Cape May NJ to Port Washington, NY

We left Cape May around 3:00 on Friday June 18th, as the winds were predicted to be around 12-15 out of the south for the next 24 hours.   Leaving at 3:00 put us in New York Harbor around 11:30, timed to head thru the area called Hells Gate with the current.   Currents run around 3 knots, so you definitely want to time the trip.    Planning a trip like this is a bit of guesswork.  Will the wind hold?  Will we do more than 6 knots?  

We left with our full main up, and jib, planning on the 15 knots.  We exited the breakwater at Cape May, and struggled to steer the boat, as the 3 foot waves predicted, were actually 5 to 7 foot waves, and the wind was 25 knots, not 15.   We quickly put in two reefs in our main, and the boat settled down, and we were off, doing 8 to 10 knots with a comfortable ride.   We held this until somewhere off the coast of New Jersey around 3:00 in the morning, when the winds started to die, and shift a bit.    We took out our reefs, but timing wise, were going to be about 3 hours early for the current in New York.  No issues, we just sailed slowly for a while, in virtually no wind, and ended up with the timing working out.

Good used find, Cheasapeake City, C&D Canal

 After Annapolis, we made a short jump to Rock Hall, MD, where we stayed for 3 days.  2 days were cloudy and rainy, but we got to use our raincatcher, which worked well.  We got around 50 gallons of water in the tank.  About 1/2" of rainfall.   

On the last day, the sun came out enough, we walked to town.  We found a used marine store, and got a bag for our dinghy seat, that will help to keep the dinghy organized.  Used and slightly faded and worn, but only $16.

Water Catchment, another Snake, Cicada's, view out the back,, and dinner.

Every time is rains it seems a shame to let all that fresh water run off the boat and not do something with it.  Many cruisers have rain catchment systems that are either after the fact or built into the design of the boat.  Well we went with after the fact and have come up with a system that we are testing.  Have mounted a "funnel" made of rubberized material on each corner of the dodger.  The water seems to drain off the forward side so that is where we put them.  On the bottom there is an attachment to a hose and from there into a filter.  After the filter we have a hose going into our water tank.  We have had limited times trying the system but it has worked each time and given us some fresh water.  On 6/11 while we were anchored in Rock Hall MD we took in 60 gallons of rain water.  The system is easy to set up and take down so is not there if water is not predicted in the forecast.

funnels at corner

 

Moved  from our anchorage at Elizabeth City up the Pasquotank River to the Dismal Swamp Canal Visitor Center.  We enjoy the Dismal Swamp canal route, although it is shallow and quite narrow.  It is peaceful, and less travelled.

The route least traveled

There are two routes you can take once you leave the Alligator River headed to Norfolk.  One route is through the Dismal Swamp (green) and the other is through Coinjock and the Currituck Sound (blue).  Both routes have different views but the Dismal Swamp route does have an extra lock to pass through and is probably slower.   We are at Elizabeth City, the red arrow.

Looking at the AIS map it appears that 95% of the traffic is going the Coinjock route, yep you guessed it we are on the Dismal Swamp route.  That's ok it will mean less boats passing us by.

Note: Blue and green lines are not on actual route.  Put them to the side so you can see all the purple boat indicators which are on the actual route.

Finally sailing

It has been awhile since the Doyle sails have gone up, we believed they were still under the sail covers.  The last couple of days gave us winds that let us put the sails up and turn the motors off, very enjoyable.  The sails are not new and have some dirty spots but they seemed to get the boat moving very nicely.  Charm seemed to perform rather nicely in the winds and the boat speeds were good.  A new gennaker or code zero would just make it that much faster and nicer. (It's only money !!)

Water Maker

The longest most frustrating part of the water maker episode was waiting the two weeks for it to clear customs in FedEx.  The second was waiting the week for it to ship through the FedEx system.  Once it arrived at the marina the install went fairly smooth.

We installed it in the forward starboard location, under the vee berth, a very common location.  We debated about the location for the control panel but in the end located right inside the door under the vee berth.  Hooked up all the water system, plumbed the new parts to the existing systems, and wired the two pumps to our electrical.

On 5/17 it started with a couple of operator errors and ran for an hour with out issues.  Today we hooked it up to the fresh water tank and ran it for 2 1/2 hours.  Kris was able to run a load of wash at the same time and our batteries are only at 95%.  The water is not very salty so it does not require a lot of pressure thus only 20 amps to make 13 gallons per minute.  Normally it should take 40 amps for the same water flow.

Oh well it is nice not worrying if we have enough water and when do we have to go to the docks to fill up.  Now we just sit and make our own.

vee berth orginal

vee berth with water maker

water maker pump and filters

gauge and fresh water filter