Charleston to Maine, day 4 – change of course

Friday 29 Jun: Cape Charles (Hampton) to New Jersey
We are motoring under a bright full moon. When Oana wakes up for her shift at 1am, Glen warns her to dress warm before coming out. After a quick dig in the “warm clothes” cupboard, she wears leggings, socks, t-shirt and bathrobe. Not exactly warm or waterproof sailing gear, but who needed such in the Caribbean? Hm, just where are we going? Or more to the point, why are we going so far north? We like warm dry climate, so Maine had better be good!
The night air is indeed much cooler and there is dew everywhere, even the cockpit cushions feel damp. But it’s so nice to have the fresh breeze. By 4am wind shifts west and we are happy to sail again, after 6 hours of motoring. 8kts on the beam, perfect for a nice gentle sail which we enjoy till the morning. Uneventful night, Glen playing with sails as usual.
The ones of you who have been reading our blog for a while, would know by now we are not exactly “planning a trip” sort of sailers, and even if we have to plan, we change our mind on the spur of the moment. Oana wakes up early morning eager to tell Glen what she was thinking before she went asleep. As in: wouldn’t it be nice if we sail into New York, passed Lady Liberty, under the famous bridges, on East River, behind Long Island and then towards Boston? Glen’s first thought was: we are passed that moment now, we are sailing nicely quite hard on the wind, if we change course the wind will be straight on the nose. Hm, good idea, but too bad.
But then, one weather forecast later, turns out wind is dying soon and we will have to motor, so we might just as well motor to New York. As the wind is almost gone at 9am, we change course, and now have a new plan! New York here we come! We should be there this time tomorrow.
The sea temperature is down to 22 celsius, and it really makes a difference in the air temperature too. If feels so nice not to get sweaty and sticky as soon as the sun is out. At midday the air feels still fresh. Maybe we will indeed like sailing north, once we get used with feeling chilly at night.
We kept busy cooking, editing videos, reading about New York Harbour and taking a good look at charts and weather.
After 8 hours of motoring, in comes some wind, 9-10kts SW. Sails out, time for some peace again. It is absolutely gorgeous: gentle sailing, fresh breeze, sunshine, not a single cloud in the sky…well, gorgeous apart from the light swell that is rolling us a little.
We sail passed a big leatherback turtle, which is so unusual to see at the surface, basking in the sun. Usually they only poke their head out of the water to take a breath of air, then quickly dive back down. We wonder if it is in some sort of trouble (tangled in plastic?) or just enjoying the warm sun. A couple of minutes later we spot a floating bucket, and next to it a sea turtle with barnacles on the … Hm, too much of a coincidence here, so we decide to quickly put the sails away and motor back to rescue the turtle if needed. But by the time we reach the floating bucket, the turtle is gone. Well, at least we can pick up the plastic debris, which turns out it was a basket. Once it is on the deck, so are several prawn looking like little creatures which were hiding in the grown seaweed.
Sails back out and we resume track, happy with our good deed. Few minutes later, we pick up a large plastic bag which looks like a hospital drip, and then a shiny party balloon. Lots of plastic floating in the area. Scanning the sea for other bits, we spot shark fins, and it’s the first time we see sharks on the surface. We tried to follow their movement, but we lost sight fairly soon.
Before sunset the wind dies and on goes the engine. We are treated to an amazing sunset, a red disc going in the sea and then the sky turning orange-pink, reflecting the same colours in the water. We left Charleston with the sunset behind us, and we arrive in New York with the sunset in front of us… Have we been sailing in a big circle? Well, we guess we kind of have been!
Couple of hours later the wind shifts and we can sail again. And so we sail peacefully into another moonlit night, with the Big Apple 80 miles ahead. We are more than a little excited by the prospect of sailing into New York on a sunny June morning rather than the previous planned landfall of Cape Cod canal in the middle of a damp cold night!