End Game

Thar she be! Safe and snug in Steve’s yard.  Hoping the hurricane passes over and the motor does not require a ton of money to fix. That way we get a little bit more of this sailing season. Too soon to start planning the next adventure. But only just barely. Hoping there’s a Sailbattical 2020!!!

The end

Wednesday 9/12

We'll, buck in July we'd set an informal goal to be home today, and we made it... just not the way we expected.  With help from Enterprise rental trucks, we towed Elf to my yard from Brant Beach New Jersey where we had stashed Elf on Saturday at probably the most hospitable yacht club you will ever find. It's not the triumphant return to our slip in Annapolis that we had envisioned, but we've been spared the misery that four days of mostly rain and fog would have inflicted.  Plus, there's more rain in the forecast the next few days as well as the uncertainty of hurricane Florence coming up the coast over the weekend, bringing potential catastrophic flooding.. 

All in all, we're happy to be off the water with ready access to showers, refrigeration, and juice for our devices.  But there's hope that we'll get to enjoy more long cruises in the future.

I was right

‘Member how I said the universe was conspiring? Well here’s ELF tucked into a slip at BBYC, Brant Beach Yacht Club. See what happened was when we didn’t quit with the first three warnings from the universe (see earlier post) the engine up and kaput. With a plume of smoke just for dramatic effect. The folks at the club were stellar. So it’s grab the trailer, yank her outta the water and get home before FLORENCE the hurricane decides to hit. Feeling a little deflated cause it’s not the glorious return to the Bay I had envisioned. Yet I am comfortable with how Steve and I can roll with the punches no matter what the Universe throws our way. 

Cold weather bag

Sunday 9/9

This bag holds all my cold weather clothes: sweatshirt, thermal layer, smart wool, socks, etc.  I never used any of those items during the trip. First day ashore, it's 57 degrees in Linthicum at 9am and it's time to break open the cold bag.  I guess our decision to abort the sail home was will timed--this bitter wind out of the east would have made for a miserable day in the cockpit!

Game Over

Saturday 9/8

We were making lemons out of lemonade.  With the wind too strong to continue out in the ocean, we decided to motor sail south along the intracoastal waterway.  We were making pretty good time under job alone with the wind aft of the beam, but the winding channel would certainly add many miles as compared to the straight line route in the ocean.  Still, progress is progress.

At one point, I decided to throttle up the motor since the wind had dropped and the boat had slowed.  An uprecedented plume of white smoke  gushed from the motor and I could smell burning oil.  This was clearly a reason to stop and figure out how to respond to this latest catastrophy.

Amazingly, we limped into a nearby nook inside the barrier island, and a gentleman from the next door yacht club saw our diapers and motioned us in to their dock.

Long story short, the members of the Brant Beach Yacht Club, and we talked with about a dozen, were uniformly hospitable, helpful, and knowledgeable.  They helped us find a mechanic whose diagnosis was the we needed to replace the piston rings, and that people often choose to replace the motor rather than pay for the major overhaul.  BBYC is kindly letting us stash the boat at a vacant slip for a couple days until we can pull her out onto the trailer and drive her home.

Sadly, our on-the-water adventure is over.  But if there is a bright side, it's that Elf will be safely out of the water and in my yard if hurricane Florence pays a visit next week.

The universe is conspiring

No pic today. So we are trying to get home. And the universe keeps throwing curve balls. Two days ago Extreme Heat Day was a south wind. So we waited it out. Today is a Gale Force warning day. Tomorrow and Monday is worse wind. And then Tuesday is reasonable strength but directly from the south again. Jeesh. Oh and a possible hurricane on the way currently 6 to 8 days out. So we might have to find shelter for the boat from that. And or it could mess with the wind even more. 

Front row seats

Friday 9/7

We had a successful broad reach from Sandy Hook to Barnegat Bay--roughly 52 nautical miles. This blows away our previous single-day record of about 36 miles. Our alarm got us out of bed at 4am to ensure we would arrive before sunset. We would not want to navigate an unfamiliar inlet in the dark.

It turned out to be a faster ride than we'd expected, fortunately. We were anchored by 15:30 and treated to a close-up display of kite boarding!  It's nice to get in early, since it was another bumpy ride that demanded considerable attention during each turn at the helm.