Breeze On

Chris Parker, the weather forecaster to whom we listen six mornings a week, frequently uses the word, “uncertain.” That word “certainly” applies to our plans right now. We thought we would be leaving Beaufort tomorrow morning and sailing—motoring—about 53 hours to Brunswick, GA. That plan is now “uncertain”  due to squalls that are forecasted in South Carolina and Georgia for Sunday and Monday. The problem with squalls is not so much the rain but the potential for strong wind and possibly lightning. We will continue to look at the forecasts as they update and make our decision tomorrow.  This morning we did a load of laundry first thing, before the sun was even up. I made a batch of seed crackers, then we made a quick trip to the grocery store using the marina courtesy car. In the afternoon we walked into town and stopped at the coffee shop on our way back to the boat.  There was plenty of wind today to keep these lawn spinners moving as we passed them on our walk along t...

The sun finally come out and stayed out for several hours today! This morning I made enough passage meals for two days. Later on we walked into town with our new friends on Mawaena, another (albeit, much newer) Hanse. We gave them a tour of Breeze On before going to lunch at Beaufort Grocery. We enjoyed getting to know them and trading sailing stories.  We have a tentative plan to leave here Saturday but we don’t know whether we will sail over one night to South Carolina or two nights to Georgia. We are hoping we can clarify that by tomorrow. As usual, it all depends on the weather.                                                The sun is shining over part of Homer Smith’s Docks and Marina. 

This morning we borrowed the marina courtesy car again to run a few errands—West Marine, Harris Teeter, hardware store, gas station for diesel. We plan to make one more trip to the grocery store to stock up on fresh food before we leave. The problem is, why don’t know when we will be leaving. The weather forecast changes with each 6-hour update. We could leave as early as Saturday or as late as a week from tomorrow. In the meantime we are doing our best to remain patient. We are feeling sad about the devastation on the islands in the wake of Hurricane Melissa. The intensity of the rain and wind is almost unimaginable. Some of the islands in Melissa’s path are islands we visit in the Bahamas. We hope everyone there remains safe.                                 This morning, during a brief time when we had sun, we were treated to a full rainbow. 

The low pressure system has arrived and we have spent most of the day hunkered down inside, protected from the wind and rain. Early this morning I ventured over to the clubhouse to do a load of laundry. Shortly after George finished an engine maintenance chore we tried to go for a walk through town but it started to rain before we even stepped off the boat. We are plugged into shore power so have been able to keep warm by running our tiny space heater from time to time.  The weather yesterday was better than we expected for much of the day so we took a walk through town. We were pleasantly surprised to see our friend Michael, from Desiderata II and had a nice long chat with him. Later on we met Sondra on Utopia, two slips away from us, then walked over to meet Kevin on Mawaena, another Hanse in the marina. Our friends from a Cambridge, Dawn and Ray, stopped in Beaufort on their way driving to FL. We had a lovely time eating dinner with them at Moonrakers. George joked that I had be...

I went to bed last night at 8 pm and woke up this morning at 7 am. The eleven hours of sleep went a long way toward making me feel more human after our passage. We have been working on a few odds and ends today—there is always something to do—but learned a while ago not to expect too much from ourselves right after a passage. The weather today has been surprisingly nice but the forecast tells us that will start to change tomorrow. A strong front bringing rain and wind will arrive tomorrow and linger in the area. We expect to wait here about a week before we see the next weather window that allows us to continue moving south.                              View from our slip

We tied Breeze On up in a slip at Homer Smith Docks and Marina—just under 32 hours since raising the anchor yesterday morning. We have spent so much time here that it feels like a home away from home. Last fall alone we spent three weeks here. First we were waited 10 days for a weather window and then we returned a few hours after leaving to work on the engine overheating alarm issue which took another 10 days.  It feels so nice to be able to walk on dry land and take a nice, long hot shower. After George finishes washing the salt off of Breeze On we are going to walk the short distance into town for an early dinner. We don’t normally go out immediately after an overnight sail but it is either that or cook dinner. I think I have more energy for going out. It turns out that we left the frozen passage meals I had prepared at home in the freezer. They are on my “last minute packing for the Bahamas “ list but I apparently did not do a final check of the list. Oh well. At least I rememb...

We have had much less wind today so the engine has been on all but 20 minutes. At times we had so little wind—or the wind we had was too far behind us—that we couldn’t have the sails up at all. We prefer to have the sails up to help stabilize the boat. It is amazing how much difference it makes. Although we have very little wind, we do still have seas of 2-4’ six seconds apart.  We left the anchorage at Old Point Comfort Point Hampton, VA well before sunrise. The trip to Beaufort is 32-36 hours—depending on our speed—and we want to get to the marina while it is open. We were exiting the Chesapeake Bay just before sunrise. There was quite a bit of ship traffic in the area so I stayed just out of the channel to make sure I was out of their way. This afternoon we heard someone on the VHF radio calling from a Naval plane to boats which were sailing many miles offshore. He asked them to change course for 40 to 70 miles to avoid a live fire area. We were quite happy to not be near there!...

We were up early again this morning to leave our anchorage just before sunrise. Once we reached the bay we raised both sails and enjoyed some nice sailing. After a few hours the wind increased so we added a reef to the mainsail (shortened the sail.) Even so, the sailing was a bit too sporty for my tastes. The western shore was initially close enough to keep the waves down. But the waves increased to 3-4’ once the shore fell away at Mobjack Bay and the York River. The occasional wave would crash over the deck and splash onto the windows. The first photo I snapped today shows the dried salt on the windows. The next one shows George using the water from our garden sprayer to rinse them off. I wish I taken a photo yesterday—the windows were so salty I couldn’t see through them when driving into the late afternoon sun.  A few things have broken since we left home. The first thing to break was our autopilot fob. It is a little device we attach to a belt loop and use to control the autopi...

As we were sailing out of the Choptank River this morning we passed the Pride of Baltimore II sailing in. What a pretty sight. The wind died once we turned south to sail down the Chesapeake. A few hours later George was lamenting to his friend, Ray, that we needed more wind. Not long after, the wind jumped from 0.9 kn to 20 kn. Be careful what you wish for. We had the current with us for the first half of the day but once the tide turned the wind against current made for a rough ride. The seas were coming from every which way, sometimes splashing over the deck and onto the windows. The wind was inconsistent—up to 20, then down to 8. We turned the engine on to maintain speed in the light wind, then off again when the wind picked up. When we finally arrived at Ingram Bay—just south of the Potomac—we were happy to put the anchor down, after almost 10 hours and 65 miles of sailing. 

We are on our way to the Bahamas once again. It is hard for us to believe this will be our ninth time sailing to the Bahamas. It is also hard to believe the time to leave is upon us already. Where did the summer go?! We left home shortly before noon today and sailed three hours in a nice south wind. It was a sunny day and—with most of the enclosure up—quite comfortable in the cockpit. We anchored off of Tilghman Island near the mouth of the Choptank River and plan to sail down the Chesapeake in a west wind tomorrow and the next day.  The dinghy was attached to the arch but not secured for “offshore mode” yet. It is quite a production to put it in that mode, requiring different attachments to raise it high as well as ratchet straps and extra lines to keep it from moving in lumpy seas.   George went to work on it after we dropped the anchor.  Speaking of the anchor, one this summer’s projects was to replace the anchor windlass. If you read the blog last year you may remembe...