A Mid Day Update

What a day. Unfortunately, we left our sick crewmember behind in Manasquan. Getting seasick has more to do with what you ate last night or the position of the moon than being strong. I hope he realizes that. We left Manasquan around 7:30am with a beautiful sunrise ahead of us and the attendant at the gas dock yelling at us - "Are you leaving yet?? We have people waiting to fuel!" Oh well, such is life. We left the harbor being chased by about 50 fishing boats. They rushed to pass us, leaving us to wallow around in their wake. Apparently, the fish were going to be gone if they didn't get out quickly.

We raised sails about 30 minutes after we left. It was blowing about 15-20 from the West, so we were able to actual sail direct to our next waypoint at about 7kts. When I say sailing, I mean sailing. We had our rail down hard, water streaming down the decks and spray blowing across the dodger. It was some of the best sailing I've done! Unfortunately, as happens on most deliveries, the wind starting going farther south and on our nose, so we kept pushing further and further offshore. At this point, the waves started building again and we were pretty far off course, so we dropped our genoa (the forward sail), turned on the motor and started heading in some. That's where we are now.

I'm going up on watch in 5 minutes and will be raising the sails again. Hopefully, we'll hit the Delaware around midnight - just as the current goes to flood. This should allow us to pick up an extra knot or two of speed as we head towards the canal. More later!