Today Was Not Our Day

When we left Cape Charles yesterday morning we were both dreading the conditions, especially the sea state. It turned out that the conditions weren’t as bad as we feared. Our plan was to sail two days and two nights to Cape Fear, NC. It was windy throughout our entire trip so we made very good time. We were sailing downwind in a 20-28 knot breeze. The winds were shifty, so the windshifts along, with the 5-8 foots seas, made it very difficult to maintain the right sailing angle. I generally like to read and listen to podcasts when it is my watch. I didn’t get the chance to do either because each time I even took my eyes off of the chart plotter the wind would shift and a wave would turn the boat so that we were either pointing way to high or starting an unplanned gybe. We had set the mainsail with two reefs and it seemed about right. George had prepared the last reef line so we could either put in another reef point or shake the reefs out and out the full main sail. 

When I got up this morning at 6 am to relieve George from his watch George said he wanted to point the boat into the wind so he could fix the reefed mainsail that was partially sticking out on the sail cover. I started the engine, as per usual, to keep the boat pointed into the wind. After a couple of minutes the propeller cut out. The engine was still running but we had no propulsion in forward or reverse. In addition there was this horrible growling noise coming from under the starboard side of the boat. When this happened we were just past Cape Hatteras and had very few options. Cape Lookout was the first place we could try to get whatever was wrong fixed and that was 10-12 hours away. So we just kept sailing. Once we neared the Cape Lookout/Beaufort area George called Tow Boat US and made arrangements for a tow boat to haul us to a dock. That is what we are doing right now. About an hour ago George noticed that the longest reef line was over the starboard side. He tried to pull it in but it wouldn’t budge. We are now quite certain that the reef line fouled the propeller and that is why it wouldn’t work. George has arranged for a diver to come and free the line in the morning. Let’s hope there isn’t any damage. I don’t know why we are so hard on our poor propeller lately. 

Even with the enclosure up it was cold!