Return to New York

After leaving Norfolk, we decided to skip the Chesapeake and Delaware Bays and sail nonstop to Sandy Hook NJ. If we hugged the shoreline, it would be easy to duck in somewhere should the weather become rough.

The first day out we had nice winds and were able to sail. That evening, the winds died and never picked up again. We motor sailed almost the entire way to northern New Jersey.

On the plus side, it was the calmest I’ve seen the ocean. Occasionally, we’d feel the tired wake from a boat long gone. Sue was happy since this was the area where she broke her ribs last year.

One advantage to motoring is I’m able to time our arrival better since my speed is more consistent. I had a choice of pushing hard and making it by sun down the next day, or run in economy mode and pull into Sandy Hook in the morning two days away. I went the eco mode to make sure I had enough fuel to get us well up the Hudson. The last thing I wanted to do was try and get diesel in Manhattan.

The trip was uneventful, except just before dawn on the day we were arriving. Heavy fog had rolled in. All commercial traffic and larger boats use AIS, so we could keep track of each other. But, it was Father’s Day, dead calm seas, and most folks have been locked up for a long time. Every small fishing boat around was going out full throttle — no AIS and no radar.

They assumed everyone was heading East out to deep water to fish, thinking they only had to worry about catching up to a boat or being caught up to. Well, I wasn’t fishing, I was heading North on a perpendicular course. I could watch them approach on radar, I could hear their motor getting louder. I’d sound my fog horn even though I knew they couldn’t hear it over the roar of their own motor.

Because of the speed difference, it was difficult for me to get out of their way. Radar isn’t perfect and has some slop in it. I knew they were heading my way, but it wasn’t fine enough to tell me to slow down, speed up, turn right or left to avoid a collision.

We had a couple of close calls, but one was too close. The captain saw us at the last second, swerved hard and just missed us. It had me rattled for a while. I’m not sure why someone would be going full throttle, in heavy fog, without radar, but they were.

The fog finally lifted as we approached Sandy Hook. It was still early morning when we set the anchor and the we were both tired so we took a short nap.

We anchored at the same spot last year, just off the Coast Guard station. When we woke up from our nap, we were surrounded by fishing boats. The radio was also getting chatty with boats calling in for help. We heard everything from running out of gas to our motor fell off our boat. Finally, evening came and we could get a decent nights sleep. The next day, we were going to get up at sun rise to catch the flood tide and ride the current all the way to Croton-On-Hudson.