Breeze On

I had thought there wouldn’t be much to write about now that we are home and hunkered down during the coronavirus pandemic. I was wrong. We knew strong storms with heavy wind were forecast for today. We thought that the tide slides would keep Breeze On secure in her slip. George went down to check on the lines sometime between 9 and 10 am this morning. He called me after a few minutes to say he needed help. He was trying to tighten the line on the windward (starboard) side but the wind was blowing so hard he couldn’t get it any tighter. By the time I arrived the boat was up against the piling on the leeward (port) side and the shroud—one of the cables that holds the mast up—was catching on the piling. Not good. I tried pushing the boat away from the piling while George tightened the line on the other side. I couldn’t do it. Meanwhile, it just kept getting windier and the gusts were especially strong. We switched sides and I tightened the starboard side while he pushed away from the pil...

The boat is unloaded, the food inventoried and put into bins. We cut back on the amount of food we take each year, based on how much we used the prior winter. The job of unloading has therefore become easier every year. If we go to the Bahamas again next winter we will take even less food. We were grateful to have some food left over to hold us over until we could purchase food but we were completely out of fresh vegetables. We were also looking forward to buying food for meals that are different from our boat meals. While at anchor in Solomons waiting for storms to pass, George downloaded the Walmart groceries app and started a list for curbside pickup. We have a Walmart in our town and, although we don’t normally buy our groceries there, we had heard last summer how convenient it is to shop that way. The first step is to schedule a pickup time. The first available time was two days away (Friday) so we chose an 8-9 am slot. We were able to add to the list up until Thursday night. On F...

We had a late start yesterday morning after waiting for a line of storms to pass through Solomons. We expected west winds in the mid-teens but once we entered the bay we found wind in the mid-twenties. We put a reef in the main and sailed up the Bay until the wind eventually dropped. We used almost every imaginable combination of mainsail, reefed main, and mainsail with jib. The wind speed and direction were constantly changing and we ended up motor sailing the last bit to Cambridge. The trip home felt bittersweet since it is the last sail we will have until the coronavirus restrictions are lifted. We also have no idea if we will be returning to the Bahamas next winter. So much uncertainty.  We arrived home about 4:15 pm and unloaded some things from the boat. We traveled 39.1 nautical miles in 7 hours at an average speed of 5.7 kn.  Our grand total since leaving Cambridge last fall was 3032 nautical miles.  Since arriving at home we both feel a bit overwhelmed and pulled...

We left Beaufort, NC on Sunday morning and motored an hour to the Cape Lookout anchorage. We had  two motivations for going to Cape Lookout. 1-Since we thought we might be leaving after dark we preferred to leave from Cape Lookout as opposed to Beaufort harbor at night, and 2-record a track for future reference. We had heard that Cape Lookout was beautiful with clear water. Since we spend the winter in the Bahamas where the water is all shades of clear, beautiful blue, our standards may be too high. The Cape Lookout anchorage was pretty but the water was the same slightly cloudy greenish water we see on the Chesapeake. By 6 pm the wind had dropped and shifted from the northeast to the east so we left the anchorage. I was expected to hit a  residual large northeast swell once we rounded Cape Lookout but it wasn’t bad at all. It helped that there was a large period between the waves and light winds meant there was little to no wind chop on top of the swell. The light winds also ...

It appears we have a weather window that will allow us to leave Beaufort and travel around Cape Hatteras to the Chesapeake Bay. The conditions won’t be ideal by any stretch of the imagination but the trip should be doable. We plan to leave Beaufort sometime during the day tomorrow and go to Cape Lookout where we will anchor and wait for the north wind to drop and shift to the south. That shift is forecast to take place around sunset. We will then leave Cape Lookout and head toward Cape Hatteras and the Chesapeake. The large low-pressure system that has been sitting offshore for several days has kicked up some large seas so we will hug the coast as much as possible.  We have decided to continue on up the Chesapeake and go straight home, arriving sometime late Tuesday night. We were getting nervous that we would be stopped by the coast guard or DNR since recreational boating has been banned by the governor. George called the DNR yesterday to ask if we will be allowed to travel home. ...