Taming Some Jersey Devils

On August 24th we departed the Sassafras River in Maryland for Block Island, Rhode Island. Maryland had finally been dropped from the RI list of quarantine states. The trip was not as long as others but was technically challenging. The route has tidal constraints of the C&D Canal and the Delaware Bay along with variable winds in the Atlantic. We stopped for a few hours on the Bohemia River waiting for the current in the C&D Canal to flow East at 10:00 PM. While waiting at anchor a partially submerged aluminum boat without its outboard drifted past us toward the ship channel. We sent a securite warning on the VHF and were contacted by the Coast Guard a few minutes later. The Coast Guard issued a warning to mariners for our area and sent out a patrol boat to secure the hazard. We moved on at 9 PM and transited the canal with favorable current. It was strange going through at night. Once in the Delaware we found we did not have any of the predicted wind so we motored most of the night dodging a dozen or more ships. By sunrise we had reached the mouth of the bay, caught some wind, raised our sails and headed off into the Atlantic. The sailing was a marvelous beam reach up the New Jersey coast racing a big catamaran and a Swan 51. It was at this time we encountered Jersey Devil 1 (JD1), about 500 biting flies that refused to leave the boat. We do not know where the flies came from but they were relentless. Amy killed so many she broke the fly swatter and Jim took out at least 100 with the electric swatter. It was sort of like the movie The Birds except with flies. As of today we still have some stragglers in the cabin, but they are being picked off one by one. A little after 10 PM we were slapped with a 100 degree header and around midnight we encountered Jersey Devil 2. JD2 was an unforcasted breeze of 30 to 35 knots that lasted until 1 AM and 20 to 30 knots until 8 AM. It was crazy because there were only a few clouds in the sky and we could see the stars, so it was not squall. At the time we were hard on the wind so we ran off at first and rolled in the head sail. We hated to give up miles this way and considered other strategies. Heaving-to was not a good option because we were right in the middle of the NYC ship lane. As the wind persisted the waves started getting big. We could sail upwind in the wind but the slamming into the big breaking waves would be bad on the boat and crew. We settled on a strategy to motor sail with reefed, somewhat depowered main slowly into the waves that would allow us to keep on course. This was not very fast, but as the old salts say, offshore passage making is a marathon, not a sprint. Around 8 AM the wind settled below 20 knots and the waves kicked down. We cut the engine, pulled out the genoa and were back in business after taming JD2. The rest of the day had wonderful conditions and with good speed we were able to make Block Island and anchor by sunset to mount a final assault against JD1.