Realization's journey home began bright and early on Sunday, the 8th of May, 1995.
Our friend Ed Brady drove us up to Haverstraw Friday evening, May 6th. The forecasted weather for the weekend called for gale conditions both Saturday and Sunday, but we didn't want to wait another week, besides, the marina would have started charging slip fees had we waited any longer.
Friday evening we
loaded all of our gear and foodstuffs onboard, got everything
stowed, then spent our first night onboard our new old boat. We
were both excited about our new acquisition and the adventures
to come. Had we made the right decision?
Saturday the wind howled, blowing well over 30 kts. Realization was tied fast in her slip but the wind was hitting her hard on the beam and she tried to roll on her side with every gust. We decided not to leave the dock since the weather forcasted for Sunday was a little better than Saturday's. The extra time gave us the opportunity to get more familiar with her. The only time we had sailed her prior to the delivery was during the test sail. We test sailed her for about an hour on Haverstraw Bay when her owners showed us the ropes. Now we would be on our own in an unfamiliar boat in gale conditions.
We were up bright and early on Sunday morning. We wanted to set out before the wind began howling again. After breakfast and everything was stowed, I started her engine, a Westerbeke 21A diesel. She started right up and purred. Bruce released the lines and walked with her along the slip as I backed her out. He then leapt aboard her bow and I headed her out of the marina into Haverstraw Bay on the Hudson River. It was a beautiful morning. The sun was bright and the sky was deep blue, just like the day before with not a cloud in the sky. There was a high pressure system over us and it was moving quickly eastward. The wind would be increasing with the heating of the sun, and Realization's crew would be put to the test.
I had plotted our entire route and completed the trip log and float plan before the trip. With charts and trip log in hand, we were on our way.
For the most part,
the trip down the Hudson is very easy with lots of deep water
nearly to the shore on either side. Our route kept us close to
the channel during the entire trip down the Hudson. It was fun
to pass under the Tappan Zee and George Washington Bridges, bridges
that we had driven over many times. By the time we reached the
Palisades, the wind had begun to howl again. We were motoring
down river, but the wind was strong enough to make Realization
heel as if she were under sail and the river was choppy. New York
harbor was especially choppy with very strong wind gusts and a
raging outward bound current. We watched a J24 get knocked down
in the harbor, spreaders in the water. (I don't think that racers
believe in shortening sail, we've witnessed this phenomenom on
more than one occasion. It's either all sail or none.) I truly
thought that we might have to rescue them but they managed to
stay on board and the boat was lucky enough to right herself.
Then she took another hit. After that they took down her sails.
As we neared the Verranzano Narrows Bridge the river was flowing at 7 knots. We had also been travelling at 7 knots, according to the knotmeter, but since we were travelling with the tide, it became increasingly difficult to control the boat. We had to slow down. The river then tossed us out through the Narrows into Raritan Bay.
Once in the Bay we were subject to the full force of the wind and the Bay looked like an angry ocean instead of its usual self. (To this day I have not seen the Bay looking like it did that day.) We donned our foul weather gear early on, but as the day progressed we kept adding more layers. I was wearing 5 layers by the time we reached the bay.
The wind was coming directly from where we wanted to go -- Morgan, NJ at the far west end of the bay. We continued to motor head-on into the oncoming waves which crashed over the bow, the spray blowing over the dodger and into my face as I steered. While on the bay, Bruce sat safe and dry under the dodger, camera in hand, documenting our journey. We were both salt encrusted by the time we reached the dock.
We called the Morgan
highway bridge for an opening around 4:00 p.m. and made our way
past the bridge, then the railway bridge, and up Cheesequake Creek.
We turned off the creek towards Lockwood's and looked for our
slip, #14 on the main dock. Ahh, there was another boat in it!
We continued on and parked the boat at the floating dock down
by the fuel dock.
We were both tired after a long day in the sun and wind. The marina at Lockwood Boat Works is fairly well protected, so even though we had wind to contend with while docking, it was nothing like what we had just left behind on the bay. It was instantly warmer and Bruce immediately began stripping off the excess layers of clothing. I headed up to the restrooms. When I returned, the boat was gone. The yard workers moved the boat that was in our slip and moved Realization to her slip. Realization was home.
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Last modified: 19 January 2000