A Week of Too Much Wind

We left you, dear reader, last at Ocracoke Island, famous for its beheading of Blackbeard. We ultimately staid longer than planned, as a strong low pressure system developed just off the N.C. coast bringing wind speeds as high as 40 knots over a two day period along of course with plenty of rain. We tested our series anchor system again, chaining a fortress to the crown of our delta and then laying out 200 feet of rode (chain + snubber). The anchorage was well protected from waves but the strong and shifting winds were no picnic, the anchoring system, however, held perfectly.

From Ocracoke we sailed on the tail end of the strong winds down to the Neuse river and from there on to Beaufort N.C.. Beaufort was a neat town, with a nice waterfront and easy access to the necessities of cruising (laundry, groceries, beer). A little expensive on moorage but we wanted dock access as we thought we had a nice window to head offshore to Charleston S.C.

We left about 18 hours after arriving Beaufort bound for the Atlantic and we thought would be a sleigh ride south in 15-20 knot winds from the north. What we got was anywhere between 10 - 30 knots, but most ofter 25, and out of the ENE, especially after rounding Cape Fear. The waves were 6 foot plus with a 2 foot swell, so when on our quarter gave us speeds up t0 10.6 knots in a surf down the front of them, but as we rounded Cape Fear they waves became much more confused and more directly on our stern. Along with the wind shift we were suddenly sailing dead down wind, rolling from gunwale to gunwale. Needless to say seasickness became the name of the game taking its largest toll on Jake. No one on the crew felt 100%. As we got close to Winyah bay, an alternative to Charleston harbour the winds were picking up towards 30 knots. The decision was close because we were sailing so fast we arrived at the Winyah channel at 5:20 am so would have to run it in the dark. The channel is a class A, meaning that it is all weather, deep draft commercial channel. The buoys were all lighted and the channel easy to run so ultimately a good decision to come in early and short of our destination. We then came up to Georgetown S.C., a great small town and waterfront, which is a good thing...

In Georgetown we discovered that our charger/inverter had quick working. After a few hours of poking around with a multimeter the answer, as it is with almost all marine electronics now, is to ship it to the manufacturer. Debating this for a few hours we elected to do it immediately, thus we are now stuck in Georgetown until the unit is returned to us, which we hope is only 3-5 days.

Jake's 5th birthday is on Monday the 27th and of course we have Halloween, so plenty to keep us busy while we wait. One last note, we are staying at the Boat Shed Marina, which has been great with us, so if you cruise this way yourself do not hesitate to give them your business.

ICW Week 1 - NO The Other Green Buoy

Do you see the green buoy off of our port bow? asks Rae Ann, "yes I do" is my reply..... Dave the depth is decreasing WE ARE DOWN TO 4 FEET!!! says Rae Ann. "Oh s..t the other green buoy", followed by a hard turn to starboard, a lucky and generous wind gust filling the genoa, while already sailing 7 knots and we were back in the channel. Yes we draw 6 foot 7 inches so we were considerably aground, however because of our speed under sail and the lucky wind gust combined with a very soupy mud bottom we were able to turn to deeper water with almost no loss of speed much less any real impact. Better to be lucky....

The ICW from Norfolk VA to Beaufort NC has several land cuts and channels through shallow sounds. The incident above happened in the North Landing River, where the channel is 100 feet wide and 12 feet deep, though sometimes much shallower. However just outside the channel depths are 1 or 2 feet so the margin for error is very small. Nerve racking to say the least. The depths generally have improved a little farther south so getting a little easier.

We visited several different ports of call, Great Bridge (free dock), Coinjock (a way station on a canal in the ICW), Buck Island (open but peaceful anchorage, Belhaven (a nice anchorage but a struggling town with 8 of 10 store fronts shuttered) and finally Ocracoke, which is on the outer banks a bit of the way off the ICW. Ocracoke is where Blackbeard was captured and beheaded, has great beaches and generally a marvelous atmosphere ashore. With some nasty weather forecast we are happy to be stuck here for a few days poking around.

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Colonial Virginia

We left Deltaville and headed south ultimately sailing 10 miles up the York river and anchoring in Sarah Creek just across the river from Yorktown. From there we rented a car and spent two days visiting Yorktown, Jamestown and Williamsburg, with Williamsburg being our favorite. All, though, were very interesting and well balanced for kids and adults, with good museum quality exhibits mixed with hands on displays like carving canoes, which Jake really enjoyed. Williamsburg has been kept in essentially colonial "condition", although most of the buildings have been rebuilt. There are no cars, just horse and buggy or walking. We ended our very fun day there in a tavern hosting a Gambol, which consisted of a light fare, peanuts, games, live music and a magician - notably ample beer!. Fun was had by all.

As payment on all the fun above we had one long anchoring adventure in Sarah Creek. Although noted as a "good" anchorage, we had a very difficult time getting our Delta anchor to set, at one point using two anchors in series to calm the nerves while we were away from the boat. The anchorage was also small so we needed to reposition for the wind shifts throughout the week.

Lastly, we entered Sarah Creek at high tide, seeing on 7 foot spot (we draw 6 foot, 7 inches) attributing this to being pushed out of the channel by an exiting sailboat. However, upon further inquiry we came to understand that the entrance is only 6 foot at low tide not the 8+ feet our chart suggests. I went out then in the dinghy to sound the entrance finding the lowest and highest spots at low water. Armed with this intelligence we left on the 7:00 am high tide on Saturday, following the winding path with nary an incident.

It Stinks Here

We anchored in the Reedville area, known for its menhaden industry (a fish, I think the spelling is correct). The anchorage was a typical Chesapeake anchorage; shallow creek, mud bottom with good holding, well protected from wind and wave. We went to sleep under a beautiful starry sky. We awoke at 6:00 am, Rae Ann says "why does it smell like dog food?", well the winds had shifted to easterly and were blowing the aerial discharge of the fish processing plant right over our anchorage - so plans to hang out a couple of days became a mad rush to sail farther down the bay.

Backing up a bit. We left Annapolis and sailed to the eastern side of the bay, visiting St. Micheal's for a couple of days. A very nice town famous for its resistance to the British during the battle for independence, its most notable landmark being a still standing house that took a cannon ball through its roof that rolled down the stairs and out the front door. Today the house is aptly named "Cannon Ball House" least anyone be confused.

After St. Micheal's it was the aforementioned Reedville thus leading a speedy departure to Solomons Island. Solomons is a boating mecca a great stop. From Solomons we found are way to Deltaville, yet another boating mecca and where we hang out currently. We are meeting more and more cruisers as everyone begins to funnel towards the ICW ahead of any possibility of cold weather.

The Baltimore Washington D.C. Corridor

We have spent the last week and half visiting Baltimore, Annapolis and Washington D.C., the latter by car. Baltimore was a neat stop as one is able to anchor right in the middle of downtown as the channel dead ends there. We visited the National Aquarium there, enjoying the Amazon exhibit which took us back to our days in Brazil. We then proceeded to Annapolis, with a short stop in the Magothy river. Annapolis is truly a boaters dream. It is part college town due to the Naval Academy, meaning lots of places to eat and drink, combined with a huge selection of marine services. While we were in Annapolis we rented a car and drove to Washington D.C. for two days, taking in the Natural History and Air and Space Museum and walking all of the Mall as well as to the White House. I attempted to lend my counsel as to the since failed 700 billion bail out plan, but was rebuffed at the gates.

It has been a bit surreal to watch from afar as the financial debacle unfolds, afar simply because we cannot get access to updated information as often, so we can go several days which can seem like a lifetime in the current fast moving environment. We have also been lucky with one of our banks, Washington Mutual, in the middle of it all, but thankfully rescued.

We are enjoying the Chesapeake, although it is a little shallow so we are constantly on watch when going in and our of the various harbors. We will probably spend another two weeks or so in the bay before going to the ICW.

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Things that Work or Do Not

During our trip back to Washington State we had some work done on Nikita, the big item was getting the autopilot to work correctly. The autopilot would turn off and on at random intervals. I need to back up though. We had been dealing with two systems that were giving us fits, firs the SSB and second the Autopilot. Both of these systems were not working when we took delivery of the boat. However, upon advise of the contracted electronics firm (the same one that installed the wrong size regulator on our DuoGen and caused the fire! and yet remains nameless) we were assured that both were working fine.....

After two months of trying everything on the SSB, calling Icom, calling Hallberg Rassy, we finally found a gentleman (owner of Elco Electronics in Boston) to come and look at the SSB - 20 minutes later after switching the SSB and DSC antennas we had a working SSB, he was embarrassed at the ease of the solution and charged us a nominal fee. If in the Boston area with need of electronics work please send your business to Elco. Now one could argue I should have been able to discern the same problem.... or well anyway this was a big deal as the SSB is our primary communications tool, including sending this blog update via email.

With the Autopilot we were able to work around the issue using other control methods, but still was annoying. The yard in Stamford was asked to look at the issue and discovered a fluctuating current at the autopilot controller, after shipping to Raymarine and having it reinstalled it works perfectly and nice relief.

So while knocking on lots of wood, crossing fingers and praying I am not putting a jinx .... I think we have everything working as intended. I guess that was the whole point of a shakedown cruise over the summer, I would just have preferred the shake down without any problems!

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Catching Up from the Sassafras

We left Nikita in Stamford, previously a home for us for about 3 years, while we traveled back to Washington State to visit family. It was enjoyable to be around our families again, especially watching the kids interact with their cousins. We experienced quite a bit of luck, missing Hannah which blew through while we were gone, seemingly doing very little damage but I am sure would have created much anxiety had we been on the boat.

On our return to Stamford we were greeted by Nikita still on the hard without all of the commissioned work done yet. So we had one night sleeping on the boat on the hard and spent the following day hustling the yard staff to complete the work. We then had a nice weather window for Wednesday that would close Thursday for a few days. So we headed out and sailed 215 km (29 hour trip) to the mid point on the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal. The trip was a mixed bag; the trip down through NY was fun, seeing all the sights from the water, we got smacked with some steep waves leaving the harbor and had about 5 gallons of water pour in through open hatches (lessons.....lessons), were under motor most of the night down the NJ coast, a bit tedious, caught some nice winds early in the morning, and then got a royal pounding going up the Delaware bay with 3-5 foot seas, direct into the wind and current pushing us. We did get the currents right at each juncture which was a big benefit. After a quick respite at the Summit North Marina in the C&D canal we headed down the Chesapeake and are currently anchored in the Sassafras river. We will spend most of the next month poking around the Chesapeake before heading down the Inter Coastal Water Way (ICW).

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