Week 22 – Cape Lookout Bight to Wrightsville Beach, NC – NM 2169 thru 2239

Well, I’m feeling a lack of inspiration & motivation this morning as I didn’t sleep much last nite. Full moon, overdose on french fries and high wind anticipation induced. More on that in next weeks blog. This post will be a collection of random thoughts on a couple parts of this week.

SUMMARY

Spent 5 nites in Lookout Bight (curve or recess in a coastline) this one being huge and surrounded by beaches. Its position confounded us as to what direction was what. I am generally spot on w/compass bearings, always have been; this area threw me for a loop every second. D’s compass bearing is not as good and he also struggled. Even our phones compasses were off at times; we’d stand side by side and I’d be facing E, D facing SW. Whatever! Just odd.

We spent a lot of time planning for the next jaunt of our voyage, fixing odd things, cleaning salt rust off hardware, cooking, eating, and sundownering. Winds were stiff a couple days impeding a beach hop w/Bo. The day we did choose to go, Adam Ant (Bo’s outboard motor) decided to act up and cough, spit, choke and die; repeat. So went to closest beach that if motor died on way back would be downwind to row back to Rory. Found a lot of cool shells, walked w/sand in toes, and watched the tide come in. D performed a Mantus anchor demonstration w/our 2.5lb baby dinghy anchor.

Lots of local fisherman in the Bight, meandering around most of the day. An hour or so before dusk an interesting phenomenon occurred. Small schools of fish would begin to jump out of the water, splashing and almost walking across the water. Pelicans and gulls would follow and land, followed by the fishing boats going at full tilt boogie to stop and aim their fly fishing rods in the middle of the school. We’ve experienced this before in the Pacific. It means the presence of Mahi Mahi. The Mahi chase the smaller fish. Witnessed a couple fisherman getting lucky.

RANDOM THOUGHTS 1 – One hour in the middle of the night in 17-25 knots winds.

Hyper-alert to any unusual/out of place noise (figure experiences as lifeguards do that; being able to look at a pool full of 250 people and spot the one in trouble). Get up look out window at next door boat’s proximity. Watch the extreme light being emitted by the 2 shrimping boats taking refuge in the Bight anchored on either side of us dance on the ceiling like reflections from a disco ball as Rory rotates. WHAT WAS THAT? Coat fell off of hook. At what wind speed do the tie down straps holding the dinghy on deck reach harmonic resonance? Get up and go out to check on dinghy straps, realizing that being colder out, the air pressure drops, and the straps become looser; tighten straps. WHAT IS THAT? Lip balm rolling back and forth on the shelf, bink bink bink bink. Secure lip balm. Get up and look at next door boat’s proximity. At what wind speed does the halyard reach oscillating resonance? Get up and go out to velcro the heck out of the vibrating shackle on boom. Go to sleep, kinda.

RANDOM THOUGHTS 2 – 12 hour voyage from Cape Lookout Bight to Wrightsville Beach.

0350 alarm goes off. Put on all the warm clothes you have. Anchor up at 0445 pitch dark out, leave Bight trying not to hit shoals at entrance. Oops; dark out turn on navigation lights and radar after 1/2 hr out. Alter course to avoid hitting anchored shrimping boats. Sunrise, ahhhh. Huh, wind (no wind) right on nose, ok motor for awhile. Loons?!? Loons on the ocean in NC? Really? Remember to look up-only migrating thru. Make Poorman’s Beef Stroganoff for breakfast. Scan horizon for whales.(beginning of right whale migration.) Listen to ICW radio chatter-‘Ship blah blah on your port stern, please slow down to allow us to pass’, ‘Hey ship yingyang, thanx for the wake’-extreme sarcasm, etc. Text sister-in-law. Still wind(no wind) on nose, motor some more. Bird, probably a juvenile Grosbeak, lands on anchor and then trots around on deck probably looking for a break. K scares it away by trying to take a picture of it 🙁 Scan horizon for whales. Do lunges on deck to stretch out calf muscles. Going past Marine Corps Camp Lejeune 14 miles of beaches 1 mile into the ‘danger zone’ not the ‘restricted zone’. Lots of ordnance being blown up. Hope the 5 other boats closer to shore don’t get hit. Conversation ensues-‘why do all branches of the military have planes? Isn’t that what the Air Force is for? Fiddle w/the dinghy gas tank to better stabilize it. Execute the ‘Rhonda Rule’ on a bag of crackers-‘not enough left to save, eat all or they’ll get thrown out. Continue military thread conversation-Elite forces for Navy=Seals, Army=Rangers & Delta, Air Force? Marines? Do an experiment w/engine. At 2200 RPM’s a warning alarm goes off for a second every 3-5 minutes. D takes a temp reading of all things possible in the engine area, no issue. Run engine at 2100 RPM’s no warning alarm. Huh?!? Do this twice. Scan horizon for whales. Introspection on how lucky we are to be where we are in our lives, not allowing us to take any of it for granted. Get excited, the wind picks up for a possible beam reach to our destination, wait our 15 min rule to see if it holds before putting up sails, no it doesn’t but turns directly onto our nose. Hope the kitty-cat boats(catamarans) closer to shore motoring faster don’t take our anchorage in Wrightsville Beach. Do some aeronautics in cockpit w/a piece of fuzz. Complain of stomach bloating due to execution of Rhonda Rule on crackers. Hour 9 of trip, why is the wind speed steadily increasing? It wasn’t supposed to at all. Scan the horizon for whales. Introspection on how very lucky we are to be healthy; 3 close friends are undergoing major health issues. Hour 9.5-12 of trip deal with winds building from 9 knots to 21 knots directly on the nose, waves build accordingly; Rory motoring, pounds thru the waves reducing our speed from 6.3 knots to 4.2 knots (punishing) until we get to the Masonboro Inset and Wrightsville Beach. Somewhat protected the wind/waves calm, we get anchored just as the sun sets, wheeeewww!

Five months into it…

Week 21 – Severn River, VA to Cape Lookout Bight, NC – NM 1931 thru 2169

WE MADE IT!!! We have just completed the longest passage on our own boat! 233.9NM, 46hrs, from the Severn River, VA around Cape Hatteras to Cape Lookout Bight, NC. We’ve each chosen 5 words to describe this voyage:

D => ‘Accomplishment’ – Well, yes we did it. Not every sailor has made it through CAPE HATTERAS. ‘Grueling’ – The stress of sailing your own boat and the personal & family risk you take. Now exercise that for 46 hours in a bouncing Atlantic Ocean in a notorious dangerous location. ‘Frustrating‘ – Really? The WHOLE way into the wind. Just please do what the forecasters say, NOW! ‘Proud’ – Super proud of K and her ability to get this done without ever giving up in the heat of the moment. It’s probably not in her DNA to take this kind of thing on, but she can and did and is stronger because of it. Wow. ‘Exhausting’ – At 61 years old, I guess 46 hours straight is not as easy as it once was. I bet it will be easier next time. Smile face 😉

K=> ‘Drone’ – the monotonous sound of the engine running for 46 hours. ‘Arduous’ – the most taxing of this trip and of any we’ve taken. ‘Toes’ – every. single. muscle. in my body down to the ones in my toes were utilized to maintain balance on the boat while underway and are henceforth sore. ‘Elation’ – upon anchor down, the euphoria that fills you about the fact that we actually accomplished this. ‘Confidence’ – SO much more gained in Captain D, myself but mostly in Rory girl herself.

Pre-Passage

We spent 5 days @ the Severn Yachting Center Marina on the Severn River near Hayes, VA. We utilized this time to prep the boat and ourselves for the trip around Hatteras. D checked all systems, fluid levels, managed to add a solar panel ‘wing’ (separate post coming on that) and ensure that Rory was good to go. K helped D some but mostly prepped food for the voyage (cooking while underway can suck)-stuff like making a pot roast, cooking a chicken, making rice, making pasta, cutting up & sautéing veggies-all for ease of throwing together while being tossed about the galley like a salad. She also got all of the safety equipment ready and made sure it was easily accessible. K also dug out and had at the ready all of the warmest, driest clothes for the trip.

Best of all we made some awesome friends from Canada; Sinisa & Katarina. They have had their catamaran at the marina for 4 months post-purchase and are converting her from a charter boat to a cruising boat. They are meeting up w/many of the obstacles that are plaguing the ‘system’ these days; supply chain issues, labor issues, communication issues; very very frustrating for them. To help ease their pain we enjoyed wine, appetizers, charcuterie plates and a delightful Croatian meal prepared by Katerina (Croatian) and Sinisa (Serbian). I was odd person out-3 engineers vs me; Sinisa was odd person out-3 Gemini’s vs him (worse in my opinion). It all worked out splendidly. They had a rental car and took us on our provisioning run for which we were/are extremely grateful; the marina was in the middle of nowhere and Uber, Lyft, taxis didn’t ‘come’ there. Again, this is why one ‘cruises’; to meet and exchange stories w/like-minded cruisers. It was actually very hard to leave because of them. However, when cruising one has the opportunity to ‘meet up again’. Pictures; one fuzzy, one Kat not smiling.

In response to our last posts comments about weather/wind planning our good friend, Mark M, who has made many many passages; offered up his advice and shared his method for departure wind planning. It involves building a daily chart, filling this w/wind forecasts for 0900 & 2100. Doing this daily prior to departure allows one to ‘see’ patterns in the wind forecasts and choose a departure time based on that. What a wonderful method! K the ‘spreadsheet queen’ from a previous life, jumped all over this and now D & I fill out the spreadsheet each morning w/our coffee. In planning for our next passage one can definitely see favorable patterns form (denoted in green shade).

Thank you so much Mark for sharing!!!

Sorry, I haven had time to add any ‘if/then’ formulas etc, but at this time simpler is better.

Passage

The Route:

Tues 11/09, 0800. Depart Severn Marina. Glass calm out so motor was on out the river, out of Mobjack Bay and out the Chesapeake. Forecasted wind direction and speed determined by the above method for this trip did not show up AT ALL. THE ENTIRE TRIP! Goes to show that data input is only valuable if the data itself is ‘good’; and that Mother Nature does whatever she darn well pleases. Of the 46 hr trip we had the sails up for maybe 10, while still under motor. Wind was right on our nose the entire time; when we changed direction, the wind graciously changed to remain right on our nose. GRRRRRR! Most ‘true’ sailors would state; ‘well, you could’ve sailed’. Of course we could’ve sailed. We would have been tacking left and right for 400 nm and it probably would’ve taken at least 2-3 times as long to complete the passage. Not to mention that many of those tacks would have dipped into the Gulf Stream which runs about 4knots north (against us). And the actual weather window closed Thurs nite with a low, wind and storms coming in. Anchor down before that please. Also, one ‘plans’ the sailing trip to utilize daylight to ones advantage; wanted to ‘see’ the entrance into the Atlantic, the rounding of Cape Hatteras and arriving at our anchorage in light. Another consideration in the planning process is noting the location of the Gulf Stream current which can and does move from day to day.

Would we have left knowing that the wind would be in our face the whole time? Would we would have left if we knew we had to motor the entire way? Unsure but probably not. If it were calm the whole way to get around the Cape, perhaps.

I have a post coming out shortly to explain the significance of what “on the nose” really means in sailing.

Didn’t really take too many pics while underway, but here’s a couple. Leaving, Chesapeake Tunnel Bridge, Atlantic, first sunset of passage by Virginia Beach 1700.

Wed 11/10, 1230. Rounding Cape Hatteras. Wow, up until this point the sea state had been incredibly bouncy. The swell was coming from the NE (previous weather pattern wind driven) but the wind & waves were coming from the S to SW. The swell(4-6ft high) would lift Rory up and the wind & wave pattern would help drop her bow like a rock; bow slapping as I call it, every 7th swell or so. Up down up down up down, you get it. Do you get used to it? Not really. Once we got w/in 20 miles of Hatteras the seas became very confused and bouncing all around. Up down side to side, repeat. Rory struggled to maintain a 4.5 knot speed going forward. That was coupled by the fact that we chose to maintain a 2000 RPM rate (rather than 2400) due to a potential ongoing fresh water cooling issue. Bouncy to say the least. I actually made a video of the swell/wave scenario but it just doesn’t do justice to the actuality of it all, so no video.

Pics- Red can signifies the ‘end’ of the Diamond Shoals, roughly 9 miles out to sea from Cape Hatteras. The Diamond Shoals area is one of only a few truly ‘uncharted’ areas on the oceans. Due to the fact that the ground beneath shifts, moves, roils too frequently for anyone to chart. IE. Avoid that area at all cost! D checking the chart, and the location.

Watches. We chose to do 2 1/2 hour shifts for night and 1 hour shifts during the day. The 2 1/2 hours gave you enough time to get all your warm gear off/back on (I would have SO won at a game of strip poker), get a drink of water, go to the bathroom etc, and yet get 2 hours of sleep. We slept on the settee in the salon close to the companionway to be able to hear an ‘all hands on deck’ call. It actually worked quite well. Me on watch, the chart plotter at nite showing the entourage of boats making the passage the same time as us. And there were a boatload(hahaha) of them. All saw the same wind/weather pattern as us. All motoring as us. Some faking it a bit, but still motoring.

Week 20 – Glebe Creek to Severn River, VA – NM 1819 thru 1931

Well, this week has been a game of wait, hurry up, wait, and then wait some more. The previous week we were waiting out a Nor’easter that brought us high winds and waves. The next two days we waited as a low pressure system blew thru that also had high winds and waves w/the additional bonus of flooding due to high tides. This week also included our longest sail to nowhere.

So what is it that we are waiting for? We are at the point in our cruising adventure where we need to dip back out into the Atlantic Ocean for a 48 hour passage from Norfolk VA to Beaufort NC to continue our voyage south. This passage goes around the sometimes notorious Cape Hatteras’s Diamond Shoals. Notorious due to the fact that those shoals sit incredibly close to the Atlantic Gulf Stream which is a strong ocean current that carries warm water up the eastern coast of the US & Canada before heading across to western Europe. It is known to make its own weather. I could add a whole bunch of info here but will refrain. One needs to have 48 hours of an almost perfect weather (from our point of view) window to make that passage.

Below are some of the tools we use to help in that decision making process. Note that most of these predictions are for Sunday the 7th and look at some of the wind and wave numbers – there’s a 74 knot wind gust at 1600 with the waves at 15-17 feet. Again these are only forecasts but one needs to put a bit of credibility to them. The sources are Windy, PredictWind, ProWindfinder, NOAA Marine forecast, Passageweather Gulf Stream forecast, and current buoy data from Marine Weather. Most are apps. Notice there is a lot of variation between forecast models. One could add a whole bunch of info on that as well but will refrain again.

Therefore we wait. How long? Unknown. Reading weather forecasts further out than 3 days and basing plans on those is not something one should do. Those are used to based on when to wait for the next current forecast.

Some may ask, “why not take the ICW” (Intercoastal Waterway) which starts in Norfolk and literally runs all the way to Florida? Answer – our mast is too high to comfortably pass under the bridges. Many of the fixed bridges one needs to go underneath all have their heights listed as 65′. Our mast height is 64′ 9″ (to the top of the VHF antenna) giving us 3″ to spare, even tho 15″ of that antenna height is above our other mast instruments. Then when you read a lot of cruiser reviews of the bridges who state ‘only at low low tide is it 65’, or ‘we went thru at low low tide but it was after a storm and it was only 63’ 3″ high; etc. Nope. Don’t need to break our mast instruments off. (Plus secretly we don’t really want to, no sailing involved, only motoring)

Below our current location, the ICW route w/65′ bridges marked as cautions and the Cape Hatteras route outside the islands.

Backing up a bit; back up to Glebe Creek. Where we were anticipating that low pressure system w/high winds and tides and preparing for them. The winds were supposed to shift w/the system so D aptly chose another anchorage around the bend to provide better protection from the East. We took off the bimini canvas to reduce windage of the boat and we put together our backup anchor; well, incase a backup was needed. BTW the photo shows an actual barometer reading. With D’s choice of anchoring location in the Coan River we never saw winds over the mid 20’s. However, just a few clicks away, buoys were showing high 30’s.

Longest sail to nowhere?!?!? What?!?!? Planning our next move; the low pressure system was past, the 8-10knot SW winds predicted would be perfect for a starting out on a beam sail then turn to a nice upwind sail, it was sunny, what else do you need? Our goal was to go 16NM east to the mouth of the Potomac River, and to an anchorage roughly 14NM south on the Chesapeake w/a backup anchorage only 9NM south. Beam sail to the mouth of the Potomac was s l o w, 5-6knots of wind tops, still ok, lots of time and nice weather, right? Approaching the Chesapeake the winds were building and as we cleared the headland at the mouth of the Potomac we were hit by 18-22knots of wind directly on the nose, in 5ft confused waves (confluence of river and bay currents) and fetch waves (waves that build due to unimpeded long bodies of water). Rory was performing great but was being tossed around like a cork. D&K weren’t very comfortable with the situation fearing something might break. SO, option 1) continue 9NM south to the backup anchorage; with the sea state and the winds continuing to build and having to tack multiple times to get there – nope. Option 2) an anchorage up a creek 2NM away – nope; depths too shallow. Option 3) go back up the Potomac 16NM to our previous anchorage (first one possible) – yep. SO 34NM from Point A to Point A. Did anchor in the 3rd of 3 branches of the Coan River however. Lessons learned? -Weather/wind/wave forecasts are not always correct -always check the current weather/wave status on weather buoys -accept the fact that turning around is OK! Did get an awesome sunset pic that nite; you knew it was coming!

Now what? We worked our way into a ‘staging area’ position in the Severn River to enable us to quickly get ready to go once that weather window opens up. We may have missed an opportunity by 1/2 day to move, but we weren’t quite ready. We anchored in 3 different locations once we were able to move south along the Chesapeake all with great views, dolphins (lots) and are now in a marina to get fuel, provisions, pump-out, laundry done, work on the boat and wait…

One can also never have enough dolphin pics. Pretend that’s a movie below. Sorry! The morning after these 3 were viewed we were passed by a pod of 30-50; a few w/mom’s and babies. The babies were behaving as such; throwing themselves in the air, landing w/loud splashes trying to outdo each other, splashing each other w/their tails, and always retreating back to mom’s side.

Below: The first setting up of the whisker pole this trip; worked marvelously even tho K was NOT in the mood to do that and was a bit on the crabby side. Need to get south – boat temps in the morning in 50’s! K’s method of warming up after a cold motorsail-use the engine heat!

Wait…

Week 19 – Annapolis, MD to Glebe Creek, VA – NM 1720 thru 1819

Not altogether an exciting week but moved further south which is a good thing. The nice ‘in the 80’s’ weather has passed and we’re entertaining fall-like temps in the mid 60’s. Not bad but I need to start wearing long underwear once it gets below 70. Will keep this post short.

Left Annapolis wanting to have some quiet time from the hustle & bustle of the city. Enjoyed Annapolis thoroughly, don’t get us wrong. Headed south sailing to determine our evening’s destination en route. The direction of our sail took us across the Chesapeake and into the Little Choptank River, name derived from the Choptank Indians who inhabited the banks in 1668. Plunked the anchor in Fishing Creek and proceeded to relax. We grilled out some steaks and watched the perfunctory sunset. As a bonus it was a full moon and saw it rise and set.

Liked the peace & quiet so much added one more evening to the anchorage. In the morning we struggled to get out of the mouth of the river. Had the sails up; should’ve been an easy exit but the wind switched every which way and neither the direction of the current nor the depth of the waters helped. Motor sailed much more than we wanted and finally got into the Chesapeake. Crossed the bay again to head to Solomons Island (aka Solomons), a quaint town w/a lot of sailboats around and threw the anchor down. A few things stood out in Solomons; the Chesapeake Biological Laboratory (please carefully read the Lab’s signage) and their studies on the impact of climate to the region, the Calvert Marine Museum and the CD Cafe. We thought at first the museum would be too similar to the one in St. Michael’s but went anyways. WOW, what a great museum. It’s more of a teaching museum and has aquarium displays to show the local fauna. It’s example of a screw-pile lighthouse was exquisite. And the CD Cafe? First encounter w/Key Lime Pie. Another process that will be closely evaluated the further we go south! Grade on this one of 1-10? 6.5-could have been a bit limey-er, too much strawberry glaze, whip cream a bit runny.

The Calvert Marine Museum. White ‘box’ structure off the side of the lighthouse? If you guessed the loo you’d be correct. It also included a lot of history of the area.

Also, have forgotten to include these photos before but the Chesapeake inlets are full of moon jellyfish. Which means jumping off the side of the boat when hot is not an option. They are called ‘Bay Nettles’ with stings comparable to the Stinging Nettles of the Midwest et al that our wonderful friend & travel buddy, Jodi H had a close encounter w/on her new farm. First 2 pics from side of boat, second 2 from museum.

Key Lime Pie (actually a tartlet).

Big winds were forecasted the next few days in association w/the Nor’easter that was approaching the upper Atlantic coastline so needed to find an anchorage with adequate protection from SW to N winds; planning to blow mid 20 knots w/gusts to the mid 30’s. Ended up going 33 nm further south ‘up a creek’ on the S side of the Potomac River. Glebe Creek to be exact and we are now in VA. Did we get the protection we needed; kinda, got more fetch from the creek than we would’ve wanted but Manny the anchor held firm. Did we sleep much? You figure it out. A squall went by in the afternoon, followed by a skein of geese followed by an evening w/winds blowing exactly as forecasted, in the upper 20’s gusting to mid 30’s (knots that is).

Kips to be had today…