New York City!!!

WOW what a day to be in NYC! We thought we timed the current but we didn’t. Good thing we tried today cuz now we know we don’t know and it is not as simple as… the tide rises at 10:22 so now we scoot in and up the Hudson river. For the first 3 hours we were against the current but could not figure it out. Hummm more research before we leave to go through Hells gate. I’m beat so the pictures will have to do tonight! 

DAY THREE AT SEA!!

Night 3:

Ben and I switched shifts. He started with 10-2a. I guess he had the many fishing boats. They are big and lit up like a Christmas tree. But they don't have AIS. So for my shifts he is sleeping in the cockpit for me so I can wake him. During the day light hours I got to practice my radio skills as a big huge gigantic bigger than the titanic norwiegan cruise line. Yup he was coming our way. I hailed him. He talked back. I asked him could he see us but also did we show up on AIS. He said." no" what? Well I didn't say that to him.  So we read the ais manual. You have to have a class b type  something to pick us up. What? The big boys don't care about us? They only want to see each other? Or is it we are not transmitting? Wouldn't surprise me. Then a little late came a saulboat with ais so we asked him if we showed up on his ais? Yup! Bizzare! The reason we have it is to have them see us not some little sailboat to see us. Funny. Still lots to learn. On my night watch I hail this one vessel and a japanese woman answered. I asked if she saw us? She said," wait please and I'll ask" she must be an interpreter?! They did not see us either. They changed a few degrees and we pasted by. Not too bad experience so far cuz you can hail them until... " "Mr.OSG Freed" a tug! I hailed and hailed he was 4 miles out then 3...2... Still no response! On the starboard side of me was a fishing boat you know the Christmas tree kind.  I though I'll get close to him cuz I'm sure the tug sees him. I'm glad ben was up with me to experience that one. The chartplotter is hilarious about ships that are in your path. We have it set for six minutes. Then it beeps but it displays a red dotted line to your boat with an intersect time , here is the best part, then it shows your ship as sinking with a big red slash thru the picture. Great, now I know I'm going to die. And I'm not even dead but it shows me as such.  Ha ha ha. It is busy with boats but I'm sure it is a slack time cuz of the 4th of July holiday. I see the Mary Queen 2 off my bow. I better pay attention and I AM wide awake.

The sail last night was peaceful, calm yet we were at a constant slow 2-3 knots. It was good to have perfect sailing weather during our first time with more boat traffic. On coming into the main channels of NJ and NY I expected more traffic even though my ais was showing sunkin red boats every so many minutes it was not hairy yet! Wait till we go thru Hells gate where three bodies of water meet with a fast current to boot. Well one day at a time. I'm thankful we have such an amazing God to help give us baby steps in sailing before we need to be challenged all around which I hope will never happen! Miss you all. Pam

DAY TWO AT SEA!

Day 2

Happy 4th of July. My night shift started at 9 but Ben stayed out with me to watch all the fireworks from the boat to the shore.  We are about 20-25 miles out and we can't see land during the day but at night we watched many fireworks all along the coast. What a nice evening. My shift started with strong winds , well 20 knots the boat loves 20 but I'd rather not when we are in danger of accidental jibs  that is where the wind is behind us and the boom is all the way off to one side then the wind barely catches it and slams it against the other side. Much damage to the boom can be done by that. I have a jack line tonight and a preventer line to catch the boom if it wants to move. The first hour I steered cuz it was too crazy windy and wild for me to set the cap horn needless to say I'm beat and I have two more hours to go. So blogging keeps me up. I bet Anne from work would like me to write some scripts...  all in good time.

Random, ya know I thought I got the bearing thing right and then I've been trying my theories and it's not 100% so forget that. I'll have to look in the manual. Ha ha manuals are jokes these days cuz everything is online except me out here wanting to know a bit more about our garmin chartplotter

More random comments (if anyone reads all if these blogs I'll be amazed due to the rambling of these trying to keep me awake. well except my sister she has to read them all cuz she is blood related ha ha.) it's like 70 some degrees. I wish I knew so I could tell you that in the wind I'm cold. Who would have thought going from 100 degrees to 70 in the wind would be cold. I have a shirt, sweatshirt, small spring jacket and my big rain coat for wind resistants. Oh scarf too.

Lila is thinking... ok folks when can we go back to the boatyard? She is getting to be daring now that we had some bio fosferecsene sights in the water. Just tonight the ripples sparkled ! Cool! And lila thinks she should be catching the light. I say, "walk away from the light".

Let's see  ...  tonight to keep me awake also is food. I have cheese, salami, and crackers. I try to eat slow. Last night I had half a chocolate bar but by bed time I had a little tummy ache from it. Like the feeling you get when you eat too much sweets.  Well today went fast each time on my off two hour  day shift i tried to nap and didn't feel rested ever. Hurry up time piece! There are no big boats in sight.

Finally I slept 3.5 hours at a hard sleep! When 5am rang I was so fast a sleep that when I  got up I walked like a drunkin' sailor! It took a very long hour to get me to be "awake"! I might have shut my eyes a few times. It was a calm morning. Winds 5-8 perfect angle to the wind on a beam. ( the wind comes from the side. It is the nicest point of sail.  For my sister this would be your type of sailing. The boat is calm pretty flat and quiet, all is good) I'm struggling to get awake and about 6:30 here comes a sailbaot going to pass me. What? Not that I am competitive but more embarrassed I have not changed my sailing configs. So  I put down the staysail and pull out the big jib or genoa. Poof now I'm cruising too. Last night we only had out the main at 20 knots it's a fast ride and you get to wrestle the wheel. I could have reefer but man is that a pain and something I don't do alone or at night unless I have to and then I do it before I have to. The weather was supposed to be 15-20 so it all seemed good. Then the winds died down for ben so he put up the staysail and now I took that down and let out the jib. 7-9 knot winds on a beam produce 4.5-5.5 knot speed. Pretty good. So now I'm awake and feel like I'm in a rhythm. Ya know when you first drive a car there are so manythings to think about. That is me after all it is only my four day sailing yet this year. Just getting used to her. I'm going to let Ben sleep in longer so he can have on stretch of longer sleep. So I'm going to crochet or something fun while the sailing is so peaceful! Oh and make coffee!

DAY ONE AT SEA!!!

Day One out to sea…

…  (warning long blogs... blogging kept me awake at night.. I just posted 3 entries with pictures that might not be in order sorry..)

…soon I will be done with my second shift. Next to me is a huge cargo ship.  It is so huge looking that when I sighted it I thought, "now I didn't see any island with big hotels that I passed." that is cuz It just came up behind me. Well I had been watching that bad boy for a while but could not site it with my eyes until it was 10 miles out. The AIS on the chartplotter told me a vessels coming about 30 miles ago. Last night was frustrating cuz I took the first shift right as the sun goes down. I assumed Ben was going to take that shift cuz he is a night owl and I turn into a pumpkin around 10p. The difference was yesterday we took two hour shifts in the day Ben was so excited to sail that he never took a break to go down below. (also cuz he was still trying to get sea-legs, I think.) So I think he wore himself out? He just said, you take the first shift" and went down stairs to snooze. ( that's not like him) I was totally fine cuz I was stressed out cuz once the sun went down the AIS ( that is the part of the computer that shows us the vessel as an arrow like icon so you know which way they are going) ok so I could list the vessels and see the written info but no cute icon to show me direction and orientation to me. Grrrr. I looked and looked. I gave up. So then it gave bearing but I wanted to know heading. What is a bearing anyway? In movies they say such and such is bearing down on us. Then again movies say “over and out” too which is wrong. I studied enough ships to think the bearing is the number on the compass rose as to where they are around me, north south east west. Etc. The heading is the way they are going. But where is the stupid headng? Frustrated! On top of that. I could not get the cape horn auto pilot to work. Or so I thought. The swing was about 20 degrees up then swing back 20 degrees. Now after the first four hours (actually my first shift was three. Ben woke up and was raring to go. No complaints here. So I steered myself for three hours and I could not keep it within 20 degrees either due to the wind.) I guess it doesn't matter that much. The cape horn had been working just not to my expectations. (I have a picture of that wonderful piece of equipment it is on the back end with a stiff flag that steers the whole boat!) So Here I am with all this electronics and I must have done something wrong but were is the stupid display button. Oh well. Was frustrated but never stressed. It was a beautiful evening with 8-12 knots and we were making 4-6 knots traveling. Our average goal is 5 our hull speed. (which is the fastest we can go is about 7.8 that is screaming fast) comfortable winds for me are 8-14. I also cheat at night and only use the main with the staysail (the staysail is a shorty sail infront of the main. I can run the sheets from the cockpit. The jib or genoa is huge. I can still pull the sheets (sheets are long lines that attach to the sail to keep the sail on one side or the other) but that big guy likes to get stuck n the stanchions (cables that hold up the mast) so when tacking from side to side I have to run up to the front and stand on tippy toes to pull the monster over which isn't too safe. We also did not get a jack line run before dark. That is a rope that runs from the bow to the stern and you click your safety line (which is also a compact life jacket that only inflates when submeged) it was hard to find a small one that was comfortable last night I wore it and no complaints from me and. Hate to wear life jackets. What I Hate more is going overboard at night when ben is fast asleep! Like he is right now. I have to be exhausted to sleep with all this noise, loud banging booms, creeky rigging, wind and waves crashing not to mention trying to sleep as if on a ride from valleyfair up and down then on one side and back to the other. Yahoo. Last year it took me half the summer to sleep while at anchor. My son says it perfect, " mom doesn't sleep she waits". Ha ha sometimes I do wait for morning to come.

It is now one clock. Ben found where the display for AIS hangs out. He has way more patience than I do when it comes to electronics! And he got the cape horn to work! Same o story from last year the lines that run the cape horn get twisted. So all is a clear day. Only 5-7 knots of wind so 3-4 knots of speed. Oh that is per hour. At three knots one could walk faster than us but one could not backpack the stuff we have with us!  For a while I could not see land but now I am  tacking back toward land cuz of the wind shifting - the wrong way i might add. Last night you could steer the boat by stars. Fix on a star and keep it in line. It was fun. When I tacked north there was the big dipper it reminded me of home in mn in the north woods where all you see is stars but not as many as here! Oh last night was funny too cuz I was keepng track of the big vessels and then the little ones on radar which this radar is amazing you. Can see the ships! Anyway I look over and here is a bright red light like from a huge cargo boat. I thought, wow how did that one pass me by ha ha it not took an other minute to laugh at myself cuz it was the moon! Bright red and only a half a moon.

Time to stop blogging although blogging is the best way to stay awake. I have my umbrella up and here comes Ben. He has a little touch of the queezy   He never complains and it seems to not get worse another few more days he'll be all weathered.

Oh lunch was yummy cuz the day we left Yorktown there was a farmers market so fresh fruit and veggies for a day or two! Yumm. Ok time to track another big boy boat. or crocket a coffee mug so I don't keep tipping it over!Sleep well All!

Yorktown Pictures

Ben took these, we pretty much can say Ben takes all the pictures unless they are of him then I grab the camera.  ok once in a while I see something and use his camera.  He's the photographer! I'm the snap-shot taker. He took many more that day. I'm sure he will share the ones with Anna and the Jellys!!! oh my they are amazing! their kids don't take a bad picture!  love you guys Pam

We sailed in the York river all day!

Yes, we sailed all day with Jason and David and Anna! Perfect weather! Sunny cool windy 8-15 knots. I am so tired for all the fresh air. Ben took pictures all day. Not sure if he will blog? Zzzz. Oops I might have fallen asleep there. One short story before I go to dream land... We get done sailing then at sunset we went back to the mooring ball and ben is in the front with a pole that has a hook and he leans way over and snags the round eye on the ball, I stop the engine run up and lean way down and threat the eye while he continues to hole the eye up. So here we come to the ball, ben leans over catches the eye and poof the end of the hook falls off the pole. Note-to-self, get spare boat hook. So now what? It is now almost dark. So humm. Ben hops in the kayak, I throw him the line and tow him very slowly to the ball, then the tide takes my slowness and makes me drift off the mark. Ben paddles fast to the ball threads the eye and pulls. I gunned the engine a short burst slammed in neutral and Run up as he threw me the threaded line and I cleated the line in the boat. Phew. Happy to be moored and now time to snooze!!! Zzzzz dreams of heaven here on earth. Zzz

Happy Anniversary to US!

Went to Yorktown and ate too much excellent food. Kayaked back home. Lila was mad we left when she was sleeping and without saying goodbye. She was very excited to see us! Oh we hanked on sails and am ready to sail tomorrow around the bay.
Oh here is a funny aside story.  So we get a phone call on our cell phone from the boss at Deltaville just making sure we were doing alright and that he would send us a bill on email.  Funny cuz once we were done with the sea trial we dropped off the electrics-guy Mike and we kept on driving until we hit yorktown. I think they might have been a bit worried that we were skipping town. ha ha ha not only did the boss call but so did Mike to check up on us.  We will be haggeling over our bill for a few days that is for sure! Keith sounded like we could work out some stuff. We shall see.
that is all for now, I'm enjoying the sunset as Ben is snoozing in the cockpit. (I think he is still trying to tough out a little seasickness left over) I do have to say the waves are rough here.
May God Bless you all