fetchinketch

We arrived yesterday afternoon, safe and sound at the Sandy Hook Bay Marina.  I have updated the posting about catching the wahoo with photos, so if you’re interested, page back and have a look!

The marina is nice, so new that all the facilities aren’t completed yet.  We came in at close to low tide, when the current was ripping across the entrance of the marina.  We found the shallow spot just inside, but were able to back off and get positioned to get into the slip.  A strong cross-current had me making several passes before getting lined up well enough to get in.  Struggling with getting into the dock was entirely to be expected, since a number of my family members were on the dock to greet our arrival.

Back to boat projects!

Time: 10:10 local
Lat: 37 33N
Log: 73 03W
Distance from Port Canaveral: 667NM
Distance to Sandy Hook Bay Marina: 176NM

The models have us arriving at the Marina between 1 and 6 PM tomorrow.

Right now we are motoring between weather systems, bright sun, flat sea, and no wind. If the forecasts are right, once we get back in the breeze again, it will be a straight line sail to the tip of Sandy Hook at the southern enterence of New York Harbor. Oddly, here 50 miles offshore we have suddenly been invaded by a variety of flies and bugs. I’m guessing they were blown offshore during last night’s storms and are just happy to find a hard place to land.

We avoided the worst of the weather last night, but watched storms around us on radar and in the sky. A thunderstorm at sea is a dramatic visual event, and once you can tell on the radar it is not coming in your direction, it is even a pretty one.

Time: 16:10 local
Lat: 35 01N
Log: 74 40W
Distance from Port Canaveral: 501NM
Distance to Sandy Hook Bay Marina: 323NM

We are 40 miles east of Cape Hatteras. A very busy shipping lane with lots of vessels heading north and south along the coast. A complex and difficult place to navigate, and historically a dangerous one. The number of wrecks marked on the chart are beyond a casual count. Because of the geography here, the winds blow harder, and the currents are strong and variable, and easy place to get in trouble if you are not paying attention.

The southwest wind that had been pushing us smartly along has gotten a bit more forceful in its approach. Now blowing at 25 knots, we are moving at 7.5 knots with 5 to 8 foot seas following us.

Two issues last night. We tore a sail. Not a critical one, but one that helps us go downwind with speed and comfort. Getting it down in the wind and dark was quite the project, but we managed. The other is more of an annoyance than a major issue. Our anemometer for some reason stopped working. Now we just have to guess how hard the wind is blowing! No real chance to trouble shoot yet. Hopefully not something to complex to fix!

The weather forecast is for a dark and stormy night. Basically more of the same we have right now, except with the chance for thunderstorms. Should be nicer tomorrow a bit further north.

Time: 18:20 local
Lat: 32 55N
Log: 77 30W
Distance from Port Canaveral: 315NM
Distance to Sandy Hook Bay Marina: 479NM

No motoring today! Just awesome sailing weather. Clear, sunny, warm, but not terribly hot and 15 to 20 knots of wind pushing us downwind at 8 knots, and current adding to that. In the last three hours we covered 31 miles over the ground. Amel boats have a bit of a special sail setup that makes sailing downwind fast and comfortable. On many boats it is not a popular choice to sail straight down wind.

The wind and current has been a bit strong than the weather model forecast, so we are ahead of where we expected to be. It’s still a bit early to make an accurate guess, but the computer says we’ll be arriving at Sandy Hook early in the morning of the 26th.

Time: 17:20 local
Lat: 30 44 N
Log: 79 56.6W
Distance from Port Canaveral: 144NM
Distance to Sandy Hook Bay Marina: 648NM

The winds last night were light and variable, but enough to keep moving. We kept push on until about noon, when they dropped the less than 4 knots, so we fired up the diesel to keep moving. Now, we are in the full blast of the Gulf Stream, we are being pushed along by a current of between 3 and 3 1/2 knots. Our cruising speed under power is about 6.5 knots, so we are flying along at almost ten relative to the ground.

Much more sealife visible around the boat today. Several pods of dolphin, lots of flying fish. Karen even spotted a turtle. We took some time to set the fishing lines this afternoon.

Karen woke me from an afternoon nap (Hey, this Captain stuff is hard work!) to look at what she first thought was a whale, which turned out to be another group of dolphin. A few minutes later, the drag on one of the rods screeches the announcement that we have been bit! I throw the engine into neutral, and on my way to the stern, I see it is the “big” rod. The largest lure, trolled the deepest.

Karen clears the other lines out of the way, and all I can do is hold on while line peels off the reel, and the fish dives deep, violently shaking his head trying to throw off what he thought was going to be a tasty dinner.

Half way back to the surface, he dives again. Pulling 80lb strength wire rapidly off the reel. For a little bit he runs back toward me, and I think he has gotten off, but getting the line tight again, he’s still there.

A few more shorter runs, and I get him up to the side of the boat. It’s a big wahoo. Karen is ready with the gaff, and gets a perfect head shot. She hands the gaff to me. While I hold his head up, she dispatches the fish by squirting vodka in his gills. He’s heavy enough getting him up over the rail takes all I have.

We didn’t weigh him, but did bring up the tape measure. 5 feet 5 inches. Steaks and fillets now fill our freezer!

For those of you who may not know the wahoo, it is a long, streamlined member of the tuna family. One of the fastest swimming fish in the ocean, with a mouthful of razor sharp teeth. Their modus operandi is to lurk deeper in the water column, looking up for their prey.  They charge up from below, chop the unlucky target in half with those fearsome teeth, and come back for the pieces.

Now THAT’S a set of Choppers!!

Here is what we caught him on.  This lure was new and unmarked when it went in the water…

Battle scared!

In Hawaiian the are call “Ono”, which also means “delicious”, which they are!

Time: 20:05 local
Lat: 28 42N
Long: 80 13W

We left the dock about 10:30 this morning, and have had a delightful sail all day. Wind between 10 and 17 knots. Most of the day we have been covering ground at a speed of 6 to 7 knots.It is setting up for a beautiful sunset. In an hour or two we will be fully out in the Gulf Steam making faster tracks north.

We have a brown boobie circling the boat looking for a perch for the night. Hopefully we can convince him that there might be a more hospitable place for him to spend the evening!

Time: 20:05 local
Lat: 28 42N
Long: 80 13W

We left the dock about 10:30 this morning, and have had a delightful sail all day. Wind between 10 and 17 knots. Most of the day we have been covering ground at a speed of 6 to 7 knots.It is setting up for a beautiful sunset. In an hour or two we will be fully out in the Gulf Steam making faster tracks north.

We have a brown boobie circling the boat looking for a perch for the night. Hopefully we can convince him that there might be a more hospitable place for him to spend the evening!

The boat is ready!  We are ready!  The weather is looking good!

It looks like we are set for a departure tomorrow (Monday the 20th) morning for a trip north along the coast.  Our destination is Sandy Hook Marina in Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey.  The models are forecasting a trip of about 5 1/2 days to cover the nearly 800 miles.  That seems a bit optimistic, but we will have the Gulf Stream pushing us along for most of the trip, so over 100 miles a day is not totally unreasonable.

As usual, I will try to post here at least once a day, and as usual, don’t worry about us if a post doesn’t appear. Lots of things could interfere!

Hopefully the fish will cooperate.  Out in the Gulf Stream and just out past it they have been catching quite a few yellowfin tuna.  A freezer full of tuna steaks would be a welcome way to arrive at the end of our trip!

We are looking forward to leaving the land of heat, humidity, and bugs.

After spending too much time in the heat humidity and bugs of Florida, we are ready to head north!  We have almost everything stowed and shipshape.  The boat’s new instrument suite is installed and working.  All systems are “go”.

Which means… now we have to wait for a weather window to open for the five or six day run north to New Jersey.  For the next few days there is a gale forming off the coast of Cape Hatteras.  The idea of sailing north in the Gulf Stream with winds of 30 to 45 knots on the nose is, to put it mildly, unappealing. So we are going to sit here for a few days.  Right now it looks like we might be underway Monday the 20th.

Hopefully, we get some local fishing in here in the meantime!

If you think of the mammals that live in the ocean you might think of the majestic whale, the playful dolphin, or maybe a fun-loving seal. The manatee is not likely to be high on your list. They aren’t going to make any tourism board’s top ten attraction list.

In this part of Florida, the Florida Manatee (a sub-species of the West Indian Manatee) is quite common.  They are common enough now that there are concerns that they are over grazing some of the sea grass beds.

One thing that was a bit surprising to me about manatees is their size.  They are bigger than I expected.  Maybe 1200 pounds. Large and round. And slow.  Very slow.  The other day there was a mother and her very young calf lounging in the marina.

A couple crew members from a nearby superyacht give you a size perspective.  This pose, with head under the dock out of the sun, was how they spent well over an hour.  I got bored and left before they did.

Here are some shots of Junior.  He was way more active than Mom.  What that means is you can notice him move… sometimes.

In the picture to the left, the large barnacle and slime covered lump in the foreground is Mom.  Not very high on the cuddly scale.  Baby obviously hasn’t been around long enough to grow his own garden.

Most of the inland waters here have stringent speed limits for boats to help reduce

the number of collisions between boats and these large, slow moving creatures.  In spite of that, they are all easily recognized as individuals based on the pattern of scars left by boat propellers on their backs.