At PYC - Our season starts!

All polished and ready to go

Everybody here is getting ready to take their boats out of the water for the winter but we're preparing to leave for 9 months of cruising! Oh for the cruising life, but the cruising life involves a lot of preparation. For the past four weeks I've been getting the boat ready for another season. New bottom paint, another layer of wax, redone teak and a thorough cleaning is all included in the task list.

I had become dissatisfied with my long time favorite bottom paint, Interlux Micron Extra, since I've had to get a diver to scrape the bottom twice a year, it grew barnacles very well! A diver recommended a switch to Pettit bottom paint and last year I applied Pettit Ultima SR60 and the difference was like night and day. No barnacles, no "skirt of grass" along the bootstripe and when I hauled the boat, the bottom really didn't need another coat of paint, it was very clean. So although the Interlux held up well in Long Island Sound and Maine, it failed the test of the ICW going south!

Fleetwing goes airborne!

Meanwhile, we've been watching four weather forecasting services and the variability of the forecasts matches our experience with weather forecasting itself - very undependable. However, you have to go with something! So we have been watching NOAA, Stormsurf, Surf Forecast, Marine Weather and we've finally decided to take our chances down the New Jersey coast on Wednesday. With that, we'll leave PYC Monday morning, anchor in Haverstraw Bay that night, anchor at Atlantic Highlands Tuesday night and then make the dash to Atlantic City on Wednesday. Waves are forecast to be 3 to 4 ft, not ideal in my view but the best of the days. The Atlantic has been churned up by two named storms and will take awhile to settle down, longer than we want to wait.

I'll have Spot on Monday for our trip down the Hudson River so you can keep an eye on our position as we head south. We have Phil and TJ Bowdler on board for crew for the trip to Atlantic City, should be fun!