Atlantic Highlands to Norfolk Virginia

On the way north we completed this journey by travelling up the Chesapeake bay through the C&D canal and down Delaware bay. This route meant we visited Annapolis and Baltimore, but also took us 100’s of miles off our route, so this time we wanted to stay in the Atlantic and hopefully sail most of the way rather than motoring !

After days of a howling north wind it finally started to abate and us along with about 6 other boats decided to brave the Atlantic.

Kenlana and Jay just ahead of us sailing out of anchorage with NYC in distance

 The problem with leaving so soon after strong winds was that the sea was still a little unhappy and so within the first half hour we took lots of rolling green water over the bow as Magnum gamely ploughed into the steep, short seas.

The wind was still up in the high teens and soon we were roaring along the New Jersey coastline, a little bumpy but nice to be sailing again. Then the wind dropped even further and the motion, without the steadying of wind in the sails, became really unpleasant, we sailed for as long as we could but then had to resort to a few hours of engine. We saw many other boats ducking into the small inlets along this coast to escape the motion, but this wasn't an option for us as Magnum is too deep and we were desperate to get some miles south.

Overnight the wind built again and we had a good 25knts gusting 30, but it was all from behind so we made excellent progress and made over 150miles in a 24 hour period, its been a while since we last achieved that !

Because of our unexpected speed we arrived at the entrance to Chesapeake Bay in the dark, its all pretty well lit so we carried on. Its always exciting entering somewhere new at night, but all went well apart from the tide sucking us a bit closer to a channel marker than we would normally like. These things look so small until you are 20 feet away and being magnetically pulled towards it by an invisible force.

We continued up the bay, dodging  a few container ships and barges and then entered the sheltered Willoughby bay to drop anchor and have a nice rest before heading to the boat yard.