We arrived safe and sound in Cape May at about 2pm after a 24 hour overnight sail from Atlantic Highlands. The weather conditions were almost ideal for this leg -- clear skies, reasonable temperatures, calm seas, full moon for great night visibility and moderate winds -- in some ways, you couldn't ask for more -- but alas, it wasn't quite perfect: the wind was on our nose all the way so we ended up motor sailing the coast of NJ -- c'est la vie :-)
I love sailing at night -- it is incredibly peaceful and serene, there is a sense of being "one" with the sea, and sometimes the sites are other-worldly. This time the play of the moon rise on the sea swell was mesmerizing -- thousands of twinkling lights on the sea surface from moonbeams -- hypnotic. We also saw a small pod of dolphins in the early morning light, lazily feeding off of Atlantic City -- awesome.
We encountered surprisingly little traffic along the shore although there were a few tense moments in the night when I was at the helm when a tug and tow passed close by.
As I mentioned earlier, Graham and Ryan joined us as crew -- for the overnight leg, we worked in 4 hour watches: Sue and I did 8pm-midnight, Graham & Ryan did 12-4, Sue & I 4am to 8am, etc.
The most excitement occurred at the very end of the trip hen we managed to run aground inside of Cape May harbor -- we were in the middle of the channel but they were having extraordinary low tides because of the full moon and we just happened to be in the right place at the wrong time. We managed to get ourselves off using some rocking tricks and putting up the mainsail but it added 45 stressful minutes to an already very long trip.
Once we got off the bar, we tried getting advise from a local Tow Boat operator and two different marinas on the best way to get into a dock. After another 45 minutes of Keystone Kop activity with all of these "experts", we managed to get safely on a dock with no more drama. The remainder of the day was spent at the Marina's pool, after which we went to dinner with Bobbie (Ryan's mom) who came down to pick him up -- he had to be home by Sunday to study for an important exam coming up next week.
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| Graham on deck, ready for the evening to come |
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| Ryan relaxing after a stint at the helm |
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| Chicken Dinner before nightfall |
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| We met this poor fellow on the dock at the marina in Cape May. |
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