8 June 2012 Cocoa, Florida
We spent the morning doing a few little jobs. Glenys applied seam-seal to the bimini and spray hood in an attempt to block off the various leaks that have developed. I went up the mast again, this time to see if I could get the wind direction indicator to work, but no luck I’m afraid.
I managed to get an internet connection and the weather looks very settled for the next five or so days, so we’ve decided that we’ll now head directly to the Chesapeake, which is 700 miles away. I spent the rest of the morning planning our course to Deltaville, where we’re going to be hauled out.
In the afternoon, I worked on producing a project plan and gathering information to get firm quotes when we arrive in Deltaville. It’s quite a complex set of jobs that we want to do, which will take some coordinating. I reckon that it’s all going to be pretty expensive – the replacement of the standing rigging is going to cost us at least £6,000. They say that owning a boat is like standing in a shower and ripping up £10 notes…
We went ashore in the late afternoon to go to a barbeque cook-out which was being held in the town park. There were lots of barbeque stalls, who compete against each other to produce the best food. There are cash prizes and it’s apparently a big thing over here. Unfortunately, it started to rain heavily, so we ended up visiting a couple of bars before going to a Brazilian restaurant for dinner.
9 June 2012 Cocoa to Old Comfort Point, Chesapeake (Day 1)
The alarm went off at quarter to six and a glance out of the window showed overcast skies and light rain – bummer. I put on my waterproof jacket and lifted the outboard and dinghy on deck. By half past seven, we were on our way motoring up the ICW. We anchored just past the last fixed bridge so that I could scurry up the mast for the fifth time in as many days, to replace the VHF antenna.
Our passage through the lock and the two lifting bridges was uneventful. We pulled into a marina in Canaveral Port to fill up with fuel and met Larry & Catherine on “No Boundaries” , who are going up to Chesapeake as well – looks like we've got a convoy.
We had very light winds and sunny skies until three o’clock when a huge bank of black clouds appeared in front of us. It was difficult to see which way it was moving, but we eventually changed course to go to the west of it. By four o'clock the skies had darkened and we were beating into 25 knot winds from the east. We listened to the weather channel on the VHF radio and heard that they were giving storm warnings for localised thunder storms with lightning and winds up to 45 knots – gulp!
The strong winds continued into the evening and we couldn’t seem to break out of the dark stormy looking skies, but at least we weren’t clobbered by anything really nasty. We picked up the Gulf Stream before dinner and were managing a speed of 8 -9 knots over the ground thanks to the 2-3 knot current. As the weather was so unsettled, we swapped watches and I did an 8-11 watch so that I could set up the sails and try to clear this horrible weather.
At eleven o’clock, the wind dropped and we were being bounced about in very confused seas, so I put on the engine. Glenys continued to motor for a couple of hours until the winds picked up again at half past one.
10 June 2012 Cocoa to Old Comfort Point, Chesapeake (Day 2)
It was very pleasant for a couple of hours, but by five o’clock we had thunderstorms building up in front of us. I put two reefs into the main and left Glenys to dodge the potential squalls. She woke me at eight o’clock and we did a forty degree turn to port to avoid a large squall before carrying on towards our next way point off Charleston.
Our 24 hour run at eleven o’clock was a satisfying 165 miles - we’ll be there a day early if we can keep this up. The rest of the day stayed overcast with 15-20 knot winds putting us on a fast reach, which combined with the Gulf Stream current, had us zipping along at 8-9 knots over the ground.
As evening approached, we couldn’t see any thunderstorms anywhere, which was encouraging. The first part of the night continued with the nice 15-20 knot southeast wind and we romped along in a reach. Unfortunately, we lost the favourable gulf stream current and picked up a slight current against us of ½ - 1 knot.
11 June 2012 Cocoa to Old Comfort Point, Chesapeake (Day 3)
The wind slowly dropped off overnight and Glenys had to put the engine on at the end of her 1-4 watch. It picked up again for a couple of hours on my 4-7 watch and I headed more westerly to try to find the elusive Gulf Stream, but had no luck.
By eight o’clock, we were back motoring and finally found a favourable ½ - 1 knot current from the Gulf Stream. Our 24 hour run was slightly better than yesterday at 170 miles. If we can keep this up, we’ll be going around Cape Hatteras tomorrow afternoon which would be great.
We’re just able to pick up the weather channels on VHF. Unfortunately, because we are 80 miles offshore, the transmission keeps fading in and out, so it is difficult to get an accurate picture, particularly because we don’t know what the forecast areas are. Glenys managed to extract some sense from the broadcasts and it sounds like we’re going to have south 10-20 knot winds tomorrow, which will good as we’re heading north-east until we get to Cape Hatteras.
Our course will then turn north-west as we sail the 100 miles up to the entrance the Chesapeake. The forecast on Wednesday 13th is not so good with the possibility of North 10-15 knot winds in the afternoon. One of the problems with Cape Hatteras is that once we’ve passed Beaufort, there’s nowhere to stop for 200 miles until we get into the Chesapeake. We plan to go for it and hope that the weather won’t be too bad on Wednesday. If we can keep up our average speed, I’m hoping that we’ll be anchored somewhere before dark on Wednesday.
The wind was fluky in the afternoon. We managed to sail for some of the time, but had to keep turning on the engine when the wind dropped below 10 knots. At least it was a lovely day with fluffy white clouds and only a small three foot swell – much better that the grey, unsettled weather that we’ve had for the past two days.
We’ve slotted into a rhythm again - we have our three hours watches over night, then I have a couple of hours’ kip in the morning and Glenys has a nap in the afternoon. As it was so calm, we had a shower for the first time in a couple of days – dirty buggers…
12 June 2012 Cocoa to Old Comfort Point, Chesapeake (Day 4)
The wind stayed light for most of the night - we had a couple of hours where we were able to sail, but the engine was soon back on.
Just after dawn, I reassessed our intended route and, because the weather was so settled, I decided to cut the corner and round Cape Hatteras very close to Diamond Shoals. I plotted waypoints to keep us five or so miles offshore and then head straight towards Deltaville. We still had 185 miles to go to Deltaville, but if we could maintain over five knots we should be there late tomorrow afternoon. It will mean that we’ll be passing through the Chesapeake Channel sometime after dawn tomorrow which will be fine by me. Having completed the planning, I turned north, with some excitement, towards the Chesapeake on the final leg of the passage.
By mid-morning, the wind had picked up from the south with 10 knots, so I poled out the genoa and we were able to sail again. We had a minor celebration when we finally passed 35° North latitude - our insurance company will be happier.
By lunchtime, the skies had become grey and overcast with nasty looking dark patches on the horizon – so much for the blues skies of yesterday. We had one small squall which gave us 25 knots winds and then it settled down to south-west 15 knots, which put us on a pleasant reach going along at 6 knots, albeit with drizzly rain.
I managed to hook a Dorado, but it got off just as I was trying to lift it on board. These fish have quite soft mouths and I reckon that the hook is just tearing out – I’ll have to get a longer gaff instead of trying to lift them on board with the line. Fortunately, an hour later, I hooked and landed a nice 10lb Tuna. I dropped the lure back into the water just to get it out of the way while I was cleaning the fish, leaving it trailing 3 metres behind the boat. To my amazement, I hooked another tuna, but I let it go – we’ve enough tuna to last us for the next three or four days.
Norfolk is a huge port and naval base located at the south end of Chesapeake Bay and there’s a massive amount of radio traffic with warships going out on manoeuvres, not to mention the commercial ships wandering in and out. We will need to sail across the busy shipping lanes, so I spent an hour looking at the charts and working out where we should go when we get there.
We had Tuna with Creamy Mushroom Sauce and mashed potatoes for dinner – yummy!
13 June 2012 Cocoa to Old Comfort Point, Chesapeake (Day 5)
The winds were from south at midnight and then veered to south-west. On my 10-1 watch, I put in a heavy reef in to slow us down – I didn’t want to get to the Norfolk shipping lanes before dawn.
Our timing was pretty perfect, but we had a two knot current against us as we approached Cape Henry, which made it very slow going. Then, as we were crossing the shipping lanes, the bloody wind veered and picked up from the north. There’s a huge road bridge that spans the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay, with two gaps where there are tunnels to allow shipping though. There’s one passage to the west of Cape Henry going to Norfolk and the other one is to the North going up Chesapeake Bay – straight into the wind.
Glenys went to bed and I spent a frustrating three hours trying to motor 10 miles into five foot seas with 20-25 knots of wind and a two knot current against me. I persevered and finally made it through the gap by ten o’clock.
It was obvious that we weren’t going to be able to get to Deltaville before dark, so we set off hard on the wind trying to get to York River on the west side of the bay, which has a nice looking place called Sarah Creek. After an hour of teeth-jarring bashing, with no sign of the counter tidal current easing off, we decided it was pointless, so we turned downwind and headed south west for Norfolk – what a difference, the boat accelerated downwind and life was suddenly very pleasant.
As we approached the Norfolk shipping lane, a coast guard cutter put out a warning on the VHF radio that it was approaching Norfolk with Operation Bravo and that no vessel should approach within 500 yards - any violations would be a “federal offence enforced by deadly force if necessary”. We could see that the cutter was escorting a huge submarine – we kept well away…
We listened to the weather forecast - the strong, northerly winds are going to be here for at least another four days, so we plan to go into Norfolk and do some sightseeing. We rang Steve on “Celebration”, who we knew was the area and arranged to meet them in Norfolk tomorrow. This suits us fine because we’re feeling pretty shell shocked after 5 days at sea. We want to anchor somewhere quiet and sleep rather than trying to navigate the busy waters of Norfolk today.
We went up the Hampton River, where the cruising guide said there was an anchorage by the town, but it was very tight, so we ran away and anchored in Old Comfort Point, which is not very pretty, having a busy highway running along the side of it, but we’re all by ourselves in a huge anchorage.
We collapsed, had lunch and went to bed for a few hours. Our first cold beer was consumed at five o’clock precisely and, after a splendid dinner of Sweet and Sour Tuna, we sloped off to bed early.
In retrospect, it was a very good trip. We managed to read the weather correctly and did 700 miles in four days which is pretty good going – to put it in perspective, that’s the same distance as sailing from Plymouth to Lisbon.