NEW YORK TO CAPE MAY (38:57.00N 74:52.90W)

13.9 Keir flew into Newark airport, and taxi’d to the Liberty State Park, where we were anchored behind the Statue of Liberty. Now with more than one hurricane on the radar, we were keen to get to a safe anchorage. We motored 20nmiles out of New York to anchor for the night at Atlantic Highlands.

0645 on 15.9 we set off for Cape May. We motorsailed 123nmiles in rolly seas, for 16.5 hours. We arrived at Cape May on a moonless night, and crept carefully up the channel into Cape May harbour, anchoring close to the Coastguard Station, where we had a macroburst the previous year.

16.9 After carefully calculating the timing of the tides to get around fearsome Cape May, with its shoals and shallows, we set off at 1030, rounded the Cape and set off motorsailing up Delaware Bay, keeping a close eye on weather forecasts from NOAA, the National Ocean Weather Service and Passageweather, which showed hurricanes Jose, Maria, and Lee moving around the Caribbean.

We learned later that we had done the right thing, as the weather deteriorated to 45knot winds and 16ft seas, as Hurricane Jose veered towards New York.

 From Cape May we head to the Chesapeake.