Sag Harbor to Reedville Part Two

The next morning we woke up early, my Father-in-Law walked down the street and got our breakfast from Dunkin Donuts, while my Father and I got ready to leave town.  Once we were all fueled up, we headed out on our second leg of the trip.  Our plan was to make it to Cape May, and then up the Delaware Bay to the C&D Canal that day.  The weather report indicated that it would be partly cloudy with Southwest wind 5-7 knots.  This would be a great forecast for our trip, had it been accurate...  Within an hour of leaving Manesquan Inlet, we ran into some light rain showers which were no worse than what we had the day before.  Unlike the day before, this rain did not let up, rather it got worse as did the wind.  By the time we were offshore of Surf City, NJ we were in a full on Squall. 

 During the next three hours, we had 35 - 40 knots of wind, rain so heavy that I couldn't see more than 100 feet in any direction, lightening crashing into the water next to us, and at one point the wind made a 360 degree change (which tells me that there probably was a waterspout very close to us.). Needless to say, it was a little rough out during the time that we were caught in that squall.  The boat dunked her bow numerous times, and there was solid water coming over the cabin. At one point, the windshield wipers were slinging seaweed off of the front windows.  It literally looked like an episode of Deadliest Catch out there.  While I was doing my best to keep the boat headed into the waves, I heard my father-in-law ask how far surf city was from where we were, because he had received a weather alert on his phone indicating that there was a tornado touch down there.  I was too busy to answer, but my father told him that we were just 3 miles east of Surf City, and we were in the middle of the storm that dropped that tornado.  Finally, the squall moved offshore, the rain eased up the wind dropped down to 10 - 12 and the seas dropped down to 3' - 4'.  By the time the sun came out again, we were offshore of Atlantic City & we were able to make a straight shot to Cape May, NJ. 

I thank GOD nothing went wrong with the boat while we were caught in that bad weather.  The entire time that we were in that storm, I thought of a thousand things that could have happened, any of which, really could have ruined our day.  Short of losing the cover to the anchor locker, finding a leak around a front window and almost losing my breakfast on a couple occasions, we made out fine.  The boat carried us through that weather with no trouble, but I wouldn't want to be out there in a smaller boat than we were in, or in any worse conditions than we experienced.   

Finally, we made it down the Jersey Shore to the Cape May Canal.  We stopped at the Canyon Club briefly, topped off the fuel tank and continued on our way.  

From there, we passed by the ferry terminal, and into the Delaware Bay.  

The sea conditions in the Bay were 180 degrees from what they were in the Ocean (which was a welcome change to say the least).  Our trip up the Bay was great.  Sea conditions were calm and we were able to make good time, which allowed us to make up some of the time that we lost while sitting at a near stand still in that squall.  On the trip up, we passed numerous light houses that marked the narrow channel, and we also saw numerous "bodies" of bunkers that were thick enough to walk on.  

The entire time that we were seeing these huge schools of menhaden, all I could think of was how good the rock fishing must be there.  Who knows, maybe I will be able to return one day to find out for myself. We made the 57 mile trip up the Delaware Bay, into the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal and landed at the Chesapeake Inn at Chesapeake City, MD by 9:00 that night.  

On our way into the dock, I noticed that the motor was running a little rough, so after we got tied up, I went down into the engine room where I noticed a problem.  There was an air leak around one of the fill holes on a fuel filter which was allowing air into the fuel injection system.  This problem seemed simple enough, but the air in the system prevented enough fuel from making its way to the injectors, which kept the motor from running after it was turned off.  Being as late as it was, I decided to wait until the next morning to work on the fuel system. 

We woke up the next morning to a strong NW breeze.  

Luckily, we made the decision to make the trip up the Delaware the day before because a NW wind blows directly down the bay, which would have made our trip less than fun.  Knowing that we would need help, my Father called in a favor from his friend David Canterra.  Luckily, Dad met him several years ago through the Chesapeake Buy Boat reunion tours that they both participate in.  Within an hour of Dad's phone call, David had his head Maintenance Man on site, ready to do whatever it took to get us running again.  

With access to a vehicle, we were able to get around to parts and hardware stores gathering fuel filters and other supplies we would need to purge the system and get running again.  Unfortunately, despite our best efforts, were unable to get running that day.  At 12:30, I decided to concede defeat, and admit that I needed a diesel mechanic.  Dad made another call to Mr. Canterra who put us in contact with Danny Craig, 410.708.3556 , who arrived at the dock by 8:30 the next morning.  

From the time that Danny arrived, nearly 20 minutes passed before we were running again.  Needless to say, Danny is a no nonsense mechanic who knows his stuff.  If you are ever broken down in that area, CALL HIM!  Once we were confident all was well with the motor, we took off.

In the next post we will head down the Chesapeake Bay.

Thank you for taking time to read this post.  If you are enjoying my story so far feel free to follow this blog.  

Take care,

Joe

Over the past few years I have spent a lot of time looking at various boats on the internet as well as at marinas in Virginia, North Carolina and Maryland in an attempt to find a vessel that I could potentially put into service as a charter boat. Unfortunately, there are many Charter Captains up and down the east coast that have fallen victim to the downturn in the economy and who are no longer carrying fishing trips for hire. As a result, there have been many boats on the market that would have suited my needs perfectly well.  Through my search, I have had the pleasure of meeting many good people and inspecting a lot of nice boats, but none of which I was particularly excited about owning, until July of this year. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The main tool that I used in my search was yachtworld.com, which is as close as I have found to a multiple listing service for boat brokers.  In my spare time, I would search listings of my favorite boat manufacturers including Markley, Robbins, Somerset, Hulls Unlimited, Duffy, Tiffany and others.  Over the years of searching this site, there was one Tiffany Yacht listed for sale (off and on) in Montauk, NY that always caught my eye, but because of the distance from Virginia I never really gave serious thought to the idea of owning it.  After looking at many boats last winter, and not finding what I was looking for, I nearly gave up until I saw that the 39’ Tiffany in Montauk was still listed for sale.  I visited Tiffany Yachts and asked the builder, Randy Cockrell tons of questions about the boat and decided that it was worth a trip to the end of Long Island to have a look at the boat.  As it turns out, Randy had maintained a good relationship with the owner during the years that he has owned the vessel, and he was nice enough to give the owner a call to let him know that I was serious about taking a look at the boat.  Within a couple days of my conversation with Randy, I received a call from Tom F. who invited me to come out to Sag Harbor to take a look at his boat the One Day.  I arranged (with Tom’s help) a train ride from Richmond, VA to East Hampton, NY.  Once there, I met up with Tom and his brother John who are two of the nicest “Northern” Gentlemen that anyone could ever hope to know.  Even though they didn’t know me from Adam, I was treated like an old friend the entire time that I was in their company. After looking the boat over, we had a great dinner & John even allowed me to stay in one of his guest rooms for the night.  Needless to say, I wasn’t sure of what to expect when traveling that far from home, to an area that I was not familiar with and meeting people that I didn’t know for the first time, but I quickly knew that I didn’t have anything to worry about. 

 

 

 

The test drive and my inspection of the boat went very well.  Mechanically, she was very sound.  The motor had minimal hours and I could tell that she had been well taken care of during the ten years that Tom owned her.  Overall, she was laid out to fish! Structurally, I knew that she was built well because of where she came from.  Tiffany Yachts has had the reputation of building quality vessels throughout their long history, and this one was no exception.  She was wide enough, and had plenty room in her cabin for 8 people to fish comfortably all day.  Her bow had enough flair to keep everyone dry while cruising in most weather that we can expect to encounter in the Chesapeake Bay.  Her sides are high enough that I will never have to worry about a wave making its way into the boat and getting everyone soaked.  In general, I could tell that she would perform very well in the waters that she was designed to work in, and she is a pretty good looking boat on top of all of this. 

I realized that I had finally found a boat that I was excited about owning, and that I needed to bring this boat back home to the Chesapeake Bay.   In short, it just seemed “right”.

Over the next few weeks I had a hull survey done, Tom and I came to an agreement on purchasing the boat, and on August 12th I returned to Sag Harbor to bring her home.   

In my next post, the fun begins.  We will start our trip down the coast. 

 

 

 

 

Thank you for taking time out of your day to read my blog.  Please return again soon!

Take care!

Joe