1 October 2012 Weems Creek, Annapolis
I didn’t sleep very well at all. I woke up several times dreaming that we had dragged anchor and were crashing against the shore. At half past seven, I hauled myself out of bed and went up on deck to stare at the anchorage. Then I noticed that there was a Navy mooring vacant near the entrance to the creek. I dashed downstairs dragged Glenys out of bed and we motored over to pick up the mooring before anyone else spotted it.
Happy that we were now secure, we walked into Annapolis town centre and had a stroll around. Whenever we arrive a new place, the highlight of the first day always seems to be wandering around a supermarket – how sad it that?
When we arrived back at Weems Creek, Steve and Lynn on “Celebration” were anchored next to us – the last time that we saw them was in Deltaville in July. We ended up going for drinks and a pot luck dinner with them on another boat called “Wings” with Craig and Vicky.
2 October 2012 Weems Creek, Annapolis
It was a miserable muggy rainy day, so we got on with some jobs. “Celebration” had some grey sunbrella, so Glenys “borrowed” a yard and managed to finish off the dinghy cover – it’s taken her six months since she started it back in Puerto Rico.
I took a deep breath and took the carburettor for our 15hp outboard to pieces and replaced various seals and parts. You could have knocked me over with a feather when it started first time. We’ll have to wait and see if the intermittent fuel problem is fixed.
Steve from “Celebration” came over in the evening with his guitar and we had a music session – mostly him playing pieces of songs and me asking a million questions. He studied music at university and seems to know what he’s doing. I was relieved when he said that I was doing OK after three months.
3 October 2012 Weems Creek, Annapolis
It was another overcast day – we have to run the generator twice a day at the moment to keep the batteries charged because there’s no sun and no wind, making our solar panels and wind generator pretty useless.
We walked to Bacon Sails which is a marine consignment store and then onto a pharmacy to try to get a prescription for some Ramipril which I’ve been prescribed to reduce my high blood pressure. I’ve been taking it for five years now and have managed to buy it over the counter in the Caribbean island. Unfortunately, I can’t buy it in the USA without a prescription and I don’t have a doctor.
Lynn from “Celebration” had told me about walk-in surgeries run by practising nurses at CVS Pharmacy. The idea is to be able to get advice and prescriptions for small ailments without having to see a doctor. The nurse was willing to give me a prescription, but could only give me one month’s worth which was pretty useless. She was nice enough to not charge me the $85 fee for the consultation and suggested that I try a doctor up the road.
The doctor’s receptionist informed us that it would cost a staggering $285 to get a consultation with a doctor. I nearly had a heart attack there and then. I told them that I wouldn’t bother. My stress levels have got to be way less than they were five years ago, so I’m going to stop taking the drug and see what happens to my blood pressure.
In the evening, we went for a beer with Steve & Carol on “Innamorata”.
4 October 2012 Weems Creek, Annapolis
We went to the Annapolis Boat Show. Steve from “Celebration” kindly gave us a couple of free tickets to the VIP day which normally cost $35 each. It was a good show with a nice party atmosphere. We bumped into quite a few people that we've met over the past four months.
After struggling with sewing five layers of Sunbrella for the dinghy cover, Glenys’s eye was on an industrial "Sail Rite" sewing machine. We went to look at it a couple of times before she finally succumbed. I bought a second hand satellite phone, a pre-paid SIM card and a year’s subscription to an email compression service. We HAVE to get away from the States, so that we stop spending money…
I saw the sail maker from Deltaville who serviced our sails and told him that the jib luffs were too long and that they’d done something to the main to make the end of the boom higher. He suggested that perhaps the forestay is too short and the top of the mast has been moved forward which would cause all of these results. I think that might be right so I’ll have to get it looked at in Deltaville.
In the evening, we went to the Hallberg Rassy owner’s party in the evening with Maury and Bonnie, which was okay but a little reserved. Maury and Bonnie came back to Alba and stayed overnight.
5 October 2012 Weems Creek, Annapolis
I dropped Maury and Bonnie off ashore and picked up Glenys's new sewing machine, which we’d left in their car overnight. We spent the morning setting up the machine and doing a few little jobs.
Glenys played with her new toy in the afternoon and sorted out her sewing spares. We’re going to have to throw away her old sewing machine. It’s a great shame because Glenys has had it for over twenty years and it still works well, but it runs on 230 volts and the whole of America operates on 110 volts, so it’s no use to anyone unless they want to mess about changing the motor.
Both of our fridges are now losing refrigerant, so I recharged both of them – I may have to bite the bullet and get someone to look for the leaks when we get to Deltaville.
We went out to a Mexican restaurant with Steve and Lynn from “Celebration” and had another late night – I’m doing too much partying and need a night off.
6 October 2012 Weems Creek, Annapolis
The forecast was for a cold front to come through today so we delayed leaving Annapolis for a day. We went shopping instead. I bought a load of spare filters for the engine & generator then we bought some more food ready to go up toward Washington DC tomorrow.
We chilled out in the afternoon – I had an afternoon nap trying to catch up on lost sleep. Then in the evening we went to “Celebration for a beer or two and got drunk again.
7 October 2012 Weems Creek to Solomons, Maryland
It was a miserable overcast day and raining in the morning, but we decided to start heading towards Washington DC anyway. It’s going to take us four days travelling to get there, so the sooner the better.
We had good wind for most of the day, but it was bloody cold and kept raining, so we had to wear cold weather gear including gloves and hats. This is the coldest that we've been since we moved onto the boat eighteen months ago.
We arrived in Solomon’s in the late afternoon and anchored in St John Creek, which is very peaceful. Again the sea bed is soft mud and we hope and pray that we won’t drag during the night.
8 October 2012 Solomons to Canoe Neck Creek, Potomac, Maryland
We didn't drag – it was a very peaceful night, but again very cold when we woke up and warranted full foul-weather gear as we pulled up the anchor.
We had a great sail for most of the day with 20 knot winds, but it kept raining on and off. The route that we took was south down the Chesapeake and then north-west into the Potomac River, so we had the wind from all sorts of directions, which made it interesting. It was very cold all day, but Glenys raised my spirits by making a fantastic spicy vegetable soup.
We sailed 25 miles up the Potomac and went into Canoe Neck Creek, in St Clements Bay. It’s a little shallow going into the creek, but we never saw a depth less than three metres and we anchored in the beautiful protected creek surrounded by farmland and trees – one of the nicest anchorages that we’ve been in while in the USA and even better, we are the only ones in here. Unfortunately, it was so cold that we couldn’t savour the marvellous ambiance, but disappeared down below to turn on the cabin heater.
9 October 2012 Canoe Neck Creek to Sycamore Point, Potomac, Maryland
We awoke to a very cold, overcast day with drizzle and mooched about for an hour before finally deciding to go. The 15 knot north wind was dead against us and, as we had a long way to go, we motored most of the way apart from an hour when the river turned west, which allowed us to sail for a few miles.
The weather improved after lunch and it was quite pleasant as we passed Quantico under the power cables stretching across the Potomac. We had a tentative attempt at entering Mattawoman Creek, but my bottle went when the depth gauge showed 2.5 metres and we still had over a mile to go down the twisting, largely unmarked channel…
We ended up anchoring in 5 metres of water about 200 metres off Sycamore Point in good holding and calm conditions – lovely.
10 October 2012 Sycamore Point to Washington DC
It was only twenty miles to our destination, so we had a leisurely start to the day with a lie-in for a change. There was little wind, so we motored the whole way and anchored in Washington Channel, which is less than a mile’s walk from the tourist attractions. It’s a pleasant anchorage, but noisy with the sounds of a major city, a nearby airport and we’re in the direct flight path for helicopters flying in and out of the Pentagon. They pass over head at around 150 feet and we can feel the “whop-whop” of their rotors deep in our chests.
Theft appears to a major problem in Washington and there isn’t a free dinghy dock, so everyone pays $10-15 a day to leave the dinghy at one of the marinas, which are all locked up tighter than a prison. We first went to the Capital Yacht Club, but they couldn’t accommodate us because they’d run out of security keys to get into the marina docks. They were a bit sniffy, complaining about the large number of yachts at anchor –there’s fourteen and they say that there’s normally only four. We eventually managed to get a dock facility at Gangplank Marina which was a bit cheaper and much friendlier.
We went for a long walk around some of the tourist attractions – Jefferson Monument, Lincoln Monument, Vietnam Memorial, etc. It’s all very spread out, but it was good to stretch our legs.
I was quite taken by a small part of the memorial to Thomas Jefferson. He was a very productive chap being a politician, architect and philosopher and there’s a quotation from a letter that he sent to someone proposing his own epitaph. It’s something that I never really thought about – what have you done in your life that you want people to remember you by? Perhaps that’s what drives people to want to be famous…
As night fell, it was a little bit windy with 20+ knot gusts and we were a little bit too close to an American yacht, which is veering around the anchorage. It’s a “Florida sailing caravan” with a high cockpit catching a lot of wind and to make matters worse they’re on a long rope anchor rode. Why on earth do these Americans like to anchor on bits of string?
11 October 2012 Washington DC
It was another cold day, meriting socks and shoes. We upped anchor and went to the end dock at the Gangplank Marina to fill our water tanks. It was so cold that Glenys had to put on her foul weather jacket while holding the hose pipe in the tank filler.
We struggled to anchor. We didn’t want to anchor by the side of the veering American boat and the first place that we chose, we dragged very quickly. After a bit of deliberation, we anchored closer to the shore and the anchor sort of held – Chesapeake hope and pray again. It’s funny how I still feel pressurised when we’re anchoring. I hate the thought that people are watching us being indecisive and not being able to anchor first time. I can almost hear them saying – “Huh, they don’t know what they’re doing.”
We walked into town and spent hours and hours wandering around the Natural History Museum. There are so many things to see that you could spend a few days there. By mid-afternoon, our brains had turned to mush with so much information, so we walked across to stare at the White House – not very interesting because it’s at the end of a very long garden. We decided to walk to China Town, but that was disappointing because it only covers one block. They have an impressive China Town arch, but I think that it should be called China Street.
The outboard motor conked out as we were motoring out of the marina, so we had to paddle back to the boat. I stripped the carburettor down and got it going again. I couldn’t see anything obvious, but I suspect that we’ve now got water in the fuel.
12 October 2012 Washington DC
We had a lazy start to the day and wombled up to the Air & Space Museum. (If you’re not familiar with wombling, it comes from the odd, but brilliant TV series “The Wombles” and is a verb. To womble or to go wombling is to do something aimlessly, not aiming for anything in particular, and not being stressed when you realise you haven’t achieved anything, which basically describes my life.)
We gazed in awe at the aircraft and space vehicles in the Air & Space Museum for a couple of hours and then retired to McDonalds for some brain food – well, fat and coca-cola actually, but it gave us enough energy to walk up to the Capitol Building, which was impressive.
On the way back, Glenys persuaded me to go into the National Arboretum, which was surprisingly good. We then went into the “National Museum of the American Indian” – a bit of a mouthful but there was a brilliant section about the role of the horse in America. I was amazed to discover that horses were extinct in North America until Columbus imported twenty five horses in 1493. Although jealously guarded by the Spaniards, the American Indians slowly managed to get hold of horses, which rapidly became a major part of their culture.
The wind was gusting 25 knots when we came out of the museum and I had a panic attack about the soft mud in the anchorage, so we went back to the marina to check that Alba was still there. God bless her she was, so we went back to the wonderful fish market to get some prawns and then to the supermarket to pick up some more food ready go south tomorrow.
13 October 2012 Washington DC to Canoe Neck Creek
The alarm clock went off at half past six – it was dark and cold. Glenys drew the short straw and got up first dashing into the saloon to turn on the cabin heater. We left at seven o’clock just as dawn was breaking and motored out of the anchorage.
We had no wind all day, so it was a boring and long journey, motoring from buoy to buoy. The highlight of the day was passing “Eye Candy” who were on their way up to Washington. We chatted to Andrew and Clare for ten minutes to give them the low-down on the anchorage and what we did in Washington.
We managed to anchor in Canoe Neck Creek about 30 minutes before sunset – a close run thing. It was low tide as we negotiated the narrow, shallow channel and I was a little perturbed when the depth sounder suddenly started flashing “Last”, meaning that it was no longer operating and the last depth displayed was only 2.3 metres. We just dropped the anchor where we were – if we go aground during the night it’s only mud and the tide will lift us off. The holding in this bay is brilliant.
14 October 2012 Canoe Neck Creek to West Yeocomic River, Virginia
It was a beautiful sunny morning. We lurked around until ten o’clock to let the tide rise a little. We had a lovely sail across the bay with 15-20 knots winds in brilliant sunshine, we even took the trouble to tack into the entrance to the Yeocomic River.
We anchored in a lovely little bay in the West Yeocomic River just before Kinsale marina. The bottom is soft mud and we struggled to get the anchor to hold again, but the forecast is for settled weather tonight.
15 October 2012 West Yeocomic River, Virginia
The forecast was for a cold front to go through the area during the afternoon, so we decided to stay put and go down to Deltaville tomorrow. The winds were predicted to be 25 knot winds veering from south-west to north-west tonight, so we moved across the river just off Great House Point which was more protected from the West. It seemed to be better holding too, which was an added bonus.
In anticipation of having loads of stuff delivered to us when we get to Deltaville, we went through our storage lockers and looked what we could get rid of – unfortunately not a lot. To make matters worse, I went through all of my spare parts and decided that I need to buy quite a few things before we leave the states, fortunately they are small (but expensive things) like impellers and service kits.
The wind wasn’t too bad as darkness fell.
16 October 2012 West Yeocomic River to Deltaville, Virginia
We left at crack of dawn – bloody freezing. We had fairly strong winds for first half, but at least it was blue skies.
When we arrived in Deltaville in the late afternoon, I went to see Chuck (our “project manager”) to make sure that he’s got everything in hand. We should start getting things done tomorrow, which will be a miracle.
We stopped off at the boat yard stores, picked up a load of parcels that have been delivered and retired back to the boat to have an early Christmas. Miraculously most things have arrived safely; there a couple of things still on the way, but our new satellite phone isn’t among the parcels. I know that it’s been delivered here, but we’ve not got it – very worrying.
17 October 2012 Deltaville, Virginia
I feel like I’ve never left Deltaville. I hassled Chuck four or five times today to get things moving. Jerry Latell from the sail loft came out with Clifton the rigger to look at my sails and rig. The conclusion was that the rig was fine – the rake and bend in the mast looked okay. Jerry thought that the high boom was okay, but he took away the genoa and stay sail to shorten the webbing loops on the luff on both sails.
I totally failed to get Mack the engineer on board to look at the water leak on our generator. Eventually after numerous phone calls and trips ashore to hassle Chuck, he rang me back and told us to go onto the end of one of the marina docks, so that Mack can get access to the boat tomorrow.
While waiting around, I started to run the wiring to the LED projector. It was one of those jobs that I wish I’d never started - a small hole in a cabin wall turned into a big hole as I tried to get the connectors on the wires though and, to make matters worse, it’s a structural bulkhead with thick fibre-glass in the middle of the wall – hard work and I’ve now got a big hole in our beautiful mahogany wall to repair.
18 October 2012 Deltaville, Virginia
Mack was on board first thing in the morning and sorted out the leaking water hose on the generator. He undid two of the generator mounts and was able to lift the generator enough to get at the heat exchanger hose clamps. It only took him a couple of hours to replace the hose and check it over – it would have taken me days.
I used one of the courtesy bicycles and went shopping for parts and more spares ready for when we leave the USA. I managed to blow $400 in two hours and I’ve still got over thirty things on my list. Back on the boat, I fitted our new car stereo unit, which is only a cheap one, but plays MP3 files and has two Aux ports for connecting to other devices. I’ll now be able to wire in our media player, so that we can play the sound from films in our new home movie theatre.
In the afternoon, I borrowed the courtesy car and took some small fabrication jobs around to Wes. Hopefully, he’ll be able to do them early next week. Meanwhile Glenys was stocking up at the supermarket. On the way back, we picked up the sails which now have webbing loops that are four inches shorter.
Robert and Heidi from “Nuwam” came for dinner and told us about their trip to Cuba. They also enthused about Jamaica and the Cayman Islands, so I’m trying to work those islands into our plan. We’re now thinking that we’ll miss out the Bahamas, go down through Florida to Key West and then across to Havana for Christmas in Cuba.
19 October 2012 Deltaville, Virginia
I had a terrible night’s sleep. I've had a cold for a few days now and spent most of last night coughing, clearing my throat and blowing my nose - it’s turned into proper Man-flu. Glenys was kept awake for most of the night. When we lived in a house, she used to get up and go to sleep in our spare bedroom, but she can’t escape me because the boat is such a mess at the moment with stuff piled everywhere.
Clifton the rigger arrived at half past seven, attached the rod kicker with Monel rivets and re-tuned the standing rigging. Hopefully, the new rivets will stand the test of time. We filled up with diesel and went back out to anchor.
Glenys dug out her new sewing machine and started to make a deployment bag for the Series Drogue, while I borrowed a car from John on “Hope Floats” to get our cooking gas bottle filled. Unfortunately, the valve is leaking and they have to replace the valve. It’s an aluminium bottle with some corrosion around the neck where the valve screws in, so they may not be able to get it out without damaging the threads. Fingers crossed that they can replace it okay because it will cost $250 for a new propane bottle.
In the afternoon, we put the jib and staysail back on and thankfully, I can get the luffs tensioned properly. I then went up the mast and fitted a new wind sensor, so our wind instrument now displays the wind direction – we’ve had a smiley face covering the wind instrument display since May…
The boat looked like a bomb had hit it, with new gear and cardboard boxes piled everywhere , so I did a major tidy up and got everything ship shape ready to cause more chaos tomorrow. I played around with our satellite phones now that we’ve got an activated SIM card. The old one works, so I’ll be selling that on eBay and the new one works much better. I now need to spend a day in the marina lounge, downloading the software and figuring out how to get weather sent to me via satellite phone.
We had a quiet night in and watched a film with great sound through our new stereo system.
20 October 2012 Deltaville, Virginia
We had another restless night with my Man-flu. I wasn’t feeling up to doing much work so I had a tidy up day and pulled out all of the stuff out of the lockers under the front berth. We have some lovely solid wood, folding director’s chairs that are intended to be used to seat people at the dining table. We’ve only used them once in eighteen months, so I’ve reluctantly decided that they have to go. I also found some other junk hidden away including a nasty-looking 8 foot trident fishing spear and a small spear gun. Some of it went to the skip and the chairs have gone onto a For Sale notice in the Marina Lounge.
I rigged up our new asymmetrical spinnaker, with a snap shackle on the tack and a nice new 7/16” sheet. I pulled it up the mast to check that the length of the sleeve was okay and then reluctantly stowed it away – I can’t wait for a low wind day now…
We watched a film in the evening again – this is rapidly turning into a habit – TV dinners...
21 October 2012 Deltaville, Virginia
Yet another restless night with my Man-flu. I decided to spend most of the day on internet related stuff, so I went into the marina lounge to get a decent connection. I did the accounts, paid off our bulging credit cards, downloaded software for the satellite phone and upgraded the iPad which keeps insisting that it connects to the internet to do anything.
I was so tired in the afternoon that I had to have a nap – I’ve never been very good at being ill.
Glenys did some more sewing. The zips on the spray hood have been falling apart from the exposure to the sun, so she replaced them. She also made a mosquito cover for the security bars for the companionway.
The fridge and freezer are still leaking, so I’ve bought some R134a refrigerant which contains some dye that fluoresces when an ultraviolet light is shone on it. I recharged the fridge and freezer with this stuff and will check in a couple of days to see if I can see the dye leaking out of a pipe or fitting somewhere.
We watched another film – its definitely a habit now.
22 October 2012 Deltaville, Virginia
We had another restless night with my Man-flu, but I felt a little bit more energetic today, so I spent most of the day running a new antenna cable for the satellite phone. It was a real mission - clear the lazarette of all the junk that we store in there, remove the old cable, then run the new cable through the arch tubing, along the lazarette and then along the back of seven lockers. I was glad when I finished after five hours of cursing.
In middle of the job, I borrowed John’s car again and picked up our gas bottle, thankfully they’ve been able to replace the valve. I called in at Nauti-Nell’s consignment store and picked my things which have been on sale for three months – nothing sold. I’ve now got three large hatches and a 35lb CQR anchor cluttering up our deck. I’ve added them to our For Sale notice in the marina lounge.
Having installed the antenna cable, I played with the satellite phone and tried to get it to connect to my laptop. I had a massive scare when trying to install a driver – the laptop crashed with the “Blue Screen of Death” and it took me an hour to recover it. I then rang the support desk at Ocens and they sorted out the correct driver, so I now have a working satellite data system – we can send and receive email from anywhere in the world – yahoo!
We invited Joe & Lizbet from “San Miguel” over for a beer or four.
23 October 2012 Deltaville, Virginia
We spent the whole morning running around, shopping and picking up things that we’d ordered. Chuck swapped me a case of beer for one of my old hatches and Ed in the marina office bought the two directors chairs for $70, which is better than throwing them in the skip.
In the afternoon, I tidied up some wiring and fitted the projector screen permanently in place. I still need to install the media player into a permanent position, but our home entertainment theatre is near completion.
We went to “Nuwam” for dinner with Robert and Heidi who treated us to fresh oysters and mahi-mahi. Unfortunately, my new crown (fitted here in August) came loose during the meal which dampened my spirits a little bit.
24 October 2012 Deltaville, Virginia
I rang the dentist at eight o’clock, but their Deltaville surgery is closed today. They offered me an appointment at another surgery which is 25 miles away, but I have no way of getting there, so I arranged to see them tomorrow morning. In desperation, I pushed my crown back onto the tooth and it seemed to “click” into place and held okay.
We’ve done a lot of motoring since I last did a service on the engine in Maine, so with a feeling of doom, I decided to service the engine and the generator. After prevaricating for forty five minutes, I checked how many hours we’ve run the engine since the last service and found to my joy that we still have another 60 hours to go!
The next job on my list was to change the hoses that bring sea water from the sea cock to the engine. This is another job that I’ve been putting off, but it actually turned out to be fairly straight forward. It was made easier by my recent purchase of a “hose pick”. This tool makes it very simple to remove hoses – I’ve had to use screwdrivers and a Stanley knife to remove the damn things up to now. This is the best eight dollars that I’ve spent in a long time.
The afternoon was spent doing a few more little jobs and preparing to leave the day after tomorrow. Glenys found a leak on the dinghy and patched it. Hopefully this fixed the damn leak that has forced me to pump the dinghy up every day for the past two months.
25 October 2012 Deltaville, Virginia
I went to the dentist at half past eight, thinking that they would just stick the crown back on. The dentist was very apologetic and said that some of my tooth had pulled off with the crown and he wanted to have a new crown made. That will take a week, but the last thing I want is a dodgy tooth when I’m 30 days from land in the middle of the Pacific Ocean …
Before agreeing, I double checked that this new crown wasn’t going to cost me another $1200, but was assured that this would be fixed free of charge. I was in the chair for over an hour while he put a couple of pins into the tooth and built it up so that there’s a lot more surface area on which to stick the new crown.
There’s a big hurricane (Sandy) coming north through Cuba and the Bahamas. It’s forecast to track a few hundred miles off Florida, Georgia and South Carolina and is expected to hit the US coast somewhere north of the Chesapeake. The weather forecasters are not too sure where it is going and there’s some uncertainty about how much wind we’ll get here.
After a lot of deliberation, we decided that it would be better to head south down to the Inter-Coastal Waterway, south of Norfolk, to be in more sheltered waters. After a telephone conversation with Steve from “Celebration” who knows the area well, we’ve decided to sail down to Great Bridge tomorrow. This small town is on a canal behind a lock and has a couple of free docks where we can tie up. If Hurricane Sandy is going to produce winds greater than 40 knots then there’s a very protected marina in Great Bridge where hopefully, we’ll be able to find shelter.
We feel happier that we’re doing something positive to protect Alba rather than hanging around Deltaville. We’ll have to hire a car and drive back to see the dentist in a week’s time, but that’s only an hour’s drive and we can see a little bit more of Virginia.
26 October 2012 Deltaville to Old Comfort Point, Virginia
We set off at seven o’clock and had a great sail south. The winds picked up slowly from 15 knots to 25 knots, but at least it was behind us. As we approached Norfolk, it started to rain which made it a bit miserable.
On the way down, we rang the marina in Great Bridge and found that they were completely full because of Hurricane Sandy. It appears that everyone else has had the same idea to get behind the lock and we suspect that the public docks in Great Bridge will be chocker block as well. This gave us a dilemma about where to go. We talked to Andrew from “Eye Candy” who is in the public dock in Portsmouth. He told us that there were six boats in the small dock, but they could probably squeeze us in.
We decided to go to the Old Comfort Point anchorage and see what the weather forecast is tomorrow morning before we make a final decision on where to go. On the way into the anchorage, Glenys noticed that the Comfort Point marina had a sign saying that it was now open to the public (it used to be a military-only marina.) After we anchored, I rang the marina and found out that they have free berths and it will only cost $1.50 per foot. We booked ourselves in for three nights from tomorrow, which is when the weather will be worst.
It was windy as night fell, but we were pretty secure with good holding for the anchor.
27 October 2012 Old Comfort Point, Virginia
We had a restless night. I was woken at three o’clock by the wind generator whirring like a dervish, so I turned it off. It was difficult to get back to sleep after that because I was worrying about Hurricane Sandy. The wind seemed to be stronger than forecast, so had Sandy intensified or the track changed?
We listened to the weather forecast over breakfast. Hurricane Sandy has 75 knots winds and is expected to pass to the east of us. On Sunday it will curve inland and hit the coast on the border between Delaware and New Jersey which is only 150 miles to the north of where we are. They’re predicting sustained winds over 40 knots on Sunday and Monday with gusts as high as 55 knots which is pretty gnarly. There was no point in waiting around, so by half past eight we were motoring into the marina.
We spent the whole of the morning preparing the boat for high winds. I doubled up all of the ropes tying up us to the floating dock and the piles. We removed the head sails, took down the bimini and lashed the frame down. I put the dinghy on the front deck and wandered around packing away anything loose like the dan buoy, fishing rods, buckets, etc. By lunch time we were ready, so it was then a matter of waiting for the storm to arrive.
There’s a going to be a storm surge on Sunday night and Monday morning, which will raise the level of the high tide by up to four feet. This means that the protective wall around the marina may be underwater and any waves from the west will come into the marina. The marina staff have told us that we need to be off the boat if the winds pick up above 40 knots because the floating docks get bounced around so much that it’s almost impossible to walk on them. They’ve arranged that we can use the yacht club building, which is not being used, but is clean and pleasant. There are a couple of other transient yachts booked into the marina, so we might all be camped out on Sunday night.
It started raining in the afternoon, so I lurked around below while Glenys went to do some laundry. The wind was only 25 knots as darkness fell, so we cracked open a bottle of wine and watched a good movie.
28 October 2012 Old Comfort Point, Virginia
The wind wasn't too bad last night. It’s still from the north so the marina is fairly well protected by the land and trees. The forecast is for the wind to increase to 35 to 40 knots with gusts to around 55 knots this afternoon and overnight – it’s going to rain most of the day, but we’re nice and snug in our berth.
One of the irritating things about going into a US marina is that we hardly use any of the facilities – most of the time it’s too inconvenient to walk to use the showers in the evening, so we use our own. The shore power is of no use to us because our electrical system is 230V at 50 Hz. The USA power is all 60Hz, so we can’t use it at all – we can’t even use our battery charger. As a result, I’m having to run the generator twice a day to top up our batteries. The only thing that we use is the toilets.
After lunch, we went for a walk into Pheobus which is a mile or so away. We realised how strong the wind was as we staggered across an exposed bridge on the way. The marina is quite sheltered by trees and buildings from the North east. There wasn’t much to the town, but we managed to buy a loaf of bread and some milk at a garage. We were wet through when we arrived back at the boat – our waterproof clothing is not waterproof enough.
The wind backed to the north in the evening and picked up to 40 knots with gusts over 50 knots. We shut the curtains and had another TV dinner.
29 October 2012 Old Comfort Point, Virginia
It rained and the wind howled all night, but we slept soundly. The temperature has dropped with the cold north wind, so it was hard to drag myself out of the warm duvet this morning. The wind had dropped slightly, but it was still pouring it down. At high tide this morning, the predicted storm surge had raised the water level by an additional four feet and the protective wall around the marina was underwater. Fortunately the wind was still from the north east, so the waves were not affecting us much.
After breakfast, I donned full foul weather gear and went outside to check the ropes and to move the running backstays that were starting to slap against the mast as the wind backed to the north west. I was drenched after a few minutes of padding around the deck.
The wind backed more to the west as the day drew on and increased in strength to 45 knots with gusts up to 60 knots. By late afternoon, the wind was on our port beam and we had waves coming into the marina hitting our port aft quarter. It was extremely bouncy with the ropes creaking and waves slapping under our sugar scoop with a loud bang. In addition, it stayed cold and our cabin heater has decided to play silly buggers and won’t come on - it wasn’t very pleasant.
Just before dark, I spotted Dave from a couple of boats away trying to get a rope over a pile, so I put on my foul weather gear and went to help him. In return, he helped me to shorten our port side aft lines and put a third line over the piling. The waves were getting stronger and I wanted to back up the two ropes that I had on the piling already. I also put another rope on the port forward side to back up a dodgy looking cleat on the floating dock.
Before dinner, I downloaded the latest weather forecast and grib files over the satellite phone and the wind is forecast to increase a little until midnight and back more to the south-west, so it looks like it’s going to get worse before it gets better. I think that we’ll have another night in the marina tomorrow night before it calms down enough for us to leave. We’ve had enough now and just need to get through tonight.
On the bright side, I love my satellite phone – I can now get weather forecasts anywhere in the world and at any time …
30 October 2012 Old Comfort Point, Virginia
That is probably the worst night that I’ve ever spent on a boat. The wind maintained 45-50 knots, gusting up to 60 knots directly on our port stern quarter. In our back cabin, the noise was deafening – wind howling, ropes creaking ominously, three foot waves beating against our stern with a very loud “BANG” every so often as a big wave slapped under our sugar scoop.
It was freezing and I had to put on a t-shirt and socks to keep warm. I drifted in and out of a disturbed doze and woke at four o’clock when the motion changed as the wind backed and came directly onto our stern. Now we had a flatter motion, but the rudder rattled worryingly as the water swirled around our stern. To make matters worse, there was a strange throbbing vibration that came and went every fifteen minutes or so.
Life seemed a little better by daylight as the wind had abated slightly, but it was still very cold. The forecast was for the wind to stay at 25-35 knots today and drop tonight. We’ll have to stay another night and hopefully the weather will be good enough to move tomorrow.
Our cabin heater refuses to work at all now, so I left Glenys reading a book wrapped up in a duvet and braved the wind and rain to go to the marina office to see if I could download a service manual for the cabin heater. For some reason, the marina office was officially closed, but I managed to catch the manager as he popped in.
I told him that this was the worst protected marina that I’ve ever stayed in, but we had no choice and have to stay another night because the whole of Hampton Roads is closed by the Port Captain. I also told him that there was no way that I was going to pay to stay another night. He just shrugged and said okay.
I sat in the laundry room (which was only slightly warmer than Alba) and got a good internet connection. I managed to download a service manual for the heater, updated our web site and answered emails from family and friends who were worried about us being so close to Hurricane Sandy. I looked up some information on Sandy, which had the lowest pressure (943mb) making it the strongest storm ever to make landfall north of Cape Hatteras. There were lots of photos of the damage caused further north, so I guess that we’ve been lucky.
Back on the boat, I tried to sort out the problem with the cabin heater, but it’s such a complicated little device with many sensors and cut-outs. I'm not getting any meaningful error signals, so I rang a Webasto dealer in Portsmouth and arranged to get someone to look at it tomorrow.
I inspected the rudder to make sure that there was nothing seriously wrong. I know that the lower bearing is a little sloppy, but is sound. I tightened the steering cables a little bit, but other than that everything looks to be okay. All I can assume is that last night there was a current hitting us directly astern and just rattling our heavy rudder. I also tracked down the strange throbbing vibration down to the forestay - it was resonating in the gusts of wind because we've taken the genoa off. I tied a rope onto it to add some tension and the vibration reduced.
The wind dropped some more over the afternoon and by nightfall it was down to 20-30 knots – very mild. Guess what – we watched a movie and had an early night.
31 October 2012 Old Comfort Point to Portsmouth, Virginia
It was blue skies when we woke up, but still gusting 35 knots and very cold. The weather forecast was for 15-20 knot winds dropping to 10-15 later, so we got ready to leave. We put up the bimini, but couldn’t put on our two head sails because the wind was too strong and from the wrong direction.
It was ten o’clock by the time that we’d untangled the spider’s web of twelve ropes that we’d put out to secure us in the berth. The wind was still blowing 20-25 knots on our port quarter, so it took a bit of coordination to drop the ropes in the correct sequence and motor backwards out between the piles without hitting them – thank goodness for the bow thruster.
It was with a great sense of relief that we motored out of the marina. In retrospect, Old Comfort Point Marina was a terrible choice to weather out a hurricane. I thought that the worst winds would be from the north-east to north-west and didn’t expect the winds to back around to the south-west. As they say “Experience comes from surviving a disaster” and I think that I’ll make different decisions next time. It didn’t help that the protection in the marina is the worst that I’ve ever experienced, but on the positive side, we didn’t die and Alba escaped without a scratch.
We put up the main sail and motored directly into the wind towards Norfolk –it was very bouncy, with big waves crashing across the foredeck because the tide was against the wind. As we were passing the Navy docks, a warship called us on the VHF radio because it was leaving a dock directly in front of us - we had to cross over to the other side of the channel to keep out of the way. Then a massive container ship pulled out in front of us, so we had to duck across to the other side of the channel to get out of its way.
It took us a couple of hours to get to Virginia Boat and Yacht Marina, which is down a small channel off the Elizabeth River. The marina is a little shabby, but the engineering services look top class. A technician came to look at our Webasto heater, plugged in his diagnostic computer and decided that the cabin temperature sensor was faulty – the heater won’t start because it thinks that our cabin is at 60°C ! Webasto gave him a price for a replacement which was a staggering $350 for the sensor – it’s only a small thermistor on a long wire.
The technician then suggested an alternative – there’s a plug in resistor to replace the expensive cabin sensor that will cost only $35 and will force the unit to use an internal temperature sensor. The heater won’t be able to maintain a precise temperature in the cabin, so we’ll have to keep turning it on and off manually. It didn’t take me long to decide that to save $315, I’ll be quite happy to turn it on and off when we need heat. We should be in a warmer climate in six weeks and won’t need to switch it on for at least another year.
Everyone in the marina is really friendly. It’s only a small place and within an hour of arriving, Jim from “Seascape” had lent us a small electrical heater and two extension cables leading back to his boat. Another resident, Mike offered to drive us to the local supermarket and the Bill (the marina manager) said that we can stay at no cost for a few days while the technician sorts out our heater. The spare part for the heater is not going to arrive until the day after tomorrow, so we’ve hired a car for tomorrow which will allow us to drive back to Deltaville to go to the dentist to get my new crown put on.
It’s Halloween today, so I rigged up a ghoul flying above our boat. I bought the ghoul for $6 in a pharmacy a few weeks ago. The Halloween merchandise on sale is staggering. All of the stores have hundreds of low cost costumes, life sized skeletons, masks, face paint, etc, etc. The thing that amazes me is the low cost of the costumes – you could be a very classy vampire for only $40.