The journey is almost over. Bob and Peter left Portsmouth, Virginia at 7:30am on Monday and anchored at Haverstraw Cove on the Hudson River, Wednesday afternoon – 56 hours and 310 nautical miles later. They did 90-minute day watches and 3-hour night watches during the 56 hours which were filled with decent weather, not so decent weather and in the last 24 hours LOTS of rain. There was some sailing but, as like every other time on this coast, motoring. Dropped in mid-afternoon on the 2nd day to Atlantic City to refuel. Unhappily, on the way out the river was ebbing against large seas in coming making for 15 minutes of violent crashing of the bow as it plunged between the waves.
Bob took over the watch at 2am on the Wednesday morning. As usual he first checked for any AIS boats/ships around and looked at the radar screen for any objects. He found one several miles ahead which was travelling toward them. No lights could be seen so Bob changed course 60 degrees to starboard and even with this “object” a few hundred feet off the beam he still couldn’t see anything. Maybe a fishing boat with their lights off? Happens more than you think (or wish).
They rounded Sandy Hook (NYC Harbor entrance) around 4am and passed under through the Narrows and under the Verrazzano Bridge at 6:30. As daylight appeared the skies were grey, the wind was up, the rain was raining, and, of course, they were fighting the out going tidal current. They started up the Hudson through NYC from the Statue of Liberty at 8:15 and under the George Washington Bridge by 11:00.
By mid-afternoon they were at the usual anchorage of Haverstraw Cove – a shallow entrance plus a sunken brick pile to keep clear of but the cove itself has plenty of room and water. Very calm which no one onboard complained about.