2010 Highlights

here's a video of some of the highlights of 2010. Looking forward to 2011

Some dinghy fun

I've been working on the dinghy outboard, nothing major, just tweaking and fine tuning. She's running pretty good now.

Pigdog likes the new dinghy

Took pigdog to the boat this weekend, her first time seeing the boat. At first she wouldn't get on because she's not allowed to get on other boats. Once on, she ran all over the boat, jumped on every bed, sniffed every corner. She's been sitting in every seat trying to find which one she likes best. Last night we went for a dinghy ride, she loves the new dinghy

Time for a rest

Pulled into our spot, Dave and family helped us tie up. We were beat. Drank some beer, talked about the trip and introduced them to our new boat.

We cleaned her up, buttoned her up and headed for home.

What a trip.

Thank you Gitana for bringing us home safely.

The longest 20 miles

Pulling out of manasquan inlet, we knew we were in for a rough day. In hind sight, we should have turned around and headed back, but the pull of the finish line was too great for both of us, so we headed out. The seas were sloppy and confused, steep rollers coming from the south east. I couldn't head straight up the coast because they were hitting me broadside, so I had to tack back and forth hitting them at an angle. We're now cruising at about 15kts, tacking back and forth, this is getting exhausting. "how many miles to sandy hook?" "19" F%£k.

I'm so close i can smell dirty water hot dogs.

We spot sandy hook and I surf the boat into the bay. I pull into a safe spot and throw the engines in neutral and walk out onto the deck and re-attach the wiper arm... Again. Collect myself, get my bearings and head for the VZ bridge. Not bad, i thought, heading for the bridge. We get into NYC harbor and it's flat. Whoohoo were are home free.

We get through hells gate, into the sound, and the fog starts to get heavy. I get past city island and the seas get heavy. I cruise past our old harbor, port Washington and the fog is thick as pea soup. I keep going, seas get steeper, fog thicker. Soon we are in 100' of water and we are getting clobbered. I'm down to idle speed and the seas are breaking over the bow. "look out" I mis a boat, barely. Never saw it on my radar. Another so close, we both realize Now that the boat is pitching so bad that the radar is either facing mars or china, nothing in front of us.

I want to turn around but thought there was no way, the boat would roll over if I tried, so I just kept going. I set my course for the closet harbor that I thought I could take the waves at. Plugging along at 5 kts, I could hear things flying in the cabin. I kept looking back expecting the dinghy, or worse the whole TNT lift, to not be there. After a couple of hours of this, I couldn't take it anymore, so it took a more aggressive angle heading for land. A few big waves clobbered us and the boat pitched so bad that It felt like I could reach out of the window and touch the water.

We make it to port Chester harbor and we grab a mooring ball and shut off the engines. I check over everything, clean up the crap flying around, and smoke a cigar. We are 11 miles from home and I'm thinking we are going to be spending the night on a borrowed mooring ball. How the hell the seas could be so rough baffled me. I checked the charts and decided that if I hug the coast, it might not be so bad. I start the engines and head back out. I'm hugging the coast in 10' of water just motoring through.

Finally we make it to norwalk harbor and the islands break the seas. Thank you Jesus was the only thing that came to mind.

Here we are coming into the marina. Battered, bruised, but in one piece.

Gale winds leads the way

We arrived in AC around 3 pm on sat. I pulled in, fuel up and headed back out in to rough seas. The admiral was a champ, no chumming the waters. I made my way up the jersey coast and into the barnegate inlet. Some more poking my way through the channel I met Dom and Bobby Bacala in the bay, they led me to my nights dock. Great meal, great company, great docking rates. A few glasses of wine, filled stomach, and we passed out for the night. Woke up in the morning and checked the weather. I had to get going, a storm is on my butt. But we were thrilled, we were in familiar waters, almost home. The week of long days and some rough weather is quickly catching up to us. The skies are cloudy, the air cold. Water temps are 53 degrees, just 3 days ago we were in 79 degree water. Summer hasn't arrived in the northeast yet.

Rudee inlet

Got up, made some coffee, looked at some maps. Then headed out for the open ocean. We were expecting a nice calm day on the water, wasn't so calm. The rollers were hitting us from the side so we just rocked and rolled all day. Then the seas got messy, so now we are rocking and rolling and bouncing. Normally this isn't too much of an issue if you are in it for a couple of hours, 12 hours and it's an issue. My navigator stopped navigating, I'll just leave it at that.

"this is warship xxx calling power vessel, we are 2 nm off your stern, switch to 72 and answer". That'll wake you up. I look around and sure enough there's a big ole battle ship behind us. Just wanted us to identify our selves and let them know what we were doing etc... Big thanks for protecting our waters.

So we are plugging along. Finally got to AC and everyone started feeling better once we docked to fuel up. We covered some serious ground. Stopped at Dom's for the night and ate some great home cooking. Headed off early to out run some storms.

( pic courtesy of Gary)