Delivering Third Act: Sailing Friends Share Skills and Techniques
It was an easy decision to change my original plan from circumnavigating the DelMarVa peninsula to delivering Third Act, Steve Treweek’s beautiful Tartan 3500 from Annapolis to her new home in Wickford, RI. Our group of seasoned and skilled sailors, who have sailed the DelMarVa together, included Sam Holoviak, Steve Treweek, Robert Richardson, George Hargenrader, and me.
After a day of loading the gear and provisions and installing the jack lines, the crew left Port Annapolis at 9 a.m. to head up the Chesapeake Bay towards the Elk River and the marina on the C&D Canal. It was a pleasant day of close and beam reaches with eight to nine knots of wind. After a hearty meal and showers at the Summit North Marina, we relaxed for the evening.
With an early departure, we entered the Delaware River and sailed with favorable winds and currents. Because the river was busy with tankers and cargo ships, we communicated with every ship on channel 13. The pilots were appreciative that we saw them on AIS and were staying out of the channel. Once we entered Delaware Bay, the wind shifted off the bow forcing us to drive into the wind and increasing choppy wave action. As a result, we arrived exhausted at South Jersey Marina after 10 p.m. after the wet and chilly rough ride on the Bay.
We departed at 9 a.m. for our passage from Cape May, NJ, to New York City. The strong winds were coming right on the bow making northerly progress impossible. We tried, but with having the sails double reefed, we couldn’t make any forward progress. After a few frustrating hours, we decided to head back to Cape May and wait for better conditions.
Because of our early return, we spoke with the other transient vessels at the marina. They were seeking refuge from the same poor conditions that we had experienced. One sailboat was heading to Nova Scotia with a very friendly Labradoodle. Another 56-foot sailboat was going to Newport, RI, from the Virgin Islands. A 65-foot cabin cruiser took on 500 gallons of diesel for its final leg south to Deltaville, VA.
After a 9:30 a.m. push off, the refreshed crew averaged 6.1 knots per hour for 10 hours on one starboard tack. The wind clocked from the south, and with the restrictions of the shipping lanes, we decided to motor sail for the last 50 nautical miles into New York Harbor. It was there that we encountered fog and fought a strong current.
Once on the Hudson, we retrieved a large batch of Mylar ballons that we saw floating. We took the obligatory photographs of the Verrazano Narrows Bridge and the Statue of Liberty before we docked at Liberty Landing Marina in Jersey City after 28 hours underway. Shortly after docking, a group asked if they could use our boat for a model photo-shoot to promote a line of luggage. That night, we had an awesome view of the Manhattan skyline from our slip.
After a relaxing evening, we awoke early and left the dock at 5:20 a.m. to head toward the East River toward Norwalk, CT. We headed up the East River and met our navigator’s target reaching the Brooklyn Bridge by 6 a.m. to have the three- to four-knot current behind us. Heading up the river, the spectacular Manhattan skyline was in full view from the relatively quiet water. Because of the currents, the channel buoys were listing at around 20 to 30 degrees. After passing the U.N. Headquarters, we went through Hell Gate, past Rikers Island, Execution Rock, and into the Long Island Sound. Away from the confines of the river, we raised the sails and flew the gennaker in the light winds most of the way to Norwalk.
With an early 5 a.m. departure to minimize adverse currents, we set sail only to find some heavy rain early in the leg. We continued to practice, and share, our navigation and sail trimming skills. We flew the gennaker until the winds slowed, and we fired up the Yanmar. While we had the gennaker up, we used the autopilot under “wind direction.”
It was all fine, until we had a sudden wind shift while on a broad reach. The skilled crew made a quick recovery to keep the spreaders out of the water. A post incident review determined that we were too relaxed and should have been monitoring the wind and white caps. We arrived at the Noank Shipyard at around 6 p.m. After showers at the marina, we found some gas grills and had a relaxing dinner of hot dogs and mac and cheese.
Facing an 11-hour leg, we left the marina early with very nice northerly winds with a 1.5-knot current on the nose. We experienced clear skies and rolling wave action. After going past Newport, a tired and happy crew was ready to dock in Wickford. Once on land, we discussed a fourth DelMarVa Circumnavigation on my boat, Mar-Y-Sol, with the same crew.
In the end, the crew worked together very well and shared our individual talents with the others. Robert’s expert sail trimming gave us additional speed. The navigators guided us through strong currents and congested areas. Along the way, we plotted fixes on charts, made navigational log entries every hour, and kept a passage log as Sam had taught the USNA Midshipmen to do. We appreciated learning and exercising these professional sailing techniques. Now that Third Act was in her new home, we boarded our flights back home.
~By Steve Gerard
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