Captain’s log 10-12-06
Departure Point / Start Time Sandy Hook, NJ() 2 PM
Arrival Point / End Time Barnegat Inlet, NJ() 11 PM
Distance Traveled / Engine 55NM 5h
I spent considerable amount of time listening to forecast for the next few days waiting for our little weather window to make the trip down the Jersey coast. I checked various inlets and looks like Atlantic City is the next available stop, which is 85NM away. The option was also Barnegat inlet, which I got various mixed recommendations as to navigability of the inlet. Barnegat is 55NM away, and I kept it in the back of my mind. The forecast called for an approaching cold from the northwest with winds 15-20 gusting to 25kts out of the west and veering to northwest. That in my opinion seemed better than prevailing head winds out of SW so I decided to use the opportunity and ride the approaching cold front down the coast. I set the main at double reef and kept the #1 heavy genoa on the roller furling. Everything got tied up and packed away in anticipation of possible rough weather. The afternoon was beautiful with W-NW winds at 10-15kts but it was still warm. So my thought that cold front was already here was false. I kept listening to the forecast, which remained the same. At most 25kts gusts were the worst we were to expect. By the time evening came, we were comfortable cruising and counting the lights from the tugs in the shipping lane, trying to stay out of their way.
In a matter of seconds the cold front finally arrived. The sky remained clear with the moon and stars. The wind lifted to 30-35kts in a matter of few minutes. We had just enough time to throw Bella below, and roll up the partially unfurled genoa before waves and spray started crashing over the cabin. The sound of flapping genoa was making me worry. The entire rig was rattling and the thought of all the clevis pins and cotter pins I put on last summer was constantly on my mind. With just the main on a second reef the boat was making no headway. We tried to head west closer to the lee of the NJ shore. We were around 5NM offshore. The major problem was that Genoa was not rolled correctly and portion of it was flapping violently, sending vibrations throughout the boat. With the aid of an engine, we managed to make 4kts towards shore and in about few hours the waves had already eased off. The cold had already set in but the gusts were intensifying and I was getting readings over 35 constantly. Crystal was getting sick and nobody was comfortable. In the interest of comfort and our safety, I decided to try the Barnegat inlet to spend the night there. Our tack down the coast took on a beamreach and with just the reefed main we were making 7kts without the engine. Crystal was at the companionway reading the chart and our location. Barnegat inlet seemed like a very tricky place to navigate in 35-40kts winds. The thought of using windows laptop and a charting software with GPS fed into it for our location was on my mind for a bit, but it worked so far, and I am hoping it would work through this. To our fortune, a large fishing boat made its way to into the inlet as we approached it. I saw it slow down to nearly a stop before I relized that it’s the head waves and wind along with narrowly placed buoys that were making them navigate with caution. But the thought of a large fishing vessel entering the inlet put to rest all the doubts of the navigability. As we rounded the red-lighted buoy, the wind turned head on and the waves were still pretty large. The spray off the waves crashing into breakwater, were making things hard to see. Both Crystal and me managed to locate the barely noticeable lighted channel buoys. As we made our way in we realized that to the west of the inlet there is large open body of water making what little navigable water inside the inlet almost as dangerous as outside. Even worse, the buoys inside were not lit up. As it turns out, there apparently was an anchorage with a marked but not lit channel to it. At the center of the basin there was 30 feet of water next to red-green center channel mark. Then there was a red nun that was leading to the anchorage channel. The fuel dock and all other emergency docking piers were exposed to large chop and wind. My thought was to try to make our way into any kind of lee we can identify. I saw the depth drop to 9-8-7 feet while trying to enter the anchorage channel. I tried heading to windward side of the channel but it got even shallower so I assumed that the channel was on the other side. As I was trying to stay to port, I felt us dragging against the mud and finally come to a stop and the boat heeled almost immediately to about 30degrees. Tide was coming in but the gale force winds were healing us over and pushing us broad side onto the marsh. For a second I thought I’d use the genoa to heel the boat over and get out of it but I realized that the leeway was too great and room ahead was none to be found. So that was not an option. The only thing working for us was the rising tide for the next hour or so. We were now nearly 20 feet from the marsh, which was clearly visible under flashlight and was also ahead of us. It took us several hours to wiggle our way out of this mess. Numerous thoughts of getting stuck here crossed my mind. The biggest problem was the strong winds pushing us further and further onto the marsh. Finally I managed to turn the boat head into the wind and the next gust that healed the boat magically lined up with the incoming rise of the water, enough for us to motor out of the marsh. I was repeatedly thanking god and my new 3 blade fixed sailboat prop, which I bought on ebay. If we still had our old crappy folding martec 2 bladed propeller, I think our boat would end up a wreck, and a mark on the next set of charts that NOAA publishes. We still had no idea where to go so my priority was deep water as opposed to protected anchorage. I knew that my ground tackle would hold no matter what the circumstance, so I anchored in the middle of the channel in 25 feet of water. The anchor hooked on the first try and was holding good. I managed to re-wrap the genoa so that the thundering noise would finally stop. The cold was now here and the cabin was freezing. I started the heater for a little while and went to sleep in the main cabin. Crystal was trying to sleep in the v-birth. Few hours later, the coast guard was on the phone to let us know that we were in the channel. At least by then the wind had died down a bit and things were a bit more manageable. It was already getting light outside and the anchorage was now clearly visible. So was the channel to the anchorage in the middle of which we actually ran aground. So we ran aground in the channel at nearly high tide. Now is low tide and the coast guard wants me to go there? No thanks. We opted to head for the fuel dock and wait for favorable tide, get out of the inlet and head for Atlantic City. People at the fuel dock were big jerks with no sympathy that we ran aground and nowhere to go, and they wanted to kick us out. I just bought fuel from them and they wouldn’t even let me stay another hour. There is nobody around and it looks like we’ll be their only business for days. Still, the owner was screaming at us just as the explosive fume alarm started beeping. I realized that we had a fuel leak in the engine compartment and told the owner that I need to vent the engine room and stop the leak before starting the engine. Nop, the ignorant sob, insisted that we leave. I told him that we would blow up if I started the engine now. That shut him up really fast! I went below and found the leak at the top of the tank where the fuel sender unit mounts. The rubber seal was crap. That’s a new sender unit with very shitty rubber seal! Not something I can mess with at the moment. I needed a quicker fix. I quickly got one of our empty fuel cans, disconnected the fuel line from the fuel filter and gas was now coming out of the tank and into the fuel can. About 2 gallons came out before the gas stopped leaking from the tank. The alarm stopped beeping and I ran a blower for about 10 minutes before patching things up and starting the engine. Waved goodbye to these miserable and ignorant people hoping that I would never have to come back here.
Arrival Point / End Time Barnegat Inlet, NJ() 11 PM
Distance Traveled / Engine 55NM 5h
I spent considerable amount of time listening to forecast for the next few days waiting for our little weather window to make the trip down the Jersey coast. I checked various inlets and looks like Atlantic City is the next available stop, which is 85NM away. The option was also Barnegat inlet, which I got various mixed recommendations as to navigability of the inlet. Barnegat is 55NM away, and I kept it in the back of my mind. The forecast called for an approaching cold from the northwest with winds 15-20 gusting to 25kts out of the west and veering to northwest. That in my opinion seemed better than prevailing head winds out of SW so I decided to use the opportunity and ride the approaching cold front down the coast. I set the main at double reef and kept the #1 heavy genoa on the roller furling. Everything got tied up and packed away in anticipation of possible rough weather. The afternoon was beautiful with W-NW winds at 10-15kts but it was still warm. So my thought that cold front was already here was false. I kept listening to the forecast, which remained the same. At most 25kts gusts were the worst we were to expect. By the time evening came, we were comfortable cruising and counting the lights from the tugs in the shipping lane, trying to stay out of their way.
In a matter of seconds the cold front finally arrived. The sky remained clear with the moon and stars. The wind lifted to 30-35kts in a matter of few minutes. We had just enough time to throw Bella below, and roll up the partially unfurled genoa before waves and spray started crashing over the cabin. The sound of flapping genoa was making me worry. The entire rig was rattling and the thought of all the clevis pins and cotter pins I put on last summer was constantly on my mind. With just the main on a second reef the boat was making no headway. We tried to head west closer to the lee of the NJ shore. We were around 5NM offshore. The major problem was that Genoa was not rolled correctly and portion of it was flapping violently, sending vibrations throughout the boat. With the aid of an engine, we managed to make 4kts towards shore and in about few hours the waves had already eased off. The cold had already set in but the gusts were intensifying and I was getting readings over 35 constantly. Crystal was getting sick and nobody was comfortable. In the interest of comfort and our safety, I decided to try the Barnegat inlet to spend the night there. Our tack down the coast took on a beamreach and with just the reefed main we were making 7kts without the engine. Crystal was at the companionway reading the chart and our location. Barnegat inlet seemed like a very tricky place to navigate in 35-40kts winds. The thought of using windows laptop and a charting software with GPS fed into it for our location was on my mind for a bit, but it worked so far, and I am hoping it would work through this. To our fortune, a large fishing boat made its way to into the inlet as we approached it. I saw it slow down to nearly a stop before I relized that it’s the head waves and wind along with narrowly placed buoys that were making them navigate with caution. But the thought of a large fishing vessel entering the inlet put to rest all the doubts of the navigability. As we rounded the red-lighted buoy, the wind turned head on and the waves were still pretty large. The spray off the waves crashing into breakwater, were making things hard to see. Both Crystal and me managed to locate the barely noticeable lighted channel buoys. As we made our way in we realized that to the west of the inlet there is large open body of water making what little navigable water inside the inlet almost as dangerous as outside. Even worse, the buoys inside were not lit up. As it turns out, there apparently was an anchorage with a marked but not lit channel to it. At the center of the basin there was 30 feet of water next to red-green center channel mark. Then there was a red nun that was leading to the anchorage channel. The fuel dock and all other emergency docking piers were exposed to large chop and wind. My thought was to try to make our way into any kind of lee we can identify. I saw the depth drop to 9-8-7 feet while trying to enter the anchorage channel. I tried heading to windward side of the channel but it got even shallower so I assumed that the channel was on the other side. As I was trying to stay to port, I felt us dragging against the mud and finally come to a stop and the boat heeled almost immediately to about 30degrees. Tide was coming in but the gale force winds were healing us over and pushing us broad side onto the marsh. For a second I thought I’d use the genoa to heel the boat over and get out of it but I realized that the leeway was too great and room ahead was none to be found. So that was not an option. The only thing working for us was the rising tide for the next hour or so. We were now nearly 20 feet from the marsh, which was clearly visible under flashlight and was also ahead of us. It took us several hours to wiggle our way out of this mess. Numerous thoughts of getting stuck here crossed my mind. The biggest problem was the strong winds pushing us further and further onto the marsh. Finally I managed to turn the boat head into the wind and the next gust that healed the boat magically lined up with the incoming rise of the water, enough for us to motor out of the marsh. I was repeatedly thanking god and my new 3 blade fixed sailboat prop, which I bought on ebay. If we still had our old crappy folding martec 2 bladed propeller, I think our boat would end up a wreck, and a mark on the next set of charts that NOAA publishes. We still had no idea where to go so my priority was deep water as opposed to protected anchorage. I knew that my ground tackle would hold no matter what the circumstance, so I anchored in the middle of the channel in 25 feet of water. The anchor hooked on the first try and was holding good. I managed to re-wrap the genoa so that the thundering noise would finally stop. The cold was now here and the cabin was freezing. I started the heater for a little while and went to sleep in the main cabin. Crystal was trying to sleep in the v-birth. Few hours later, the coast guard was on the phone to let us know that we were in the channel. At least by then the wind had died down a bit and things were a bit more manageable. It was already getting light outside and the anchorage was now clearly visible. So was the channel to the anchorage in the middle of which we actually ran aground. So we ran aground in the channel at nearly high tide. Now is low tide and the coast guard wants me to go there? No thanks. We opted to head for the fuel dock and wait for favorable tide, get out of the inlet and head for Atlantic City. People at the fuel dock were big jerks with no sympathy that we ran aground and nowhere to go, and they wanted to kick us out. I just bought fuel from them and they wouldn’t even let me stay another hour. There is nobody around and it looks like we’ll be their only business for days. Still, the owner was screaming at us just as the explosive fume alarm started beeping. I realized that we had a fuel leak in the engine compartment and told the owner that I need to vent the engine room and stop the leak before starting the engine. Nop, the ignorant sob, insisted that we leave. I told him that we would blow up if I started the engine now. That shut him up really fast! I went below and found the leak at the top of the tank where the fuel sender unit mounts. The rubber seal was crap. That’s a new sender unit with very shitty rubber seal! Not something I can mess with at the moment. I needed a quicker fix. I quickly got one of our empty fuel cans, disconnected the fuel line from the fuel filter and gas was now coming out of the tank and into the fuel can. About 2 gallons came out before the gas stopped leaking from the tank. The alarm stopped beeping and I ran a blower for about 10 minutes before patching things up and starting the engine. Waved goodbye to these miserable and ignorant people hoping that I would never have to come back here.
posted by sundowner-cruise at 10:33 AM
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