Mona NOBO 2017

[CharlieJ]

pretty cool, but wondering where the beard went ?? :) Bet he's glad it doesn't look like this now:)

My Mulberry tree not doing well this spring-  not enough rain early on

[Frank]

CJ.....I'm still liking his picture playing the accordion best 😄😄

[ralay]

I've never been to the island before.  It's owned by the DNR and I looked up a trail map online.  We found the blazes, but they trails must not be used enough to keep down the weeds.  There's plenty of beach at low tide, but it's as garbagey as you'd imagine.

There's quite a bit of water on the shore side of the island.  I think we're​ at 12' at low tide with a 6' tidal range.  Decent protection from Northish and Southish.  There are lots of marinas/yacht clubs back here.  If you've ever flown out of Philly, you take off right over this spot.  We came in from the West as the Eastern part of the channel is reported to be shoaly. 

Woody's beard comes and goes with the weather and his inclinations.  Both of us got haircuts while we had the use of electricity, a big mirror, and a shower. 

[ralay]

"Offshore" post! 

[ralay]

Took us a whole week to get from Philly to Cape May sailing in light winds and working with short current windows.  We visited Little Tinicum Is and anchored in the Salem and Cohansey Rivers.  We snapped on Friday 15nm from the Cape May Canal.  We were making a knot through the water with main and spinnaker.  We were going to miss our tidal window to get under the short bridges.  And then a plague of flies descended.  No fun when you can't even out run flies.  We turned the motor on and closed the gap.

Our previous a offseason anchoring spot is a designated area for rental jetskis in season and we were chased off in the morning.  We reanchored by the CG station but had missed the current window to be able to make the LONG row ashore.  We spent the day glowering at the jetski area which was devoid of any jetski customers and looking longingly at all the CG owned beach we were forbidden from landing on.

I was really stir crazy after a week on the boat, so we braved the long row to the yacht club the next day.  I sucked it up and paid the beach fee and went for a nice cold swim.  By the time we went to the veg-friendly diner and got fresh produce, all was forgiven. 

We took off this morning to catch the tail end of these lovely SW winds.  We're forecast to have 10-15kts for 24h.  Our poor man's bimini (thrift store sheet plus 4 constrictor knots) is providing us some shade while waddle down wind toward NYC.    Woody needs to fly back to TX so we have some time to kill in the NYC/LIS area this year.

[Frank]

Thanks for the update.
Geepers....how cold was the water??
have fun!

[ralay]

Internet says we've got SSTs in the low 70s.  The air was in the 80s.  It felt worth the $6 they charged me to get on the beach.  Not having had a shower in a week probably helped.

[Bubba the Pirate]

Thanks for the update.
Two years ago we took a nap for a couple hours at Cape May to wait for the tide to flip and then headed up the Delaware toward the C&D (heading south overall). Didn't have to deal with non-existent jet skis or a long row. :-)

[ralay]

Made it to Coney Island Creek.  Had to motor a couple hours this afternoon when the wind was too light to have steerageway.  There's a wreck of a homebuilt yellow submarine right next to us along with a lotta other old, weird, junken, and sunken stuff.

[ralay]

Not much movement the past two weeks.  We spent 5 days in Coney Island Creek, which was pleasant and protected with wind from the S, E, N.  The only shore access involved locking the dinghy to a fishing pier and scrambling over rip rap and fences, but we made do.  Walked the Boardwalk, went to the Mermaid Parade, saw a side show act, visited friends in Brooklyn. 

One day with a good wind, we sailed into the Upper Harbor and up to the Statue of Liberty.  A line of folks waiting in the sun snaked all the way around the island.  We were happy to be seeing it from the water. 

We continued up the East River, though we were unable to sail with the strong flukey wind under the bridges.  We anchored in Port Washington for several days to wait for Woody's flight back to Texas.  Port Washington is a pretty sweet town that offers mooring balls free for 48h and $25 after that (with launch service included on paid days.). A $8 ticket on the Long Island Railroad will put you in Manhattan in an hour.  I spent most of Woody's week in Texas in Port Washington sewing, varnishing, and visiting more friends in the City.

Last Sunday a friend came to visit and we sailed a couple bays down to Oyster Bay.  Oyster Bay has a little room left to anchor, but is not so welcoming.  There's a marina, yacht club, and community sailing school, none of which allow dinghy tie ups.  There's a 9' tide that makes landing on the beaches difficult.  I love our Portland Pudgy but I'm not strong enough to drag it several hundred feet up a soft beach.  Undoubtedly there's probably a rule against leaving your boat in the parks as well, but no one caught me today when I tied up to a piece of rebar near a culvert. 

This is one of the most irritating parts of cruising.  To be in a fabulous natural anchorage with 360 degree protection full of empty boats on moorings and not being allowed to put a foot on shore even when I want to come spend some money.  That said, being confined to the boat for days is the only way I ever seem to get around to varnishing.

I'm floating in the dinghy just off the boat ramps waiting to scoop Woody from the train station.  Soon we'll be back on our way North/East.

[Frank]

Thx for the update.
"Boat trapped" can be boring or productive. Good on ya for varnishing 😄

[Jim_ME]

Appreciate your thoughtful reports. 

Fair winds. :)

[lance on cloud nine]

I too, appreciate the updates. This is one of the areas of the country I know the least about....and find your descriptions interesting reading. Thank you Ralay...I wish you perfect weather.

[ralay]

Woody successfully rejoined Mona and I and we sailed down the rest of Long Island. 

We sailed from Oyster Bay to Port Jefferson in an afternoon of good southwesterlies.  Port Jefferson harbor has a relatively narrow strip of shallow water that is taken up by moorings.  We have a 55lb Delta and 300' of chain, so we felt fine about anchoring in 40' of water.  A friend from SUNY Maritime drove out to spend a good night of catching up.

In the morning, as Woody rowed or friend ashore, he noticed we had the end of a piece of line fouled on our bobstay fitting which is right at the waterline.  He pulled it but couldn't budge it, so he cut it loose.  I went to the windlass to weigh anchor, but something was definitely amiss.  The snubber seemed to be fouled.  Then as I pulled in chain, I could hear and feel something shuddering down the chain still in the water.  In places the chain came up hockled and twisted, though it worked itself out.  I expected to find the anchor fouled, but it came up easy enough and we other underway.

We had a long sail to and through Plum Gut and into Gardiner Bay.  The north shore of Long Island reminds me of the upper part of the Chesapeake with tall bluffs and small sandy beaches.  As soon as we transited Plum Gut, we had to beat for several hours into 15-20kt winds to get to some shelter between Shelter Island and Orient.  With reefed main and jib, we could tack through about 100 degrees, though we were only making 3-4 kts in the chop.  We were pretty darn happy to throw the hook out around 9pm and fall asleep. 

In the morning we went ashore on a long spit of land that's part of a state park.  Lots of osprey, horned poppy, mullein, and cactus.  We're all the way in New York and we're still seeing prickly pear.  We seam back to the boat, removed some fishing line from the prop, and got underway again.

When we pulled up the anchor, we noticed that the 5' line we use to cleat the anchor to the windlass had unlaid.  We came to the disturbing realization that THIS was the line we'd cut free in Port Jefferson.  When we dropped the hook, the very bitter end of this line must have flicked itself around the bobstay fitting where we couldn't see it from the deck.  The anchor was dangling on a 5' line in 40' of water and we must have spent all night "anchored" on a 200' bight of chain.  It's pretty wild that it worked as well as it did.

We elected to spend the 4th of July in Lake Montauk based on the number of damning and luke warm reviews.  We had no desire to try to cram in at Block Island or Newport or Martha's Vineyard. 

We've had high pressure and not much wind all week and have been happily exploring.  There are few boats here.  We have a little beach with bathrooms to land the dinghy at.  We can swim right off the boat. 

We rode our bikes to one of the 4 state parks around us and picked some high bush blueberries before the ticks ran us out.  We need long pants/socks/DEET for further forays.  The Atlantic Beach and all the surfers you can watch are just across the road.  Town is another easy bike ride.  It's a pretty sweet spot.  Supposedly it's unpopular because the holding is poor (grass over soft mud).  We had some trouble getting a good grip up near the yacht clubs, but our current spot in the southern end of the lake is pretty great. 

All we need is some more scrappy cruisers to hang out with. 

[ralay]

Sunset guitar practice.

[ralay]

Swimming home

[ralay]

Blueberry time

[Frank]

Sometimes the water Gods are in your corner
Others times...well....you know...


They were certainly in your corner anchoring!
Wow....could easily have been a different ending for sure.
Glad it worked out like it did.

Nice update!

[ralay]

What was a lovely 10-15kt breeze, is now a dead calm, glassy swell and less than 1/4 nm visibility.  Welcome to Maine.  Pretty sure it's actually over there.

[Bob J (ex-misfits)]

Yea, coast is pretty fogged in this morning, 1/8th mile visibility in portsmouth.
It'll burn off & be a great day. Good weather is forecast for the rest of the week.
Enjoy!