Return to the Land of Big Ships

After spending the night at Great Bridge (Chesapeake, Va.), the next leg of this little adventure was a short one...to the Free dock at Portsmouth. They have two docks that sit downtown right along the waterfront. There are restaurants and attractions as well as a Dollar General for any emergency provisioning. Last time I was there I was even able to find a WiFi signal...something that has been scarce on this trip. It seemed like the perfect place to regroup and and try to find a boatyard.

The new dock at Great Bridge

We left the dock just after 9 AM (yes, just after the scheduled bridge opening) to slide across the canal to Atlantic Yacht Basin for some diesel, to top off our water tanks, and a pump-out. AYB has some of the cheapest fuel prices I've seen on this stretch of the ICW and this day was no exception. We used just  over 32 gallons of diesel since we left Southport...and other than a couple hours worth of generator to recharge batteries while sailing, it was all motoring along the ICW. Since I'm still trying to get a better idea of the fuel burn of the boat, it is good to get the tank topped off and do the calculations.  If my numbers are correct, the engines seem to burn a little under 0.8 gallons per hour at 2500 RPM.

Between taking our time getting underway from the free dock, adding fuel, adding water, and pumping out the holding tanks, we just barely made the 10 AM Great Bridge opening.  But we did make it.  Of course the next obstacle was only a few hundred feet away...the Great Bridge Lock. This would be my 3rd time through the lock, but it would be the first for my wife.

The Great Bridge bridge and lock

Going through the lock is really no big deal. You rig long dock lines at the front and back of the boat, find a couple boat poles, and put out a couple fenders. You motor into the lock and and pull up along side the lock wall. There you throw (or for this lock drop onto the outstretched boat pole) your rigged dock lines to the lock worker on shore who loops the line around a cleat or bollard and gives the rest back to you. Then all you do is keep your boat parallel to the dock wall without touching by using the line and pole. Every time I've been through this lock the change in elevation has been a foot or less, so you really don't have to do much and before you know it the gate at the other end of the lock opens and you are on your way.

Not long past the bridges and locks, the wilderness scenery that borders the ICW starts to fade, slowly being replaced with the industrial "scenery" that makes up the economies of Norfolk and Portsmouth.  Large docks with pipelines or conveyors or cranes line the waterway and the depths of the channel that were under 12 feet now are showing 35 foot or more. We are in big boat country.

Gilmerton Bridge with the railway bridge in front.

We pass under a bascule bridge that has a closed height of 65 ft (enough clearance for my mast) as a barge on the other side waits for the next opening.  We arrive at the Gilmerton highway lift bridge, our last obstacle on the trip. Even in as populated place as this, the bridge opens on demand. Well...it does when the adjacent train bridge isn't closed. We had to wait for two trains to pass before this lift bridge would grant us passage to Portsmouth. This bridge lifts it's section of highway 135 feet in the air...much farther than I need to pass and as soon as it gets over 65 foot or so, we continue our journey.

Naval Shipyards

Wonder how often they have to haul these out?

The commercial shipping docks soon give way to docks for more menacing looking boats. Norfolk has one of the largest U.S. Navy shipyards and the huge gray steel ships start to dot the docks along the channel as we arrive at the free docks.

Free dock in the heart of Poirtsmouth

We were able to tie up at the high street dock, where we would spend the next couple of days checking out the town, reprovisioning, and trying to find a boatyard for or next destination in the Chesapeake.  Of course, could I find the internet that was here last year...nope.  And that is why these posts are behind.

A Long Run Through the ICW

We awoke in the Alligator River pretty much where we had left the boat, the winds were still from the southeast...albeit at a lesser velocity than the night before.  Checking the anchor alarm, it showed we were 31 feet from where we had set it (with an accuracy of 14 feet...so we could very well be in the exact same spot). The goal today was to try and make it to the Great Bridge Lock, about 62 nautical miles away. This meant we needed to get an early start so we would have a little time buffer to deal with the 3 bridges that would need to open so we could pass. Of course the Alligator had different plans.

As we started to haul up the anchor, I discovered why I should have paid more attention to the length of the trip line. Instead of our anchor being stuck, it appeared that the trip line had caught something and at one point the anchor rode and trip line were pulling tight in opposite directions. I guess the boat swung a bit during the night after all. I had to attach another line to the trip line so I could use one of the sheet winches to help break the trip line free. Although we considered cutting the trip line, we were eventually able to work it free by applying tension on the line and rocking the boat back and forth with the motors. After freeing the initial snag, in our excitement to retrieve the trip line I accidentally ended up hauling the anchor up with the trip line. We pulled up the remaining anchor chain, secured the anchor and we're on our way.

After dodging several lines of crab pots (why do these genius fishermen use black, blue, and dark green for the buoy colors...you can barely see them in the water even on a bright and sunny day), we made our way to the Alligator river bridge. This bridge has always fascinated me because the road on either side of the bridge spans quite a distance before it reaches the shore. It is a long stretch of highway on stilts hovering about 20 feet over water. We call the bridge tender and he has the bridge opened for us as we get there so we don't even have to slow down. As we clear the bridge, I thank him for the opening and we head out into the Albemarle sound.

The Alligator River Swing Bridge

The forecast from the night before seemed accurate as we were only getting light winds from the southeast and at best one foot seas.  Not the greatest conditions for sailing (unless you want to go really slow), but a much more comfortable ride and that is a good thing. We sailed some and motor sailed some so we could keep on schedule on this long leg of our ICW path.

After crossing the Albemarle, we were forced back into the narrow winding streams and man-made trenches that would make up the rest of this day's leg of the trip. We were able to motor sail some, which added a knot or two to our single engine cruising speed.

Unlike the Alligator bridge that opens on demand, the next bridges as well as the lock operate on a fixed schedule. And as usual, I arrive at the next bridge in our trek just about exactly mid way between the scheduled openings. Fortunately the two engines on a catamaran that make it maneuverable, also make it easy to keep a fixed station in a current while waiting for the North Landing swing bridge to open. The bridge opens on schedule and we are on our way to the next bridge.

The Centerville Turnpike bridge is just over 4 nautical miles from the North Landing bridge and opens on the half hour.  That means we need to do better than 8 knots to make the next opening (unlikely without a good wind...which you don't get in a tree lined man-made channel) or throttle back to about 4.5 knots and resign yourself to make the opening in an hour. And, since it was 5pm and there would be no 5:30 opening anyway, we settled in for the lazy 4.5 knot trek to the next bridge. We arrive at the bridge with about 5 minutes to spare and are ushered through at 6pm. From there it was a short trip to our destination for the evening.

Our destination was one of the free docks that surround the Great Bridge bridge in Chesapeake, Virginia. Since I had stayed at the one on the north side of the bridge when I came through last fall, I opted to try the brand new one on the south side of the bridge. 

The dock is brand new and in very good shape and can fit 5 to 7 boats, depending on size. It is attached to a nice park with a walking path and currently has a porta-potty in case you are in need of one.  Both docks are within walking distance to restaurants and a grocery store. It is a great place to stop if you are in the area. The only bad thing is the park has some marshy area and the mosquitoes come out in hunting packs around dusk and dawn.

We tied up took the dogs for a walk, did a little reprovisioning at the store and treated ourselves to dinner at a reasonably priced local Mexican restaurant before calling it a day.

P.S. Sorry for the infrequent posts, but internet has been quite spotty of late. The signals aren't that reliable and it has taken me several days to get this to post.  I promise more are coming.  In the meantime, I have some better success getting small posts out to Facebook, so you can always check out the page there.

Bellhaven and An Alligator That Eats Anchors

We didn't exactly get up early that morning in Bellhaven, but we did get some much needed rest. This day's trip would start with a long stretch of man-made ICW ditch known as the Alligator - Pungo canal. It is a few hours of very straight and wind less canal with only a single turn. After that is the Alligator river and Albemarle sound.

As we motored up the canal with the drone of one engine slowly depleting our diesel supplies, we listened to the weather reports. It sounded like the strong winds would be returning again in the afternoon.

The Albemarle isn't a place you want to be in strong winds as the shallow depths and long fetch can make for very rough conditions. The one automobile bridge that crosses the Alligator river won't even open in strong winds. Add in the fact we got a pretty late start and it was a sure bet that we would be anchoring out in the Alligator river this evening.  And that is exactly what we did.

I figured we might end up anchoring here and had scouted out several locations on both Active Captain and Skipper Bob's publications. What I found is that the river is known for a lot of submerged stuff that, as one site mentioned, could be hazardous to your anchor system. I guess some people drop anchor and then are never able to pull it back up. To try and avoid that issue, or at least help, I rigged up a trip line using a fender and some old dock line.

We checked out a couple different anchoring sites. With the large number of dead trees that surround much of the shore of the river, I can see why anchoring might be a bit hazardous to your anchor and chain. After a bit of debate, we finally decided on a location that was protected from the south-southeast winds but not from anything west...so I hope the winds don't shift. We dropped the hook and settled in for our first night together "on the hook".

I even managed to play with the remote feature on our new camera and got a picture of us at anchor.

North From Southport

If you have been following along on my Facebook page, you already know we have made it far enough north to satisfy our insurance.  Unfortunately, we've been too busy and Internet access has been too sparse to get blog posts done, so I'm going to catch up here as time and wifi signals allow.

We finally departed Southport around 11 AM on Memorial day to make our way up the Cape Fear river and ICW to the Masonboro inlet for an overnight passage. We left at 11 in order to use the tide to our advantage and to time our arrival at the Beaufort inlet the following morning. As you might expect, the waterways were crowded with boaters enjoying the holiday weekend. We encountered a lot of small boats and water skis and I'm not sure all of them were what I would call...sober.  But, we ran the gauntlet and made it out the inlet and back into the Atlantic.

Sailing in the Atlantic

We had an Ok nighttime sail with seas that weren't quite as rough as when we left St. Augustine and made good time as we arrived at Beaufort around 3am. We hove to and waited for daylight before making our way in and beginning our ICW bypass of Cape Hattaras. Just past Beaufort we encountered another catamaran and it turned out to be Dragonfly,  who we had met in Southport a couple days earlier.  We chatted with them on the radio a bit while motoring up the canal.

Dragonfly motor sailing with us.

When the canal opened up into the Neuse river, we were both able to turn our motor boats back into sailboats again. Having more sailing experience (OK, we simply made some mistakes in anticipating proper sail configuration and when to make a turn), Dragonfly left us behind. But we were able to sail most of the river without burning any diesel...and that is a good thing anytime you are on the ICW.

Of course, the river narrowed and we were once again required to engage the old Iron Genny to get us to the next spot where we could sail again. By the time we got to the Pamlico river we were seeing 30 knot winds at our backs. We sailed under reefed genoa alone up through the Pungo river. At that point it was getting late and we were exhausted so we decided to spend the night at a marina in Bellhaven.

As we passed the breakwater in Bellhaven (which was not doing it's job, by the way), we found Dragonfly anchored in the bay. We made our way to the marina and, despite the strong winds, made it safely to the dock. Having not had much sleep in the 36 hours that elapsed since we left Southport, we got the dogs off the boat for a bit and then collapsed in our berth for the night without even having dinner.

Memorial Day in Southport

We have decided to hang out in Southport until Memorial Day, mostly waiting for more favorable winds to continue our trek north (the winds blowing from the north are expected to shift east and then south by the end of the holiday weekend).  We are also taking advantage of the marina WiFi to continue researching boatyards where we can have some work done once we get "up north"...wherever that is.

Provisions...

Southport is a picturesque little waterfront town.  It obviously survives on tourism these days as the old downtown area has lots of little antique, gift, and knick-knack shops. Right along the water are a few restaurants that are nice places to hang out in the evening, have a beer, and watch the boats on the water.  One of the best places to grab a bite to eat is the Yacht Basin Provision Company, better known as just "Provisions".  They are a simple bar and restaurant where you can satisfy a seafood or burger craving, and the prices are cruiser friendly (We both had a nice crabcake sandwich for $5.95...sides were extra...and split 1/4 lb. of peel and eat shrimp at around the same price). They even have a dock you can stay at if you can find the space and eat there...but only one of their spaces will fit a catamaran.

The bar and seating at Provisions

Being the frugal sort and yet still wanting to stay at a marina as we get the dogs more used to life on a boat, we decided to re-position the boat from the Southport Marina (where we limped in on one engine) to Deep Point Marina that is just outside of town (about 2 miles).  Instead of paying $1.75/ft/day (or $66.50) we are paying $1.20/ft/day (or $45.60) and getting the 3rd night free.  In addition, Deep Point has a pool and free laundry...a couple of nice amenities.  The down side is, of course, they aren't right in the middle of town.

Deep Point Marina, with Rover on the right.

While we were here, I also got to meet back up with someone I met the last time I was passing through town.  Walt and his wife had sent me a note through the blog and wanted to come down and meet me and see the boat.  At the time they were just taking sailing lessons and wanted to check out my boat and chat about my experiences.  I guess they liked the boat, because now they own a 1999 Leopard 38 too.  This time we got to compare notes on the boats and any tips and tricks we had figured out along the way.  Getting a chance to see another identical hull is always a great way to get ideas for improvements or just better ways of doing things.

Walt and Us on James and Emily's Catamaran

While we were chatting on his boat, a very cool young couple that Walt met the previous night dropped by.  James and Emily are in their late 20's and are just getting back from a cruise from New England down to the BVI.  And get this, they did it on a catamaran they built themselves.  How cool is that!  Looking at the boat, you wouldn't think it was home-built...it looks very nice and professionally finished.  We had a good time talking with them and hearing about their trip, and I only wish I had thought to do something like this when I was younger...bu better late than never, right? They have a blog of their trip, you can check it out here: http://dragonflysail.com/

Chatting with James and Emily

So, in this mad rush to get north, we are still taking a little time to enjoy ourselves.  Now if I can only find a DIY boatyard in the Chesapeake that can accommodate a 21' 3" wide catamaran.

Heading into Southport

In case you missed it, the first part of the trip can be found here.  Continuing on...

During the second full day of sailing, the winds calmed down and we once again made our way using a combination of sailing and motor sailing in order to make reasonable headway.  I guess I can't complain though, if we were in the ditch, we would likely be motoring the whole way and, in addition, we would have to stop at night and that would make the trip take a lot longer. In the afternoon the wind started clocking around to the southwest, dead at our backs.  With the light winds, I decided to put up the spinnaker for a little while.  I do like that asymmetrical spinnaker, it seems to get the boat moving at over 1/2 the wind speed in broad reaches and downwind directions.

Spinnaker on the open ocean

Thus far I've typically planned trips using a speed of about 5 knots unless the trip is forecast to be beating directly into the wind and I want to actually sail it (I haven't figured out what speed I should use then, but am guessing about 2 knots). A good portion of this trip has been in excess of 5 knots, so it looked like we would be making it to Southport around 2am.  As evening arrived, the winds started picking up from the southwest and, a bit unexpected to me, the seas started picking up from the southeast to around 3 foot on a 5 second period.

Checking the weather forecast, it was now calling for scattered thunderstorms offshore in the Cape Fear area.  As night fell, we could see the thunderstorm clouds building to our east.  The lightning would light up the clouds.  It is a nice thing to watch...from a distance. Since the winds were continuing from the southwest and the offshore breezes would also come from the west, it should keep the storms to the east of us.  But since we had time anyway, we decided to turn the boat westward and make our way closer to shore.  We pointed the boat towards Myrtle Beach and made our way from 30 NM off the coast to around 6 NM.  When we got closer to shore, we also found a little calmer seas.

After the detour near Myrtle Beach, we ended up arriving outside of the Cape Fear river inlet at Southport around 6am.  Since we would be heading pretty much into the wind coming into the inlet, We went to start the engiines.  Unfortunately, the starboard engine, which had been just fine up to this point in the trip, decided not to wake up.  The attempt made the clicking sound that is reminiscent of a dead battery.  That same battery just happens to be the one that also starts the generator and the generator started just fine (and the voltages on the batteries seem fine).  My best guess was that there was some corrosion and the starter wasn't getting enough power, so I spent the next hour, as we slowly motored in on a single engine, down in the engine room cleaning all the starter connections.  Unfortunately that didn't help.  So, here we were again, one engine down and needing to navigate to a marina slip.

Another sunrise over the Atlantic

This time, having a bit more experience with the boat, I decided to give the marina a call and see if they have a dock I can get to without a lot of tight maneuvering.  They did, so I was able to bring the boat into the dock and then, using the lines, the crew walked it around the T-head to the slip.  The Southport marina also has a maintenance yard next door and, having just completed a 3 day passage, I was too tired to look into the problem myself.  They were able to send a technician over later that day and found that excessive corrosion inside the ground cable end had caused  the issue.  They cleaned up the cable, crimped on a new end, and added heat shrink to help protect it from future corrosion (the heat shrink on the original cable had failed and that is where the corrosion started).  Since I didn't have the tools or parts, it ended up being a good call to have them come do the work.

Tucker exploring the boat near the start of the trip

I guess I haven't really mentioned our furry crewmembers much.  For the most part, they are doing fine.  They seem to be adjusting to life on a mobile floating house OK.  To them it is probably just like a big car ride where we are taking all our stuff with us.  The one exception is dealing with the "potty mat".  Even though it should have the right smell to them, neither of them are really sure of the thing.  Tucker managed to do his business there after some coaxing, but our older dog Madison could only be convinced to pee there once.  She held her other business until she was back on shore.

Madison resting in the cockpit, tethered of course.

And for Pete, who jokingly mentioned something about eating Spam on passage, here is dinner the second evening...shrimp with a creamy tomato, garlic, and basil sauce freshly prepared en route.

Shrimp and pasta for dinner.

So, now we need to figure out where we are going from here since we still don't have a final destination in mind.  Oh, and I guess we have a couple more repairs to add to the list, so we may be looking for a place to haul out again.  Such is life on a boat.

And We're Off

For the first time since we bought the boat over a year ago, our entire household is on the boat. The house back in Colorado has sold and just about everything we own is floating in Hammock Beach. Or, it was anyway...

We have been rushing up against our insurance deadline to be north of Cape Hatteras by June 1 so we needed to start our move north.  Given the tight time frame, we can't really just meander up the coast as we would have liked, but instead need to make it a quicker trip.  The plan was to take the ICW up to St. Augustine, the next inlet, and then sail on the outside up to Southport NC.  The weather forecasts looked like it was going to cooperate for the trip, so on Sunday afternoon we departed.

The trip up the ICW went fast as we were riding the current out.  We left just after 3pm and made the 6pm opening of the Bridge of Lions in St. Augustine.  While waiting for the bridge, a Gemini catamaran pulled up behind us, and it was no other than my friend (and former broker) Pete.  He was moving a newer Gemini Legacy to another local marina after it had been at a local boat show (as I've said before, maybe the hardest working man in the boating industry).  It was a nice surprise to see him as we were heading out.  He even managed to snap a few pictures of us.

Waiting on the Bridge of Lions...or pirates.

Pete following us through the bridge.

After making our way out of the inlet, we found the ocean was a little more active than forecast.  Instead of the 2 foot seas on an 8 second period and 15 knots of wind, we were greeted with 3 foot seas on about a 4 second period with winds of 23~26 knots. The one plus was that both the waves and the winds were from the south to southeast so it would feel more comfortable going northeast than any southerly direction. Not the ideal conditions for introducing my wife to a night passage, but sometimes you just have to do what you have to do.

Unfortunately she did get a bit seasick that first night.  After taking some Bonine she started feeling better.  Over the course of the night the winds and waves did finally calm down. By 5am the seas were around 1 foot on a 6 second period and she was feeling good.

For my non-sailing readers...or those not familiar with the above numbers, the quick rule of thumb on sea state is that it is usually pretty comfortable when the wave height in feet is one-half (or less) the wave period in seconds.  As the ratio approaches 1:1, things start feeling pretty rough.  So, in general you would rather be sailing in 4 foot seas on a 12 second period than in 3 foot seas on a 3 second period.  Hope that makes a little sense.

Another sunrise on the Atlantic

That first morning we were also visited by our first pair of dolphins.  They were having fun playing in the pressure wave at the front of the boat.  Later on in the trip we were visited two more times by dolphins that came to play.  Of course, I think I run across photo-averse dolphins since each time I decide to go get a camera, they generally disappear.  Oh well, it is nice to see them and superstition claims their visits bring good luck...and we could certainly use that.

Along with the gentler seas the second day came more fickle winds, so we ended up doing a a combination of sailing and motor-sailing most of the day.  Winds cycling between 3 and 8 knots during the day.  By that evening the fickle winds had allowed the seas to calm to 1 foot on a 9 second period.  A good time for the wind to pick up a bit so we could sail...and it did.  Maybe it was the luck of the dolphins, but regardless of the reason I'll take it.  We were able to sail through the night on 8 to 14 knot winds, and by our second morning we were abeam Charleston, SC.

There is an interesting phenomenon that occurs when sailing at night.  During the day, you can look in all directions and see nothing but the ocean for the entire day.  Once night falls, it seems that all the big cargo ships appear as if out of nowhere.  Maybe it has just been the timing of my passages that I seem to go by all the traffic lanes in and out of the major port cities during the night, but both my wife and I have noted that these large ships appear like The Flying Dutchman in the movies. In any case, trying to decipher the navigation lights from the myriad of deck lighting on these large ships can keep you entertained at night.

A rare daytime cargo ship sighting.

Well, there are things that need to get done today, so I will have to save the rest of the story for next time.  Until tomorrow...