It is exactly 2 years ago that my second attempt, the first was interrupted in June 2017 with my stranding on the Barrier Islands, to sail to the Nantucket Sound, ended on the rocks of the jetty at Ocean City, Maryland. While I repaired the damage, the White Marlin Derby was taking place. This weekend one of the boats sank, according to the radio, another contestant picked the 6 men crew and their life raft and their beer from the Atlantic, everything else went down with the ship. If you go to my blog https://cometosea.us/?p=6835 for the August 2019 derby, you will see a sea of Trump for 2020 flags on the sport fishing boats. I wonder if there were as many for 2024 this weekend.
This evening I anchored in a delightful spot in Ocean City, New Jersey. I can spit to shore and I intend to land my dinghy on the beach. I have not been ashore since I left Annapolis last Saturday.
The sun is just setting and there are several photographers to make their famous albums for newlyweds.
The last blog I posted was from New Jersey shore under the nuclear power plant, Sunday evening. It was a wonderful spot to anchor until at around 10.30 pm when I could hear this wind storm approaching from a mill pond it turned into mayhem. I believe this was about the strongest wind I was in other than the storm near Mallorca just before my (first) shipwreck. It was close to 50 knots. Black sky but no lightning. I got into the Mayday mode with my Heavenly best friend. But thank God for the friends who urged me to replace my anchor with a spade anchor, last May in Deltaville. God listened, as usual, it blew away in 90 minutes., but then the chop came down the river and made for a bumpy berth.
The conditions for the ride from the Sunday anchorage to Cape May were ideal. I had the current with me for most of the ride. A good 20 knots dead down wind, mostly wing on wing. Anchorage spots are few on the shallow waters of Cape May. I joined a number of transiting sailboats in front of the Coast Guard station. I needed to get ashore for supplies but it was windy and the Coast Guard station takes up nearly 3 miles of the shore and a long row to land the dinghy. My plan was to leave early this morning and to make the 100 plus miles to Sandy Hook an overnighter. The forecast was for a weak N.E. wind and to lift in the late afternoon to an Easterly. As you will see from the Garmin Tracker it became a very slow tacking duel dead against the wind. I covered 42 miles that covered 26 miles, as the crow flies. My boat is to light to motor in the swells and the waves just stop me dead. The bigger heavier boats with larger engines can plow through it. And the racket of my two cylinder drives me insane, for an extended period. The tiller pilot jaws a zigzag course in those swells. I had hoped to get that promised Easterly, you will see from the last part of the Garmin track that a lift happened but not enough to keep going for the night. Other than that, “Fleetwood” likes to sail close to the wind and I can never get enough of it.
I had hoped to be in the N.Y. harbor by Wednesday morning. The forecast for later in the day is for a strong northerly. I will double check the forecast in the morning and may need to plan to duck in tomorrow night. I need to inflate/deflate the dinghy in the morning and find groceries. So might be a late start.
There was a beautiful sunset here.