Stuck in New Jersey

Here we are Hans and Laura at the beginning of the trip, I wonder what we'll look like at the end.



Well, after being a ground last night for 9 hours and hoping that the incoming tide would wash us off our perch, a sea tow company radioed us and asked if we needed assistance. Grudgingly, Hans (who felt badly about getting us into the situation) accepted.



Actually it was a good thing we did. Our boat has a 2.5 to 3 foot draft and somehow we'd wandered into water that was never going to be much higher even in high tide. It appears that we washed in through low tide, kind of like water draining from a tub. Even with high tide, the winds would have been against us and just pushed us into shallower water.

It took the tow boat a long time to pull us out and we scraped bottom for a long time before he finally got us to a marina which is were we needed to go. Someone went and left the engines in neutral the whole time we were being towed and sucked all kinds of sand, and mud, and even small branches into the intake.

So $1000.00 later (Oh, Poseidon is having a blast with us!) we rehashed everything we'd done wrong and went to bed to await the deisel repair man in the morning. I shudder to think of what that's going to cost!

It's now morning and as I write this, there is a young man down below in the engine rooms trying to flush the lines out. They've already removed and cleaned the strainers, but this is slow going!

We also smashed a running light amongst other things and we're trying to replace those too.

Here's Hans sitting it out and waiting for high tide.

Here I am in the galley, whipping up yet one more gourmet meal.

Did you know that you can live on macaroni and cheese for a whole week?

Ok, I'm kidding. Actually we've had, spaghetti and meatballs, pork chops and cheesy potatoes, shrimp and sausage creole, toasted sandwiches, a hot Mexican dip with tortilla chips, french toast, eggs with bacon and sausage, and sloppy joes (We had these on our hideous 24 hour trip so I may not want them again for awhile). We still have ground meat for burgers and some strip steaks. We want to use our grill but it's been too windy so far.

We were supposed to eat ashore in NYC but since we skipped it, I was short a meal. So I cooked up macaroni, dumped a jar of salsa into it and grated some cheddar cheese over it. I added garlic and onion powder, and italian seasonings. I couldn't make macaroni and cheese because during our 'hell' night (as I call it) my half gallon of milk tipped over in the refrigerator and I lost all of it. Thank God the fridge comes with a built in drain, can you imagine what that could end up smelling like?

Here is a view from our bunk (I'm sitting in it to take this picture) and you can see the head at the end, with the shower curtain being the furthest away.

On the left is clothes storage and those handles flip down and let you lay your clothes inside. There are a total of 4 in that unit. Down further is a locker with hangers, It's very nice as the rod 'telescopes' out of the locker so you can hang your stuff up and then just shove it back in. Then next to that is a cupboard with shelves for even more supplies!

In our bunk is another hanging storage unit with a shelf, and at the foot of our bunk is a shelf for books or other personal objects! I could go on and on about this subject but I'll stop as I'm sure you're already getting the picture!

A mutiny?

It looks like Scotty and Frank are trying to make Hans walk the plank!