Memorial Day Weekend

The memorial day weekend this year started with a surprise.  We were blessed with a hurricane skirting along the New Jersey coast line.  Many friends asked me what are you going to do with your boat if the hurricane hits us.  I said I have insurance and I have faith in the guy that runs the place I keep my boat.  Many were surprised at this statement, but it was the truth.  We were to possibly get hit by hurricane Earl on Friday. We ended up very lucky with it skirting along the coast.  It created havoc with the waves and winds, but did not cause any real damage.
On Saturday I was hoping to have some fun sailing the remains of hurricane Earl.  I packed up my truck and headed down to Keyport. When I entered Keyport I tried to look out on the water to see if I could see my boat.  They mooring field was pretty empty and many pulled or moved their boat due to the pending storm.   As I turned the corner to head to the boat yard, I saw all these masts sticking up from the boatyard and immediately knew they had pulled all the boats out of the water.  The yard was packed!  There was barely room to park or even turn around.  I immediately looked out on the water to confirm that Lil Provo was on land and not sitting on her mooring.  She wasn't there.  Now I had to try to find her among this yard of boats.  I glanced around and saw and immediately spotter her sitting on her trailer.  Well there wasn't much to do now except head back home and hope they would get her in the water ASAP.
On Sunday morning I picked up my first mate and brought him down to the yard with me.  When we arrived, the lot was emptier than Saturday, which means they started placing boats back in the water.  However, Lil Provo was still sitting on her trailer.  We hung out in the boat yard for a couple hours seeing how much growth we had on the bottom of the boat and just  looking around at the other boats.  After a while we packed it in and headed home.

Hurricane Earl

Today Hurricane Earl is suppose to pass along the New Jersey Coast. Many ask, what are you going to do about your boat in the water. Well, I have a very good marina taking care of my boat and if the weather is too dangerous, they will pull the boat out of the water without notifying me.  Last October we had a couple bad storms due to come in.  I drove down the shore to check on the boat and was surprised, it wasn't there.  Talk about freaking out!  I scanned the shore and finally asked one of the workers where my boat was and he said right over there next to your truck.  I turned around and there she was sitting in the lot.  They explained how they pull them out if a bad storm is coming.  I was worried that day, but after that, I worry no more.  It worries me more that the cleat or chain may someday break and let Lil Provo drift away. 

Tomorrow I will venture down to the marina to check on her.  If I can get the dinghy out to her, I will even go out for a while.  I have five days off and plan on spending much of that sailing.  I will advise what happened this weekend in my next entry.

Great weekend

This past weekend I was out on Lil Provo for two days.  Sunday was a nice day and it was my first mates first day to take the helm.  I wanted to give him a chance to learn more about sailing the boat.  We headed for the Verrazanno Bridge in New York with a light wind.  I tried to teach him how to find the best direction with the wind.  After a while he caught on and off we were, cruising about three knots.  We made it into the NY waters and turned around to head back.  I was trolling a bucktail behind the boat as we sailed back from New York and suddenly the pole bent in half.  I grabbed the pole and felt a heavy load on the pole, but it felt like dead weight.  As I pulled it a little more I felt the fish on the other end shaking it's head.  The first mate (Blue) grabbed the net and was ready for whatever I brought back to the boat.  As it got closer I saw something, I thought is was a large ray.  As I got it closer I could see that it was a nice size Flounder (Fluke here in NJ). Blue netted it up and brought it into the cockpit where I placed it in a bucket to take home and clean. It was 19-1/2" and weighed almost 3-1/2 pounds.  This totally amazed me as Fluke feed on the bottom and will come off the bottom a little ways to get something, but to catch one trolling totally amazed me.  

On Monday, my wife and I went out for a sail.  We started around 11:00am and there was no wind, so we traveled by motor to Staten Island and found some wind there.  I had to keep the bimini up due to the sun and heat. We were miles from shore and the sea was very calm, it was a nice mellow sail. The bimini does a great job of hiding you from the heat. We sailed for a few hours and headed back to the harbor. 

Labor weekend is coming.  We expect to be sailing a lot, provide hurricane Earl leaves us alone.

This past Saturday was one of the better sailing days this season. All my friends were busy in fishing tornaments and I went out by myself. It was a blast! We headed for New York City and were sailing around six knots and healed over to my port side. I eventually let the main out some to stop healing over as much as I was because I needed to be cautious. I had my life line on, but falling out of the boat isn't fun no mater when it happens, let along having a line hooked to you and dragiing you along the side of the boat. There was a time when I had to put the camera away as I wanted to be cautious about getting it wet. Eventually, I did let the mainsail out which let me sit more upright and not worry about taking water into the cockpit. I did stop during the day and tried to catch some fish. It was so rough I couldn't even fish, plus the drift was running about 1.7 mph. Not too good for fishing. I had to give up as Lil Provo was rocking so much she was going from strboard gunnel to port gunnel. So I decided to get moving once again before the possibility of getting sick came into play. I eventually ran for cover into Keyport Harbor and tried to fish there, but still the drift was too fast and the sea was still rough. I brought Lil Provo back to her mooring and called it a day.

SUMMER FLYING BY

Miles from shore and only moving at 1.5 knots on a sweltering day isn't fun. Sure it is great to get out and sail, but this isn't what I call sailing.

I haven't been posting regularly as most of my free time has been out on Lil Provo. I just got in and thought I should at least add to the blog. Now is the time to use all the free time available for sailing. That is exactly what we have been doing. That is besides fishing.

Most of the days have been like this, calm and no wind. I have burned more than twice the total amount of fuel used last year and we still have almost three months left. If it wasn't calm, it was the opposite, waves and wind so bad you had to reef your sales or run with one. Plus the first mate is already in his life jacket and holding a mooring bouy. He was in the cabin when it went from bad to worse and came out to white caps and strong wind. If it weren't for the bimini top this year, we really would have had some dreaded days.

We made through some bad days, but still had enough good ones to make you feel like it was still worth it to try. I can't tell you how many days you go out and chase the wind, only to give up and go back to you mooring. But when you try to grab your mooring line, it gets so windy it becomes a challenge blowing you away from the buoy.



I usually don't spend much time in the cabin, but the sun has forced me in there many times this season. With the front hatch open it is very comfortable with a nice breeze blowing through. Sitting directly under the front hatch is close to air conditioning.

I even fished and caught some fluke today. They were under the 18" limit and had to be returned to fight again another day. The Bluefish have really been biting this year. I had days when I could have filled the cockpit with them. Just this past weekend I had something on the line that I couldn't stop. I even tried to chase it so I would keep losing line, but whatever took the hook did not want to stop. I figure it was a shark, but others said it could be a giant stripper. That day I was using full squid for bait and it was working well. I was catching fish this day when I usually don't.

We'll add more over the next few days.

Hotter than hot

The past couple weeks have been very hot and humid. Temperatures in the high 90s and humidity in the 80s and 90s. The winds have been slow, except last Saturday the 17th. We were healed over 30 degrees and cruising over 6 knots. This is the type of day we all love and yern for. The unfortunite thing was we did not have a lot of time for sailing this particular day as we had some more fiberglass work to do to the dinghy. In fact, I went back on monday to give things an additional coat of glass. Hopefully this coming weekend I will experience no leaks.

Update

This past weekend we went out and had a slow day as far as wind was concerned. It seems to be the weather is better for sailing in the fall than in the summer. We have made so many trips this year where we have resorted to motor power. Yesterday, was much different. I could not even raise a reefed main sail and sailed with only the genoa and was able to maintain 4.6mph. The mainsail was just an invitation for a knock down. It was myself and an older gentleman, so I would not take any chances of a knock down. As we motored out of the mooring field we headed directly into the wind. The waves were breaking over the front of the boat as we tried to get out of the harbor. We would point the bow into the air as riding up a wave and slam down when the bow came down. There was no choice but to keep this heading as we were in the channel that runs directly through the mooring field. At this point I had wonders as to there being a small craft warning out and when I grabbed my handheld VHF I found it was in the on position and the batteries were dead. No way to check NOAA for a warning! As soon as we got past the other moored vessels we took a course to go diagonally to the wind which made the ride a little more manageable. Then in about 2 to 3 hours, the chop disappeared and the wind died to almost nothing. It was a very hot day, hovering around 100 degrees. That goodness for bimini tops!