Home at Poughkeepsie Yacht Club - at OUR dock - Blog will resume 9/15 2016

Always an impressive sight from the harbor

The night at Atlantic Highlands was calm until the ferry started running at 6:00 am. Still, it was a quiet night until then and even at that it settled down shortly thereafter. We hauled anchor at 7:30 and headed north. The wind was out of the south and the tide was due to turn in our favor around 9:30 am so we had hopes of riding all the way home to PYC, 89 Nm north. First of all, the favorable tide was late (it's never early!) and we didn't catch the tide until 1/3 of the way north. Still we were making good time, ran into a storm, which washed down the boat and then left us with a beautiful evening. We arrived at PYC 11 hours later.

The Hudson River is used by true ocean going ships

Reaching PYC the tide was still behind us with a 0.4 kt push which makes the entry into our face dock tricky since we share it with another boat right in front of us. As usual Ann handled the docking at the helm and I handled the lines. Luckily, we had two friends from the club who volunteered to help which made the docking easy.

We had a late dinner and we're set for the night. I think there may be a few people joining us in reading the blog for the first time due to the link published at Cruisernet.net. To them I say Welcome. Unfortunately, you've signed in for the last blog of the season. The blog will restart 9/15/2016 for our seventh trip down the ICW to Key West and back. There may be a few random blogs during the interval as I work on the update to my book published last year - 2015 ICW Cruising Guide that can be found on Amazon.com The update will, imaginatively be called the 2016 ICW Cruising Guide! It will be an update on all the ICW hazards but many features will be added of interest to ICW cruisers such as additional details the Fernandina Shallows, Jekyll Island shoaling, Hell Gate (all with GPX files for waypoints) and how to plan to use the Cape May Canal with its 55 ft bridges along with tips, updates on how to prepare for the trip and much more. I'll detail the improvements and updates during the year as I do the update. I hope to have it completed by mid July.

Back home at PYC

Meanwhile, please look at the left on the blog under the heading "Cruising Tips". Topics of interest to cruisers are available there as permanent listings. For those who have already purchased the guide, I would eagerly ask for suggestions for improvements.Just send them to my email address:  423sail@gmail.com. Lastly, I've learned that the most difficult project of all is getting reviews. A review, good or bad, is good information to the author and for other people to read, feel free to become a reviewer. 

Happy sailing during the summer as I slave over Fleetwing to get it ready for another trips down the ICW to Key West. The trip was fun and I hope you enjoyed coming along. Remember my motto, I make all the mistakes first so you don't have to!

Atlantic Highlands - at anchor

Lots of tug traffic but they slowed down when going by us

We left at 5:30 am and arrived at Atlantic Highlands at 4:30 pm, an 11 hour trip. The passage today was one of the calmest we've ever had. Winds and swells were out of the south so everything was at our backs. We traded off every 1/2 hour which made the time go quickly.

Hoolie's dock was in the second fairway past the fuel dock

Coming into New York Harbor there were several dredges in evidence. These were not the puny dredges we've seen down south on the ICW, these were huge, several times larger. They were dredging one of the two main channels into the city. As large as they were, they looked small compared to the size of the harbor they were dredging.

It's nice to see that we made our destination after 11 hours

On Friday we're going to attempt to get home to PYC. It about 86 Nm north but it's only possible if we catch the 1 to 2 kt current going north. According to the tide tables, we should be able to do just that but the currents are notoriously difficult to predict since they also depend upon the current state of rainfall and whether there's been an off shore wind or not. If we get what is predicted, we'll reach PYC, if not we'll either anchor at Haverstraw Bay or perhaps go a little farther and take a dock at the Marlboro YC. If we do the latter, we'll come into PYC by noon.

Atlantic City - at the Golden Nugget Marina

Noise of bells, clanging, hubbub, mainly noise

Wednesday developed as promised with 10 kt winds out of the southwest and 2 ft swells out of the southeast. As long as the winds and waves are behind you, it's a nice ride. We left at 8:00 and arrived in Atlantic City at 1:15. The docks are owned by the state and they are showing their age, nothing I can tell has been put into the upkeep other than replacing broken boards. The Golden Nugget casino on the other hand has received a $300 million renovation via its new owner (not the state) and is not looking bad.

Biker Night! But just outside on the deck

Tonight was the first of their Memorial Day events, a biker gathering with a band for entertainment. All the attendees were being wanded before being allowed to enter. We even saw a policeman with a dog sniffing the trash containers, for explosives I guess. Nobody is taking chances anymore. We looked quite out of place, two senior citizens with a dog.  The bikes were lined up outside for two blocks.

The presentation matches the quality of the dinner

As is our tradition, I took Ann out to the Charthouse restaurant at the Golden Nugget. The meal was fantastic as usual. They do a great job in presentation of the plate and the appearance lives up to the taste! Thursday is our last leg on the ocean and it's the longest one, 81 Nm. It will take 11.5 hours so we plan on leaving at first light, about 5:30 am. We plan on anchoring at Atlantic Highlands for the night and leaving the next morning for the Poughkeepsie YC. If we can catch the tide right, we'll ride it all the way up to the yacht club.

Cape May at Utsch's Marina - last day, we find a seafood market

A sea of trawlers, the popular boat style for doing the Loop

It is finally starting to warm up! It actually got above 70 today, a recent record. We're now ready to move on to Atlantic City. We took on water and ice and then I discovered a nearby seafood market at The Lobster House. I got some cod and Ann had a recipe and dinner was delicious.

You can see from the top photo the preponderance of trawlers, a witness of the popularity of doing the Loop. They all went up the Hudson River and around on the great lakes and then down the waterways to Mobile, Alabama. From there it's around Florida and back up the east coast. The weather has been so bad this year that everyone is bunched up, travelling whenever the weather permits. Utsch's has been full every night we've been here. We have reservations at Atlantic City but from there it's all anchorages.

Goodbye Cape May and their bridges

Looking ahead, we'll leave for Atlantic City Wednesday and then on to Atlantic Highlands on Thursday. We hope to make the journey to our home port, the Poughkeepsie YC, in one day given the tide is running as predicted but nothing seems to go as expected so we'll see.

Cape May at Utsch's Marine - We look at the bridges

Here's the bridge of interest, the east bridge on the Cape May canal

There was a small craft advisory out today for the trip up to Atlantic City. We just prefer not to be out in such conditions so we stayed over at the marina. Furthermore, we plan on staying over on Tuesday to let the Atlantic calm down some from all the winds. We like calm conditions for traveling on water.

Taken at high tide, about 53.5 ft, nowhere near 55 ft

I've received a number of questions about the two Cape May Canal bridges. They are listed at 55 ft of clearance at high tide on the nautical charts but they are not that high and could be much lower if the water level is running higher than normal. At the right and below are two photos, one at high tide and one at low tide on 5/23/2016. According to the height board on the bridge, you do not have 55 ft of clearance at high tide, in fact today there was a little less than 54 ft. Since every foot counts, how do you figure the clearance before entering the canal? There are two sources of water height variability, one from the tides of course and one from water level events such as a strong east wind that pushes water into the bay or heavy rains up river that raises the water level when the flow reaches Cape May.

Taken at low tide, about 57 ft plus a couple of inches

The tide part of the equation is easy, just look at tide tables. The second part is easily accessed although it's not generally known. NOAA maintains a water level monitor at the ferry terminal on the west end of the canal. So you combine the two sources of data for one reading giving the total water level including the tide and whatever influences come from wind or heavy rains.

For example, on 5/23/2016, high tide was at 9:47   EDT at 4.0 ft but the water level chart showed an additional 0.8 ft of water level due to all the heavy rains recently for a total of  4.8 ft above MLLW. At low tide a similar story is told. The low tide was at 3:24 pm at 0.4 ft but the water level was 0.7 above the predicted for a total of 1.1 ft above MLLW.. The missing number in all of this is the clearance under the bridge at low tide which I know from the experience of a dozen passages to be 58 ft at 0.0 MLLW when there's no adder due to wind or rain. You can also back into that 58 ft number by looking at the height boards and knowing the tide and water level per the NOAA station. Note in the above numbers I'm using the ferry terminal water levels for the adder to the tide but I'm using the Cape May harbor tide station for the predicted tides since it's much closer to the two bridges.

So how to figure? Take the tide table number, add in the water level above the predicted tide as shown on the NOAA site referenced above and subtract the the total from 58 ft, that will be the clearance under the  bridge. As an example, on 5/23/2016 the low tide was 0.4 ft at Cape May harbor and the water level delta per the NOAA station was +0.7 so the total above MLLW was 1.1 ft. Take the 58 ft number and subtract 1.1 ft for a total clearance of 56.9 ft. If your mast is less than 56.9 ft then you'll clear the bridge. During severe weather events (hurricanes, tropical depressions, etc.) the water level delta can be 2 to 3 ft! The NOAA water level station will tell you how much the delta is before you have to decide to go through.

Over the next few days I'll submit an article to Cruisernet.com in more detail since it seems to be a subject of interest to many. We'll still be in Cape May on Tuesday, perhaps I can get the article done then. The weather still looks good for Wednesday getting to Atlantic City and for Thursday in going on to Atlantic Highlands. There's a new tropical depression brewing in the Bahamas that may develop into a lot of wind and rain headed for the east coast. We hope to beat that weather system north, we hope, we hope.

Cape May at Utsch's Marina - at their dock

A sailor's friend, a dredge ready and waiting

We got off the anchor at 6:00 am, a new record for us. We had 63 Nm to go and we wanted to be sure to make the low tide passage under the two 55 ft bridges at 3:30 pm. Our mast is 55 ft 3 in and we wanted a safety margin. Not only did you have to look at the tide tables but you also had to consider the water level relative to the low water the tide tables are based upon. If the water is higher than that base value, then there's that much less clearance under the two bridges. The height of the water vs the reference level can be seen here. For today we had a low tide 1 ft higher than normal so the clearance under the bridges was 1 ft less than what was predicted by the tide tables. We did reach the bridges at 0.4 MLW per the tide tables and adding the 1 ft higher than normal tides, the total came to 1.4 ft above the datum the bridge height measurements are based upon. So instead of the height boards on the bridge reading 58 ft at 0.0 MLW, today they read 56.25 ft, still enough for my 55 ft 3 in mast.

Coming down the bay it was cold! The sun hid behind lots of clouds and it was raining on and off all day. We had chosen today due to the winds out of the north. We've learned the hard way that you do not travel on Delaware Bay with the wind in your face. With the speed of the tides (up to 2.5 kts) a very bad situation can develop with wind against the tide, life threatening even.

We are deep inside the marina, very secure

With the wind behind us, we made good time to Cape May, arriving by 2:30 pm at Utsch's Marina. It's completely protected on all sides. They employ at full time dredger but when they said they had 7 ft at low tide I was skeptical but in coming in a low tide, that's what I saw.

The weather is not good for getting up the Jersey shore until Wednesday, lots of north winds until then. Hopefully we can get to Atlantic City on Wednesday and then make the long leg to Atlantic Highlands on Thursday. We can hope.

Chesapeake City - at anchor, steady rain all day long

We're by the bridge, you ought to see how close to the bridge the big ships come!

The trip north continued the spell of terrible weather. It rained all day long, not good for being in the canal and trying to avoid debris. By the way, we hadn't seen much stuff in the water at all until we entered the canal. There wasn't a lot but the occasional log kept your eyes open and when you missed seeing something, the thunk on the hull reminded you that something got past your watch.

It's actually a pretty little town, some houses date to 1849

Well, the title says it all, just a lousy day. We ran the genset a lot today so we were nice and comfy with both A/C units in heat mode along with the ceramic heater turned up full on. It's a good thing we have a 6 kw genset because we're now using 4.830 kw of its capacity right now and we're not even heating the hot water yet.

Looking towards the canal, most of the Bed and Breakfasts had a no vacancy sign out

Sunday is our day to reach Cape May we hope. We'll start out with a favorable tide (current) then see a foul tide and then see a favorable tide again (the tides flow up the bay and we're going down the bay). The low tide at the two Cape May canal bridges is at 3:30 pm so we're heaving on Sunday at 6:00 am, a very early start for us! Unfortunately, that's at exactly low tide here in the anchorage and we'll have to plow through some mud to get out. We made it coming in so we think we can make it going out given it's the same tide height as when we came in. On top of that there's scattered showers predicted too, just to add a little spice to the trip, oh well.