterway) and when we got to Key West and dove the boat, we noticed that a chunk of fiberglass had been ripped off of the keel!  There was thankfully no structural damage but the boat had to be hauled out of the water and repaired.  The boatyards in Key West are still backed up with damaged boats from Hurricane Irma this past summer so they couldn't get to us for quite sometime.  We needed to get back to Cocoa Village to get the canvas work finished anyway, so we called the boat yard in Port Canaveral that we've financially supported many times in the past and they were able to fit us in their schedule.  We had the boat hauled, repaired and back in the water in less than a week and just under one boat dollar. It ended up being "just a flesh wound."  We were back in business!!!

Gary had to fly out for one more business trip and MaryAnn decided to head to Louisville to visit one more time with the family so that took a week.  By the time we got back to the boat the canvas was finished!  We are ecstatic about it!  Looks great and will be much needed protection for hopefully years to come.

Next, we had a list things that broke, ripped, leaked or just needed attention that we attacked and conquered!   The captain might be a little worse for the wear but the boat looks great!!!  Took about 2 weeks but Whatever She Wants is ready for her next adventure!  We can proudly say that, at least for now, this it the only "leek" we have on the boat!!!

We're Getting a few last minute groceries, medical/dental appointments and anything else we can think of taken care of this week before we take off in a couple of days heading north to see where the wind and the sea takes us!

Until next post!