It’s Tuesday and I am sitting on a dock at Norwalk Yacht Club in Darien CT.  Oops, I was supposed to be in Essex today.  Last night we stopped here around to drop Jim so he could take a cab to a train to deliver him home to VA.

The plan was to let him off and immediately continue east toward the Connecticut River and home.  However, As you can imagine, after being underway for a week, we were pretty tired.  So, I decided to anchor and catch some rest and head out in the morning to go the last 50 miles to Essex.  As we motored down the sound from New York, it was glassy calm so how much different could it be in a few hours?

Feeling pretty good about a nap, and an early start on Wednesday we dropped the hook for the night.  Well, at 04:00 I was awakened by the sound of wind rattling the rigging and the wind blowing about 20kts from the east, THE EAST, exactly where we would need to go.    What happened?   I thought that we had listened to the NOAA weather report and they said the south with a shift to the east but not right away.  Somehow I missed the shift to the east thing. 

Well, just in case it wasn’t as bad as I feared, we got going by 05:30 and motored out around the point only to see, first hand, that we could make little progress motoring into 20+ apparent wind.   I should note that the forecast called for 5-10 from the east,  a lot different than 20 with gusts.  What do do?  After a week of moving toward our destination, I was very reluctant to stop and ditch the boat for a few days and take a train home.

Besides, after making great progress for 1,000+ miles, to abandon Pandora so close to the “finish line”  didn’t set well with me.

As we motored up the Sound from New York last evening it didn’t even occur to me that the expected front would be felt here so quickly.  Last time I “looked” it wasn’t coming till tonight or later.  Oh well, as they say, “If you don’t like the weather, wait an hour”.  Let’s hope that applies in a good way too.

As Wednesday’s weather calls for light easterly winds, perhaps I’ll just hang out here and clean up Pandora a bit from months away from a dock in the Bahamas and, not to forget, a week of sailing offshore.

Perhaps a nap first?   Quick, call 911 Bob’s taking a nap in the middle of the day.  So much for my Protestant, New England upbringing.  It’s practically a “school day”.

Before I break, I’ll include a shot of the NYC newly renovated clubhouse.   From our 15 years of membership, I know that these improvements were a long time coming.  Nice result…Perhaps if I wait an hour, the wind will calm down.  Ever hopeful…

Oh yeah, it’s not even a little bit “Bahamas Balmy”  How about low 60s?  Now that’s going to take a bit of getting used to.

It’s Monday morning, biscuits are in the oven and the sun is peaking over the eastern horizon.  It’s a good day aboard Pandora. 

Last night was uneventful as we motored past the Chesapeake Bay and Delaware River.  As the moon set we were passing Atlantic City.  Let me tell you, you can’t miss it as the rest of the coastline of NJ is black at night.  Atlantic City, not so dark.

We have spent much of the time since rounding Hatteras under power as the wind hasn’t been strong enough to sail.  The light wind we have been experiencing, or “not experiencing” as it were, is a result of the whole area being under the influence of a high pressure weather system.  However, along with bringing nice weather, the “high” has brought very light winds and the motor or “iron wind” is purring away, keeping us on the move.   As my dad used to say, “that’s why God invented engines”.  And, happily, we have one of those to keep Pandora moving along when the “wind don’t blow”.

It looks like we will be rounding Sandy Hook, and entering the lower harbor of New York late this afternoon and will enjoy a fair flooding tide to carry us up through the harbor, the East River and into western Long Island Sound.  It will be good to be back in “home” waters after so many months away.

I left CT way back in late September to begin my run south, going from Essex to Annapolis.   It seems like another lifetime.   Given the winter that everyone experienced up in CT, I am so thankful that we were somewhere warmer.  I don’t like the image of myself being found frozen stiff with one hand clutching a bill from the oil company as I tried to make my way back inside during one of the many storms those who were tougher than I endured over the last few months.

I’s prefer not to think about ice (except in a rum punch) right now so back to the present…

Our plan is for us to stop in Norwalk CT late this evening so that Jim, that’s “crew Jim”, can get off the boat and catch an overnight train back to Williamsburg VA.   That works well as I can drop him at Norwalk Yacht Club, where I used to be a member.  Getting a cab to the train is very convenient from there.

Before Jim jumps ship, I think I’d better post a photo of Pandora’s crew, Jim and Rich, who gave up a week of their lives to help me bring Pandora home.  Thanks guys.  I made sure that both Jim and Rich cleaned up as best as they could to sit for this photo. Looking a bit shabby?  I guess it’s the best they can do after being underway aboard a small boat for a week.  Well, they were at least well fed if now “well cleansed”.    Please don’t read into the “arm around Jim thing”.  It’s not what it seems, really.   Pandora’s a happy ship but not that happy.  After dropping Jim in Norwalk we’ll likely take “nap” and get going at first light to resume our run down the Sound for the short 60 mile run to Essex and home.  It’s funny to think about that run as “short” as I have made it so many times over the years.  Back in “another lifetime” making a run of that distance would have seemed like a lot but after putting some 4,000 miles on Pandora going down to the Bahamas and back , since September, a 60 mile run seems pitifully short.   Funny how perspectives change.

It’s been a great run for the last week from Nassau even if the last few days have provided less wind than I would have liked for sailing.  Romping along, with all sails flying, is certainly better than motoring for hours, no make that days, at a time.

I guess that expecting to spend a week on the water with fair winds the entire time is probably asking too much.    Even more important than the question of “wind or no wind”, is that what wind there has been was behind us for the entire time.  That’s good.  Sailing down wind is vastly more enjoyable, that’s for certain.   As is often said, “gentlemen do not sail to windward”, and I agree.  Bashing into the waves is not my idea of fun.  I’d much prefer to “have the wind at my back” any day.  Or, to put it another way, downhill is easier than uphill.

I am really excited about being home after so many months away.  To that point, even such as little thing as activating my phone so I can make some calls and check e- mail was quite a thrill after months of having those basic conveniences well, not so convenient.   I won’t talk about how many calls to tech support at Verizon that took.  All better now.

Another thrill, and I am easily amused,  is putting up this post myself with that much coveted Internet access via my phone.   Brenda has been terrific about posting for me over the last week but it’s so convoluted to write the post, send the file over the SSB radio so that Brenda can log into my site and make the post.   Today, just log into my site and post.  Instant gratification!!!

It’s so funny how addicted we, well at least me, have become to being “online” 24/7 over the last few years.  Me?  I love it and am thrilled to have “instant access” again.

It was great to be in the Bahamas enjoying sun and warmth while others were up in the “frozen north”.   However, with all that hedonistic stuff came many “hardships” such as limited access to FaceBook.   Pitty me?  Perhaps not.

Anyway, I am happy to be nearly home and can’t wait to cut the lawn again.  Did I mention that we have a BIG lawn?  Ah, the smell of freshly cut grass…  I am sure that the thrill of dragging out the mower will wear off soon enough.

Of course, there’s always next winter to look forward to.

I suppose that I should close with a photo of the little guy that joined us a few days ago and camped out in the head.   Alas, sniffle sniffle, he didn’t make it and was buried at sea.  Perhaps if he’d sampled some of my cooking it might have turned out differently.    I guess I’ll never know…

“Bob, Bob, stop being so &%$@#% maudlin.  It’s depressing.  Besides, you are nearly home.”OK, OK.  Thanks, I needed that.  He really was a very cute birdy…

That’s all for now…

 

It’s Sunday morning, mother’s day and I am not with my mother.  In fact, I can’t even call her as we are way too far from land to get any Cell reception.   Oh well, at least I am on my way home and will see her later this week.  I wonder if that will begin to compensate for being away for these months?  “Mom, I am thinking about you!  Honest!”  Hmm…

Anyway, as Scarlett O’Hara, in Gone with the Wind, once quipped, “I won’t think about that today, I’ll think about that tomorrow.”  Indeed, that’s the best I can do for now.

Yesterday we rounded Cape Hatteras and exited the Gulf Stream.  Good bye warm water.  I recall years ago when I sailed on a boat from Bermuda to New York that the weather changed dramatically in the short distance it took to cross the Gulf Stream from south to north.  The weather went from warm and humid to cool in just a few miles.

And yesterday that’s exactly what happened.   For the last four months I have been in shorts, short sleeved shirts and sandals and haven’t even thought about having a sheet over me at night, much less a blanket.  Well, in the course of a few hours yesterday, all that changed.   A few hours after rounding Hatteras and adjusting our course for New York, the temperature dropped dramatically.  Off came the shorts and on came the long pants.  As it got dark I broke out a fleece and my foul weather gear, along with a wool cap.  Sleeping with a blanket last night, yet another “new” experience.  Yikes, I thought summer was coming.

It’s nearly noon and the thermometer in Pandora’s cabin shows 72 degrees.  Heck, I haven’t seen temps below 80 for months.  What a jolt to my delicate system.

In the 600 miles from central Florida to the Outer Banks of North Carolina you’d expect the temperatures to become gradually cooler but we didn’t really experience much of a change beyond a drop of a few degrees since leaving Nassau Bahamas.   However, once we left the embrace of the warm waters of the Gulf Stream.   Down the temps went, and fast.

As was once said,  “Dorothy, you aren’t in Kansas any more”.  And how.  Yes, it’s cooler but soon, as the summer heat kicks in, I’ll be complaining about the hea .  Oh yeah, so, what’s with that?  Two movie quotes in a single post?    I always liked “go ahead, make my day”…   Bob, Bob, the first two quotes were cute but the Clint Eastwood one has absolutely nothing to do with anything.  Stop it, NOW!

Never mind…

We had an amazing sail yesterday from early morning when the wind came back up until about 22:00 (That’s 10:00pm) when a squall line came through.  That was pretty interesting with dramatic lightning in the distance.  Happily, it never really got close to us so we were able to enjoy the show but weren’t subjected to too much wind.   However, as the line passed, we were left with north winds on the nose, although they were light, for the rest of the night.   At least my batteries are now fully charged.

So, we motored for about 10 hours until 08:00 this morning when the wind picked sufficiently to sail.  Now, it’s nearly noon and we are moving along very nicely, sans motor.

For some additional excitement last night we were treated to a “close encounter” with a 100′ long commercial fishing boat.  We were on a course that would have had us passing behind them but as they got close they made a dramatic course change and began heading directly for us.  I was called up on deck, made a quick course change and came a lot closer to them than any of us wanted.    It seemed like he didn’t even see us but who knows.   That was stressful, especially as they were much bigger than us.

We also enjoyed an interesting situation where two large ships came close to us, one coming from the west out of the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay and another crossing our bow from the east, heading into the Bay.  Normally, the best option, when being approached by a large ship, is to adjust our course and speed so that we cross behind any large ships.  It’s not prudent, as you can imagine, to go in front of something that weighs THOUSANDS OF TONS.  However, in this case, there were two approaching us at the same time, from reciprocal directions.  This meant that to go “behind” one put us in front of the other.    Our solution, s-l-o-w-w-a-y-d-o-w-n and after about 45 minutes at a snail’s pace, both passed and we were clear.   Much less exciting than the fishing boat…

Today, now that the wind has picked up we are again sailing along nicely toward our next destination, Sandy Hook New Jersey.  If we are able to keep our current speed today and overnight, we should enter New York harbor at some point mid afternoon tomorrow, in time for the flooding tide that will carry us up the harbor and into Long Island Sound.

It’s been a long trip but one that has provided for some excellent sailing and weather.  To get a favorable weather window that lasts a full week really is a treat.

I am looking forward to being home in a few days and celebrating a belated Mother’s Day, with Brenda and my very own mother.  And, I am even a little excited about wearing long pants and even “real” shoes when I get there.  “Kansas” was nice but I am excited about being home too.

So, that’s my report and I’m sticking to it…

It’s Saturday morning and we are about to pass Cape Hatteras which will put us about 2/3s of the way home.

Much of yesterday we motored with light winds.  However, as soon as sunset approached, we were able to shut down the engine and sail all night.  For the last few days we have been in what is referred to a diurnal wind pattern where there is a nice breeze at night and less in the daylight hours.  At about 05:30 this morning the wind went much lighter and I had to again turn the engine on, beginning a third day of this pattern.   However, the wind picked up again so happily, we are sailing again.  Such is sailing on passage…

As I mentioned in my last few posts, we have been following a series of waypoints up the coast, provided by Chris Parker, the weather router, with the goal of keeping us well within the Gulf Stream to take advantage of the best current.  These “imaginary” points have worked well until mid-day yesterday when we found ourselves too far east where we lost the 3-4 knot current that had been giving us a boost since Florida.  And, for a while, we actually encountered a very frustrating “counter current” or “eddy” where the current turned against us for several hours.  We weren’t really sure what to do to solve the problem but we made a decision to head a bit further west which ended up working and allowed us find the favorable current again.

I don’t have a lot of experience in transiting the Gulf Stream as this is my first time to navigate my own boat in the Stream going north.  As we found ourselves at the eastern “wall” of the Stream yesterday, we began to encounter long streams of floating seaweed, something that you often find when a current meets water that is from another direction or not moving.  This floating vegetation combined with a dramatic reduction in our speed over the bottom gave us our first clues that we were not in the right place to get a boost from the northbound current.

We also found that the sea-state became much more unsettled with a 4-5′ confused chop developing, seemingly out of nowhere.  This was in dramatic contrast to the very settled conditions that we had been experiencing earlier in the day and have as I write this.   Fortunately, the waves settled down nicely when we found our way back into the stream some hours later in the evening.  It makes sense that things would kick up a bit at the boundary where the fast moving and warm Gulf Stream connected with more stationary and cooler ocean waters.  Happily, we are again enjoying settled seas and a good 3+kt boost from the stream.

As we pass Cape Hatteras we will adjust our course a bit and likely head to Montauk, at the end of Long Island.  Based on Chris’s forecast today, it seems that we will have very strong south west winds for the next few days.  Our best guess, and it’s a rough guess is that we will round Montauk at some point Monday afternoon so we can take advantage of a flooding tide to carry us into Long Island Sound and on to Essex.  Going through eastern LI Sound against the current is not easy at all as the currents in that area of the Sound are fierce.  If the forecast changes we might end up diverting through New York City as that’s an option too.

So far, so good with favorable wind and current, we are moving along nicely.  Fingers crossed, it will hold through Monday or Tuesday.  That would be good.
Well, we’ll have to see how things develop.  Enough passage planning for now.

Yesterday we had a feathered visitor, a small sparrow sized bird that landed on Pandora.   As we were quite a distance from land I expected that he/she was pretty tired.  “Oh God, your ocean is so big and my wings so small.”  We are often visited by small birds when we are on passage so I was not surprised by his arrival.   During other passages we have often had feathered visitors but they usually only stayed aboard for a few hours.  However, our visitor yesterday wasn’t content with just hanging out on deck, as has been the case in the past, and kept coming in through open ports and bumping around down below in the cabin.   After “helping” him out of the cabin 3 or 4 times I again found him in the aft head and decided to let him hang out there until we were closer to land.

I have often wondered what happens to these little birds that find themselves so far out to sea if there isn’t a boat for them to land on.  There must be a lot of these little critters flying around offshore as we are visited on nearly every offshore passage.  I assume that they are really tired out and landing aboard is a “last ditch” move of desperation and certainly better than ditching in the water.  That wouldn’t be good at all.   Oddly, birds that find themselves aboard Pandora often come right into the cockpit and sometimes even perch right near or even on our crew.   For wild birds to act so “tame” certainly suggests that they are not feeling quite “normal”.

Well, our little feathered visitor was clearly not feeling well at all and died early last night, perhaps from exhaustion and fright from his many visits into our cabin.   Too bad.  However, we gave him a dignified burial at sea, hopefully better than he would have had if Pandora wasn’t around to be used as a “semifinal” resting spot.

On a brighter note, regarding our arrival in CT, it looks like we will round Montauk at some point on Monday afternoon which would put us in Essex late Monday or Tuesday morning.   It is critical that we get into port by Tuesday as the wind is supposed to shift to the north which would force us to put in somewhere to wait for more favorable winds, a delay that I’d prefer to avoid.  On one trip a few years ago, on another boat, the trip took nearly two weeks with a stop for repairs and weather delays.  A week from Nassau to Essex is plenty long for me.

In any event, things are going well and I am taking advantage of the motor running to make some water for showers as we are all feeling a bit salty and sticky.  Showers for all!  Yahoo!!!

Well, only about 350 miles to go to Sandy Hook.   There was a time when that would have seemed like a VERY LONG WAY to me.   These days, still a long way, but no longer long enough to be written in CAPITOL letters.

I am really looking forward to spending time at “home” even if I will have to cut the lawn.  After months in a very arid Bahamas, all that green will be downright intoxicating.

It’s Friday morning and we are about 200 miles south of Cape Hatteras and just a bit more than half way home.   For the last two days we have been navigating from waypoint to waypoint provided by Chris Parker, the weather router, with the goal of staying in the middle of the Gulf Stream to make the most of the 3-4 knot northward flow of this north flowing “conveyor belt”.

As I have mentioned, and you probably know, the “stream” is a massive “river” of water moving up the coast from the Gulf of Mexico toward the North Atlantic, carrying a huge amount of tropical heat along with it.  This flow has a dramatic effect on the climate of the North Atlantic as well as coastal areas such as England and parts of Europe which would be substantially cooler without the heat that the stream delivers.

As I understand it, this flow is a result of the strong easterly trade winds that blow relentlessly, day after day, month after month, across from Africa toward the Caribbean.  As these strong winds blow from west to east, they cause currents to form that flow toward the west, through the Caribbean and into the Gulf of Mexico.  As a result, water builds up as it reaches Central America and has to go somewhere.  And, the only place for this water to go is around the north side of Cuba, past the Florida Keys and north between the Bahamas and Florida.   I don’t know how much water the Gulf Stream pushes past Florida each hour but when you consider that the Gulf Stream is about 40 miles at that point and about a mile deep, that’s a lot of water moving along at an average speed of say 3-4 knots.  Let’s see, I guess that would be about 12 cubic miles of water every hour.  Hmm…  Hard to wrap my head around that one.  It’s probably safe to say that that’s more water than flows from every river in the world, combined.   I can’t “Google that” so perhaps you can tell me if I am on the right track.  Well?

Anyway, we are still in the midst of the Gulf Stream and making our way north.  Another thing that strikes me when I am on passage is just how S-L-O-W sailing really is.  Brenda left Nassau and flew home in a few hours.  Us, we will take a week.  They say that the world is getting smaller but when you are on a sailboat it’s still VERY, VERY BIG.  As a rule of thumb, it takes a day in a sailboat to go the distance a car can go in a few hours.  That’s unless, of course, unless you live in New York.  Never mind, it’s too early for such sophomoric comparisons and is probably akin to questions that I might have asked when I was in college, late on a Friday night like “what if there was no gravity”.

Ok, so here’s where we stand.  With 200 miles between us and Cape Hatteras, we have covered about 570nm (nautical miles) from the Bahamas and have about 620nm left to go for a total distance of about 1,200nm.   However, the distance that Pandora has gone “through the water” is less as the Gulf Stream has been giving us a boost for several days of between 3-4 MPH.   Because of this, the mechanical log, a small paddle wheel on the bottom of the boat, only shows about 400 NM.  That’s a big difference; a combination of the positive flow of the Gulf Stream combined with any problems with the calibration of my mechanical log.  One way or the other, by boat, it’s still a LONG way home…

Some time back I noted that cruising is often described as “boat repair in exotic places” and we got a small dose of that yesterday.  When we are using the engine, I open up the engine compartment a number of times each day to check and to be sure that all is well.  I check coolant levels in the engine, signs of oil leaks and look for any stray water in the bilge.  Yesterday during one of these checks, I noticed a very small amount of water weeping from a drain hole that comes out from behind the engine.  So, I pulled up the cover to the engine in the aft cabin and discovered that there was a small leak in at the top of the muffler where cooling water is injected into the exhaust.  The leak was more of a drip but I could imagine it becoming a BIGGER leak over time.  And, if it really broke, we’d have water and diesel exhaust being pumped into the boat.  That wouldn’t be good, not good at all.

So, we stopped the engine and sailed as best we could, given the very light winds at the time, and considered how to address the problem.  Happily, I carry lots of spare parts and “goops” of various sorts. In this case, I had some epoxy putty that hardens in about 20 minutes and is very sticky and turns rock hard when cured.  We cleaned up the offending area and gooped it up using half of the package.   When this was hardened we fired up the engine again.  Alas, there was still a very small leak where we had ended the patch, half way around the fitting.  Happily, I still had half of the package left so we continued the “patch” the entire way around the fitting.  SUCCESS!  No more leak, for now…  Fingers crossed.  No, make that fingers and toes crossed. I’m optimistic.

I was pretty proud of myself to have had something aboard that would solve the problem.  The difficulty in having spare parts and repair “potions” aboard as it’s impossible to know what’s going to fail, and something ALWAYS fails.  In this case, while I didn’t have a spare for the piece itself, I did have “goop” and goop can solve a lot of ills.  Problem solved, at least for now.   As Gilda Radner used stay “It’s always something”.  Yes, indeed and double that on a boat.

As I write this we are motoring along merrily, still with a 3-4 kt boost in speed over the bottom, compliments of the Gulf Stream, that we will carry for the next 200 miles until we reach Cape Hatteras and exit the Gulf Stream.  At that point, it’s a straight shot of of about 380 miles to Montauk Long Island where we will enter Long Island Sound.

According to Chris Parker, the weather router, we should begin seeing solid SW winds beginning tonight or tomorrow ,Saturday, as we exit a fairly windless ridge that is between us an Hatteras.

It’s amazing how wind speed and direction can vary, even over very short distances.  Our friends on Kalunamoo left the Bahamas at the same time we did but left from the Abacos, about 100 miles north and east of Nassau.  While we have had wind of about 10-15kts much of the time, they have had to motor the entire way, usually on glassy calm waters with virtually no wind.  As of two days ago they were about 200 miles east of us and just a moment ago we heard from them on the VHF radio that they were able to work their way west and are now about 40 miles behind us in the Gulf Stream.   And, now they are the ones sailing and we are under power.  However, as they enter the area where we are now, they will likely lose the wind and not pick it up again until they clear Hatteras.  Are you following this?  I sort of am…

So, as we continue to head north I am hopeful the Chris Parker’s forecast will hold and we will pick up wind tonight and carry these SW winds for the rest of the trip.

So, when will we be home?

If we can carry an average speed of 7kts for the rest of the trip, and we probably can even do a bit better than that, we will be in Essex at some point on Monday, a six day run from Nassau.  That would be quite good.   Well, we’ll have to see what Mother Nature has in store for us.

And, I have to remind myself that we are only half way home and a lot can happen between here and there.  Besides, we still have to pass Hatteras, the “graveyard of the Atlantic”.  No, probably not a threat in the next few days but hey, you never know.

“Bob, Bob, stop it, you’re getting dramatic!!!”.