Breeze On

We left Norfolk at 5 am yesterday morning, hoping to sail 90 miles to Solomon’s. We were able to safely leave the dock, even though the west wind was pinning us against the dock. Once we left Little Creek and entered the Chesapeake Bay the winds were blowing at 20-25 knots and the 2-3 ft waves from the NE were right on the bow. We motored until the sun came up then raised the main sail with a double reef line. The waves had the boat pitching every which way and had caused the main halyard to get caught on a spreader. Before we raised the sail George put on his life jacket and tether and went up on deck to try to get it free. No luck. It appeared to me that the lazy jack line was holding the halyard to I suggested turning the boat so that the boom and lazy jack line would move and release the pressure on the halyard. Hooray, it worked!  The boat was moving slowly with just the main sail so we unfurled the jib, which left us heeling at 30 degrees and way overpowered. So, we furled th...

Our weather window finally arrived. We left Brunswick Landing before dawn on Thursday morning. The winds were light so we were motoring for several hours. After leaving Brunswick we headed east to catch the Gulf Stream and take advantage of the current. There were residual NE waves, leftover from the last front so we were slamming into them through the day and all night long. Neither one of us was able to sleep much. The wind eventually picked up enough the first night to turn the engine off and sail. By mid-morning on the second day the waves calmed down and the slamming stopped. George took advantage of the calmer conditions and transferred some diesel into the tank.  Our plan was to take three and a half days to get into the Chesapeake Bay. Yet another cold front was expected Sunday and the timing was tight. We purchased a custom weather route from Chris Parker (weather guru) and he confirmed that we could make it. George plotted out waypoints that indicated where we should be e...

We finally had a weather window long enough to enable us to get all the way to the Chesapeake Bay, we hope. We took advantage of the calmer winds and left Brunswick a few hours before dawn yesterday morning. We motored almost due East to catch the Gulf Stream which we found at about 8:30 last evening. I could tell because our boat speed picked up noticeably. Our plan is to stay in the Gulf Stream until we come near to Cape Hatteras, then head north and into the bay. We expect the trip to take three days, eight hours. Although the winds were rather calm yesterday we were going into wind chop that was leftover from the recent NE winds. All day yesterday and through the night the boat would climb the sharp, steep waves and then slam down the other side several times a minute. Neither one of us got much sleep. The wind has since shifted more to the south so the seas have calmed down, fortunately. While we were slamming through the waves we each independently questioned wisdom of our decis...

We are still at Brunswick Landing Marina, waiting for a weather window to continue moving north. There has been a series of cold fronts moving off of the east coast every few days. They haven’t allowed enough time to safely go offshore and make progress going north. We are anticipating a chance to make it as far as Beaufort, NC later this week. We will most likely have to wait there for another major front to pass.  In the meantime we have been enjoying ourselves here in Brunswick. On Friday evening we met several other cruisers and walked over to downtown Brunswick’s “First Friday”. It is a lot like Cambridge, MD’s “Second Saturday”. The shops in town stay open late and serve free wine and snacks. In Brunswick there was also a live musician, a car show, a health fair, and a few art exhibits. It was quite nice and they seemed to have a good crowd. On Saturday and Sunday we walked into town to run errands and spend some time off of the boat.  Yesterday we rented a car and drove...

Note: This Post is out of order. I thought I had posted it yesterday after we arrived in Brunswick, GA. Chalk it up to sleep deprivation. Or old age.  We left Ft. Pierce at around noon on Easter Sunday, heading for Brunswick, GA. As I mentioned in my last post, we had hoped to get as far as possible but the timing between weather windows didn’t allow us to get as far as Cape Fear. This was our first overnight passage since George’s illness and surgery. The winds were fairly light and mostly behind us so we did a lot of motoring. We both agreed that the light conditions and shorter distance were probably a good thing since George is still recovering. He is feeling good but doesn’t want to risk a hernia if he can avoid it.  We were happy to have a full moon for our trip. The first night, after George went to bed, the sun had set, the moon wasn’t yet up and the sky was very dark, I had the thought, “I have to do this for the next five hours?”  “Really??”  Then, after I ...

Note:  This post was written after we arrived in Brunswick, GA. We are now staying at Brunswick Landing Marina. The post I had written about our passage from Ft. Pierce didn’t post yesterday and follows this post.  Early yesterday evening we met a couple of celebrities here in the marina. Well...celebrities in the cruising world anyway. Sara and Monty Lewis, authors of the Explorer Chartbooks, came in the slip right next to ours. I heard George chatting with them not long after they had tied up their boat. I joined him on the deck and we made our introductions. When Sara gave me her first name and Monty’s I paused and asked if they were the authors of the Explorer books. She modestly said “yes”.  I was practically speechless. The Explorer Chartbooks are known as the “Bibles” of the Bahamas. They have the most accurate charts and are full of information about all of the anchorages, marinas and settlements. In fact, Garmin Blue Charts for the Bahamas that are on George’s iP...