Feeling REALLY unwelcome in Norwalk

Not too long ago, Scott yelled from the cockpit, “Bring your camera!” and we saw this moving in our direction…

Then this:

And then the thunderstorm started. So, like any normal person, I climbed into bed to hide. A few minutes later, I heard the outboard motor running, and I head out to the cockpit, where Scott is driving around very slowly in this harbor so we don’t hit any moored boats. Because the winds picked up so much that we were dragging our two anchors around the little harbor.

The scariest storm I’ve been through on the boat, but it passed over quickly. Just checked the radar on two different weather websites, and that looks to be it for the night.

And now, we have this:

 

Not-so-welcome center

Most days, either Scott or I try to do some planning for the day’s trip. We look at the charts and books and try to figure out possible anchoring spots depending on how far we might get in a given day. You don’t want to travel as far as you can and then find out that there’s nowhere to stop for another 10 miles. Last night, I targeted Norwalk, CT as our best bet for where we’d end up. First of all, it was about a 30 mile trip, a nice amount of progress, but not a crazy-long day. We had already decided to do the Connecticut coast rather than the north shore of Long Island. And best of all, Norwalk advertises a public dock with a visitor’s center. According to their website, boats can tie up for up to an hour for free and there are stores within walking distance. Just what we needed - we are desperately in need of provisions, and I’m realizing that it is often difficult to find an anchorage where we can get to shore and stock up.

[Side note: I don't know if people realize this, but getting an overnight slips at a marina is pretty expensive, usually over $2 per foot a night, and we are on a 30 ft boat. So aside from our brief stay at a strangely inexpensive marina in New Jersey - $.75/ft - we're mostly just hanging at anchor, with one of us kayaking to shore when need be.]

So, we get to this public dock, we tie up, and then we go into the Harbormaster’s office.

[Another side note: I really like the title Harbormaster. I think I want to be one someday. But not in Norwalk.]

They tell us that we can stay for 20 minutes for free, and after that, we’d have to pay $.75/ft to stay until 4pm. Not gonna happen. So, I run to the corner convenience store and buy everything that looks like food, while Scott runs into a little Mexican restaurant and gets us some take out, and we meet back on the boat in no more than 20 minutes and take it out to anchor.

The harbor is a nice enough place to anchor (pic above), but I’m still holding a little grudge.

 

Misnomer

After yesterday, I think that it’s the New York Harbor that should be called the Hell Gate. It was busy and filled with huge boats, and so I made Scott drive that portion. (In my head, it was like taking a new driver onto the streets of Manhattan. So I mostly took pictures for that part. The Hell Gate itself, the upper part of the East River, was pretty darn easy after that. We caught the current at the right point, and had the river almost to ourselves on a beautiful day.

Scott posted a bunch of the pictures in a slideshow in his blog.  Check them out here.

 

Big day tomorrow

By the way, for those of you who check the boat cam on Scott’s blog - tomorrow is a good afternoon to take a look. We’re aiming to leave Sandy Hook and head under the Verrazano Bridge, through the New York Harbor to the Battery, up the East River, and around to the Long Island Sound. Scott gives our basic schedule here. This will be a long sailing day, and a rough one. Keep your fingers crossed for good winds and water for us.

UPDATE: Monday morning, thunderstorms and possible hail predicted for later today.  Looks like we’re staying in Sandy Hook for another day.

 

Tools of the trade

Now that I’ve spent more than three weeks on the boat, I’ve learned quite a bit about the resources we have to get where we’re going, and how to use them. There are all sorts of variables to sort out in deciding how to get where we’re going and when to travel.

Because of this, I’ve also found myself very grateful to have the following things that the ancient mariners didn’t have:

-Handheld GPS. Loaned to Scott by a friend for the trip, we follow the screen on this little device pretty constantly (shown in the pic above). It tells us our current location as well as our current heading and speed. The maps in it are not finely drawn enough to be useful for navigation, but it does prevent some big errors and it gives us some general idea of how far we have to go. Also, once we’ve anchored, Scott can set it to give us an alarm if we start dragging anchor.

-VHF radio: We stay tuned to the main channel listening to alerts from the coast guard, and calls from boats to other boats, and to towing companies. The general practice is to make contact on the main channel and then meet up on a different channel to finish the conversation. Sometimes when we’re bored, we follow these conversations to their new channel, to find out why the boat needs a tow, etc.

-Wireless phone and internet - useful for keeping in touch with our family and friends, and for checking the next set of resources.

-Online charts of the waterways, and tide and current tables, provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

And if those fail us, we have printed almanacs (shown above) that give us advice about routes and anchorages, and listings of fuel docks and marinas where we might need them.

Altogether, I think I’ll feel less worried about Scott when he’s alone on the boat, now that I understand how many resources he has at his fingertips.

A picture from leaving Barnegat Harbor a couple days ago. Makes me realize that I need to find the big speck of dust on my camera.

 

The best thing ever

I never pack the right stuff for long trips. In this case, I packed a whole box full of work-related books, and only one fiction book, which I finished in my first week on the boat. (Brittnie loaned me “Unaccustomed Earth” by Jumpha Lahiri - it was fantastic, thanks Britt!) After that, I got sick of my crossword puzzle book, still wasn’t able to get in a working mood, and was bored of staring at the walls.

Last week, we made a fuel stop and Scott pointed out the “paperback exchange” shelf in the marina store. I actually said, out loud, “My god, you’ve just saved my sanity!” It’s the perfect solution - you can leave the books you’ve read and not clog up your precious boat space, and pick up new ones. There’s no fine literature, mind you, but who wants that on a boat anyway! Since then, I’ve gone through a couple paperbacks, and exchanged them at the next one. I foresee a consistent stream of mystery novels from now until the end of the month…

 

Catching dinner

A few days ago, I asked Scott: Can I still call it fishing if I never catch anything? Now that quandary is done, since I finally caught some fish from the boat. While we were sailing through Barnegat Harbor, I caught two huge Bluefish.

Scott actually had to reel them into the boat, and then I avoided the cockpit uncomfortably while they flipped around until they died. I don’t like that part, but I guess if I’m going to eat them, I probably shouldn’t pretend I didn’t kill them. Later Scott showed me how to clean and fillet them.

Once we were tied up at the marina, I rode my bike to a real supermarket (another big treat) and bought supplies, including some corn to grill with the fish.

Top Chef style, we prepared “Bluefish Two Ways” - I took the fillets from one fish, and breaded it in panko, and pan fried it. Scott took the other one whole and wrapped it in foil and cooked it on the grill. I preferred the fried fish (big surprise) for the crunch. The whole fish was also really tasty and very moist.

 

A dinner party

Yesterday we anchored in Barnegat Light, NJ hoping to reprovision at the market in town. Scott kayaked ashore and found the store closed, along with most of the town. We had planned on getting something to grill with our new friends. Since neither of us were able to get more supplies, we still decided to combine forces to have dinner on our boat last night.

This was my first try for Rachel’s 5-can bean soup, and it worked out perfectly, even though we didn’t have the onion or garlic to add. The five cans are: chicken broth, Rotel tomatoes, black beans, kidney beans, and refried beans. (If you have it, her full recipe includes chopped onion, and a clove of garlic.) We didn’t have the Rotel tomatoes, but used regular diced tomatoes plus some diced jalapenos. My favorite part of this recipe is the refried beans. I would never have thought of putting this in soup, and it adds so much flavor and gives it a thicker consistency.

Sandi made a salad with lettuce, grapefruit and avocado, dressed with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Again, this is a combination that I hadn’t seen before, and it was really delicious.

Sandi and Maury are continuing north today; they are on a tighter schedule that we are. Still, we hope to catch up with them again on our way north, since we’ve really enjoyed their company!

We’re going just a few miles today up to Forked River (pronounced as two syllables, For-ked, according to the almanac). Scott has ordered a part that he needs to fix the steering, and we’ll be going to a marina (!!) to wait for the part to arrive. So my day is likely to include a hot shower, laundry and a bike ride!

Pic is a night shot of Barnegat Harbor. I’ve realized that night shots are pretty impossible to get. Even with the camera resting on the railing, the movement of the boat makes a slow shutter speed impossible.

 

Back to the kitchen, er, I mean, galley

We’re anchored in Cape May Harbor - like a vacation I had here a couple of years ago, it’s pretty darn hot. I kayaked ashore a little bit ago to reprovision at the nearby Wawa store. This is the largest store I’ve ever seen that has almost no food in it. It’s really a convenience store, but with a square footage rivaling many NYC supermarkets, I expected a bit more. At least they had Deep Woods Off, because these biting flies are making me crazy. I also stopped at the Dry Dock to pick up a treat for us, some spicy wings, and I ate an ice cream cone while I waited.

On to some recent boat recipes I haven’t shared yet…

Salmon Patties (or what I think of as a Poor Man’s Crab Cake)

This was part of my mom’s heavy rotation, and I hadn’t ever made them myself. Ideally, I would eat them with mashed potatoes and canned peas to fully recreate my childhood, but we didn’t have those, so we just sauteed our remaining zucchini.

Take one can of salmon, drain and remove and throw away the bones and skin. Mix salmon in a bowl with one egg, a handful of bread crumbs, half a chopped onion, and whatever seasonings you prefer (in our case, Old Bay). Best to use your hands to mix it, like you’re making meatballs. Form them into small patties - like golf balls that you flatten. Fry them in some oil until crispy on both sides.

I didn’t get a picture of these, but they tasted pretty good.

Boat Chili

In a medium saucepan, mix one can of diced tomatoes, one can of chicken white meat (yes, canned chicken exists, and it really helped this recipe), one can (drained) of kidney beans (or black beans if you prefer), as much canned diced jalapeno as you can bear, and chili powder to taste. Pretty good served over rice. You can also get the Rotel tomatoes if you want the jalapeno included already.

And an unsolicited product endorsement, Goya sells a canned Black Bean Soup. It’s usually in the supermarket with the other Goya products and has a red label instead of the dark blue label on the regular black beans. It’s pretty delicious. I had it with grilled cheese for dinner last night, and then this morning, I stirred an over-easy fried egg into the leftovers with a little hot sauce. Yummy.

 

Voyage of the damned

I’m strangely chipper today, but the Captain is having a bad day.

In his words,

I got up at 4:30 this morning so we could make some headway, and 15 minutes later, there’s too much fog. So I wait a couple of hours, and decide to try again. Five minutes later, we go aground. I wanted to make Cape May today, but there’s no chance of that. So we decide to play a game of Scrabble and you kick my butt. Today sucks! I’m going to look and see if the tide is turning yet. [Stomps outside.]

The only thing he left out was the biting flies. I hate the biting flies.