Monday, May 20, 2019

5/20/19

Where's Persephone?  On the Hudson River at Kingston ready to put the mast down and continue on!
Since the last post we had some wonderful sails in NC..........
Here's Persephone and Bluejacket trying to sail with little wind and no motors on the Neuse River from Oriental to Broad Creek.
Bluejacket with Jerry and Donna aboard

Persephone - if we're carrying that spinnaker we're gonna use it!

Just another day at Donna and Jerry's with a few cruising friends on the dock!  What fun we have at Luh's Landing.  Jerry figured there must have been a total of 100 tons of boats at the dock with all 6 boats.  Of course we all congregated at the house for a potluck, visits and stories.
Donna and Jerry's dock.

2 sailing catamarans, 1 trawler, 2 sloops, and 1 power cat.

What a beautiful place!

In VA we stopped at Portsmouth.  This photo is taken from the ferry we're on to go see Ryan and Harmony and Ryan's parents across the river.  Persephone is in the back corner.  Life on land is so busy but we're lucky to have friends who make time to visit when we sail into their neighborhood.  Thanks!
Portsmouth - Persephone at left corner.

Steve, Heidi, and Addi came by to pick us up and take us to Norfolk Botanical Garden.  Lots of walking - just what we needed with a few rain showers along the way.  Then dinner aboard Persephone.  We've watched Addi change and grow each time we stop.  Cute as can be!
Jerry, Addi and Steve
We started our sail from the Chesapeake Bay to NY with our good friend Bob just behind.  Bob is still single-handing his 37' Gulfstar from NY to Palm Beach and back each year.  For the last 20+ years.  When I'm in my 80s I hope to be in such good shape!
This is a menhaden fishing boat just off the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay.  There are smaller boats with nets that round up the menhaden fish.  The big boat has a "fish vacuum" that sucks the fish from the net into the boat.

We had westerly winds for the trip from the Chesapeake to NY arriving to Sandy Hook just before the rain squalls.  It's hard to describe how pleasant it feels to anchor and just sit back without reaching for secure hand holds for each step you take after 36 hours of non-stop motion.
Sandy Hook has become one of our favorite stops as we have the opportunity to visit with Marianne.  Her son Andreas happened to be in town and he came to the boat for dinner.  Our first time to meet him and hear his stories of sailing our boat in his younger years.  He is taking charge of some sea scout boats back where he lives and he had many questions for Jerry in order to maintain the vessels.  It was a wonderful evening.
What was difficult at Sandy Hook was the weather.  We had some acclimatizing to do (with the help of our diesel furnace - thanks Marianne for helping us attain the control panel we needed from Germany!)  On Mother's Day the wind picked up to 35 knots out of the east creating rollers coming into our anchorage and splashing over the bow.  As a power boat dragged to the beach and another sailboat trying to anchor got caught around a mooring ball line we hauled anchor and tacked back and forth at 3 knots using the motor to go 2 miles across the bay to Horseshoe Cove.
Click here to see the video we took:  https://youtu.be/W4ZpVgKkTFk
At Horseshoe Cove we had protection from the east winds and they continued to blow for 2 days!  And rain!  And cold!  Yuck!  Luckily, the winds died down, we had a nice jaunt up the Hudson River to Kingston.  Even a little sun!  We are here to put the mast down but haven't been in a hurry to do so - the Erie Canal has delayed the opening due to high water.  They say they will be opening more of the canal this week.  Looks like tomorrow may be the day to put the mast down and then we'll head to Waterford!  When we move I'll hit the SPOT button at the end of the day.  Cheers!  Karen & Jerry