A little drama whilst sailing to Port Washington NY USA

Leaving Newport

We had a disturbed final night in Newport.  The wind, as forecast, went round to the northeast, bringing with it a chop from the long fetch up the harbour.  We had also gained a neighbour who had anchored a little closer to us than we felt desirable and that boat was moving around a lot on her anchor rode.  So from 0330hr we stood anchor watches and, as it got light and Nicky saw a yacht that had broken free of her mooring, and whose genoa was flapping freely, now entangled on motorboat’s mooring.  Our dinghy and outboard were packed away so she tried calling the Newport Harbourmaster but there was no answer.  So, she called the Coastguard and they eventually dispatched a RIB but the crew seemed to do nothing but try to call the Harbourmaster themselves.  We had planned to depart at about 0830 but ended up leaving early at 0750hrs.  We were the last of the OCC gang to leave but Escapade and Coolchange were each making day passages and so wanted to arrive in daylight. We were planning to make full use of the northeasterly to hop us all the way down Long Island Sound and so didn’t want to leave too early and end up arriving in the dark.  Consequently, we planned to make best advantage of the tidal gate at The Race, the entrance ‘proper’ to Long Island Sound, and the subsequent period of west-going tide beyond.  The problem was, if we were to leave late enough to get to The Race just after the tide turned to the west, we might lose the best of the wind (it was forecast to drop as the day progressed).  An interesting conundrum but, in planning and in reality, the ish 0800hrs departure seemed to make the best of both worlds.

MPS up …….. for all of 1hr 20mins!

As we left Newport we had a really good breeze, 15-20kts, and as we bowled along southwards to clear Point Judith and Nicky started to wondered if we had left too early.  However, when we turned west, to head down Block Island Sound towards The Race the wind dropped.  Initially we poled out genoa but then, when it was clear wind that the wind was not going to return to its previous strength, we hoisted the MPS. Unfortunately, the wind only stayed strong enough for that sail for less than an hour and a half.  With the light wind, the swell was rolling the boat and making the MPS collapse and try to wrap itself around the forestay.  So we lowered the colourful sail and returned to poled out genoa.  Slower but far less chance of expensive damage to the sail.

Race Rock Light

As we approached The Race we heard another yacht, slightly ahead of us and a bit further south, call on the VHF radio to the Coastguard.  They had hit a log (approx 30ft x 1ft) in the approaches to the narrows and wanted to report it as a hazard to navigation.  Happily, they reported no damage to their boat.

Race Rock Light with Fisher’s Island to the right

We arrived at The Race a little before the tide turned in our favour and pressed on through with our plan to sail overnight to the western end of Long Island Sound.

Whales in Long Island Sound?

An hour or so later I called Nicky up on deck.  I thought I could see a whale just south of us.  No, it wasn’t a whale; it was a very large Y-shaped log. Like the other yacht, we radioed it in to the US Coastguard as a hazard to navigation.  We saw a second about 5 minutes later.

By 1800 the wind had dropped away, the sun was low on the horizon directly ahead of us and I didn’t see the third tree in front of us floating very low.  Fortunately, we were only travelling at about 3 knots when we collided with it but we must have hit it perpendicularly as BV ran right over it so that it went down under the keel and bounced up between the keel and the skeg with over 30ft stuck out to port and a few feet out to starboard.  We were still moving forward at this point so the thing twisted so that it was on the diagonal with the end to port pointing sort of aft.  BV does not handle too well with a 40ft x 1½ ft diameter tree stuck like that!

We furled away the genoa and rapidly started to think about how we might get the log out as its buoyancy and the geometric lock was holding it in position.  However, as we slowed down and as BV turned a little to port, the log came loose and we slid clear.

The log we ran over slipping away behind us…

… and in close-up with a bit more of it showing as it bobbed up a bit further

We did all the standard checks and found that the steering still worked fine and that there were no leaks (big sigh of relief).  In fact, the only problem we could find was an ‘interesting’ vibration when we switched the engine on and it was driving at more than about 1300rpm. It was clear that the tree had bent or knocked something out of alignment in the propeller/driveshaft system. We knew that there might also be some keel damage and/or hull gelcoat damage (nothing too serious since there were no leaks) but we wouldn’t be able to see that until BV was lifted out.

So, what to do?  Where to go?  Where could we have BV hauled out?  We looked at several options and, in the end, decided to use the forecast light wind to continue overnight to our planned destination, Port Washington.  Our pilot book talks of it being a large yachting centre with several marinas and a couple of boatyards with travelhoists large enough to lift BV. It also had good links to New York City. If we were going to be stuck for a while getting BV fixed at least we would be able to get in to New York to see the tourist sites.

Dawn on Saturday

Decision made, we had dinner and settled down to a 3-on, 3-off watch roster.  As forecast the wind was generally very light so we mostly drifted along slowly under sail, not wanting to run the engine for any longer than absolutely necessary.  Scouring the pilot book we came up with some more options for places to where we might be able to get BV fixed, some on the north side of Long Island Sound and some on the other side of New York City.  However, taking BV through the New York harbour with a dodgy drive train didn’t seem at all sensible so we decided to continue with the current plan and see whether or not Port Washington came up with a suitable solution for us.

Manhattan skyline in the distance

Long Island property at Sands Point

We reached the western end of Long Island Sound shortly after dawn on Saturday 6 October and as we approached Manhasset Bay the Manhattan skyline appeared ahead of us in the grey morning light.

To our left was Long Island and Nicky took some photos of a particularly grand house that we passed close by.

Manhattan skyline (top) clearly visible as we turned into Manhasset Bay (bottom)

New York City is just 13miles away from Manhasset Bay as the crow (or helicopter) flies

Enormous houses line the southwestern shore of the entrance to Manhasset Bay

Port Washington is on the eastern side of Manhasset Bay on Long Island and the western shore of the bay, part of the Great Neck peninsula, is lined with enormously large houses.

Anchored in Manhasset Bay off Port Washington

Having gingerly motored the final 5nm or so (the wind dropped away to absolutely zero just after dawn), we anchored just outside one of the large mooring buoy areas off Port Washington at 0845 and immediately tried to make contact with the boat yards. Unfortunately, our first attempts were not promising.  One yard was closed for the weekend, so we left an answerphone message.  The open yard was not interested in the work; after the holiday Monday (Columbus Day) they would be too busy doing end of season haul-outs to deal with us.  So, we inflated our dinghy and took a trip ashore to the closed yard to see if we could find out anything more.

At Capri Marina (and boatyard) we spoke to Matthew on his catamaran Gecko, which was up on the hard.  There seemed to be plenty of space for BV as well and Matthew was very positive about the yard which he had chosen after researching all of the boatyards nearby on both the north and south sides of Long Island Sound.  He said that David, the manager, was very helpful/flexible and he was sure that a haul out could be arranged on Monday when the yard staff would be back in work. [Ed: excellent news too that the yard would be open for business on Columbus Day, normally a holiday].

So, it seems as if we are in a good place to get BV fixed.  We have no idea how long that is going to take and we won’t be able to get anything sorted out until Monday but we are starting to feel a bit more upbeat about it all.  So, whilst we wait to find out if we can get BV hauled out here it looks as if a visit to New York City is on the cards.

Port Washington, New York, USA