Storms have started to brew up in the NJ area, and it was feeling like we needed to get the boat out of the water as soon as possible. The boat was starting to take quite a beating out in the mooring field each week whenever the Lows would come blowing through the area. Many of these storms had 40-60 knot gusts and sustained strong winds from the N, NE, and E direction bringing very high tides. The breakwall is almost useless against these conditions.
After the last haulout attempt at Atlantic Highlands, we removed all the sails and folded them up. We knew this would have to happen before or after haulout, so we decided to take action early and while the sails were dry. Here we are inspecting then flaking the Quantum mainsail on the lawn at our middle school playground which is conveniently across the street from our home. In doing this, we found a couple of small punctures that need to be fixed before next season.
Late one evening, we staged a car at Norwalk Cove Marina so that we could drive home once we arrived there.Driving across the Tappan Zee Bridge at night is a real treat.
We didn’t know what the trip would be like and whether we could do it in 1 day or if we had to take 2 days. We were concerned about the tides and water height getting into the marina.
We stayed on the boat at night, and it was cold. Fortunately our 16,000 BTU heat pump was working just fine although it isn’t quite big enough to heat up the entire cabin. Fortunately, we stayed on the Atlantic Highlands Yacht Club dock so that we could get some power to run the heat pump.
Check out the strange smoke coming from our Webasto diesel heaters. I think these are original to the boat. Uh oh, this looks like another project for me.
We wanted to get going by 5:30 am. I got up at 4:00 am, and woke up Rachel. The first thing we did was to try and start the boat. No dice. We connected the 2nd starter battery, and we had no luck. These are brand new AGM 4D batteries, but they haven’t been fully installed because they don’t fit into the stock battery box.
We rigged the batteries and kept trying and trying. We turned on the generator and then our larger inverter/charger to get just a few more amps. Finally, the motor started up. That took us some time, and it was frustrating as we watched the minutes pass us by and we rang up a 45-minute delay in departure.
Leaving the marina under the cover of darkness was a little scary. We have never done this. But once we got away from the marina lights and our eyes adjusted, we had no problems. We caught a glimpse of the sunrise over Sandy Hook then entered the NY Harbor to see glistening buildings. The entire trip we saw about 17-20 knots on the nose so we beat into the chop and wind.
I love this video that I took going under the Brooklyn Bridge. It’s a unique view that you might not see if you have never been on the water going underneath the bridge.
Once we got into the Long Island Sound, we tried out our storm jib, and it worked great. There were quite a lot of boats traversing the Sound headed down towards the East River likely seeking a warmer climate for the Winter.
We made it to Norwalk Cove Marina earlier than expected. We fueled up and found a temporary dock where they placed us until haul out. The water is so clear here compared to Atlantic Highlands Mariana. I could see half way down the wind pilot rudder. I think this was a good idea.
The Loxodograph 