2022: Shinnecock Inlet NY to Plymouth MA

23 July 2022

Depart: Shinnecock Inlet Anchorage 8:25

Arrive: Cuttyhunk, MA Anchorage 6:40

Distance: 84 nm

We had a bumpy ride exiting into the Atlantic Ocean via the Shinnecock Inlet; however, we knew that the travel would be a lot cooler on the ocean than inland with the current heatwave, so we opted for the bouncy path. 

Once we got out into the ocean, I very quickly became bored and decided to lie down on the seat up top, behind the captain. He had the radio on, so I just laid there and listened. 

Later, he said, "I guess you fell asleep." Initially I denied it, but then I realized that I had missed a portion of the radio program, so I must have drifted off for a while. As it turned out, it was a bad time to be sleeping. Clark said he saw a 4-to-5' shark right next to the boat. Dang! I wanted to see a shark, since I have heard so many are around the south shore of long island. Clark said he saw the fin and thought it was a dolphin until he looked over the side and could see clearly in the water a shark beside the boat. That will teach me to nap!

We had a lot of ocean to cross today. It felt like forever for us to get past the end of Long Island. 

Lots of little boats at tip of LI for fishing

Neither of us have ever boated past Montauk Point, Long Island, so this was a first for both of us. One of many expected to come on this vacation.

Montauk Point Lighthouse (internet picture)

After leaving the end of Long Island, we found not much but water to look at until we saw the shadow of an outline in the water that turned out to be Block Island, RI. We have been to Block Island by boat in the past but never via the all ocean route.

Approaching Block Island, I could just make out a wind farm on the horizon with four working and one non-working windmills.

I noticed the depth as we passed through the Rhode Island Sound. It appeared to be a little deeper than I am used to on our normal travels.

Having been to Block Island in the past, we kept going and dropped anchor at Cuttyhunk, Massachusetts. When we got there, we found the anchorage heavily populated. Since it was an exceedingly hot day for a Saturday, this made sense but made deciding where to plant ourselves for the night a bit of a challenge.

As the sun set over the water, I sat out in the cockpit watching the changes of color in the evening sky. Beauty and a cool breeze! What a wonderful way to end the day. With no cell service, I curled up with a fantasy novel for the night.

24 July 2022

Depart: Cuttyhunk Anchorage  8:45

Lunch Stop: 11:50 to 12:50

Arrive: Plymouth, MA anchorage 4:40

Distance: 52 nm

Clark said that if we left too early we would fight current on our trip today. We planned to leave about 9:00 given his estimate of when it would be good to go. When we looked outside in the morning, it appeared that we picked a good day for a delayed departure as all we could see was fog.

Being only a few feet from our boat, we had a clear view of both the catamaran and the red marker shown below yesterday evening. It is understandable why a number of markers around here sound like a cow bell when they rock - so you know they are there and where you are even in the fog.

I thought we would be fogged in for a while and dove into my novel. Clark appeared 30 minutes after these pictures were taken and said he was ready to leave. The fog had dissipated! Why did that have to happen just as my hero was about to be attacked by the evil magician!?

We got underway heading for the Cape Cod Canal - another first for both of us as neither of us have been there by boat. Other than watching the water for traps, there was not much to look at until we came upon a lighthouse.

Eventually, we could see the entrance to the Cape Cod Canal in the distance. Given I had some time on my hands and given I needed something to do to entertain myself, I grabbed a bucket and starting cleaning the panels of the full enclosure - just for fun! I got the sides and back done as we traveled towards the canal. 

Approaching the canal, we had current against wind conditions, so the waters became choppy, and we made headway slowly. I decided I was done cleaning windows for a while.

Clark decided that we should stop before the canal, drop anchor, and eat lunch. Then get back underway when the current was in our favor. Good plan! After eating, I could finish washing panels before we got underway again.

Anchorage just before canal entrance

As planned we ate lunch and then I climbed out the window on our upper helm and washed the panels. Yay! I can see again! They still had grime from being in the dusty boatyard for over a week. I could not take looking at the filth a minute longer.

Looking at the terrain along the edge of the area 
where we anchored - big rocks.

We found the canal interesting simply because it was something new! Lots to look at as first-timers!

Another windfarm!

Massachusetts Maritime Academy

Cape Cod Canal Building

Fancy Railroad Bridge in lifted position

Tower of RR bridge

View looking down the canal.

Sagamore / Route 3 Bridge over Cape Cod Canal

Another view of the canal

According to my Facebook friends, the fellow below is looking to catch some crabs with the pole getup.

Cape Cod Canal Generating Plant

Just before leaving the canal, we passed the town of "Sandwich".

Jetty into Cape Cod Bay.

Beach and fishing fun at the jetty.

Large red marker for entrance to Cape Cod Canal from Cape Cod Bay (or exit in our case).

Looking back at red marker for canal

Cape Cod Bay offered nothing of interest to look at from a scenic point of view, but it kept us on our toes from a trap perspective. As Clark said, after long periods of no traps, you look away for a second and one pops up in front of you. Never fails! 

Having made plans to meet Clark's cousin for dinner, we headed for Plymouth, MA. Clark estimated it would take us two hours to get there from the end of the canal. So, after a little less than two hours of dodging traps, we saw Gurnet Lighthouse in the distance - Plymouth Bay. 

Coming into Plymouth we saw many small boats beached and enjoying fun in the sun. We could actually see the sandy shoal between us and them. They had local knowledge to get in there for sure.

A smaller lighthouse coming into Plymouth.

Views of the shore coming into Plymouth.

Houses on the beach

Must be the one with the big party going on!
Look at all those pickup trucks!

The "Pilgrim Belle" came by as we approached
the spot where we planned to anchor.

Love the fishing boat name "Lobster Tales"!

It is surprising I managed to take any photos coming into Plymouth as the wind was kicking up ridiculously hard. After taking the "Lobster Tales" picture, I turned around and found two of my seat cushions had come disconnected from the seat and were on the floor flopping around in the wind. At least they did not fly out the back! Apparently, I had been holding them in place by sitting on them. 

Although we planned to meet Clark's cousin, it did not work out for us. She got a flat tire on Route 93 on route to see us and had to call AAA to come help her. That was the end of her travels south to see us. Given the almost 30 mph winds tossing us around, perhaps it worked out for the best. Getting the dinghy down and to shore in those conditions would have been challenging to say the least. It took us half an hour to be comfortable that we had the anchor set properly.

It took the two of us to close and zip the full-enclosure panels on the boat as the wind was whipping so hard, we had to fight with the panels to get them closed. One good thing about the wind this afternoon ... I washed my hair and the wind dried it in a hurry!

When we made our plans for tonight, we looked into getting a slip in the nearby marina. We could not find any mooring balls to accommodate us. The cost of a slip for a night came to almost $300. Given the lack of "reasonable" options, we chose to drop anchor. Given the prediction for inclement weather tomorrow, we expect to be here two nights. 

A little too late for the best picture, Clark did remember to grab a sunset shot for the blog. I thought of it way earlier and then totally forgot to look.

2022: Escaping NJ to Shinnecock Inlet

 Every year for the last 3 years, we have hoped to do some summer travel on the boat to explore areas to the north of New Jersey. Every year something came up to keep us home - like in 2020 it was Covid! This year we decided to make the trip. We were extra motivated to make it happen when our kids and grandkids said they would come along for parts of the ride. 

Unfortunately, we arrived home from Florida with a laundry list of items to do on the boat. Top of the list was to have the boat hauled and the bottom scraped and painted with anti-fouling paint. Before that could happen, we needed to get our backup props resized and polished. That seemed to take forever. When the props were finally ready, the boatyard said they were full of boats and understaffed. We would have to wait. Finally the boatyard said we could bring the boat in on June 26th, but there would be no guarantee we would have the boat back for the 4th of July. 

Since our granddaughter has been looking forward to seeing 4th of July NYC fireworks since last year, we did not want to disappoint, so we scheduled the haul out for immediately following the 4th of July weekend. We hoped for haul out on the 6th, but ended up with a haul out on the 7th. That made life interesting as we had agreed to watch our two grandchildren until the 13th of July meaning they would be with us while the boat was out of the water.

They got to see the boat up on the sling with its barnacle-coated bottom. They also got to climb up a tall ladder to board the boat while it was "on the hard". Our grandson is 4 and our granddaughter is 6. They are both monkeys - her more than him. They got used to the ladder in a hurry.

We said goodbye to the grandkids on the 13th as planned. The boat went back into the water on the 16th. The swapped-out props gave Clark good numbers for max RPM, etc. He was pleased with the performance with the clean bottom. Unfortunately, he discovered that one of our bow-thruster batteries was near dead. He uses that a lot, so we had to get new batteries before we could leave on our trip. 

The batteries came from Ohio by truck. They were supposed to arrive on the 22nd July and fortunately came on the 21st instead. Each battery weighs 120 pounds. We had to take 2 off the boat and put the new ones in. Clark said they must be replaced as a pair even though only one showed poorly. The truck arrived around 1:30. At 4:00 we had the batteries swapped. With 95-degree heat and high humidity, it failed to be a pleasant job. 

We had to get the batteries from the street to the boat, through the boat, and up and under the master stateroom bed where they sit. It took the two of us to lift them with Clark doing the lion's share of the work. Getting the batteries up and down stairs was the worst part. We used rugs to slide the batteries wherever possible inside the boat.

Since we finished the battery install at 4:00, we decided that we could finish provisioning the boat, close up the house, and move on board that night. I thought we would sleep on the boat at the dock. We finished all the prep work at exactly 8:00. I knew Clark wanted to watch the January 6th hearing on television, as did I. I got quite the surprise when Clark said he was ready to pull in the power and lines to get moving. What!? When did that happen!? He said we could listen to the hearing on the radio, and we should get going. 

We arrived at the Atlantic Highlands breakwater around 9:30 and dropped anchor for the night in preparation for heading out into the Atlantic Ocean in the morning. 

22 July 2022

Depart: Atlantic Highlands breakwater anchorage 8:00

Fuel stop at Atlantic Highlands - depart 9:35

Arrive: Shinnecock Inlet anchorage 7:15

Distance: 81 nm

Before we could get going on our summer vacation trip, we needed to get fuel. We took on 338 gallons at $5.44 per gallon. Yikes! It's not cheap! The dockhand said that boaters come there from Staten Island where the diesel is over $8.00 a gallon. That made $5.44 sound a lot better.

The prediction for the ocean was 5 to 6 foot waves with an 8 second period mostly coming on the side. I decided to run down and make lunch as we left Atlantic Highlands, so I would not have to deal with making sandwiches on a rocking boat. Come lunch time, Clark was surprised when I went down to "make lunch" and returned with his lunchbox about 1 minute later.

Having heard so much about shark sightings recently, I wondered if I might see some on our trip past Long Island. No such luck. We did see some pods of dolphins frolicking in the distance. None came near the boat. We saw plenty of seagulls on the water as well as a few balloons (I hate that), and one thing that looked from a distance like trap markings. Through the binoculars Clark said it was 4 basketballs in a net. Wonder who lost them!

We had a visitor / free loader on board, in the pilot house, for a portion of the trip. It's not clear when he came on board. Clark went below to use the head and found something. He called up to me, "This bug is huge!" I had seen this beast fly past earlier and was happy to see he continued on his way, but he must have circled back for a bit of a rest. Clark said that when he walked past to go to the head, the bug did not move, but when he came back up the bug backed up a few inches.

Clark took the helm, and I grabbed my phone to get a picture. As soon as I stood up with my camera, the bug flew out the window. On the one hand I was happy it departed on its own. On the other, I was disappointed I did not get a picture. He was about 4" long with a 4" wingspan with 2 wings. I am sure he was in the dragonfly family. I have never seen one so huge.  It resembled the one shown below that

I found on the internet - only bigger.

Our destination for the night was an anchorage at Shinnecock Inlet. When Clark went to set a waypoint on the chart, he discovered a big problem. We have no charts loaded on our chart plotter for the waters we need to travel for our trip. Fortunately, we have charts on tablets to use instead. Even though the chart plotter does not show water depths, it still shows the map. Clark set an approximate waypoint, so he could use the autopilot to steer us there.

As we approached Shinnecock Inlet, the map on the chart plotter went bonkers. It jumped around and showed the boat in lots of places on the map - none of them correct. He had hoped to drop a waypoint for our return trip, but we had no idea where it would end up on the map, so he did not bother.

When we were about 30 minutes out from anchoring, I ran down to make dinner. As I told Clark where I was going, he said I should be back in 15 minutes to help him spot markers. Fortunately, I had a quick dinner planned and was back up to help him about 10 minutes after I went down. I had prepared my salad sometime during the afternoon to cut the boredom of looking at the ocean for hours on end. I had everything I needed for a shrimp stir fry, so it did not take long to cook.

Coming into the place he chose to anchor, the chart plotter showed us on land in Connecticut traveling about 150 mph. We were traveling at closer to 5 mph in Long Island. Crazy!

Looks like the anchor line will have 
a beard by morning! It already had weeds
hanging from it before we finished anchoring.

After checking depths in the area, Clark decided
to drop anchor next to "Terry" the barge.

Nice-looking trawlers in neighboring marina.
Easy access to the ocean from here.

Clark snagged the sunset picture.