September 17, 2013.
     Hello friends and family.  We did, indeed, get going, but on Thursday, September 5th, rather than the 4th.  Too many last minute things to do, not rare in the sailing world.   We are happy to report that we are in Cape May, following a very nice, but exhausting night sail from Atlantic Highlands at Sandy Hook, New Jersey.  Yes, Sally did agree to a night sail, after swearing off those nasty things years ago. The cause for this change was our happening to meet a French Canadian sailor anchored next to us at Sandy Hook.  A sailor with a very good grasp on weather knowledge.  Also, there was a group of sail boats waiting there for a weather window and about 10 of us set out at 11:00 am Saturday morning, September 14th, on a northwesterly breeze of about 14 knots.  This put the wind behind the boat, on the right side for a comfortable ride, small waves of about 1 to 3 feet.  We sailed past Barnegatt Bay about 8:00 pm and past Atlantic City for several hours beginning around 11:15 pm.  We had estimated 21 hours for the 135 mile passage, but wound up getting to Cape May way too early and sailed as slowly as possible until the sun rose and we could see our way into the inlet.

     The hardest part of this passage was that we had been bouncing around on anchor for a couple of nights at Sandy Hook and I hadn't slept much, so I started out on the night sail already very tired. So Sally provided the motivation to keep going as well as the hot tea and snacks, while I bundled up in long johns, pants, turtleneck, sweater, fleece jacket, heavy socks and sea boots, full foul weather gear and watch cap and stayed curled up in the right back corner and steered with my feet.  My arms were too tired to steer for long, but the legs did pretty good for most of 20 hours.

     The first parts of the cruise, we  sailed to Branford, Connecticut and got to visit with our friends Mark and Kim and their 3 kids Michael, Jason and Julia.  They have a very busy family schedule, but they were kind enough to fold us right into the schedule.  We helped Mark shop and then we all cooked a  very nice dinner at their house.  We got up at 5:15 am, Mark driving us to the boat at that early hour, and  we set out on the next day's journey, to City Island.  Thank you Mark and Kim.

     On the way there we had some nice morning sailing, then had to motor in the afternoon and I staring out at Long Island Sound, had another social inspiration.  We called our friends, Jim and Gail and invited them and their daughter Emma to come have dinner with us on City Island.  They met our boat, Southern Belle for the first time and had appetizers in the cockpit.  We went out for a nice seafood dinner nearby. It was great seeing them, but then we had to say our goodbyes for a while.

     The next day, Saturday, the 7th, we  sailed through Hell's Gate, down the East River, through New York harbor, under the Verrazano Bridge and south to Sandy Hook.  It was a beautiful, sunny day, with moderate breezes, except for the wind tunnel under the Verrazano Bridge, which Sally didn't like.  But the next couple of hours were sailing bliss for Lynn.

     We anchored just inside the breakwater at Atlantic Highlands and had nice shelter from the southwesterly breezes for the next 4 days.  Our son, Derek, came over on the ferry for an overnight visit which was a real treat for us.  We also got to see him again as we took the ferry to New York for a movie and dinner.  We saw Pacific Rim, a movie in which aliens invade the earth through a space-time warp that comes up in the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, so really this was a sailing movie.  Huge creatures battle with man-made robots and, very unusual for an action, techie sic-fi movie, there was depth and love and conflict and growth in the human characters.  So we all really liked it.  Afterwards, we ate at a Moroccan restaurant and got soaked in a wild thunderstorm that just poured on Manhattan.  We got the last ferry back to New Jersey and the storm passed, so we had a relatively decent dingy ride back to our boat.  However we arrived at the boat soaking wet!

     So here we are tied to a dock at Cape May, catching up on sleep and researching the weather for our next leg, 65 miles up Delaware Bay and River and into the Chesapeak and Delaware Canal on the way to Chesapeake Bay.  We are currently thinking of leaving at dawn on Thursday, a day with a forecast of very light winds and a low tide around 1:00 pm so the currents after that will help pull us along up the river.

     Sally has been impressive in her health and energy, participating in voyage planning and socializing on the phone and computer and with our new French and Argentinian Canadian sailing buddies.  I am the captain, but really that sometime seems to means I am just along to fix stuff and run the boat.  Small example:  this morning I disassembled and cleaned and greased and re-assembled a valve on the head.  It was becoming too difficult for Sally to twist it.  Now it's good.  So I am a good guy for today.   Actually we're doing very well, having some fun, dealing with the fears that come up with sailing and, perhaps, quieting the health worries we were so caught up in for the last three years.  Love to you all, our family and friends.