The rain started at 10:30 last night and continued raining off and on all day--mostly on. We were very happy to get a decent night's sleep in the vee berth, although the wind was blowing us sideways into the dock, so we were rocking.
Since we were stuck inside for the day, we put our free time to good use. We changed the oil and oil filter, the gear oil, and the fuel filter. So nice to get all of that done!
The wind was blowing incredibly hard all day. I was afraid I'd be blown right off the dock! The neighbouring boat's paddle board was about to sail right off his boat, so Carey went over and retied it.
We had worked so hard all day that we decided to treat ourselves to a lovely dinner at the City Kitchen. The name makes it sound like a cafeteria, but it's really an excellent restaurant with a chef who knows how to create a gourmet meals. Everything is so delicious, from their rosemary infused olive oil and focaccia bread to their shrimp and grits to their pan seared grouper. MmmmmMmmmmm.
Afterward, we slogged through the heavy wind to get back to our floating home. We were heeled over and smushed up against the dock with the strong winds, again.
Saturday, May 6, 2017
This morning, we borrowed the courtesy car from the marina and did some running around. First, breakfast at the Beaufort Cafe, then we got our small propane tank refilled at Country Air. After that, we picked up a few more groceries at Piggly Wiggly (love that name) and a few bottles at the ABC Liquor Store.
Then, it was back to the boat and back to work. Carey replaced the cooling water intake impeller while I did the laundry. Then he replaced the bilge pump and problem solved the same for ten hours, because of course it wouldn't work properly! Aaarrrrgggghhhh! He finally figured a solution around 9:30 pm.
While Carey was having fun with the bilge pump, I was equally happy spending ten hours to figure out that there was no way we could go up the ICW to avoid waiting for a weather window to go around Cape Hatteras. I called and emailed everyone under the sun and continually got bad news. The Wilkerson Bridge is only 64', so even at low tide we'd be too tall. The other route, through Pamlico Sound and by Roanoke Island would go under the 65' Washington Baum bridge. This would work if they had at least a 3 foot variation in tide height. Alas, no, their tide difference is less than a foot usually. The other option I looked into was to go through Pamlico Sound and out the Oregon Inlet. However, one of the marine towing guys I talked to said that he would definitely not recommend it for us. There is a 65 foot bridge over Oregon Inlet, constant shoaling, and whirlpools of dangerous water under the bridge. I guess we're doing Hatteras.
Sunday, May 7, 2017
The winds are much calmer today, which will help the swells lay down over the next few days. More navigating and planning the trip north this morning. We found out that there are no inlets to layover in from Cape Henry at the Chesapeake Entrance to Cape May (the whole Atlantic coast east of Chesapeake Bay). If we wanted to go the outside route in the ocean, we'd have to do another overnight passage. We really aren't fond of the overnights, so we will head up the Chesapeake, through the C&D Canal and down the Delaware to Cape May. Then, we can coastal cruise north and into the New York Harbor.
Today, we have another long list of jobs that have to be done. Carey removed the barbecue from the stern and set up our new, bigger, Canadian flag. (I insist on having our flag waving out there, but when it flaps against the barbecue, it gets shredded and rust stained.).
The only residual issue from the high winds is that the boards that we stuck over the bimini and under the solar panels disappeared. We didn't even notice they were gone for awhile. They blew right out of their slots. Fortunately, Carey spotted one of them on the dock here in the marina. Now, we just have to find the other one. (The other two slid out when we were on passage from Norfolk to the BVIs and are long gone.)
The next items on our list will be to put the canvas back on, fill the water tank, make raisin bread, empty the garbage, and remake the bed with the freshly laundered sheets. All completed by suppertime.
I made Margaritas and tacos for supper. Mucho gusto!
We checked the weather and it's a go for Tuesday to get around Cape Hatteras and get to Norfolk. Yahoo!
We have a beautiful sunset tonight.
Monday, May 8, 2017
It is chilly overnight, so we are sleeping with blankets now. It was 16 degrees C when we got up. The forecasted high today is 22 degrees, which is quite warm in the sun, but it's chillier with the breeze. It's still quite nice, but we wore light jackets in the morning.
This morning, we hoisted the Code Zero back up and put the last few panels of the canvas back on, plus fixed a small tear in the jib with some sail tape.
We planned to go to the hardware to buy a small piece of hose to create a loop for the bilge pump, but someone else was using the courtesy car, so I pre-made a tuna casserole for our dinner tomorrow during the passage and Carey stowed the extra fenders in our aft locker. Hopefully, the courtesy car will be available in an hour.
Carey loves all of the planes, helicopters, and jets that fly overhead here. There is a city airport right across the road from our marina, plus a US Navy Marine Corps Air Station just 27 km away at Cherry Point.
We borrowed the courtesy car around 1:00 and drove to the Ace Hardware to find a flexible hose for the bilge pump. They sent us to Ace Marine in Morehead. They sent us to Williams True Value over the second bridge in Morehead. Finally, we were able to get what we needed. Next on the agenda was to drive to the Taylor Creek waterfront. If possible, we'd like to move there for the night. Otherwise, we have to catch the 6 a.m. bascule bridge opening, because the next opening isn't until 8:30 a.m., which is after high tide. We checked it out and it looked like a go, so we will move. We made a quick stop at the Piggly Wiggly and then raced back to the boat to catch the 3:30 bridge opening.
I have to say that the people at Town Creek Marina have been fabulous and so very helpful while we've been camped on their doorstep. Thanks, Carol and team!
We caught the 3:30 opening of the bascule bridge, and motored to Taylor Creek. We tried to pick up a mooring ball that the dockmaster had suggested, but it didn't have a ring on the end of the pennant line. Carey dropped it and we motored further downriver looking for a possible anchorage site. The river is very narrow, with a fast current when the tide is coming in or out (which is always), and you are supposed to stay out of the channel when anchoring, so it was tough to find a suitable spot. However, we dropped anchor about a mile from the river mouth and about two miles from the inlet. We'll stay here tonight.
We saw a herd of wild horses on Bird Shoal Island, on the sand dunes, as we were coming down Taylor Creek and when we were at anchor. Horses were set free in the 1500s when Lucas Vasques de Ayllon's colony failed and the horses have thrived ever since. They are beautiful, healthy looking animals.
Tuesday, May 9, 2017
We lifted anchor at 6:45 and motored down the glassy river toward the inlet.
Even in the inlet the swells are very small, which is almost unheard of, in our experience. Great day for travel so far. We have to go all the way around the Cape Lookout Shoal, going southeast, before we can turn northeast. It takes almost four hours for us to get to the Cape Lookout Shoal light buoy. We can see breaking waves on the shoal to our left, so we are glad we didn't take a shortcut over the 12 foot section shown on the chart. Shoaling is a huge problem on the east coast, especially with the high winds and waves we've had recently, so we have learned to be cautious.
Today, we are doing an overnight passage to Rudee Inlet, just south of the Chesapeake Bay. We hope to arrive there late tomorrow afternoon or early evening. This trip is around 230 nautical miles.
Carey unfurled the main at 10:00 to reduce the rolling from the swells. The swells are still quite small, but since they are on our beam we do roll a bit. It's quite comfortable so far.
Throughout the day, the winds came and went, but the swells always stayed fairly small. It's been very strange the way the winds will go up to 14 knots and then die down to 6, then go up again. It did this all day long, so it was really hard to pick a sail that would work for us. On passage, we just put in time. We put up the sails, adjust them, switch the jib for the Code Zero, adjust the sails again, take down the sails, repeat, read our books, play iPad games (not Carey, of course), eat, clean up, and watch for other boat traffic (which is almost non-existent). Carey usually finds some reason to adjust something on the bow while we're out on the ocean. Today, it was the Code Zero that got stuck when we tried to unfurl it.
To get around Cape Hatteras safely, we have to go over 9 miles out of our way (to the east) so that we don't run aground on Diamond Shoals. There are a lot of scary stories about Cape Hatteras. They say it makes its own weather, probably because it's so close to the warm waters of the Gulf Stream. That could be problematic for us if a storm suddenly comes up while we're out here. We are trying to get around Hatteras as quickly as possible--in a sailboat--so we are leaving the engine running to give us the needed boost to keep us going over 6 knots per hour.
When we left Beaufort, the water temperature was 75 degrees F, but by 6:00pm our gauge was reading over 83 degrees F and by 7:45 it was over 89 degrees F and by 8:20 it was 91 degrees!. By the time we were rounding Cape Hatteras the temperature was up to 96 degrees and later it went to 100! These high temperatures mean that we are in the Gulf Stream. Let's hope the current from the Stream gives us a speed burst, too!
We took turns being on three hour watches while the other one tried to sleep. Sleeping is not easy on a moving boat, with the engine running, but we tried. As the night wore on, the ocean got even calmer. There are a few small boats like us out tonight, as well as several cargo ships. Most of them we don't ever pick up visually, but they show up on AIS. Thank goodness for AIS!
By 5 o'clock in the morning, the full moon had peaked out from behind the clouds on my left, and the sun was preparing to rise on my right, so it was relatively light. Moonlight shining on the water is quite a sight at night.
Calm winds and calm water this morning. We took in the sails at 11:00, because the wind died to just 2 knots, and continued motoring. I took my turn to crawl out on deck, to release a caught jib line. We always wear a life preserver when we venture out on deck.
In the morning, I emailed Cason Barco at Rudee Inlet Station Marina to see if he could haul out our boat to clean the bottom. It is covered in green slime, even though we got it cleaned two months ago in Puerto Rico. A dirty bottom (I know, it sounds like we need a diaper change) really slows us down and makes the engine work harder. Cason said they don't have haul out facilities, but he knows of a diver who could do it on short notice. I called Tim, the diver, and booked him for tomorrow. Fabulous! He will come to the boat around 12:30 (because he works all night at another job and needs to sleep). So, the plan is that we will anchor out tonight in Lake Wesley and, in the morning, we'll go to the marina to fuel up and get a slip. Once Tim is done, we can leave on Friday morning to start our trek up the Chesapeake.
After lunch, Carey went for a nap. We never get enough rest when we do a passage, so it's important to nap when we can.
Even in the daytime, we need to be watching the water ahead of us. We've gone by several milk jugs that are probably markers for fishermen. (Hopefully, it's not someone's garbage they've thrown overboard.) We definitely don't want to get the lines that are attached to these jugs wrapped around our prop. Also, an oil drum went floating by at one point. Hitting that could have caused serious damage to our hull. Every once in a while we see mylar balloons, which were probably filled with helium at one point and "set free." All examples of how we are polluting the world's oceans.
Just before arriving at the inlet, we decided that we might as well stay at Cason's dock tonight, too. It's cheap, and Lake Wesley looks pretty tiny, so it may be tough to find an anchoring spot.
We arrived at Rudee's Inlet at 4:15 and wended our way through the narrow opening to get to the Virginia Beach Fishing Station where we wanted to fuel up. It has terrible docks, with tall posts, ideal for big fishing boats, but not for sailboats that don't have rub rails. However, we were able to fill up, sidle out without hitting anything, and move to the private dock just down the tiny lake. Cason Barco and I had been emailing back and forth about this inlet and whether it was safe and deep enough for us. He offered us a spot on his brand new 80 foot floating dock (which is right in front of his house) for just one dollar per foot. What a bargain! We had an easy docking and Cason greeted us and said he would drive us to a nearby restaurant (which he just happened to own) called Rudee's On The Inlet Restaurant and Cabana Bar. We sat on a glider table and chairs. So fun! I had seafood tortellini with shrimp, scallops and tuna in a red pepper pesto sauce. It was one of the most delicious meals ever! The seafood is fresh caught daily right here. Carey had sea scallops that were as big as large marshmallows and so tender. Oh, my.
We walked the half hour trek back to Cason's house. We walked by Kerry Lane in Rudee's Inlet. (They got the spelling wrong on both. Ames, but that's okay. LOL) Seems like our kind of place! Once back at the boat, we had quick showers, read for a bit, and crashed, tired from a long two days.
Tomorrow, after lunch, Cason's cousin, Tim, will clean our bottom of all of the yucky sea moss that is growing there.
Thursday, May 11, 2017
It rained overnight and it is raining this morning. Supposed to be an all day and all night rain. Too bad, because we wanted to walk along the popular Virginia Beach boardwalk. Oh, well, we will stay in this morning and wait for our diver. The good news is that the fresh rain washes the salt off of RC Wings. She is saying ahhhhhhhhh. She loves a freshwater shower.
We did some planning and navigational work this morning, because after we checked the weather and realized that we will have big swells in the morning, we decided to find a place close by but in the Chesapeake. We don't want to try to get out of this narrow, rock bordered inlet in big swells. No, thank you. We found a harbor about 20 nautical miles north in Cape Charles, on the east coast of Chesapeake Bay. However, we can't leave until Tim, the diver, is finished with the bottom cleaning. Hurry up, Tim! (Tim works nights, so he is coming over after he gets some sleep.)
The new flag looks great! (So does the captain, or is co-captain?)
ReplyDeleteThat's the first mate! ;-)
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