We got up a little after 6 and I made a coffee and got started. Casting off was easy, and we motored out past the statue of liberty and avoided some super fast ferries, saw cony island, and went under the verrazano bridge. Then we put up the jib to take advantage of some amazing 25kt wind at a perfect angle for a broad reach and surfed all the way down the jersey coast to barnagat inlet. The wind was great, but it was quite chilly most of the day. In the afternoon the sun warmwed up a bit and the wind dropped to mid teens which was more comfortable. I was really regretting not getting the HH jacket top that went with my new foulies. The inlet was a little tricky because of the shallow areas but we used the core or engineers survey overlays on aquamap to double check our position and made it through to the wrong bayview marina (why would they have 2 without more clear signage?) but backed out in time and got settled into bayview north. We docked around 4pm. Then we were recomended to go to the restaurant Kubel's a few blocks away which we did and had some good seafood.
Century Club: Rebekah Bromwell
Took the Acela up to Stamford at 7:30 and even with a delay ended up getting in just past 11am. Then Uber to Norwalk and hopped on Mal's Gals to begin our trip south! There wasn't much wind and when there was any it was pretty much on our bow so we just got the job out a bit to try it and mostly motored down to Brokklyn. I took lots of pics, it was incredible seeing the city go by from the water. It warmed up a lot as well so was an absolutley beautiful clear fall day. We stayed at the marina just past the Brooklyn bridge (https://one15brooklynmarina.com/) overnight. It was a little rolly but not uncomfortable. I only noticed occasionally when a rope would creak hard or something like that. Definately worth it for the location.
Steve gave me a chance to mess around with a boat at port Covington that has dual main sheets and I get it now. Phew! I had to do a few tacks and jibes to have the routine with the limited winches click and also had to feel what happens on both sides of the line with the jam cleats open, but now I can manage it. I still don't get why you would want that system on purpose, but at least I can use it. Nice short evening sail with a couple new guys. (Well, not new but new to me.)
Last practice before checkout! (Not really, just thought so at the time sadly. Zero wind the next day so have to reschedule after my trip.) We went over everything! The wind was lousy so spent most of it going over systems and inspecting rigging, engine, bilge (he fixed the float so
oump works now.) checked transmission fluid which doesn't look right so need to change when doing other overhaul stuff. Figured out how to run the bilge pump manually. Went over full checkout list orally. Then did a terrible miserable bit of attempted sailing/pob and gave up. Did anchor at edge of turning basin and got fouled on crab pot line or something. Felt the boat jump when it finally gave. Eeek. Docked ok at the end.
Helped out Steve at port Covington on crazy love for a work event that he needed a first mate for. It was really fun, and I finally got to see what some of the old DSC feet was and how they are set up over there. I wouldn't like to maneuver in their dock area but the way they don't step off with the initial line is clever.
Then we ran back to DSC for the full moon sail and Santosh let me skipper akimbo and it was so stressful! Everything went ok, but keeping an eye on everything in the dark is something else. There are just too many buoys and instructions that are either junky or have very long periods between flashes. Ugh. It feels a lot harder to gauge distance and perspective to plan tacks and even dock too, have docked twice in the dark now and both were fine but I don't like it. Santhosh was super encouraging though and gave me great advice to remember when stressed. "It's just a boat." lol (I'm going to use that one!)
Went over all systems, did great reefing practice (really needed that) and docked. The shallow bilge under the shower in the head was dry but the pump and float don't work. They went on the list with the impeller, belts, pivot (clutch), fuel and air filters, etc. I think we figured out that the black water tank is under thing birth next to the head and the fresh water tank is in front of it. Gross. It does smell when you lift the plywood off the black tank area. Tom also gave serious talk about managing people and handling my emotions as the skipper. I didn't think I looked that "down" when stuff doesn't go right but James says my face doesn't hide much well and I guess this is part of that.
Mark very kindly took me out with James as crew for some practice before my Saturday checkout. We did a good amount of docking and general maneuvering under motor, plus some POBs. Wind was higher than I'm used to so that was really good. It wasn't super adverse for docking though, mostly straight on, only slightly pushed the bow out a couple of times. Really how Saturday isn't crazy conditions. Need to practice reefing and more POBs. Also backward steering. Sometimes it goes great and sometimes it seems to just take off and I can't get it back on track. :-(
Did some docking/undocking and a heave to, and a neat trick heave to where you back the jib without tacking which helped reduce the power enough that we didn't need the main to counter it, and also some POBs. And it was an absolutely beautiful evening. Had a great time. I need to speak up louder and more clearly for crew direction though.
Picked up Kyrlos & his wife before they went out in a dinghy and the 4 of us had some fun on j#4. We set out reefed and that was a good call. Of course, it completely died out later which was a bummer and I couldn't figure out how to un-reef underway because the main wasn't slack enough in an impromptu heave to. Hm.
We took #4 again, but this time had to suffer a couple hours of essentially still wind. :-( It did pick up a bit off and on eventually though and the weather and music and company was great so was just happy to be out floating around. Ended up going in late, but nobody reserved #4 after me so I don't think it's a problem.