David’s Voyage Blog

Publish Date: Sunday, October 11, 2009
We left Portsmouth, Rhode Island early this morning, bound for Cape May, New Jersey. This cruise will take us about 38 hours, so we’ll cruise through the night tonight, all day tomorrow, and arrive in Cape May shortly after dark tomorrow evening. We’re taking full advantage of a short weather window that will collapse about midnight tomorrow night — hopefully AFTER we’re tucked into Cape May harbor.

The most significant thing about this run is that when we pass the entrance to New York Harbor we will close the loop that we began last May. Our summer circuit took us up the Hudson River and across the Erie Canal to Lake Ontario; through the Welland Canal into Lake Erie; up the Detroit and St. Clair Rivers into Lake Huron; through the North Channel and across Georgian Bay to Port Severn; through the Trent-Severn Waterway back to Lake Ontario; out the St. Lawrence Seaway to Montreal and Quebec, and then around the Gaspe Penninsula to the Gulf of St. Lawrence; around the Canadian Maritime Provinces of Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia; across the Bay of Fundy to Maine; down the coast of New England to Boston, Cape Cod, and Rhode Island; and finally along the south shore of Long Island to close the loop at New York Harbor. Whew!

The eastern half of this circuit is known as The Down East Circle, and we wanted to tackle this cruise to get a variety of experiences. The route is characterized by large tides (and the resulting strong tidal currents), frequent soupy fog, a plethora of fishing gear in the water, and generally unpredictable weather. Kathryn and I were both pretty intimidated by this route before we did it. Now, as we look back at the cruise, our biggest lesson is that any new cruising experience just needs to be broken down into pieces, and taken one step at a time. We were assisted by a good cruising guide and a safe boat, but the most important factors to our safe completion of the route were a healthy respect for the potential dangers; and a conservative, step-by-step approach. It was quite a bit of work, but we’re really glad we did it.

Last year at this time we were contemplating our cruise from the Chesapeake Bay to Florida. That run would include our first experience transiting parts of the Intra-Coastal Waterway; our first time out in the Atlantic ocean as a family; our first multi-day overnight cruise; and a thousand other smaller firsts. We were intimidated, nervous, but excited. Today, as we contemplate making our way south from Cape May to Florida, we feel pretty relaxed about the cruise ahead. That’s not to say we’ll let our guard down — we just know what to expect. It will be a nice break from our summer of challenges and uncertainties, and a needed respite before we tackle Central America and The Panama Canal this winter.

In Portsmouth we were fortunate to be moored at the Nordhavn Northeast office, and it was fun the see the whole Nordhavn Northeast team. We also had a chance to meet and spend time with Nordhavn owners John and Sue on Una Mas, and Wayne on Envoy. It was a pleasure to meet them, and a nice reminder of how strong the Nordhavn cruising community is. Listening to their stories of crossing the Atlantic, transiting the Panama Canal, and cruising Alaska, we realize just how inexperienced we are, and it encourages us to continue to tackle our voyage one step at a time, one mile at a time.

So as we round Block Island and make our turn to the west, the sun is shining, the wind is light, and the seas are pretty calm. Kathryn is working out in the salon, Ayla is reading on the pilothouse berth, Piccadilly is sleeping on the pilothouse chair (of course), and I’m sipping on a hot cup of coffee. We are thankful to be out here — life aboard Three@Sea is good.