What a Wild Week... Ruth left us on Monday, flying back to Albany after sailing 2/3 of the Chesapeake with us...
Then, Tuesday we had a relaxing day, ending with dinner, and drinks with our friends Morina, and Owen Ware.
Wednesday we picked up the ground tackle in Weems Creek, and caught the flood tide perfectly, assisting us north, toward the C&D Canal.
We got to the mouth of the Sassafras River (intended anchorage), and were still "flying"... so we decided to scoot through the C&D and onto Reedy Island. Which we did...
Nice anchorage at Reedy Island for the night.
We picked up the hook before sunrise and hit the very start of the ebb tide down the Delaware River (Bay). We, again, were making nearly 9 knots (SOG) on our way south toward the Atlantic. NICE!! The weather was hot and very HAZY!!
We did loose the "tidal pull" to the Atlantic just short of the Prissywick Inide passage at Cape May... but we slogged our way through and into the Atlantic, with the idea that we could 'make' Atlantic City (absocom inlet) by about 1800 hours. WELL... we did.... sort of....
WE made it to the way-point off Atlantic City well before sun-down, and the water was 1 to 2 feet (waves), and the wind was decent from the SE... SO...............a decision was made to do the 'all-nighter' to NYC. The weather was gorgeous!
The weather forecast mentioned that "conditions were right for severe T-Storms" (it being HOT, and HOTTER for days, and days)....
Anyway... they mentioned NO existing storms in the area at the moment.... SO... we sailed on past Atlantic City...
Our normal watch schedule for passages like this is that I catch some sleep after dinner, while Susan helms, then I (dean) take the night watch from about 11PM to 5 AM (dawn)...
We were into this schedule... with me below decks in the berth (zonked).... when the sunset, behind a huge wall of clouds... Susan noticed this, but it had been so hazy all day... (we were sometimes using radar to find the Delaware Bay buoys....) she didn't think more about it...
We had just about every piece of sail we had up.... (mistake #1)... when I retired for the shut-eye. The boat behind us was even running his spinnaker....
Then...just after sundown...the front hit !!!!...Susan yelled for me... Groggy I came up into the cockpit.... sails flapping like crazy, and the the boat heeled over...
First we took the autopilot off and ran down wind.... but the wind was so strong (46.3 knots max. we saw on the wind instrument after it was all over) we couldn't hold course....the first time... and had one crash jib... NOT good ! (mistake #2). ...
The wind was so strong it came in the open sides of the Bimini/Dodger and literally ripped the port top zipper apart, leaving the Bimini top hanging into the cockpit....Not GOOD. (Obviously, the state of the boat all windows, and Bimini sides open) was indicative of the great weather we HAD been having for two days... ).
While we were running downwind we did manage to get the Yankee (foresail) rolled up so that was Good!
We did manage to come about,then, and heave-to, which gave us a few minutes to take stock of the situation... BUT the full main, and stay'sl isn't the ideal combination for Autumn Borne to heave-to... (it likes a double reef in the mains'l, and the stays'l to keep a nice 60 degree angle to the wind).
We couldn't stay hove-to on this azimuth anyway... the bow was pointing toward the NJ coast, so we didn't have that much sea-room.
After we caught our breath for a few minutes... and took a look around the boat (which was then quite the mess, after the coming about, and a crash jibe).... we powered up the motor, and Susan took AB into the wind... I hitched onto the jack lines, went forward and took the sails down... noisy, and wet, but successful... Quite the job in over 40 knots of wind...
We had seen fronts come in on us before... but this one came in a super stealth mode... out the land haze.... Wow !!!
So.. now that the sails were down and we were motoring into the wind, with the seas building the boat began to take some blue water over the bow... (some which gave me quite the soaking while tying up the stays'l). We decide to run off (south, from where we came) for a while.... that was much better...ride wise...
Then, I took a good look at the long radar.........24 miles out... UG!@!!! This storm (or series of cells), was massive, and we were running back into it... HUMMMM... OK... let's take our lumps and go north (crashing and bashing or not)... maybe we can let these things pass to our stern...
The lightning coming out of these cells was impressive.... (aka scary!!) we could watch the multiple strikes on the NJ coast.... UG !!!
The Good thing.... we actually did run away from some of the more scary cells.... they would rain on us... then the center would pass to our stern....
We did manage to get the Bimini pieced back together enough for some rain protection... and lowered most of the bimini sidecurtains... that helped.... especially me... as I still had on only a bathing suit, PFD, and harness....and was soaking wet.
In that configuration, we ran all night to NYC.... getting here, and anchoring by 0930 hours. I went below a few times to take stock of the damage...(things we hadn't taken care of because of the phenomenal weather we had been experiencing - Mistake #3) Cupboards opened spilling contents... tools spilled, books tossed off shelves (not secured)... etc. THEN... we started to notice the real damage... WATER...
In our complacency (with all the good weather) we had left a lot of the ports open (Mistake #4).... The extreme heels, and crash-jib must have put several of these open ports under water... because we had sea water in things that shouldn't have sea water .... like the wastebasket under the aft head sink... How the heck did it get in there? .... As we looked around we began to find wet books, soaking wet charts, tubs that held batteries full of water... My bolt/nut box in the engine room was full of water... and that was under the inverter... OH OH....the inverter...
I'm sure we'll find more things.. that need attention over the next few days....
Slowly...today... all day...we dried out, here at anchor... the boats topsides covered in books, boxes, rugs, mouse pads, pillows, etc.
I think we're 80% back.... I did get the inverter working...by disconnecting it and letting it reboot....
The generator may have taken a bath, but it still works... and the main engine never missed a beat !!!! nice!
We were lucky... I was hoping that the sailors behind us didn't get caught with that spinnaker still up.... this storm came out of nowhere!!! Wild night....
The good thing... the boat did well, and we didn't break the boat.. or ourselves.
WELL... that's not entirely true... the wind-vane, at the top of the mast, was carried away in the blow.... and is now somewhere at the bottom of the Atlantic, and two water jugs came loose from their tie down straps, and went overboard.
We're modifying our "go to sea-list" now!! :) "close the ports; dog the hatches; and never sail at night with more sail than you're comfortable heaving-to with !!! " ;)
