Overnight Ocean Sail

New York City to Cape May, New Jersey – 150 nautical miles

By 8am we had left the mooring, filled up SeaLight’s tanks with fresh water from the marina dock, returned everything to the anchor hold, cleaned the muck and grime from the anchor chain off the boat deck, said goodbye to Magnus and send him off to the subway, and were on our way heading south at 9 knots on an ebbing tide, ready for the next stage of our adventure.

 

We stopped at a fancy marina called Liberty Landing just across from the south end of Manhattan and filled up with fuel, bought a few things from their fantastic chandlery, and spoke to their staff about finding suitable replacement batteries, which didn’t work out but they sure tried their best. From there we continued south a mile or so and what do you know, Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty. We took the mandatory brag shots then navigated our way out of New York harbour which was easier and less stressful than I had feared. It was actually very easy, and I was prepared for it to be tricky, but the bay is just so massive that there’s room for everybody. I quite enjoyed the buoys as they were outfitted with huge bells that produced loud gonging noises as they were rocked by boat wake. 

 

Soon, we were out of New York and on the mighty Atlantic Ocean and it was precisely not what I expected. Total glass. No waves. Calm as Lake Ontario on a windless day. I was prepared for The Perfect Storm, but what I got instead was Tranquility Bay. We eased out into the ocean and began the long haul to Cape May, which we hoped to reach by early morning after our first overnight ocean run. Before losing cell signal, Ana contacted a yacht club in Annapolis that was willing to accept a package for us (in exchange for docking there for a night) and we put in an order for new Victron lithium batteries, which were scheduled to be shipped within a week.

 

With that bit of work done we kicked back and enjoyed the ride. Well, at least I did – And had picked up a rotten cold (or something) and she felt progressively worse and worse as the day went on. The wind started picking up and it was right on our nose, but even ten knots of wind didn’t seem to build much for waves so the ride remained quite smooth.

As midnight neared, and the spooky orange slice of a moon rose higher into the dark sky, we passed Atlantic City and cheered on the gamblers, who were completely unaware of us.