Days 4-8

It has been a wild past four days! Long story short, we are in the Chesapeake, close to Annapolis.  For more details, here is a bit of a recap...sorry for the length:

Day 4: We left the Thimble Islands at 0730 on Tuesday. We had  a beautiful sail down the Sound, and made the decision late in the afternoon to make for Oyster Bay on Long Island. During the last few miles we turned on the engine to give us some push through some steep chop. All of a sudden the engine made a something-is-very-wrong sound. Loud knocking, loss of power, smoke. OH-NO! Our hearts sank, it  sounded horrible. After some thinking, we turned towards the north to ride the wind back down to Stamford, CT. We decided we could anchor behind the seawall under sail and not have to risk turning the engine on again. When we came around the seawall we were happy to discover some moorings and grabbed one under sail. I then spent the next 12 hours trying to trouble shoot what could possibly have happened to the engine. Consulting the diesel bible written by Nigel Calder, as well as discussing the situation with a cruising forum, I came up with about 8 different things it could have been. 7 of them seemed pretty bad to catastrophic. One possibility (the one we were hoping for) was that when the boat was rocking, the oil pump sucked some air into the system – not unheard of, and not a real problem.  After barely sleeping a wink, I awoke in the morning and turned over the engine while we all crossed our fingers.

Day 5: It fired to life and sounded pretty good. A huge sigh of relief for all of us…until…after a few minutes…the same knocking started. UGH! There goes our hopes for air in the oil sump…and now the real possibility it was a much more serious issue. We hailed a marina (the only marina, as it turns out), in Stamford and worked out the details to sail into the dock. At slack high tide, we had enough water to clear a few shallow spots and made it to the dock without incident. Yacht Haven (a Brewer offspring) is not much of a boatyard – more of a simple marina, however they did have a diesel mechanic. When I met him I tried to think positively, but the salty veteran I had conjured up in my mind with hope, turned out to be a mid-thirties, somewhat green looking guy named AJ. I was worried AJ lacked the experience needed to help out, but I was wrong. AJ turned out to be incredibly knowledgeable and helpful.   We went through a bunch of different trouble-shooting techniques, and consulted a Westerbeke expert over the phone, slowly ruling out potential issues until we were left with two. Either one or more faulty injectors –  a relatively simple fix – or some very serious issue in the bellows of the drive shaft – not simple,  and maybe even engine-condemning! We decided to replace the injectors, even though we were not sure this was the issue, because we really had no other options. Thankfully, we had four new injectors on board, so we pulled the old ones, replaced them, and then turned the engine on again. My heart was in my throat as we listened for the return of the knock. We revved up and down, tried everything to get it to return, but the engine just purred along!  45 minutes later we were steaming out of Stamford, headed further west towards the Big Apple. We knew there was going to be a strong front moving over the area that night so we worked our way to the very protected Manhasset Bay, only 5 miles from the beginning of the East River. We picked up a free mooring at about 9pm and hit the hay. What a day!

Day 6: We left Manhasset at 0730 and headed for Hell Gate and Manhattan. We flew through Hell Gate with no issues, and had a wonderful trip down the East River. The girls loved seeing the sights of the city, all of the marine traffic, and especially the helicopters flying everywhere. When we got into NY harbor, the wind was howling out of the west, making for some uncomfortable chop. We passed Lady Liberty and flew under the Verrazano Narrows Bridge with a favorable current and wind on the beam. It was breezy but sunny and we made a split decision to just keep on going, rather than anchor somewhere near Sandy Hook. We turned southwest at around noon, clear of Sandy Hook, with our sights set on Cape May, 105 NM  away. It turns out we were in a pack of about 5 other sailboats, all making for Cape May, and we chattered a bit with the other crews on VHF throughout the night. It was a cloudless night with a full moon, and though a bit gusty, really very ideal conditions. The girls slept great, and we made good time, arriving at Cape May at about 0830 the next morning. We sailed more than 150 miles in 24 hours.

Day 7: Amie, the girls and I took the dink into town to do some exploring and ice-cream eating while my father got some rest. We ended up walking the 1.5 miles to town, and after getting some pizza and ice cream, Amie and I started to feel the effects of little sleep and lots of sailing. That afternoon, after Ted took a short nap, we decided the conditions were favorable for departing then for the trip up the Delaware. We had low tide, which would give our 58’ mast just enough clearance to get under the bridges in the Cape May canal, and a forecast for wind on the beam and current pushing us up the bay. So, we hit the road, so to speak. After a little chop when entering the Delaware, and a lot of stress going under two bridges with less than a foot of clearance, things settled down. We had dinner, put the kids to bed, and then averaged close to 9 knots all the way up to the C and D canal! We entered the canal just after midnight and dropped the anchor on the Chesapeake side shortly before 0300. Exhausted, we collapsed in our bunks!

Day 8: We pulled up the anchor around 0830 and headed south down the Chesapeake. For this first time in 8 days, we had very little wind. We ended up motoring all day, arriving in Galesville, MD just before dinner. It was a grey and drizzly day, nothing much to report. We said goodbye to Ned this evening, and tomorrow we will be picked up by Cassie (Ted's sister) to visit with her and do some sightseeing in Washington DC for a few days. We can't thank Ned enough for his help this past week. More on that to follow.

Here we GO!

Another Thimble Island home

A page from Lucy's journal

The inspiration for Lucy's journal entry

NYC

A tight 58 feet - any wake and we would hit!

Several scrapes from other masts but not ours - thankfully!