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Sailing Adventure #4: Ocean and Navesink RiverSunday, May 20. 2012
The wind forecast claimed that the wind would pick up in the afternoon so we went out late (2pm). My plan was to sail from a water access area in South Amboy, so we drove to this spot. It turned out to be not quite as pictured - either it was low tide or something else, but there was no way to get from the boat ramp to the water. So we moved one block over to the East, at the end of Raritan Reach Rd. There is a small parking lot with a 200' walk to the beach. We lugged the already-assembled boat to the ocean, and I should have aborted the trip right there - the waves were large for our boat (2' at times), and the wind quite strong, blowing straight towards shore. I tried to rig the sail so that it was up until I rowed out and would drop later - but our attempts resulted in a completely different outcome:
First, the rope that was to lower my re-rigged sail tangled. (This is all while I'm rowing at the top of my ability, gaining very little ground). Then, the sail came down (while I'm still rowing to stay in place), but the main sail rope wound up on the wrong side, also tangled. I attempted to free the rope by climbing over my wife (at which point she had a close encounter with my knee), temporarily submerging the fore end of the boat (I was sure we were going to flip but the stabilizers did their job), and getting nowhere at all with the sail. All this took maybe 8 seconds, but we were slamming back into shore at this point, soaked and sitting in 2 inches of water. (The boat is self-bailing but the plug was in). My wife was wet, cold (and not properly dressed). We gave up on our ocean ambitions.
Attempt #2 (Navesink River)After lugging the wet boat back to the truck in defeat, and getting somewhat warmed up, I pressed on to a safer sailing location. I picked a point on satellite view at random (in Red Bank). This turned out to be private property, but this one was not, and people were actively using it for kayaks. My homemade kayak cart was able to traverse most of the trail leading to the water, and we were finally sailing - the wind was perfect, the waves were moderate, and life was good - although were were still wet and cold, and that put a significant limit on our outing, especially since the sudden absence of sun meant that were now both under-dressed. Lessons learned (again): put the leeboards down before sailing, and bring adequate layers of clothing. Typical speed at broad reach this time: 3.2mph (wind was probably 8mph steady). When running, the boat goes faster, probably because my stabilizers are out of the water. Parking the BoatUpon returning home I figured that maybe I can just leave the boat inflated and assembled at all times... so I put up some hooks and straps and wound up with this:  Boat hanging over car There is actually 2" of clearance there (and the tC has an all-glass roof which doesn't get scratched) This is what the boat looks like ready for transport on top of the truck:  Ready for transport Trackbacks
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