Staten Island

Red sky in morning sailors take . . 

We get up at 5:00 am and are gone around 5:30. The sky is mostly clear, but the forecast is for clouds and rain. If we don't leave today we may be stuck here for 3 days or more of bad weather.

Leaving Atlantic City

We are motor-sailing with just the head sail. With 10 knots of wind we are making very good speed. By mid-morning I put up the full enclosure and it starts raining around 10:30 AM. Also, as forecast, the winds pick up out of the south in the afternoon to 20 to 25 knots. The autopilot does not handle the following seas very well, so I am hand steering the boat. The waves build up throughout the afternoon and we start surfing down some of the bigger ones. Looking forward to rounding Sandy Hook and getting off the ocean and onto Raritan Bay. 


Our friends Martin and Denise have been anchored in Great Kills Harbor for a couple days and we decide to head there instead of Atlantic Highlands. Although farther away we can sail there faster than motoring south into the wind to Atlantic Highlands. As we approach Great Kills I call the Great Kill Yacht Club to see if they have any transient space available. They do, so we head into their dock. John Calascibetta is the club host and he arranges to have a club member Jim at the dock to assist us. They sky is getting darker and the weather radar is showing an approaching thunderstorm coming from the west. Very happy we are on a dock. I send Martin a text telling him we wimped out and are on the dock. He calls be back and asks if there are any more spots available. John tells me what slip is available and Linda and I help them dock. After dinner on the boat we go over to Skua to visit. Martin and Denise have been to NYC twice. Martin already knows a bunch of club members, they have a bar at the club and the drinks are rather inexpensive, beer on tap $2.00. It starts raining and we head back to our boat. We have a very impressive light show. I disconnect the boat from dock power incase some other boat gets hit. By 10:00 PM we have a down pour with hail. As the lightning gets closer we put all our computers and loose electronics in the oven and microwave. As Faraday cages they will be safe if we get hit by lightning.