Our Inaugural East Coast Journey
By Sue Redmond
In the fall of 2021, my husband Mark and I purchased a beautiful 2018 NC 895 in Portsmouth, Rhode Island. It’s now May 2022 and we finally were able to bring her home by sea this past week.
Our epic east coast journey took us from Portsmouth RI down Narragansett Bay into Block Island Sound then to Long Island Sound then down the full length of the Connecticut coast and into the East River. We passed under the Throgs Neck Bridge, the Whitestone Bridge, through Hell Gate, and into New York Harbor. We passed Lady Liberty and Ellis Island off to starboard, then exited under the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge into the open ocean. We slid down the east coast of Northern New Jersey just off the beaches and into the Barnegat Light Inlet. From here, we took the inter-coastal waterway to Cape May where we picked up the Cape May Canal which led us into Delaware Bay. At the top of the Delaware, we passed through the C&D Canal and into the Chesapeake Bay. We rounded Turkey Point to starboard, and headed up the North East River to our home port in North East Maryland.
Our journey took us 7 days with varying weather conditions. We had everything from bright sunshine to dense fog to rain to winds ranging from 5-20 knots with 4-6 foot waves. In short, we had it all!
We spent a total of 6 overnights along the way; transient slips were a challenge to find as well as open gas docks. Altogether, we traveled 530 miles and passed 40 + lighthouses!
Before we left we installed an East Coast chip into our GPS chart plotter. We also replaced the factory bilge pumps and reinstalled the thru-hull transducer which had become detached from the hull. Along our journey, our trim tab cylinder unknowingly became detached from the trim tab plate making it a challenge to dock in reverse but was an easy fix to install the two missing bolts from the swim platform.
Our only real mishap was running aground in the New Jersey intercoastal waterway. Thankfully, Boat US and our insurance covered our tow out of the clam beds.
Over the course of our 7 day journey, we really got to know the boat well and absolutely love it! The only minor complaint is a lack of storage - the aft cabin is mainly used for provisions and cushions — need creativity to maximize and organize for long trips.
Now that we have the boat close by, we can’t wait to get back out there and fully enjoy her. It’s going to be a great summer exploring our home waters of the Chesapeake Bay.
VIEW PHOTOS FROM THE REDMOND'S TRIP SOUTH
