The Long Journey Home

We made an uneventful double overnight run from Ft. Pierce, FL to Charleston, SC. It was Easter week so the marinas were all full. We tucked in and anchored next to the USS Yorktown, which offered great protection from the winds that night. The next day we were able to get a slip in the Cooper River Marina, away from downtown but quiet and protected from the winds we needed to ride out for a few days. There was a freight container port right next to the marina, but we managed to have some good walks and see some wildlife along the nearby canals nonetheless.

We had another brief offshore opportunity and went overnight from Charleston to Beaufort, NC. We anchored, for the first time, in Taylor Creek. The waterfront was busy, the main anchorage was crowded, and we didn't plan to go ashore, so we anchored well down the Creek and had a restful night.

The only section of the ICW we did during the entire trip home was from Beaufort to Norfolk, which included several days in Dowry Creek Marina in Bellhaven, NC for, yet again, another wind event. We chose the Dismal Swamp
route, anchored one night in Norfolk, then went into a marina in Virginia Beach to stage for an offshore trip up the Maryland and Delaware coasts.

We got into Cape May, NJ just as the winds of an approaching Nor'Easter were starting to build. We sat out 8 days of high winds, rain and fog, awaiting the opportunity to go up the coast of New Jersey and into New York City. When we finally left, poor visibility expected to improve within a few hours, made navigating out of Cape May Harbor very challenging. The fog never lifted until we got into Long Island Sound. It remained so dense in the East River in NYC that we couldn't see both sides of the river until we got almost to Hell Gate.

We had about 8 hours of beautiful conditions in Long Island Sound until the fog moved back in with a vengeance, around Bridgeport, CT. About 6 miles before "The Race," (a 3 mile wide deep channel of very strong current between Long Island Sound and Block Island Sound), we were approached from behind by a 300 ft long, 100 ft tall, cargo ship wanting to know our intentions. We were fighting the current and only doing 3.5 kts, so I asked him what he wanted us to do. He instructed us to hold our course and he would pass us on our starboard. We were relieved when we finally passed us as we could never see him. We could only hear his horn as he passed. Excitement like that helps you stay awake when you know you have to keep going for a second night! Yikes!

We anchored in Onset for one night, then spent one night in the Sandwich Marina while conditions improved in Cape Cod Bay and north. The rest of our trip was fairly benign and we were excited to tie up on our dock early morning May 19th. It was a challenging sailing season weather wise but another good one overall.Read more