Successful transit, almost home...

[josrulz]

Hi all,
Some of you may know that we've been preparing to sail our "new" 1984 Sabre 34 home from CT to MD, starting this past weekend. Well, we did indeed depart, and the boat is now on the Chesapeake Bay! She's not home quite yet, as it worked out well to make the trip in two "legs", the first from CT to VA, the second from VA to MD (this coming weekend).

Once I have more pics together, I'll post more of them, and more details of our trip. Suffice to say it was WET, and we made good time. We took the Long Island Sound through NYC route, then out at Sandy Hook straight to the Chesapeake Bay. It took us about 71 hours from departure to arrival, and that includes the 9 hours we anchored at night near Throgs Neck. We averaged 6.1 knots while underway--not too bad--though it rained and rained, so we were always in foulies everything was always wet.

Anyway, the point is that we all arrived safely, the boat did very well, and she's almost home.

More to come... For now, here's a pic of Valinor taken shortly after we arrived at the marina at 5am. Thanks as always to all the Sailnet members who helped me through the purchase and prepping for launch this spring.
-J

[sailingdog]

Nicely done Joz... looking forward to a detailed post with more pix.

[camaraderie]

Congrats Joe! How did you miss all that big stuff that came through yesterday??!! Hope you have a great ride up the bay this weekend. She's looking good!!

[smackdaddy]

Very cool Jos. Look forward to the pics.

[mgmhead]

Good on ya Jos. Have a great sail home this weekend...MGM

[josrulz]

Originally Posted by camaraderie

Congrats Joe! How did you miss all that big stuff that came through yesterday??!! Hope you have a great ride up the bay this weekend. She's looking good!!

Funny you should ask. One of my crew had XM Weather with his GPS. So we watched the cells come up out of Suffolk, VA, clock through Norfolk and Virginia Beach, then up across the bridge tunnel and right at us. Literally, the storm cells were following our track line right at us for hours. We just looked at the cell vector projections, and turned port or starboard--whichever looked more favorable. We never got hit head on.

Although XM Weather was a great tool, I wonder how much of it was luck and how much of it was making the right calls. Maybe a little of both.

Worst we got was tons of rain, a bit of wind, and one of the strangest lightning/thunder experiences I've had--in the fog. We were totally blocked in with fog, yet surround by very close thunder and lightning. Really weird.
-J

P.S. Thanks mgmhead and smackdaddy! We're looking forward to the sail home to MD.

[mysticsailor]

Great to hear you had a safe trip. We thought of you often this past week. Can't wait to see more pics! Had the survey done yesterday.It went very well.

[T37SOLARE]

Wondering why you went down the coast and up the bay & not the Delaware River and C&D canal route? Other than missing the thrill of the Delaware, it's a much shorter trip.

[Valiente]

Six point one on a 34 foot boat sustained over that stretch of active sailing is great passage speed. Well done, if wetly done.

[JohnRPollard]

Originally Posted by Valiente

Six point one on a 34 foot boat sustained over that stretch of active sailing is great passage speed. Well done, if wetly done.

Ditto. Well done. Boat looks great!

And, yeah, I'm curious too about your choice of route too? Was that the plan, or a change due to weather?