SAILS 1990 45 Florida Bay Coaster
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SAILS....Cruising Blogs
These are all the Blogs posted in October, 2011.
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Monday, 31
Atlantic City, NJ to Greenwich, NJ
Rhode Island to Florida - Day 8
We departed from Atlantic City, NJ at 0820 hours and headed out the inlet toward the Atlantic... fingers crossed that the 9-12 seas that had been reported as the winter storm passed through the area had subsided enough for us to make the trip to Cape May, NJ in comfort. The winds were forecast for 5-10 knots out of the east. Easterly wind is not usually very good but being only 5-10 it should not be that bad. We cleared the jetty and found the seas to be very calm... it's amazing how the seas can calm down so quickly but it was great for us today... calm seas... :)

We needed to get some fuel today and started canvassing the Cape May marinas by phone to see who had the best price on diesel... did not realize there were so many marinas in Cape May... must of called a dozen... anyway, we found the best price at Utsch's Marina and their location was perfect... right off the channel... we arrived at 1355 hours and took on just 500 gallons in anticipation of finding a lower price further south... $3.449 per gallon all taxes included. It was still fairly early in the day and we decided to continue on and try to make up for our lost time for the winter storm.

Not many places to stop on Delaware Bay... we set our destination for Greenwich, NJ on the Cohansey River... this is actually the first place that we are aware of to stop as you head up the Delaware Bay... we had been there before and it was a nice stop... a little trek up the Cohansey River to get to there... but that was our goal... GPS had us arriving at 2130 hours. Of course the current was against us for the entire time up Delaware Bay...making only 5 to 5.5 knots... :(

We arrived to the entrance to Cohansey River about 2145 hours and it was dead low tide... we had a little moonlight but for the most part it was pretty dark and entry was pretty much using radar and chartplotter... I was told to hug the green lighted marker as we entered but I must of gotten a little too far to the red side as we entered... saw 6 feet a couple of times but once fully in the river depths dropped off to typically 25-40 feet... we saw depths of 80-90 feet on one of the bends... the Cohansey snakes in from the Bay and the current rips through it... we were near the change from ebb to flood but still had a good knot current against us.

We were not sure where we were going to stay once we arrived to Greenwich. There are a few options... we could anchor but that one was out... too cold to launch the dinghy to walk Beecha... :) and three marinas as we arrived I scanned the docks at the first and second marina... a couple of spots that we could fit but they were very tight and with the current still running I did not want to try and squeeze in between two other boats. The third marina down we found the face dock completely open... we eased in and secured SAILS at Greenwich Pier Marina... at approximately 2215 hours we were securely docked and ready for some sleep... it had been a long day.

We traveled today for 13 hours and 5 minutes covering 75.3 nautical miles and averaging 5.44 knots.

Trip totals to date:

Distance: 344.45 nautical miles
Hours: 44 hours 51 minutes
Avg Spd: 5.95 knots
Posted at 8:17 AM by:Jay
Sunday, 30
Atlantic City, NJ
Rhode Island to Florida - Day 7
We had a very windy and rainy evening and night... 30 knots with gusts to 45 knots... so glad we were safe at a dock for the duration of the storm. Waking this morning it is bright and sunny but still very windy the forecast is for 20-25 knot winds this morning with 8-10 seas... late afternoon forecast is 10-15 knot winds and diminishing seas... so we are staying right where we are for today.

Monday's forecast looks good with 5-10 winds and 2-3 foot seas... our plan now is to head out early Monday morning on the outside in the Atlantic and get to at least Cape May and then decide if we continue on up Delaware Bay.


Trip totals to date:

Distance: 269.16 nautical miles
Hours: 44 hours 51 minutes
Avg Spd: 6.0 knots
Days not moving: 1
Posted at 9:18 AM by:Jay
Saturday, 29
Atlantic City, NJ to Atlantic City, NJ
Rhode Island to Florida - Day 6
We woke early morning to get an early start and discovered the winds had increased dramatically and it was raining… checking the weather we found an alert for a mid Atlantic winter storm approaching the area… high winds 30-35 knots with gusts to 45 knots… not a good day to travel… we needed to be some place secure… a dock would be preferable… Not knowing what was south of us for water depths or a safe dock, we decided to turn back and go to the dock we had been at in Atlantic City… actually we were still in Atlantic City so we were just changing locations… :)

We departed at 0745 hours and headed back north… we had the railroad bridge ahead which was no problem to get opened… but we had a rising tide and the Absecon Boulevard Bridge that was closed that we needed to get under… it was already blowing 25-30 knots and the current was raging against us so best we could do was 5 knots… cleared the railroad bridge no problems… one more to go and we had our fingers crossed that the tide had not risen enough so that we would be able to get under the bridge. We arrived and I slowed to crawl as Susan went on the top deck to check our clearance… she came back in and said we had it by a few inches… luck was with us today for the bridge.

We continued north and watched the winds increase to a steady 30 knots gusting to 35 knots… the winds were healing us over about 10 degrees and the current was really strong… making 2.5-3.0 knots at best… slow slow slower… finally we made it back to the basin where the city dock is located… what did we find but a large sailing vessel docked what appeared to be in the middle of the dock… as we got closer I could see that there was enough room for us to dock behind him… we would not be fully along side the floating dock but we would be on enough to safely secure the boat.

The only problem we had now was the winds were out of the NE now and that was causing them to blow us away from the dock as I approached… made several attempts to get close enough for Susan to snag a cleat with a line… but each and every time we got next to dock the wind would gust and the stern would swing away from the dock too far for Susan to grab a cleat… then we noticed a man out on the dock… he had come out from the restaurant to assist us… thankfully, with his assistance we were able to get a line on the dock… once a single line is on your home free from there… at least that is what I thought… the winds at 30 knots plus were making it difficult to get the remaining lines on… not difficult but it took some time to get things secured but we finally were securely docked at 0945 hours… added several extra lines for the high winds... Will wait out the storm here at a safe dock... :)



We traveled the today for 2 covering 5.53 nautical miles and averaging 4.14 knots.

Trip totals to date:

Distance: 269.16 nautical miles
Hours: 44 hours 51 minutes
Avg Spd: 6.0 knots


Posted at 10:49 AM by:Jay
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