Beaufort, NC to Cape Charles, VA

We left Beaufort, NC just after 6 am on Saturday, April 13. We were mentally prepared for uncomfortable conditions for the first four hours and we were not disappointed. Once we left the protected waters of Beaufort Inlet we were heading into six foot seas, with the occasional eight foot wave. Since we were heading directly into the wind we didn’t bother putting the sails up but our progress was slow. We were expecting the seas to calm down by noon but they didn’t. In fact, they remained quite gnarly until we reached Cape Hatteras in the early evening. We did put the sails up shortly after we passed Cape Lookout in the early afternoon. Because the waves were large and confused the boat was rocking side to side and caused the halyard to become caught around the spreader and radar reflector. George had to go up on deck to get it loose; fortunately, the rocking actually helped him to loosen it this time. 

My usual 7 pm-midnight watch started about an hour before we made our turn at Cape Hatteras. George stayed up in the cockpit and napped in case he was needed for sail changes. We were getting an assist from the Gulf Stream current and our speed was good. Because we were heading dead downwind we furled our self-tacking jib so we could sail a deeper angle. We left the full main up, cranked down on the boom brake, and George went to bed. I was able to sail at angles of about 150-170 degrees but still had to gybe every hour or so. The boom brake normally makes that easy and allows the boom to cross gently to the other side. Not so much for me in that night. Not matter how slowly I turned the wheel or eased up on the boom brake line, the boom was either stuck on the windward side or slamming over to the leeward side. When my watch finally ended and George came back up on deck we decided to drop the main and motor so he wouldn’t have to continue gybing. 

It was really foggy when I came up on deck to relieve George at 6 am and remained foggy all day. We were both happy to have AIS, radar and radar reflectors so that we could see other boats and they could see us in that heavy fog. 

Since we were trying to beat a cold front due to arrive in the early evening we kept motoring instead of sailing and gybing. Our timing was good, we pulled into Cape Charles Town Harbour and Marina just after 5 pm and just ahead of the high winds. We slept well, in spite the 50 knot winds gusts that occurred overnight. The marina is practically empty, we are the only boat on our dock. We shouldn’t have any trouble finding an empty shower here!

Foggy conditions all day long 

Radar (round thing in the middle) and radar reflectors (tubes on either side of radar)

Breeze On on the empty dock