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.