It’s Wednesday morning at 11:00 and we are sailing along with a solid 20-25kt breeze behind us. Our speed over the bottom is about 7.5kts which is good for putting us at Sandy Hook and entering New York Harbor, if the breeze continues to hold, by this time tomorrow, Thursday. The forecast is for the wind to be a bit stronger with gusts to 30kts later today and tonight, which will help us get there sooner. As we are sailing in roughly the same direction as the wind, we need a strong breeze to keep moving. Keep in mind that a following wind of 25-30kts on a boat moving in the same direction at 7-9kts, feels like a 20kt breeze, which is not too strong. Perfect actually.
Ideally, we’d like to round Sandy Hook about about 5 hours sooner, near daybreak, as the outgoing tide ( and it’s a doozy in NY Harbor and the East River) will begin ebbing (turning against us) if we arrive as expected, mid morning, and won’t begin to flood in the direction we want to go until early afternoon. That means that we will be running up the harbor and East River against the outgoing currents which will slow us down quite a bit. However, the fact is that we are nearly 160 miles from Sandy Hook now, and that’s a lot of miles between here and there, so conditions might very well change in ways that we can’t anticipate as we romp along here, some 60 miles off of the Del/Mar Peninsula.
The good news is that we are in good shape to enter NY harbor at some point on Thursday mid to late morning with a building southerly following wind.
After making our way through New York, we will still have about 80 miles from the East River in NYC to Essex. If we continue without stopping after leaving NY, we would arrive in Essex at some point around o’dark: 30, on Friday morning, which isn’t appealing at all. After nearly 4,000 miles and 8 months onboard, I want to arrive at Essex Yacht Club with a proper audience. Say, in time for cocktails on the deck.
With that in mind, I expect that we will anchor somewhere along the way to get some rest and prepare for our grand entrance. We wouldn’t want to arrive looking and smelling like we have been at sea for a week, would we?
Of course, all of this depends on continued favorable conditions for and only time will tell if everything holds as planned. As is always the case, it’s all about the weather. If I have learned anything over the last 8 months, it’s that you really don’t know where you will be until you are there. You didn’t think I could be so profound, did you?
Oh yeah, I almost forgot to mention that we were buzzed by a Navy helicopter several times today. They came close enough for us to see the face of the pilot. I waved to him. He didn’t wave back. Bummer. It seems that the Navy is conducting live fire exercises nearby and they have been alerting vessels to stay FAR away from them. I expect that Pandora would be on the loosing end of that stick.
Sorry, no pictures in this post as I have had trouble finding a channel out here that will allow me to send larger files.
Here’s to arriving and style and in time for an “adult beverage” at Essex Yacht Club with Brenda and friends.
Here’s to continued fast sailing. I don’t need smooth… I need fast.
Wish us luck.
Signing off for now.
3 responses to “Approaching the New Jersey coast. The final leg.”