Hope Springs Eternal

Enchantress is in New York Harbor!  

Noah and I went to sample the North Atlantic waters and circle DELMARVA.  This is the logical next rite of passage for sailors of the Chesapeake.  It involves an overnight passage and sailing the North Atlantic.  I did not realize that he had another agenda

Enchantress has been reliable, fast, and faithful.  She is truly kind to us and makes up for our amateur mistakes.  The following seas rise and she takes them with a little sigh and rides down, surfing to the next groove.  She does not race down waves but settles and gently coasts up to the next crest.  She floats instead of plows.  We are not aware of her pace as the sounds of her surfing are like the rollers heard at the beach.  It is soothing.

I could not start another blog after http://sailingsongofthewind.blogspot.com  It was weird inertia.  

A lot has changed in the last two years.  My children have new jobs, some have graduated from college and others are on new tacks.  Noah is 17.  A delicate age, childhood interfaced with adolescence and now manhood taking shape.  

We left Deltaville on Saturday.  We received excellent advice from Greg, Pete and Carolyn.  The hardy men and woman of Norton's Yachts made sure Enchantress was ready.  The day was warm and the sailors from Fishing Bay were already racing!  We broad reached towards the Baltimore channel of the Chesapeake Bay.  The air was warm and we saw Sea Dog coming back home after her week journey.  A sense of camaraderie was sent telepathically towards John and Margaret and we received their good tidings in return.

A nearly full moon awaited us off the Virginia Eastern Shore.  We had exhilarating sailing with Southeast winds moving us briskly along.  When the sunset and the moon rose, our world view changed.  We are creatures of light.  When the lights go out, a primordial part of our brains awaken.  We are back in the night arboreal forests.  We must have been creatures of the dusk and dawn because our hormones peak at these hours.  We become limbic.  Our thoughts turn outward and our senses sharpen.  Our adrenaline peaks.

We had a watch plan but I was too excited to sleep.  At dawn’s light, we were motoring in light winds.   A following swell rose and we were courted by the Delaware Bay entrance.  Noah wanted to move on the NYC.   His girlfriend was there visiting colleges and museums.  I thought that this was the most irrational reason to go to NYC on our first Atlantic foray!  Sleep deprived, we pulled into Cape May.  As we approached the inlet, 25 knots of wind,  gusting to 30, was behind us.   We had never been to Cape May before.   We had never run an ocean inlet. 

We pulled behind a fishing commercial boat similar to ones seen in the Perfect Storm.  We called the fishing vessel, and they guided us.  After a while, I was thinking, we should have headed to New York harbor rather than running this inlet in these waves. 

Enchantress slogged her way upwind before we ran the Inlet downwind.  She shouldered the tight waves in good form, made allowances for our oversteering.  We looked at the rocky green buoy lateral edge, now underwater in high tide.  We went into the inlet at over 8 knots,  surrendering to the calm just behind reach.  It is a hope and prayer and desire to reach the safe shore that makes men in boats run inlets.   This temptation should be avoided in some circumstances, but the dining table of the C-View Inn was beckoning.  We were hungry.

We were safely harbored in charming Cape May.  The Southern Jersey Marina folks are wonderful and also discrete.  They would not give restaurant recommendation over VHS so as not to offend.  

Overnight, I looked at the weather maps and reevaluated Noah’s desire of reaching NewYork harbor.  I wanted to balance his youthful enthusiasm with prudence.  I was happy to stay in Cape May and return home a few days later.  I do think that the adolescent mind is different, and perhaps this difference is what makes humans advance. 

We went forth the next day making New York harbor our target.   Girlfriend or no girlfriend, the Statue of Liberty beckoned.  It seemed reasonable at the time and we had Enchantress to guide us.  I did not want to have a sullen teenager with me for two days in a Victorian village.  We were in New Jersey.  Why not New York?

The Jersey shore is marked by water towers and increasing height of buildings. Atlantic City loomed ghost-like in the mist.  We are like people visiting an aquarium as we passed cities along the beach and boardwalk.  They were living in the day to day grind as we floated just outside their peripheral vision.

Night fell, and we are coasting fast toward Sandy Hook.  Enchantress is still with following seas.  I want to reef for the night, but Noah convinces me to push on.  “Dad we need power to go up the waves…besides, it is more balanced.”  How can I argue with a sailor who is noting balance?

The Labrador current is cold.  I am not sure if we are seeing the Labrador off the coast of New Jersey but it is a romantic vision.  We do not see icebergs but I am like an iceberg.  I put on all the warm clothing I have. 

Fog rolls in despite 25 knots of South wind.  We are traveling fast into the NY harbor, in the dark, in the fog, listening to foghorns.  We cannot hear above the roar of the water passing by Enchantress’s slippery hull.  The autopilot wind vane keeps us at 135 true with not much flap in the sails.

The New Jersey coasts fall us away from us.  We must go deeper East into the North Atlantic to make the Harbor West.  We must gybe to port in large swell with 25 to 30 apparent wind with Enchantress charging along at 8 to 9 knots.  It is 3 am. 

Gybing is difficult.  In the dark and with large swells and following seas, gybing is simply dangerous.  We reef before we gybe.  The main is centered.  We cannot see the sail and over rotate.  We are close hauling at fast speed into the waves that are now like mountains.  Broad reaching and close hauling are like the transformations of a lovely bride after the honeymoon.  We are now circling and trying to remember that we were supposed to go Northwest.  The sails flap and the sheets snap like rife shots.  Bile rises in my throat as the sleepy brain tries to remember what is most important.  There is really no fear but a desire to quell the noise and restore order.

Enchantress is more than tolerant and we only have a tanged jib line to show for our folly.  Noah is calm.  I am in “holy Marconi” state inside.  I decide to pull in all the sails and motor the rest of the 30 nautical miles to Sandy Hook.  We need radar continuously and we are cold.  Enchantress also motors well, but she is a sailboat.  I pat her sides and express our thanks that she is reliable and forgiving.

Morning breaks and it is a faith in each other, in Enchantress that keeps us in comfort.  I call the Coast Guard.  He calls us sailboat Intrepid but I do not correct him.  He tells us dense Fog until the afternoon and there is a small craft advisory.  There is Gale warning behind us and storms to roll in Tuesday night.   We say thanks and switch off.  We talk to Captain Bob fishing vessel.  We pass port to port.  We watch the AIS signatures of large commercial tankers going off to exotic ports.  We are a squirrel on the road to them.  We do not call but stay clear.

The morning brings us to Ambrose channel and the Verrazano Narrow Bridge.  I never understood the geography of New York harbor.  I hear the names, Bronx and Brooklyn, Staten Island as vague entities with bridges.  Coming from the water, we see how powerful Brooklyn stands.  The New Jersey shore is inviting but too commercially developed.   In fact, Manhattan is a fragile island more to starboard.  A quirk of geology allowed the skyscrapers to be built.  The bedrock comes close to the surface in Manhattan island and there are no marshes.

The Statue of Liberty is dead ahead.  She is the first landmark we see, rising from the fog.  To those who went to the New World by boat, it would be lady Liberty they would see first.  She seems smaller but also more majestic.  She is in perfect alignment to those who are hoping for refuge.  We are refugees of a sort.

We avoid the ferries and marvel at the expanse of the Harbor.  From the water, New York City is logical.  There is a sense of where and why the boroughs and bridges came to be.   We pull into Liberty Landing Marina.  They are also kind and helpful.  It is now April but the New York boaters are out in full force.

We meet Captain Connell who has sailed to New Zealand and now is delivering a Bavaria to Annapolis.  He is an old salt and a nice man.  Noah and I venture to Liberty House for dinner.  It is romantic.  His girlfriend and her mom do not join us but stay in Manhattan.  A North wind blows.  Lady Liberty is enough for us…

We are ready to go into the World Trade Center Memorial today.   There are ice and hail remnants on Enchantress.  I write a letter to my dad.  He had a lot of expectations for me but we did not share a lot of experiences.  I want to change that with my children. Enchantress is making memories with us as did Song of the Wind.

We are heading home tomorrow.   The winds will come from the North and East.  It will be cold.  I do not know what the next few days will bring but I have faith and a sense of wonderment.  This last year has been particularly difficult with my family's turmoil and my mother's illness.  The discontent of my father and his disapproval is like a fog over my life.  Noah and I  are heading to Deltaville and to our warmer climes.  We will be buying long-johns today.  Enchantress will take us home.   Hope Springs Eternal.