atlantic city to cape may to d & c Canal

[donradclife]

Thanks for the trip update! I thoroughly enjoyed reading about your problems, as I have been there, done that. Now you know why delivery skippers get the big bucks, as many times they are delivering boats which have been sitting around and have maintainence issues like yours.

Chances are your roller furling problems are caused either by the spare halyard getting caught in the furler near the masthead, or by the jib halyard wrapping around the forestay. See UK Furling Considerations

However, if the boat has been sitting around for a while, you should check that both the top and bottom swivels on the furler are not frozen.

Securing the main tack when reefing can be done by a line or a hook on the gooseneck, wich should go through a reinforced eye on the sail. If the stack of sail slides prevents you from using the hook, then use a simple lashing around the gooseneck as a temparary measure, and make up a webbing strop through each reefing eye with rings on each side for the hook as a permanent fix.

Your GPS speed should not jump around more than 0.1 knot. Read the manual and set the averaging to the longest setting if you can, and get a new GPS if you can't. If you haven't done it already, you will benefit from bringing a laptop withe the free downloads of Seaclear and the NOAA electronic charts of the area.

Get the engine running and the water inleakage fixed before you set out again, as the Delaware and Chesapeake are both notorious for light winds. Bring someone more experience with you, and plan on moving at night--its beautiful at night, but there is a lot of ship traffic and you need to know how to read running lights/charts/monitor CH 13 & 16 and predict where the commercial traffic is going, or you will have more adventures to write about. The AIS system, connected with a chartplotter or SeaClear, is really worth the $200 it costs around the bays and canal.

The biggest concern should be your wife. If she got yelled at while you were in crisis mode, you may be sailing the new boat alone.

[fordo]

The jammed furler sounds like "halyard wrap", when the jib halyard winds around the furler at the top, jamming it. A permanent fix requires a trip up the mast to increase the angle between the halyard and the forestay, but sometimes making the halyard very tight will fix it.

You didn't say what kind of engine you have but check that enough water is coming out with the exhaust. If not, check for blockage in the thru-hull and the water strainer. Change the impeller in the water pump if it is more than a year old. If it isn't that call a mechanic. ( When I broke down in Atlanic City Mark Schrenk of Mid-Coast-Marine got me going and taught me alot about my old Atomic 4. 609-266-3115).

The brass knob on the mast prevents the slides from coming off the track. There should be a hole in the sail (a cringle) in the luff in line with the reef points. Tie a loop of line through this and hook it to the reef hook at the gooseneck, then secure the rest of the reef.

Get 2 bilge pumps, manual and electric. If the stuffing box drips more than 10 drops a minute try tightening the nut at the end. (I'm told that if you over tighten it you may score the shaft.) If that doesn't work have it repacked.

The C&D canal should not be a problem if you are careful about the current. Start at low tide at you end and ride the tide right through. The canal is deep and wide so it should be no problem if you have power.

Good luck with it. My first trip in my "new" 1978 Tartan 30 had breakdowns in the C&D, at Atlantic City, at Barneget Light and 20' from the dock at my home port in Raritan Bay. Five years and I'm stiil sailing, with a new Yanmar, and still loving it.

[MJBrown]

For those of you that go around Cape May Pt versus the canal; any suggestions on avoiding the shoals? How far out do you go? Do you cut inside and work your way through them? I'm doing the trip in two weeks and this will be the first time going around the point.

[ekenna]

Final trip update
Took another day off from work. Got down there at 9:00pm on thursday. Set alarm time for 4:00 am however did not arm the alarm. woke up at 5:40 (The time I wanted to be at the end of the canal). Scrambled and was moving by 6:00 am trip under the bascle bridge and through the canal went ok. Not really pushing the engine. Get to the bay and winds are out of the north east. It was supposed to go to 13 knots so I decided to use the working jib. Put both sails up,kept the engine running and we are moving along.

Thanks to whoever was in the sail boat ahead of us as they provided a good target to aim for to keep us on course when the land disappeared. Northeast wind continued until we neared the cohansey at about 1:00 pm. At time the gps was reading 7 knots. That was going to be our original destination but we decided to push on. Shortly after that the wind dies. I drop the jib (did not have time to fix the jib). Wind picks up only coming for the south. Going by the nuclear powere plant seemed to take forever. Finally go in behind reedy island and wind is from south so no protecting. Decide to go to delaware city. Its now 3:30. It takes 2.5 hours to go from reedy island to the marina. tide was really running. With wind coming from directly behind we were crawling. So I tack to a broad reach. Marina was ok. After dinner watched someone else get towed in. I think their engine died.

Next day planned to get up at 6. Got up at 5. Was at the canal entrance at 6:45. Thought we needed to ride low tide to high tide again. Wrong! should have waited for high tide. We crawled at like 1 knot. I go to the far right (within 20 feet) where to current would be less but had to turn into the waves of passing boats which removed all headway until I could get her back Close to shore. About 2 ish the tide turned and we were making 4.6 knots from about cheasapeak city to welsh point. Put the sails up then and did some tacking as winds were against us. Winds were blowing 20+ finally dropped jib and inched clost to shore to avoid the big waves. Finally make two river marina about 6:00 pm spend half hour searching for our mooring.

After dinner see thunder storm. Next day try to call son to pick us up no t mobile signal. Spend time looking at jib. Attached a 6 inch length of rope to tack and was able to roll up the jib finally. definitely haylard wrap like don radcliffe said. thanks for the link it really helped. Spent rest of day waiting for son and doing to pick up car in cape may.