We left the mouth of the Chesapeake 4 days ago, with the goal of heading to Block Island. We anticipated it would take about 80 hours.
The weather had different plans. Our first two days were easy travel — little to no wind, so a lot of motoring, but also almost dead calm waters. One advantage of the calm waters was that we were able to motor more quickly than we expected, and we realized we might get to Block Island with a total passage time of about 60 hours. That was very encouraging! The calm waters also allowed us to spot sea turtles, a first for us underway on Tilia. We could see their large flippers coming out of the water. The turtles were about six feet long! An impressive sight for sure.
As we got close to the 55 hour mark, just 15 miles from the entry to Block Island, the weather turned earlier than forecast. The wind picked up and we found ourselves with headwinds and building waves. While always safe, it became increasingly uncomfortable. Plus there was an opposing current reducing our progress to almost a crawl. At that point, we would have had about 6 more hours of very uncomfortable motoring to reach Block Island, and then would have had to anchor or moor in the dark of night.
Jim had carefully reviewed alternative ports, an important step in any passage planning. We decided to turn north and then west to run with the wind and waves to Lake Montauk, a salt “lake” at the eastern tip of the south fork of Long Island. The moment we turned the boat to run with the waves, the motion became much more comfortable and moods improved all around. 58 hours after having left Norfolk, we anchored as the sun set and had a delightfully calm, uneventful night.
The next morning, we sailed a calm, sunny, beautiful downwind sail to Sag Harbor, where we were able to secure a mooring.
Our friends Julie and Jeff changed their departure to home from Providence to LaGuardia and took a bus to Manhattan today to start their journey. We always warn visitors to Tilia: due to weather, they can choose dates and locations, but we can only guarantee one or the other. That held true this visit!
Overall, the passage was a great adventure. Julie and Jeff got to experience the following:
- A couple of nights of marina life in Norfolk.
- A couple of days of uneventful motoring across open ocean (with sea turtle sightings). This included long conversations under the stars on a quiet night watch.
- Building wind and waves and some rowdy sailing.
- The delightful surprise of how calm it becomes when we turn downwind, as we did when we turned west for Lake Montauk.
- A night at anchor, lulled to sleep by the sound of water on the hull and gentle rocking.
- A night on a mooring ball and dinner in the cockpit in Sag Harbor while watching the sailing teams head out to the traditional Wednesday night regatta.
We are grateful our friends, who have never gone offshore in a sailboat, were game for an adventure and entrusted their safety to us. They certainly got the adventure! We thoroughly enjoyed their company and appreciated their help with passage watches and boat chores.