NYC, a stepping stone to Long Island

The overnight passage from Cape May to Atlantic Highlands is about 100nm on a direct course, with estimated passage time of 18-20 hours. But, as ever, in a sailing vessel the course is governed by wind direction. We ended up travelling 146nm - see below for why, and took 26 hours. Forecast said early fog but then light SE winds to start, picking up later to force 4, gusting 5-6 then turning S, then SW winds for the 18-20 hours of the passage; an opportunity too good to miss, so the lines were slipped from Utsch’s friendly marina at 06:45. Once outside Cape May Harbour channel, few obstacles exist on the passage north. A sharp eye for crab and lobster pots is required but otherwise there is only sail trim and other vessels to worry about. Our colourful ‘Magic Zero’ sail was successfully deployed with the main sail and we were off on a delightful broad reach. Once wind increased a few hours later, swapped the MZ for the jib sail - sturdier and unlikely to ‘blow out’ like the MZ - and a couple of hours later put two reefs in the main as wind started gusting up. Follyfin veritably clipped along; maximum boat speed seen was 9.0kt and maximum gust was 25.9kt, nothing to trouble her. Only flaw in the plan was that the wind direction took longer to change to SW than forecast, so our course went further and further off shore. Anyway, we jibed to head back inshore at 22:00 just before I went off watch to sleep ... but at midnight there was a sudden drop in wind speed, going from 20kt to <5kt within 2 minutes. So by the time I went on watch at 02:00, we were motoring NW in a westerly very light wind, insufficient to fill the sails. So the best made plan went very much awry.

Never mind, we dropped anchor at 08:45 in Atlantic Highlands Harbour (we were last here 9/10 July 2017 with friend Smitch) in time for breakfast. With the sun shining we are generally ‘chilling’, catching up on a bit of sleep and a few chores. Always something to do on a boat! Tomorrow we plan to pass east to west through the East River to Long Island Sound but will need to revisit and pause behind the Statue of Liberty to wait for the tide in the river. An iconic anchorage if ever there was one.