fetchinketch

Time 2040 local
Lat N 40° 45.0′
Lon W 72° 35.1′
Nautical miles from Sandy Hook, NJ: 67.7
Nautical miles to Edgertown, Martha’s Vineyard: 105

The weather has been great for the first leg of our trip to Boston. We have been sailing to the northeast staying about four miles off the beaches of Long Island.

Winds have been pushing the boat along fast, even faster than we had planned!  Usually we are working hard to keep moving as fast as we can, but today we actually reduced sail–not because we had to–but just to slow down!  If we had continued moving at speeds over 9 knots we would have gotten to the tricky navigation challenges around Martha’s Vineyard before daylight.  As the sun sets, it is getting cool, even cold to us delicate tropical birds. The is a slight chance of showers, but the favorable winds should continue until we get to Boston.

After 3 weeks of boat projects and family visits, our plan is to get underway from our temporary marina stop here in Northern New Jersey tomorrow, June 29th, more or less at midday.  If the forecast is to be believed, we will have a quick reach heading north.

Our plan at this point is to go as far as Martha’s Vineyard.  That should take about 24 hours.  We’ll drop anchor there for about 36 hours, then get back underway the afternoon of July 1st with the target of getting into Boston Harbor on the afternoon of July 2nd.

Since we arrived in New Jersey we have been dividing our time between two groups of tasks: Visiting family, and boat projects.

The BEFORE picture: Our companionway looking a bit the worse for wear, and decidedly un-yachtlike.

Most of the projects have been simple, mundane and routine–like rebuilding a toilet pump.  Ah, glamorous yacht ownership!

The biggest project we have undertaken is to refinish the wood in the cockpit.  Amel greatly appreciated the beauty of wood on a boat.  Anybody who has seen the interior of any of their boats would see that!  They also understood that wood on the exterior of a boat requires a very steady diet of maintenance, so they kept exterior wood to a minimum.  The companionway slide, and some trip around it is really all there is.

Ours was in pretty rough shape.  It had last been done before we bought the boat with a product called “Cetol.”  Everybody has their own opinion about the esthetics of various wood finishes, but I have to agree with a friend of ours who’s comment was, “…looks like whale snot.” To my eye, you might as well paint the wood with thin orange paint.  It wasn’t a look I wanted to continue, and the finish was failing, so it has to all come off and be done properly.

Yesterday I removed all the various pieces that can be removed, some required significant surgery to get apart. Everything was rough sanded.  Today was more sanding, replacing the veneer on the companionway slide, and getting everything ready for applying the varnish and getting the look we really want.  If the weather cooperates, we should be looking at three or four days for finishing the varnish.

It is times like this I am really, really glad I do not own a wooden boat!

Other important jobs are pending.  Getting to the top of both masts to retrieve lost halyards, and fix a broken light, and installing our new radar.  Upgrading our “vintage” radar set has been on our list of things to do for a while, but got bumped up several notches in priority when our old unit (original when the boat was built) died on the trip up here.

We are now at anchor in Sandy Hook Bay waiting for the tide to rise and the current to slack enough for us to get in the marina without hassle. My plan is to spend this time productively and phone in our Custom’s clearance.

We spent about an hour on the phone trying to clear in through Customs.  What a crazy run-around!  If you think the Department of Homeland Security is keeping you secure… well, I certainly would not count on it!

When we checked in to the USA in Puerto Rico, things went smoothly, and exactly as we expected. We made a phone call, got a clearance number, and were told to report to the local Customs House within 24 hours with our paperwork.  While we were there, the officer gave us a brochure for the “Small Vessel Reporting System”, a program where you are interviewed and pre-approved so you can check in with just a phone call.  That sounded great, so we signed up for the program, got approved while we were in Culebra, and now is our first chance to use it.

We filed a float plan electronically before we left the Virgin Islands, as required, and we call the number given to us when we arrive here in the USA. 

Ooops.  That number is only for arrivals in Florida.  He gives us the number for Customs in Newark, NJ. 

Ooops wrong number.  He transfers me to another line—which does not answer. 

I try another tack, and call a number listed on the website. 

Ooops wrong number, but call this one, they say. I ask if they can direct me to a list of the right phone numbers.  No, the only list they have is a paper copy, and if they lose it they are in trouble.  Really?

OK, so I call… He says, we have to call Immigration first.  I try to explain that isn’t right, but no… 

Ooops!  Immigration says:  No… call that last guy back we don’t need to talk to you. 

A call back and the guy obviously has no idea what to do. I can’t decide if this is funny, sad, or worthy of a primal scream. He takes my name and the boat name, and says, that’s it. I am sure this is wrong.  I need a clearance number.  No, he says, you just say you talked to Officer Edgerly and everything will be fine.  I KNOW this is wrong. 

I try another number from the website. 

Ooops! Wrong again, they give me a new number. 

I call this one, and I am talking to Edgerly again.  Oh, great.  

I try to explain I have information HE needs, and he NEEDS to give me a clearance number.  He fumbles and fuddles, and agrees to take my information and call back when he figures out what to do. (No, we do not ever get a phone call back.  Surprised?)

Now it is Karen’s turn.  She calls the office in Florida–again–and starts all over at the top.  When they try to send her to the Newark number she explains that we have been through all this before, and can he pretty please help us?  A pretty female voice wins the day and he agrees to violate “procedure” and clear us in through the Florida office.  He takes our float plan number, and other details and we finally have our clearance number!

Our tax dollars at work… or not.

I am mystified about how I, with a minimum of research, can know more about the Customs Clearance procedures than most Customs Officers apparently do. The frustrating thing about this whole process is only somebody who WANTED to comply with the law would jump through the hoops we did.  If we had a boat full of counterband we would have ignored the whole process and who would have known?  Stupid.

Time 1300 local
Lat N 38° 27.0′
Lon W 72° 12.8′
Nautical miles from Great Harbor, Jost Van Dyke, BVI: 1262
Nautical miles to Sandy Hook, NJ: 147

We are making good time, but the miles aren’t as easy as they had been. For the last 18 hours we have been close hauled into 15 to 25 knots from the northeast. Especially for those places where the wind and current were opposed, it has been a bouncy ride. During one stretch we actually found a combination of boat speed and wave height and wave spacing that had us pounding like a Boston Whaler.

I had hoped to be trolling line as we crossed the great underwater canyons of the outer continental shelf, but it has been too rough to deal with the gear, or especially a large fish!

Our watches are now spent huddled under the dodger out of the spray, fully kitted out in foul weather gear because it is so freezing cold! Hey, have some sympathy! We spent the winter in the tropics where an evening when it dropped below 75° was relished as “cold”. So the cloudy, breezy, 63° we are experiencing now feels frigid!

All the weather models agree, around 20:00 this evening the wind will drop off to almost nothing. We should be arriving mid afternoon tomorrow.

Time 1200 local
Lat N 36° 28.9′
Lon W 72° 35.9′
Nautical miles from Great Harbor, Jost Van Dyke, BVI: 1159
Nautical miles to Sandy Hook, NJ: 249

We had a rather rough and wild night with steady winds between 25 and 30 knots with big confused seas. Sunrise this morning had us passing through the back side of the front. Many places we stopped in the tropics we felt like we were looking at every possible shade of blue, but as the sun rose under the clouds this morning, we were looking at every possible shade of gray. With the white horses on top of the waves shining bright in the morning light it was its own flavor of beautiful.

We are sailing fast and comfortably again on a close reach in 15 to 18 knots of wind from the northwest. We are riding the Gulf Stream for most of today, making almost 10 knots over ground.

As we approach the New York Harbor entrance in the early hours of tomorrow morning the wind is forecast to fade, so we will likely be coming in under power.

Because of our deep draft, and a marina with a relatively shallow and current-infested entrance, there are limited times during the tide cycle we can get in. Right now, we don’t know those times. That has to wait until we are in range of a cell tower so we can look it up. I expect we’ll be coming in and dropping anchor to wait for a good entry time.

Time 1515 local
Lat N 34° 349′
Lon W 72° 40.6′
Nautical miles from Great Harbor, Jost Van Dyke, BVI: 1057
Nautical miles to Sandy Hook, NJ: 360

In the rougher and winder weather, I have been trolling three lines behind the boat, where normally I troll five or six. That just makes for fewer tangle and problems. Right after lunch, just as I was thinking about when it would be time to bring the lines in before it got too rough to fish safely, I saw one of the lines pop out of its release clip, and the rod start to bounce. I did not hear any line running out, so I figured we had snagged another wad of seaweed. Or at least that is what I thought until the fish launched vertically 6 feet out of the water.

After a few minutes of fight, we had an 11 pound mahi-mahi on the gaff, and in the cockpit. A picture or two, and I look up and see BOTH of the other lines have fish on!

One of the other lines is a handline, and the two fish have managed to wrap themselves together so the only choice I have is to hand-over-hand them in together. I lost one getting them in over the transom, but added another 15 pound mahi-mahi to the freezer. Anybody want to join us for grilled mahi-mahi in Sandy Hook?

Not to long after we had the fish cleaned and packed away, the wind picked up into the low 20’s and the seas built to the point that fishing is no longer practical. So I guess you call that “Just In Time” delivery of fresh fish!

Time 0830 local
Lat N 34° 07.2′
Lon W 72° 37.3′
Nautical miles from Great Harbor, Jost Van Dyke, BVI: 1031
Nautical miles to Sandy Hook, NJ: 387

Yesterday Karen noted on the chart a DART buoy, part of the worldwide tsunami warning system, about 15 miles east of our position. Any floating object out in open water attracts fish. This one, 300 miles offshore certainly didn’t see a lot of fishing pressure, so off we when on a detour to see what we could pull up.

When we got there, there was no there, there. The buoy was missing. I had read years ago ago that the DART system suffered from chronic underfunding, I guess this is one of the results of that. So all you people along the east coast of the USA who might be expecting the government to warn you of an approaching tsunami: Surprise!

Just by way of commentary, as I have traveled around I noticed one consistent thing that separates effective governments from ineffective ones. Ineffective governments focus on popular, visible, infrastructure projects. Like big highways, public marinas–or tsunami warning systems. Then once built, ignore them and let them fall apart because maintenance is not politically visible, and it is hard! Effective governments seem to understand, if something is worth building in the first place, it should be worth keeping in working order.

A highlight of yesterday’s sail was a fish! Yes, we caught one! Now… granted he was a little small. Okay, a lot small. A jack that might have tipped the scales at a pound. Most of yesterday’s fishing consisted of a constant retrieval of lines to clear off seaweed.

We have entered the weather system that will carry us most of the way to our destination. All the weather models agree, we should jog a bit further east to avoid a large calm that is developing off the Maryland coast. Winds right now are pushing 15 knots, late tonight we expect to see close to 30, pretty much all from behind us so it should not be an uncomfortable ride

Time 0130 local
Lat N 31° 33.0′
Lon W 72° 19.0′
Nautical miles from Great Harbor, Jost Van Dyke, BVI: 887
Nautical miles to Sandy Hook, NJ: 542

We’ll, I guess I deserved it! In yesterday’s post I bragged about how we had managed to avoid the calms and keep sailing by clever routing. So of course today, we spend almost all day under engine!

Once we crossed the warm front, the wind died–and stayed dead almost all day. We fired up the Volvo so we could keep moving while we waited for the next front to bring some energy back into the the system. Looks like we be back sailing fast again tomorrow evening. The afternoon of the 8th looks good for our arrival, but I’ll need to get online as we approach to check tides to see when we can actually get into the entrance to the marina.

We have had trolling lines out, but no hookups yet. Fishing here on the end get of the Sargasso Sea is truly an exercise in frustration. It is impossible to troll a line for more than a few minutes before it picks up a bundle of floating weed. I have been sort through my lure box looking for those designs best capable of shedding the tough tangles of plant matter.