New England Cruise

[ted_reshetiloff]

So it looks like our internet connection is working on Deleware bay. Left annapolis last night around 9pm and had a great sail up the bay to the canal. we are now just inside ship john shoals motoring in light air trying to avoid some adverse current. About 30 miles from cape may then outside to falmouth. Will see how far offshore the internet connection goes. Forcast is for SE 15-20 tomorrrow building tonight. Sure hope so cause we been motoring for 10 hours. more to come.

 

[treilley]

Glad to hear things are going well Ted. How far do you plan on going?

 

[ted_reshetiloff]

Next stop is falmouth mass. then pick up kids and lay off delivery crew. headed to nantucket tuesday and wednesday then work our way back west via cuttyhunk, block, montauk, li sound to city island then pick up new delivery crew in sandy hook. just off cape may now have internet signal. breeze SE 15 looks like a nice reach getting us is sunday am sometime.

 

[ted_reshetiloff]

made it in to falmouth sunday morning in a squally 25kt sw breeze. We had fabulous sailing for the last 24 hours of the trip. Pretty light commercial traffic and most were responsive on ch 13. Our crummy little Simrad WP 32 wheel pilot actually worked pretty well offshore on the reaches in swells. It took a while to get its bearings but ended up actually performing. I was pretty sure it would not be up to task offshore. I also discovered that replacement breakers from anchor fit in the newmar panel on our boat. The laptop seems to draw quite a bit of power when charging via the small 150watt inverter and was tripping the 10amp breaker. I removed the 5amp stove breaker as we have CNG and added a 20amp breaker for the 12v outlets including the one to power the inverter. Overall the boat performed quite well offshore and tracked nicely in the swells. We set the big assym at dawn on saturday then rolled out the 150 around noon when the breeze built to 15kts. Starboard tack for the next 24hrs. Overall time was 60 hours for 380 miles. kids arrive today then off to nantucket.

 

[Steve]

Fantastic

It doesn't get any better then this.

 

[ted_reshetiloff]

Just left Nantucket after two day stay. had a great reach out from falmouth under assym and first reef main. inlaws live in falmouth so they sailed out with us. mother in law was wide eyed the whole way. we are now close reaching in 15kts on our way to cuttyhunk. just cleared tuckernuck shoal. boat is performing great and internet service is plentiful. feeling just a little sorry for those folks who have to work today!

 

[Emerald]

feeling just a little sorry for those folks who have to work today!

We've been having gorgeous weather here on the Chesapeake, and I'm stuck behind a non-opening glass wall -whatever happened to offices with windows that opened?

Good to hear at least one of us is having a great trip. Sounds like you all are making good progress and having some great sails. Are you sure you want to sell Escape Plan?

 

[WBurgner]

Internet enroute

just off cape may now have internet signal.

Ted,
What are using to get internet offshore like that?

 

[ted_reshetiloff]

We tethered a blackberry to the laptop. Verizon service. Worked flawlessly. Better connection than the wifi at the places that had it. Just home today will update on rest of cruise soon.

 

[EGregerson]

minor question...

where in the chesie bay area do you get your cng tank filled?

 

[ted_reshetiloff]

Trip report and observations (long as usual)

Bert Jabins Yacht Yard does CNG on exchange. I paid 70 or 80 cant recall. FYI the one cylinder was just enough for our two week cruise including some heavy oven usage offshore. We made it from Annapolis to Falmouth (386miles) in just under 60 hours. Motored for about half of the time. On fuel consumption it seemed to be just under a gallon per hour at 2100 rpms. That moved the boat at 7kts in flat water. We got a good blow of 25+kts for the last 10hrs, but it was from behind which led to so great surfing up vinyard sound. Everything on the boat performed flawlessly with the exception of the breaker I was using for my 12v accessory outlets. My new laptop with a low battery wants to pull 10-12 amps out of my little 150 watt plug in inverter. I had run the outlets through the stove breaker (5amp) which was unused with cng. I replaced the breaker with a 20 amp anchor breaker in falmouth. My custom retractable lazy jacks led inside the mast to a single control line worked great for reefing and stowing of the main. Our 150% genny was probably more than needed as we rarely used all of it upwind. The xantrex programmable alternator regulator really worked well allowing us to top up the batteries with just about 1 hr of running per 24hrs. The fridge unit was ready for defrosting at the end of 2 weeks with about 3/8" of frost though. Lets see other observations. The head with a splash of vegateble oil every 3 days really worked well. With the cool weather we had water consumption was pretty good as we took few showers. We got water in Falmouth, montauk and sandy hook.

So after arriving in Falmouth and exchanging a few friends for my 2 kids we left and headed out to Nantucket with my inlaws on board. A light southwesterly filled in to 12kts tws and we set the kite and full main. Made Nantucket in just over 4 hours. Spent two nights on a mooring there and explored the beaches on the southside of the island. Tried to avoid the touristy part of town and only bought one bottle of rum...

Inlaws caught the ferry out the second day and we had dinner with some friends who had a house on the island. Then headed off at 6am for Cuttyhunk. We needed to leave early to maximize the favorable tide and avoid a beat against 2+ kts up Vinyard sound. As it was we had a close reach in 15kts tws to vinyard haven then a beat up the sound to quicks hole. On the beat the breeze built to just under 20 with a few puffs to 22. Double reefed main and about 110% on the genny. The boat was smoking uphill at 6.8-7.2. Over the bottom was even better. We passed some C&C 110 who was trying to motorsail He then set his jib and fell even further behind... Made cuttyhunk around 2pm. Had lunch ashore hiked the island then dinghied out to explore the rocky outer beaches.

Next morning we again left pretty early maybe 7am for Block Island with favorable tide. Motored against a light southerly until around 10am when it filled in enough to set the main. This was jsut to reduce rolling in the swells while motor sailing. Kids took their Bonine this day. They refused the day prior with bad results... Just about the time we reached to top of Block to make the run the breeze built to about 5kts Tws. We rolled out the 150 and short tacked to the entrance to Great Salt Pond. I wasn't going to do it but the cruising guide referenced sailboats sailing into Block Island under full canvas as being impressive so we bore off and set the A sail. Breeze built to 10kts and we came smoking into the harbor at 8kts. I had forgottonn how narrow it gets at the point near the beach and there were a few rather alarmed powerboaters... We spent the day ashore in the old harbor and at the beach. Then swam the next day till noon before leaving for Montauk.

More later too tired of typing...

 

[WBurgner]

"We tethered a blackberry to the laptop. Verizon service. Worked flawlessly. Better connection than the wifi at the places that had it. "

Thanks Ted,
I just ordered a Verizon MiFi to do something similar now that we are docked where wifi is not available. Like a 3G cell phone card, it transmits a local wifi signal that will allow up to five units to operate. Of course, performance drops off with multiple units in use. I will let you know how it works.

Sounds like it was a very nice trip.