NH

We are docked at a fancy marina in Portsmouth,  NH and headed up the Maine coast in the morning.

Leaving Gloucester:

Captain Ralph did the Trump on the bow (remember that dance in Georgia?) and consequently Betsy is leaning to the right (at least part of her anyway): 

Fixed with one swift kick. Boating repair is getting easier now that I get the hang of it!

SimRad binder of information:

Note the absence of a photo. It has gone missing. The Captain used it to figure out how to turn on the fog horn this morning. He thinks it bounced off the counter and out the door into the ocean today at some point. THANK YOU UNIVERSE. Now we can never look at it again! And if my stars align, he will have forgotten how to use that bloody fog horn forever as well. What a nuisance! As if I could hear an approaching vessel’s horn anyway what with the smashing of waves and the roaring of the Cummins engines oscillating through the chassis. The conspiracy theorists among you may think that Ralphie Props had something to do with this, but they would be wrong. I certainly do not recall turning hard starboard as a big roller hit while simultaneously cutting power to the starboard motor and going full throttle on the port to maximize the roll effect which dropped the port gunnel damn near into the water, thus facilitating the disposal of the SimRad binder off the counter next to and out of the port door and into the Atlantic to never be seen or heard from again in my lifetime or the next. 

In other words, SimRad sleeps with the fishes. Don’t cross Ralphie Props. 

Clever

Captain should have thought of this! 

Couple of pics

Couldn’t take many what with all the sloshing earlier, but we are at Sandwich Marina at the north end of the canal:

More great boat names:

Small craft warning today

The Ralphs still gittin er dun:

I love checking out the boats in the marinas

So many beautiful ships. I mostly love seeing the names:

Made it to RI

Just another quick post to let you know we are safe. Easy day today but some big rolling swell hitting us on the starboard side. I really want to run Betsy in some 10-footers to see how she takes it but Captain Ralph’s tummy is too weak. We should be through the Cape Cod canal tomorrow and get as far as Gloucester or even Portsmouth, NH, not far from my current home! 

There must be a dozen little lighthouses in Long Island Sound. I am planning to squat one for the next pandemic. 

Docked at the biggest marina in RI:

Our next door neighbor in the slips:

This is an MJM and is gorgeous. The captains chairs felt like sitting in a Lexus. I have been sitting on a plank with a thin, worn out couch cushion for the past three weeks by comparison. Interior was immaculate and had everything one would need. 40’ with pod engines. Almost made  BOTD, but moments later this ship pulled in:

4 dogs on board, the clear winner! Note the boat in the background- Captain Ralph’s new pals from Sandy Hook. They run 6 knots all day long and are taking the boat to Maine for a tour business of some kind. My BBQ smelled so good 2 nights ago they asked if we did takeout!

NYC

Exhausted. I am days behind on the blog but have tons of material for you guys! We are likely trapped by weather soon and I will catch up.

All is well in Sandy Hook

We had an easy cruise up the NJ coast today. 6 hours flat and we were pulling up to the fuel dock. Just checking in to let you know we are alive. After a huge steak dinner I am too tired to post. Have some great stuff coming for you though!

At long last...

We are heading out into the ocean! No more ICW!  I am picturing crystal clear blue water, salty sea air, tremendous swell that will make Betsy bob, families of dolphins with baby dolphins that eat out my hand, great white sharks leaping over the bow, packs of killer whales devouring helpless seals, and seaweed. For crying out loud, I have been boating for over two weeks and have yet to see some seaweed. Even the oceanic plant life despises the south! Maybe I am asking too much for the Jersey shore, but at least we are getting closer to clean, blue water- the ocean as I know and remember it from childhood. I wouldn't complain if I saw a whale or three, but fortunately that will be easy all summer long back home.

Tomorrow we leave Cape May to head to Sandy Hook, ~120 miles away and straight up the coast. Captain Ralph was unimpressed with the dock-to-dock autoroute provided by SimRad as he remembers that there were shoals near the shore 10 years ago, and he would prefer to follow the "3 mile line" further offshore. I am inclined to utilize the track with the most current sonar info, which is much closer in for the most part. And therein lies the difference between Captain and crew- he makes the decisions and is accountable for the outcome, whereas I do as I am told and haven't a care in the world about driving into a reef and tearing a hole in our Airex core hull. My inflatable life preserver is kept within arm's reach ;).

Winds are 12-16 knots and will be hitting our stern all morning. 2-3 foot seas should be nothing for Betsy, and it should all die down in the afternoon. If all else fails, we will stop in Atlantic City to make our money back!

I made a time-lapse of us entering the C&D canal. Video editing is a tremendous PITA. I own a decent MacBook, and it is literally heating up to process the video. I also notice GoPro is only allowing 720p for time-lapse photos, which makes for a low quality movie. I have other modes to try like "timewarp" video that should work better. I haven't even tried to work with the drone footage yet.

Never mind, file size too big! Will try again tomorrow night if there is time.

Happy Groundhog Day!

Air in the Racors. A couple of guys who know what they are doing are coming to fix it! They are going to remove our Racor housings and take them back to their shop to reassemble on a bench. Did some reading online and as it turns out, this is a very common issue. Furthermore, any significant amount of air must be coming from between the Racor and fuel tank from a line or fitting (per the trouble shooting instructions from Racor). A clogged filter screen inside the tank can be the culprit and/or a crack in the pickup tube. Remember, this problem started after the fuel polishing in Jacksonville. Attempted to relay this information to the Captain, but he doesn’t appear to be a fan of online research for trouble shooting, instead he will Bust Out Another Thousand to get this problem solved. Again. Fingers crossed!

Low voltage issue on starboard side, the one that has plagued our electronics...  As it turns out, there are no marine electricians even available. I suppose we will continue to ignore this problem despite that it affects our critical electronic components like navigation and VHF radio. I am still haunted by the fact that our VHF at times was unable to transmit 100 yards even while on “Hi” mode. We have a handheld backup- any guesses on how far those things transmit in the real world? We only need to be 3 miles off shore to go up the NJ coast. Beth- surely we have flares on board? I could make the swim with a life jacket on, but the water is cold now! Do they have rip tides down here like we do back home? I will put my faith in Lil’ Betsy in this regard for the time being!

Autopilot- no SimRad techs available today, but we were assured they are present all the way up the coast. Makes no difference to me, but Captain Ralph really wants to get this working as he does not enjoy steering by hand. I am sure we can eventually find a guy who knows what he is doing and throw money at him until he goes away. 
I would post pictures of the amazing scenery and photos of us clinking our champagne flutes with our shoes off and our feet in the air, but the reality is that there really isn’t any time for relaxation. If we aren’t driving the boat we are working on it. It’s like that movie Groundhog Day, only it isn’t funny in real life and I don’t get to smash an alarm clock every day to release my frustration.