Just completed a 300 mile cruise with my new (new to me) boat. We are moving the boat from CT, where we purchased it, to NC (eventually). But on this trip we got as far as the Chesapeake where she will stay for this summer. I was fortunate to have two experienced crew, the original owner of the boat (sort of his farewell cruise on the boat) and a sailing friend from NC who had experience in this area.
We started from Milford, last Saturday, spending the first night in Manhasset Bay.
Sunday we made it through Hells Gate (an english translation of Dutch for "bright passage") into and down the East river, through New York Harbor (past all the sites) and on to Sandy Hook.
We were motoring all the time as we were trying to make time, but had sails up when the wind was right. We hit the entrance to the East River a couple of hours early before the current change, but it did not slow us down too much as the tide was ebbing. Besides the rain held off and we took advantage of the favorable weather.
Monday we sailed about a mile off shore from Sandy hook to Barnegate Bay, where we anchored for the night. It was the worst weather day of the trip and we encountered a little bit of everything including rain and fog. But not much wind, so it was all motoring. Fortunately, the boat has a Yanmar 30 hp engine and she moves along very nicely. I was glad I had the engine surveyed and felt confident it would perform.
Tuesday we sailed, finally, from Barnegate Bay to Cape May.
It was a great day and I have a video of sailing if someone can tell me how to include video's in the post.
We got an early start on Wednesday and cut through the Cape May Canal, up the Delaware River, past Salem Nuclear plant and hit the C&D Canal just before the tide started westbound. Sailing is not allowed in the canal, I actually read the rules in Eldridge. We entered the canal around 3:30pm and exited at nearly 6:00 pm. We felt we had a couple of good hours of daylight left so we continued on to our destination. Catching a great sunset over the upper bay.
All in all we made 302 miles by the gps. It was a fast trip as we all had to get back to other things, but it was a great trip for my first time with the boat. All the surveys for the boat purchase and the preparation seems worth it as we came through with hardly any problems.
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