Category: Sailing

Well we finally left Hampton this week, after a few stops and starts and a few more trips to the hardware, marine and grocery stores. I think we have successfully discovered every nook and cranny on this boat and shoved those spaces full of provisions!

At the start of the week, we spent time with Ray Smith, our new crew member, to get him oriented to the boat and the rally. Ray’s a very amiable fellow, and plus, he owns a Jeanneau sailboat so he can’t be that bad! We all headed over to Bluewater Yachting Center on Sunday morning, Nov 5 with great anticipation for our departure the next day. However, the favorable weather window we had was closing rapidly and the rally organizers decided to postpone the start until Wednesday or Thursday. Although we were experiencing an exceptionally pleasant high over the area, there was an intense low moving towards us and would put us in rough conditions the first few days out. It was great to hear that the organizers made this decision, as one of my reservations about joining the rally was the likely pressure they would feel to send 75 boats, with crew members anxious and return flights already booked, off on schedule despite the predicted weather. The last thing I wanted to do was be out in rough conditions the first few days, especially in the Gulf Stream, which we would probably encounter about 24 hours into the voyage. So now we had even more time to prepare. If we weren’t ready for the trip with this extra time, shame on us! We spent one afternoon out on the Norfolk harbor practicing tacks, jibes, and reefing so that Ray could become comfortable doing these kinds of things, in the middle of the night if necessary. We also conducted a process called swinging the compass. This process measures the amount of error the ship’s compass has compared to a normal magnetic compass. With the many pieces of equipment, wiring and other objects that may throw off the compass onboard, it is good to have a deviation table of these errors, and the rally inspectors required it too. It is done by comparing the ship’s compass to a hand bearing compass every 15 degrees on the compass rose. When I’ve done this before, and when we did it now, it caused a bit of confusion to other boats in the area. I imagine they wonder why we can’t keep to a respectable course and why we continue in circles!

Each day during the week, we had a morning briefing with the rally and the latest weather was of course the main topic of discussion. At this point, we had become pretty used to the dinghy ride from our home at the Hampton municipal docks to Bluewater Yachting Center, the center of the rally and where most boats were docked. Here we are on a particularly bright clear morning. That’s Ray in the picture as well.

Here’s a shot of everyone in the rally tent, being briefed by the Carib1500 head, Steve Black. On the last few days before the start, no one skipped these briefings — we were all weather fiends at that point!

On Tuesday, it looked like we were going to be set for ‘launch’ the next day. The low would be passing over us in the evening with heavy rain at times. We decided to not dip into the ship’s stores so close to departure and instead opted for dinner ashore. We had been advised by the fleet doctor to not drink the night before. He said a sure guarantee for sea sickness would be fatty foods and alcohol, so we decided on a simple Italian restaurant and got loaded up on carbohydrates instead!

The evening passed as forecasted with steady rains and a morning that was bright and clear. One fellow boater on the dock that morning said I looked like I had a ‘bone in my teeth’! I’m sure I did, as we had been at the dock here for almost 2 weeks and we were all anxious to get moving! The start was set for high noon off of Thimble Shoal light. At 10am, we disconnected our shore power (bummer, no more heat!), cast off the lines, and headed out the harbor. Here we are, standing on shore in the States for the last time for many months!

As we approached Bluewater Yachting Center, we came to an immediate halt — this was the equivalent of the SF Bay Bridge at rush hour!

You can’t see it too well in this picture, but there is a continuous line of boats in front us out the channel to the harbor!

Once we finished the procession out the channel and entered the harbor of Hampton Roads, we were quickly enveloped in a layer of fog, not unlike the heavy fog of Maine. Where moments before we were surrounded by boats, now we could only see one or two at a time. Then, boats around us started to make erratic turns this way and that — what craziness was this about? Seconds later it became clear, as the superstructure of large containership loomed above the fog ahead of us! You could see the bridge, but not the hull, and to make matters worse, this ship was not blowing fog signals! The navigable part of the harbor in this area is very narrow, and knowing that half of the fleet was still behind us, this looked like imminent disaster unfolding. Ray grabbed the VHF and contacted the captain on Channel 13, letting him know that there was a fleet of 75 sailboats all around and in front of him. This captain blew Ray off by saying ‘Yeah, I can see them all’. Right! Even if he could find them all on radar, that doesn’t mean that our fellow sailors wouldn’t make a sudden last minute move unknowingly in his path. He passed through the fleet without incident though, and we all started milling around the start line. Here, you can faintly see the race committee boat in the fog.

Here’s some new friends of ours on Heaven Won’t Wait, a Beneteau 42. They are from Halifax so you know we had a lot to talk about! They also have their 10 yr old son Devan aboard. Coincidently, two of their crew, Linda and Mike Whitehouse know some of the folks we met in Rogue’s Roost, Sue Vey and Ben Doucette — indicative of the small world we are living in presently!

The start was more like a power boaters affair, as nearly everyone decided to motor across the start line. In this rally, you are allowed to motor if you wish and your total engine hours are logged and incorporated into the scoring. So there we went, motoring to our destination some 1500 miles away!

This week’s update is a little unique – we haven’t moved anywhere! We have been at the town docks in Hampton, VA getting ready for the upcoming 1500 nm passage to Tortola, BVI’s. We have decided to join the Carib 1500 rally that leaves here, weather permitting, tomorrow morning (Monday). As some of you may have known, we had planned to have our friends from California, Martin and Nancy Thomas, join us for this offshore leg, but they had some medical concerns that arose at the last minute and had to cancel their trip. After some thought on our alternatives, we decided to join the rally here and also use their crew list to get 1 or 2 more people onboard. We were successfully in lining up Ray Smith, a sailor from the Washington DC area, who is here now and getting acclimated to the boat and the rally.

The folks that run this rally are very well organized. We have been spending quite a few days attending their seminars on a variety of topics including food/fuel planning, engine troubleshooting, medical issues and safety. We have been making numerous trips to the local West Marine and Lowe’s getting stocked up on additional safety equipment, spare parts, and anything we think we might need for offshore and while we are in the Caribbean. We rented a car earlier this week to run errands, including a super Walmart nearby, which was great for provisioning the boat, but comes with a challenge of where to put everything. Here we are trying to figure out that conundrum!

On one of our errands, we found simple Halloween outfits for the boys and attending an indoor celebration at the Virginia Air and Space Museum. This museum is very well organized and in some ways more enjoyable then the National Air and Space museum in DC.

Afterwards, they organized a short trick-or-treat walk around the area businesses in downtown Hampton, so the boys were able to still come home with a stash of candy!

And, of course, a Halloween would not be complete without a few pumpkins!

So, getting back to the rally, the weather is looking favorable for the start tomorrow. We will be in the company of 75 other boats and checking in on the SSB radio twice a day with position reports and any pertinent news. Apparently, they will be posting the positions of each boat on their website, so if you are interested, check that site out. I will also be trying to sending position updates to the Pangolin link, so you can also look there if you want to follow along with us. Don’t panic though if you aren’t seeing updates coming through every day! This rally is well organized and they have been doing this since 1989, so if there’s any safety issues with any boats in the fleet, they will be on top of it and getting the help that is needed.

If the weather is favorable for the trip, we should be there in 9-12 days. We’ll be staying in Village Cay Marina, in Tortola for a few days and enjoying the celebratory dinners they have been planned. After that, our cruising plans are up in the air. We’ll be staying in that general area of the Caribbean for awhile, but since none of us have sailed in those waters before, we are leaving our plans open.

On a final note, I don’t know how easily we will be able to get to internet connections, especially in some destinations in the eastern Caribbean, so we may not be able to post weekly updates as timely as we have done in the past; we’ll do our best, though, to keep you informed on our progress.

Take care!

I am coming to the conclusion that our kids will live in a big city when they grow up! They both light up and become energized as we descend on each big city … New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore and now Washington, DC. Maybe they take their lead from Tom and I. We do LOVE cities and maybe our moods and excitement are infectious.

Our first day in DC, however, was spent on our boat! The winds were blowing around 30 knots and we were anchored with a whole fleet of other boats. As all the surrounding boats put out more anchor rode to hold in the building winds, we found ourselves increasingly pinched. Being the last one in the anchorage, we moved and re-set our anchor at least three times throughout the day. We also put out a second anchor as backup.

We spent five nights anchored in the upper Potomac, a brisk 10 minute walk to the Washington DC Mall and all that that offered — the Smithsonian museums, Washington Monument, Capital Building, Lincoln Memorial, Library of Congress, White House and many more monuments and memorials which will have to be enjoyed on a future DC trip!

We did make it to the National Zoo, which was a very pleasant surprise. Nestled inside a quaint DC neighborhood, this zoo was very impressive for what they had, the amount of research done there and the habitats they maintained for their animals.

The highlight for me was the Library of Congress and the Capital Building. Both of these are such magnificent architectural structures in and of themselves. When the historic value, the exquisite art and statues and the knowledge of what these places mean to our nation are added on, it makes these two destinations rise to the top.

We couldn’t get our youngest out of the National Air and Space Museum and Zachary loved the zoo and enjoyed the overall historic significance and being able to see places he had heard so much about. Here is a picture of a ceiling inside the Library of Congress, followed by two great quotes found on its walls

Continue reading “Chesapeake Finale, Potomac to Norfolk! Ep. 24”

Wow, this is one of those weeks where I don’t know where to start, there’s been so much happening for us! We started off last weekend under the wings of Phil and Pat English in Columbia, MD. Phil was a close friend of Karen’s father, and he had offered several times to take us in when our voyage brought us through the area. We left the boat at a small marina on the Rhode River on the western shore just south of Annapolis. Phil picked us up for what would be two gracious nights spent ashore in a real bed, taking real showers and a chance to enjoy someone else’s cooking — it was splendid! We had run into Phil and Pat at several family weddings, but this was a good opportunity to catch up with them and enjoy their home in this beautiful suburb of both Baltimore and Washington DC. I guess it should be no surprise, but it seemed like everyone we ran into was somehow associated with the government. Karen’s cousin Linda stopped over and her husband Rubin works for the National Transportation Safety Board. A neighbor of Phil’s also works for the NTSB. Another neighbor flies military transport jets and is on his fourth Iraqi assignment. Phil’s son Matthew works as a technical contractor for the defense department. Phil had also held several government jobs around Washington. This experiences give you a new appreciation of what it takes to keep this country running!

We started off our land-side stay by doing those things that are so out of reach by foot from small waterfront towns — post office shipments, Home Depot run, and a fabric store for some vinyl to repair several cabin cushions. On Saturday, Phil promised and Phil delivered on a thorough tour of Washington DC. I had lived in Annapolis many years ago and was familiar with DC, but Karen and the boys had never seen the sights. We started by visiting Arlington National Cemetery.

Continue reading “DC Doubletake Ep. 23”

Last Friday, we left Georgetown on the eastern shore of the Chesapeake with a simple objective in mind — find a harbor with some excitement. The cruising guide had promised great things about Georgetown and had even forewarned us that we might encounter a “wall of boats” heading over from the more populated Baltimore and Annapolis regions. We quickly learned that you need to put on your ‘seasonality adjustment’ lens when reading the guide. What might be a wild and crazy location in July is as tame as a kitten in October. Sometimes too tame! And after spending the whole day holed up down below in the cabin in anticipation of gale force winds which never came, we were anxious to get out and see and do. So, we set sail for the western shore with Baltimore in mind, a 35 mile journey. We were finally able to show my Dad some real sailing with a beautiful 15-20 breeze out of the north that allowed us to sail on a broad reach or wing-and-wing downwind the entire day. Like the Delaware Bay, this part of the northern Chesapeake is shallow in many spots and they have designated a narrow shipping channel for freighters, tugs and the like to use. We had to keep very alert as our downwind destination forced us to criss cross the channel repeatedly. Zack stepped in and helped us out for part of the sailing, under the watchful eye of Grampa!

The entrance to Baltimore was by no means planned by the office of tourism. The shores are lined with heavy industrial activities with odd looking plumes of smoke exciting the factories and many freight terminals and container cranes. History is never far away though. After passing under the Francis Scott Key bridge, we saw in the distance a red and white stripped buoy with white stars on a blue background at the bottom. I thought it was something left over from a July 4th celebration this summer, but days later I read that this was dubbed the “star spangled buoy” and was the approximate site where Francis Scott Key got the inspiration for our national anthem while he stood imprisoned on a barge and looked across the bay to Fort McHenry to see our flag flagging. It is a little hard to see in this photo.

Continue reading “Diamonds in the Rough Ep. 22”