Cambridge, MD to Beaufort, NC

We arrived at the Homer Smith Docks and Marina at 2:30 pm., just over 52 hours after leaving home. Since we did so much motoring, the first item on our agenda was to buy diesel. After filling the tank we pulled into our slip where we may stay a week or so while waiting for a weather window to go to the Bahamas.

It wasn’t a bad passage, as far as passages go. Night sailing is definitely not my favorite thing to do but at least it doesn’t terrify me like it did in the past. Since the wind was light most of the time the seas were relatively calm, making it easier to move around on the boat. We motored or motor-sailed 48 hours straight until we finally had enough wind to turn the engine off and sail for three hours this morning. That part was delightful. The calmer conditions meant that we could sleep in the v-berth instead of the salon. Also, the engine serves as a white noise machine for me, allowing me to fall asleep more easily. When we are sailing there are always creaks and groans that sound amplified inside the cabin.

We had the usual ship and fishing boat traffic in the Chesapeake Bay. I had the first night watch from 7 pm to midnight and spent my time making sure we weren’t come close to any other ships or boats (as opposed to reading a book). George had the midnight to 6 am* watch and had the unenviable task of monitoring ships coming and going from all directions as he went through the Chesapeake Bridge Tunnel. He managed beautifully. We had A LOT of company when we were sailing offshore. There were boats within sight-but not too close-ahead of us, beside us, and behind us the entire time we were offshore. Throughout the day and night yesterday all of our neighbors were catamarans. Just after we rounded Cape Hatteras and I went to bed, George took a few photos of the chart plotter showing us with all of our neighbors. Had Breeze On been in any distress there would have been plenty of other boats to come to our aid.

Some of the highlights of our trip include three sightings of dolphins. We never tire of seeing dolphins. They appeared to be feeding two of the times we saw them. They would be thrashing the water, jumping, slapping their tail fins and, once, a dolphin shot straight up in the air and flopped onto its side. I am guessing they were trying to stun the fish with all of this action. We also had visitors a few times during the trip. Two little birds landed on the deck, then came into the cockpit and one even flew down into the cabin. When I got up from a nap today to start my watch I was surprised by a bird standing on the floor in the cabin. Together George and I were finally able to get that bird out of the cabin. We then closed the companionway hatch so they couldn’t get in again.

We motored about 50 hours and used 32 gallons of diesel. Our tank holds just 40 gallons so we were very happy George had purchased extra fuel. Here he is adding a 5 gallon jerry jug of diesel to the tank.

More cans of extra diesel. By the way, if you zoom in you can see the outer banks on the horizon and one of the neighboring catamarans in the distance.