Publish Date: Saturday, August 7, 2010
[Note: I wrote this blog the other night, but I didn’t have a chance to post it until we reached our destination today.]
It’s 10:00pm, and we’re about five miles off the coast of New Jersey on a northeast heading. We left the Cape May inlet this evening at 6:30pm, and we are bound for Narragansett Bay in Rhode Island. The passage will take about 38 hours, so we expect to arrive at our destination the morning after tomorrow — two nights at sea, which we’re all quite giddy about it. The conditions are currently very nice: clear skies; SE wind at 5-10kts; 3-4 foot SE swell; and a temperature of about 75 degrees. According to several weather sources, we expect these conditions to hold for the whole passage.
I’ve got the first watch tonight, from 9:00pm to 3:00am. Kathryn has retired to her berth, and she’ll relieve me at 3:00am, standing watch until 9:00am. We’ve discovered that these six-hour watches are somewhat unusual among cruising couples: most cruisers we know stand three- or four-hour watches at night. Kathryn and I like six-hour watches because it allows both of us to get about five hours of sleep each night. When we combine that with a nap during the day, we could be on this schedule indefinitely (which we’ll have to do someday when we spend 20 days crossing an ocean). This schedule also matches our natural biorhythms, as I tend to be a night-owl, while Kathryn loves to go to bed early and get up before the sun. Ayla is somewhere in between, and she is currently keeping me company, as well as learning how to stand night watches herself (she already stands day watches routinely).
We are traveling with m/v Levity, another Nordhavn 43 whose owners, Bill and Rosemary, are from New Zealand. We met Bill and Rosemary in the Bahamas two winters ago, and they’re spending this summer cruising the east coast of the U.S. I can see their navigation lights about a half mile off our starboard bow.
Night watches are mostly filled with boredom, punctuated by the occasional “contact anxiety” as we make our way around another boat or ship. For commercial ships, first contact usually occurs via our AIS system, which provides us the name, size, speed, and course of the ship, and predicts the expected closest separation (both distance and time). The ship eventually shows up on the radar, and then we can see the lights (when visibility is good). First contact for smaller, non-commercial boats occurs on the radar, and then we see the lights. Usually these “ships passing in the night” are non-events for us. Occasionally, however, they are a bit more exciting because, for example, it might be a fishing trawler zig-zagging around its fishing grounds: First we see their starboard light, then their port light, then both lights (indicating that they’re coming right at us!), and then they’re going away from us, and then they’re coming at us again, on and on until they work their way around to our stern. I’m sure this is a non-event for the captain of the fishing vessel, but for us it’s a bit stressful until we’re past them.
The weather is nice tonight, so the doors and windows in the pilothouse are open, and I can hear the water moving past the hull as the waves push us around. I can stick my head out the door and see more stars than I ever imagined possible because the light pollution is minimal. The VHF radio is pretty quiet, and we have some music playing on the stereo. The cat is sacked out on the floor, not entirely miserable because the seas are pretty mild. I’m not at all sleepy tonight — I never am the first night out. Right now, I’m just happy to be cruising again, and I’m thankful to be sharing this unique experience with my family.
David,
I’m glad to hear you are on the move again. Any particular plans?
David,
It seems to me you are going in the wrong direction, north. What’s up?
Hi All, It is good to be reading the Blogs again. We are glad that you have all the necesary high tech equipment to be as safe as possible during the night cruises and also in the fog. If I remember one of your blogs last year you suggested that fog cruising is something like night cruising, except the it is difficult to see any lightis on the other ships. Enjoy Rhode Island.
OMG, OMG, OMG… Post more, post anything!!! Post all “events”, all “non-events”, dinners eaten on the boat, mechanical problems & solutions, conversations held over “happy hour”, good weather, bad weather, flora & fauna encountered en route, small swells, large swells, clean diesel, dirty diesel — I don’t care, just post. You want to spend an entire post talking about which brand of marine toilet paper is the best or Dilly’s sea legs (or lack thereof)… Do it… I’ll read it!!! I am so interested in what your family is doing that I almost plotzed when I saw two updates in three days. The one thing I am still really, really, really interested in (or confused by) is the management of electricity. The large electric panel in the wheel house always intimidates me. As Ayla wrote, “Because you need to conserve power, you turn off the TV and Wii and computers and all those other distractions.” I was always under the assumption that there is limitless power on account of the generator/s. Also, I read about the pros and cons of single engine v. twins and vice versa. It sounds like the Lugger engine you have is virtually bulletproof, but wouldn’t 2 be better? I just read where a Lugger powered a boat for some 30 ( I forget the real number, but it was astounding nonetheless) odd days without so much as a breather. WOW!!!
hi,
Are you guys starting your trip again?
frank
Good to see you on the move again. I know when we change locations with the motorhime, it’s always a new adventure.
Art
Of course I ment to type motorhome…………..DHA!
Yes. Why are you heading north?
Hi Everybody,
Several people are wondering why we’re heading north. The short answer is because the weather and water are both nicer this time of year in Narragansett Bay than in the Chesapeake Bay. We were ready for a change of locale, and Narragansett Bay offers many weekend cruising destinations. Our location choices are limited by my need to be near a reasonable airport, and our new location gives me the option to fly out of Providence (5 min) or Boston (60 min). We plan to stay here until about mid-October, at which time we’ll probably head to somewhere in the Carolinas for awhile.
We’re still working on our plan to get cruising full time again, but we don’t have anything definitive to share yet. We’ll keep you posted on our progress.
Thanks for your continued interest!
David, Kathryn, Ayla, and Piccadilly
Dave, Kathy and Ayla,
Glad to have an update. All is well with the Strattons. Look forward to hearing about your weekend adventures.
[…] reading Dave’s recent Night Watch blog, you can almost hear The Eagles in the background singing, “I’ve gotta peaceful, […]
Hi to all. Very hot and muggy on Harsens Island this year. Cruising is cooler I hope. Be safe!!