The Tow of Shame

Okay, first things first ... we have LEFT Port Washington!!! We are finally in a different State from where we purchased this beast - we're in NJ!

Cigarette Boat Race - Port Washington

A bunch of boats, who were all stranded in Port Washington waiting on weather, went out one evening a couple of weeks ago to a raw bar for drinks. It was great to meet some more people and have an evening out. Some of those same boats we have continued to see on the way and there is a real sense of camaraderie amongst us.      

The reason for the lengthy hiatus between posts is that we have been dealing with an awful lot of shit - both figuratively and literally. I honestly can't even remember all the things that have gone wrong so I'll just give you the highlights. 

Let's start with Hurricane Joaquin, who at least had the good grace to bugger off into the Atlantic Ocean. For a while we were directly in his path and as we sat studying our "Hurricane Plan", previously mandated by our insurance company, we thought "you have got to be kidding me - we haven't even had the boat a month and we might be hit by a hurricane  W...T...F?!" It was surreal to be obsessively tracing the hurricane's path on numerous websites. Little did we think in August sitting in my mum's living room writing out our "Hurricane Plan" that we might need to use it in September! While we were very thankful that Joaquin left us alone we did have some incredibly nasty weather with Gale Force winds gusting well into the high 40 knot range. I wish I could say our boat came out unscathed.  At 4am on October 2 we were laying on the setee in our living room (we slept in the living room because the bedroom hatch still leaks like a faucet and because the waves and wind was so intense we thought the center of the boat would be a little smoother) neither of had slept much due to the crazy weather - the boat was being rocked around and the noise of the bridal ropes on the mooring ball sounded like the soundtrack of Titanic when it was sinking (creepy creaking and cracking noises).  Then I heard another noise - a very distinct noise - the noise a sail makes in the wind. I shot up and looked out the hatch praying I was wrong - I wasn't - our storm jib had been pulled loose in the wind and I could see the top of it ballooning out of it's furling. I thought I was going to throw up. James and I put on our PFDs and went on deck, it was terrifying. We were freezing within seconds as our PJs got soaked and were plastered against our skin. While sliding around on the slick deck in the intense wind we tried to no avail to refurl the sail. It was so twisted we couldn't get it in and the wind was far to strong to let it out and start again. Our boat was heeled far over and the bridal was pulled to it's max - we both feared we were going to get ripped from our mooring ball. We tried to turn on the engine incase we did break free - it wouldn't start. It felt like a scene from the "Perfect Storm" - I was honestly terrified. We looked around and a few of our neighbours had heard what was going on and were on deck with flashlights - it felt so good to know someone was watching us. Then the jib shredded in the wind. While it sucked to lose a three thousand dollar sail, the ripping relieved the pressure on the boat and we felt much safer which is really all either of us cared about.  

After a terrifying night of no sleep in a wet cold boat (it was only 13 degrees inside) with no sign of the weather letting up we abandoned ship. We spent the night of October 2 in the Holiday Inn - it was the BEST decision we ever made! We had hot showers, cranked the heat, drank coffee in bed and binge watched Law and Order. We slept 10hours and woke up to a buffet breakfast. We felt like we had hit the reset button and felt much better heading back to the boat. 

In hindsight we probably should have tightened our sail lines before we went to bed that fateful night but something had utterly usurped our attention that day... we had raw sewage leaking into our cabin. Now everyone who knows me knows I don't do well with bad smells so there was a lot of gagging. We had tried to get the "Pump Out" boat to come for two days but discovered he just randomly takes days off. We couldn't deal with the smell anymore and the fact that we had zero operational toilets (peeing in a bucket on deck in a storm takes an awful lot of balance FYI, thank you yoga).  So we braved an incredibly difficult docking maneuver. We have a 42' boat and the pump out dock was maybe 25' with a mooring field full of boats about 30' away. We had to wait to go at high tide but the water was very rough. James brought us in like a champ! We were at the dock for ages while we tried to figure out why our tank wouldn't pump out - we cleared the vent and finally got it to work. By this time the weather had dramatically declined. The wind speed picked up and the direction did a complete 180 and was driving us into the dock. Not the best conditions for someone who has never reversed the boat to take us out. However, I wasn't strong enough in that weather to get the dock lines off in time to jump back on. I totally crashed the boat - into both a mooring ball and the dock - the wind and lack of space was just way too much to get a boat that big out. I gave the all the people at the dock one hell of a show! Minus a few minor scrapes the boat is fine. And most importantly we have one working toilet! 

So after our little hotel hiatus we still couldn't get our boat to start. One of the captains from another boat came over and confirmed our suspicion that it was an electrical issue. Our starter battery was too low to start the engine and the house batteries were too low to jump the starter. There had been no sun on our solar panel for days and the wind was so strong that we had to tie up our wind generator so nothing had been charging our batteries. Once the wind died down a little and we could let the wind turbine run it charged our starter battery enough to start the engine! We were back in business - or were we??

We planned to finally sail the East River on October 6 with a couple of other boats. However, the day before departure our friends Larry and Shannon came over with an update from BoatUs. Apparently BoatUs were advising people to wait at least one day to head south as there were still over 10ft swells and that some of the buoys on the New Jersey coast couldn't be trusted as the shoals had moved with the weather. They also said they "were busy cleaning up shipwrecks and some areas were impassable" - that was all we needed to hear to hold off one more day. What the hell, we waited this long! So on October 7 a convoy headed out at 6am for Hell Gate. What an incredible day!! We crossed just after slack tide and still had 7-8 knots of current and some white caps - what a ride! Even crazier than the current is all the visual and auditory stimuli flying at you. We passed Riker's Island, The UN building, almost every bridge in NY (well not really), The Empire State Building, Coney Island, Staten Island and much more. As soon as our boat neared the city center all the noise of a downtown core hit us - sirens, yelling, honking, engines idling. There were numerous helicopters flying overhead, a plane leaving La Guardia every 30seconds, a man ROWING in the river, NYU Ferry, the Wallstreet Ferry, Staten Island Ferry and others. There are cruise ships, tug boats, pilot boats, barges, and other mammoth sailing vessels all over. There was even a gondola overhead passing from one side of the river to the other.  It was amazing seeing NYC from New York Harbour and sailing past the Statue of Liberty. 

That evening we anchored at Sandy Hook, NJ. It was such a peaceful area with a secluded little beach. We went for a walk on the beach with Scott and Lynn who had been keeping an eye on us during the storm and on our boat when we headed for the Holiday Inn. We wandered along and helped Lynn collect Sea Glass then drank brandy on our boat and watched the sunset.  We got up at 4:30 the next morning and after trying our engine a couple of times set off for Atlantic City - about a 12-13 hour trip. We were feeling great - we had made some headway, got our first sailing in the dark and on the open ocean under our belt, anchored, and found out our windlass (i.e. electric anchor raiser) worked (always a surprise when something works on this boat). We motor sailed for about 8 hours when the gauges on our console that have never moved all started climbing. James and I just looked at each other and both knew our engine was going to die. So we just calmly sat in the cockpit and waited for the inevitable and sure enough all of a sudden - silence. The engine just cut out. I sailed for about an hour and half while James trouble shot the engine. He changed the fuel filter which was very dirty. I tried the engine and we were back to "click, click, click" - dead batteries. Our friend Larry had very wisely suggested getting a membership to BoatUs so we called them. They came and towed us

The Tow

to "Little Egg Inlet" and into Beach Haven Yacht Club. If you are ever in New Jersey you have to come to Long Beach Island - it is beautiful and if you are sailing here this is the marina to come to. We were greeted by Jim who I have come to discover is the kindest man. He tied up our boat, advised us to grab a hot shower and recommended a restaurant for dinner. He told us he would be back at 7am and would call the mechanics at the neighbouring marina first thing so that they would fit us in before they started their day. He said they try to get people who have broken down and are in transit seen to so they can be on their way. He then said "let me know if you need anything at all, I'll bend over backwards to help you". I could have cried. And he has bent over backwards ... discounted our marina stay, lent us HIS car to go grocery shopping, and advised us where to see in Beach Haven. Last night some rather nasty weather moved in - the tow boat driver knocked on our boat to make sure we knew the weather was going to be bad and checked our dock lines. Jim then says "I live just there I'll leave the back door open in case it gets too rough or if you get scared you can just come in and there are couches you can sleep on". Where are we??? The kindness is incredible. The boating community is just that, a community, and it looks out for each other. 

We had a diesel mechanic, Mike, look at our engine yesterday and it was dirty fuel that made the engine cut out - there was  also some water in the fuel tank so he made a new plate to cover our tank. So when James changed the fuel filter when the engine cut out we should have been on our way. It was the batteries that prevented us restarting. The mechanic tested our batteries (like we had done) and said they were fine. He tested our alternator and that too was good (huge relief). So why weren't our batteries charging properly? Some f*#k monkey hadn't wired the starter battery to the alternator - yup the starter battery never charged when the engine was running. No wonder we were having so much trouble. Mike also tightened the belt on our alternator so hopefully the house batteries also charge better. 

We had hoped to set out today but Little Egg Inlet is shallow and has incredible currents. Coming here we got towed through waves I wouldn't even surf in so when we saw how rough it was this morning we decided trying to make our way back to the Atlantic wasn't smart. Two other boats we had been moored with and had travelled to Sandy Hook with had gotten stuck and one had to be towed twice yesterday. This weather is nuts! So today we made a nice breakfast (with the shore power of the marina we have a cold fridge again!) and went for a beach walk. The beach here is beautiful - warm soft powdery sand for miles. The seagulls here however are predatory - I had a hard time defending my bagel sandwich while getting dive bombed by seagulls that have evolved to hunt as a pack.

Long Beach Island, NJ

While this was an expensive detour (next career move for me might be a marine diesel mechanic at $115/hr no nights or holidays)  we are feeling much more positive and relieved that a professional we trusted looked at our engine and has sorted out our batteries. We feel like we are finally getting to know our boat and are once again excited to get going! Next stop Cape May (so someone can fix our depth sounder)! Hoping that means I can say bye to balancing on the pulpit with a handheld depth sounder Gorilla taped to a flag pole dragging through the water while I yell out readings to James. Man our boat is ghetto! Maybe we should have gone with one of our ghetto fabulous boat names? "Yeah Buoy" "Gybe Yo" "Where My Beaches At"

Lighthouse en route to the East River

Sunrise heading towards the East River

Sailing under the Brooklyn Bridge

Riker's Island