Rx: Going for Broke 

by Tom Greaney & Joe Carobene

1990

How would you like to leave Little Neck Bay and turn left instead of right? That's what four DYS mariners did. Joe and Terry Carobene, owners of Rx asked Tom and Lette Greaney to join them for a week's vacation to assist them in taking Rx , a thirty-foot Cape Dory motorsailer to its new home in Harve de Grace, Maryland.

What follows is an excerpt from Sunday, August 19th, the first day's log:

:0935- Seas calm, weather forecast good; possible thunderstorms in afternoon; higher winds not expected until late evening.

:1040- passage through Hellgate well timed and uneventful. Rx doing six knots and eleven knots over the bot tom.

:1150- buoy #1 Statue of Liberty

:1300- Sandy Hook- decision to go or not go based on same forecast repeated since start of cruise. Decision is to go for Manasquan.

:1400- Offshore, opposite Long Branch, N.J. Skies getting dark in Ambrose Channel to the north.

:1420- Hit by what we thought was a thunderstorm. Heavy winds and rain, seas building rapidly, but we thought it would be of short duration. Little did we know it was the beginning of a Noreaster that would last for five days.

:1450- Seas were six to eight feet and building; visibility was poor and no place to hide. Lette quiet- it must be bad! Tom steering,  Joe navigating, Terry holding on. Wheelhouse dry and warm. Boat heading south but being pushed to west and closer to shore. Joe calculates that we would not clear Manasquan on this heading. Have to head into waves and get away from shore. Will Rx take the pounding?

:1500- On with the harnesses and life preservers. Come off one particularly high wave and hit trough so hard engine jumps out of gear. Waves now approximately ten feet. Do not want to lose power or steering ability, especially now. Joe gets us back into gear. Speed of boat very important at this time. Too much can be as dangerous as too little. We are getting more confident with boat riding the waves, but must make decision to come about and head for shelter. The storm is not abating and we are still heading out to sea. Joe calculates two knots over the bottom. We cannot make good heading to return to Sandy Hook. We cannot continue this heading as nightfall approaches. Joe is now starting to suffer his usual bout of seasickness, but as we all know he will continue to do his job as navigator.

:1620- Storm very bad; wind gusting to sixty miles and hour; twelve foot waves building and extremely heavy seas. Joe selects an alternate destination and sets the Loran for a course to the Shark River inlet. Now we must pick the right opportunity to come about. We do not want to broach. Our thoughts are now on how the boat will handle a following sea with waves like this. AR along the radio has been jammed with desperate requests for help from the Coast Guard. Tom still steering, Joe still navigating, Lette still quiet, and Terry  yelling "Watch out, here comes the BIG one!" It's TRUE. With every seven to ten waves a BIG one does come along. We came about in the trough of one wave and again the boat speed was very important: riding the waves so that they passed under us. Joe adjusts the course to jetty entrance of Shark River, not the sea buoy. This course will avoid approaching inlet on beam seas.

Another problem quickly arises. A tug towing two loaded barges broke tow and Joe calculates that both barges are now on a collision course with Rx. Tom must now steer more to port and further offshore to avoid barges. On this new heading Joe calculates our speed will carry us ahead of barges. We clear well ahead of drifting pair. Meanwhile, tug working to starboard side of barges in order to regain tow.

:1730- We have been in this blow now for three hours and the adrenalin is still high and did not change even when Joe sighted the Shark River inlet. Joe now contacts the bridge tender who said that due to the emergency the bridge would open for us on demand (the bridge usually opens on half-hour intervals). The bridge tender assured us that he would stop all vehicle traffic and keep the bridge open for us as we neared the inlet. Bridge tender said that he had us in sight and wished us "God speed." We would have only one chance at this landfall. Waves were crashing over the jetties and many of the people from the town and the stopped cars lined both shores to see the show. We didn't disappoint them.

:1800- Just as we approached the entrance, a wave caught our star- board quarter and spun Rx 45 degrees toward the north jetty. Tom corrected and Joe increased engine speed to maximum. The next wave caught us square in the transom and we accelerated through the inlet. Tom felt he had seen wider driveways in Douglaston. People standing on both sides of inlet cheered as we passed through the open bridge. We cheered also. Cheered and hugged and kissed and acknowledged that special bond which forms when people hold together in a life4hreatening situation. Unbelievably, Rx sustained no damage- what a seaworthy craft! We slept in dry bunks that night. And this was only day one.