We decided to make a run for it and en-route, since the weather was holding and the waves weren’t too bad, we kept on going directly into Hampton VA 48 hours later. We started with taking spray over the windshield and side of the boat in Long Island Sound. Those pesky 30 knot winds have a habit of doing that. Then we blew through Hell Gate at a peak of 13.1 knots (per our GPS). Our timing with the current kept pushing us right on past Battery Park an hour earlier than expected and continued until it spit us into the Atlantic off Sandy Hook. It was a pretty cool ride.
To try and time us coming into Atlantic City during daylight we would have had to slow down for 4 hours and since we had such a good run going, we bypassed it. During day #2 a bird flew into the pilot house and then got into the salon. I spent 2 hours trying to get him back out with no luck and Stan slept through the whole event even though it went on all around him. Finally I got the fishing net and corralled him with that. Unfortunately he wasn’t looking too good when I turned him loose. I don’t think he was long for this world when he fell into the ocean. Bird # 2 that came in for a visit was more fortunate and escaped alive.
We did start getting 4-6 foot rolling waves off of Delaware that continued though VA until we turned into Chesapeake Bay. During my night watch I was glad that I could not see the size of the waves as feeling them was enough to put me on edge. I have now decided that over 6 footers are out of my comfort range and unless we have no choice I would prefer to be tied to the dock. At least now I know what is too big for me!
We arrived 48 hours after we left CT, tired, relieved (at least I was) and ready to chill out. Having warmer weather certainly helps get us motivated to start getting more items knocked off our never ending “to do” list. We had to add to the list to replace the fresh water pump that went out 15 min after leaving the dock in CT. Imagine how interesting a 48 hour transit was with no running water, especially when you need fresh water to flush the toilets. Luckily we had stocked up on bottled water before we left. We now need to re-stock the bottled water once again. Also, added to the list is the raw water pump on the starboard engine that decided to start leaking on the trip.
Oh well, something always happens to keep life interesting.
