COVID Cruise 1 - with Jackson

    We originally were planning to head for New England this summer, but with the COVID outbreak and not wanting to go ashore anywhere, we decided to cruise around the southern Chesapeake. When Grandson Jackson came to visit for a week in May, we headed for the Dismal Swamp and a trip down to the (closed) Visitors Center. 

    We had a week of nice weather. A light breeze on the way down to Norfolk and some perfect beam winds along the way back. 

   Jackson got a bit of helm time in as we let the autopilot take a rest. He just finished completing the Virginia Boating Safety class and received is Boating License prior to this trip. He got to get some experience to back up his bookwork skills.  

  

 Heading down past the Naval Base towards the Dismal Swamp you pass by most of the US Navy Atlantic Fleet. We were lucky to watch a submarine pass by. Normally the subs are fairly hidden behind the security fencing along the piers.

   Heading into the Dismal Swamp canal requires a passage through the Deep Creek locks and a lift upwards of about 8-9 feet. Its a fairly simple process. It can be done singlehanded, but having 2 line handlers plus the helmsman makes it simple. 

   It was a smooth trip down the Dismal Swamp canal. We did have to carefully pass a couple of northbound vessels. The tricky hazard in the canal is the overhead tree branches. You have to be extra careful picking your passing spot and watching up as you pass by other boats not getting too far over into the overhanging trees. We collected a few twigs along the upper shroud, but no damage to the instruments at the mast top.

   From Deep Creek Lock its about 4-5 hrs to get down to the Visitors Center which is just past the North Carolina state line.  We made it all the way down without any "bumps" on submerged logs along the way. We did see a couple trees that had come down in Spring storms that still hadn't been cleared, but they were not blocking more than half the canal allowing clear passage.

   The Visitors Center and the Nature Center were both closed due to COVID, but the walkways were open. Sue, Rivah and Jackson and I went for a long walk through the woods and along the raised nature trail. We saw and laughed at the sign about ticks but didnt understand the importance of the sign until we finished the walk and checked ourselves. We pulled at least 20 ticks off EACH of us, not just the dog. We have never seen that many ticks before. They must have just had a swarming or something. We checked again at the end of the day before heading to bed and found one or two more we had missed.

   It was soon time to head back to Virginia and take advantage of the upcoming southerly winds to blow us back up the Bay. Back up the canal and through the Deep Creek lock. This time Robert was working and he treated us to his stories of the Canal and some Conch horn blowing. We're glad we got to see Robert again as were learned that unfortunately he died unexpectedly a couple months later from a heart attack. We'll miss his coffee and doughnuts get-togethers he would host for the boats that stayed the night at the Deep Creek Lock free docks.

   As we headed north up past the Naval Station we watched a fog bank roll in from the northeast. One minute it was clear blue skies an unlimited visibility and the next it was down to less than 100 yards. Fortunately we had seen this tanker at anchor before the fog enveloped him. It was a very eerie look to see the big hull looming out of the fog. We got to use our radar and fog signals as we decided to do a bit of sailing off to the west of the channel and anchorage area waiting for the fog to clear before we continued north into the Chesapeake (and shipping channels).

  The trip back up the bay was a great sail with winds on the beam building to 20kts, perfect weather for our Island Packet. We were zooming north at 7+kts and at one point making 7.8kts in a strong gust.  The winds were bringing in some stormy weather so we decided to head for our home waters and anchor in the Chisman Creek for a couple days.

Anchoring in the creek with some wind and rain forecasted was a good opportunity to try out our anchoring riding sail that Sue had just finished making. Jackson and I hoisted it up on the starboard backstay. I have to say it really doesnt do all that much but I suppose it slightly cuts down on the boat sailing at anchor. It doesnt stop the sailing completely though, so not worth spending a lot of money or time on. I think the sail kit was about 69$. 

 

  More important training for Jackson was learning to tie a Rolling Hitch that we use to attach our snubber line to the anchor chain rode. The snubber is very important when anchoring in windy and wavy conditions to allow some stretch in the anchor rode. I've tried all different types of hooks and shackles, all of which seem to come off in rough conditions,  and have settled on just using the Truckers Hitch. Its important to get it tied securely though or it can also slip in strong winds.

 

Following the frontal passage, the next day was clear and sunny conditions. Jackson got to practice his small boat skills driving the dinghy around Chisman Creek.  

Overall, it was a very successful trip. All had a great time and stayed COVID safe.

Dismal Swamp to Yorktown

   From the Alligator River in North Carolina, its two long days or 3 short days home with a stop in Elizabeth City. We got underway from our anchorage and, for the first time since leaving Fort Myers, there was rain in the forecast. We got our raingear ready and got to use it as one single heavy 20 minute shower passed over us, and with Murphy always present, it blew over us exactly as we were passing through the Alligator River Swing Bridge. Visibility was way down but the bridge operator timed our passing perfectly and we transited through in the pouring rain with no problems and no delays. Ten minutes on the other side of the bridge the sun was back out.

   I read on the internet ICW website that there was a free dock north of the bridge in Elizabeth City. We checked it out and confirmed an ideal spot to tie up with great protection. The dock belongs to Jennette Brothers trucking firm who encourage boaters to tie up there for free in return for dining, and completing a survey form, at an Elizabeth City restaurant. You check in with the company in their office right at the dock. It was a 5 min walk to town. The only problem was positioning the boat to avoid hitting the tree limbs - and a cockpit full of leaves to clean up.

   The next morning we were off early, 0600, to make the 0830 lock opening at South Mills in the ICW. With the Pasquotank River current against us at 1 kt, it was a real push. We arrived at 0835 and took our place as the 3rd sailboat entering the lock. That works in our favor as the inrushing water is most turbulent at the front.








From the South Mills Lock it is only a couple hours up to the Dismal Swamp Visitor Center and another great place to stop, especially if you haven't been to their nature center. In addition to the displays of wildlife inside, we got to see a mother deer and her children who hang out alongside the center.

   The Dismal Swamp is not so dismal on a bright sunny day. Its one of the prettier sections of the ICW. Sue got this photo that looks like a magazine shot.

   The Army Corps of Engineers is operating a dredge in the canal to deepen the shoaling portions. We passed the dredge north of the Visitor Center. At first it looked like he was blocking the channel and we saw a "stick" between him and the left shore right in our path. As we got close, we saw that there were two poles with red and green paint to denote the channel and there was just room to pass between the dredge and the red pole to his portside.  No problem and we were on our way to the Deep Creek lock.

   Soon we were up at Deep Creek lock and Rivah got to sightsee on deck as we passed through the lock. There is no turbulence when you are going down in the locks and we were soon on our way.

      We had planned to stop and spend the night at Portsmouth since we were in no hurry but when we arrived there, the first basin was full of boats and all the docks in the second basin were taped and posted off-limits under construction. The one boat tied up appeared to be checking out the docks. We passed by and proceeded for home.

   We kept motoring up the Elizabeth River in the light winds and sunny skies, up past the Navy Base and finally over the Hampton Roads bridge/tunnel, past Fort Monroe and into the Chesapeake.

   As we entered the Chesapeake and turned to the northwest towards home, the wind came up at 16-18 kts from the east. Perfect sailing conditions. We sailed the final 4 hours home to Chisman Creek in ideal (if not a bit boisterous) conditions sailing at 7kts.  We anchored in Chisman Creek for the night and pulled back into our home slip early the next morning before the wind came up.

   It was a fairly quick trip home, only 18 days from Punta Gorda, even with the stops to visit friends  and family along the way. We used a bit of fuel, about 80 gallons, motorsailing most of the way in the light winds. But not having to stop at night at a marina to plug into shore power for heat, we only spent $25 on marinas the whole trip home (one night on the mooring ball at St Augustine). And, we caught one Mahi-mahi which will provide a dinner for two, so that makes more than up for the mooring ball fee.
   The boat performed exceptionally well for being in storage for over 2 years before we departed. We had only 3 noteworthy maintenance items: replacing the scupper hoses that we knew was an issue before departing; replacing the fresh water pump which was 15 yrs old, and refurbishing the washdown pump with new pump vanes ($13 in parts). Otherwise, all systems worked properly throughout the trip.
   Back home now we have a long list of normal upkeep and maintenance tasks to keep us busy this sailing season.

St Augustine to Beaufort, NC Offshore

   Watching the weather closely it looked like we had a 4 day window to travel north. If we could take advantage of the Gulf Stream all the way, that would get us all the way to the Chesapeake in just over 3 days and we could arrive home by Saturday morning and see Christopher and Jackson who were in Hampton for a Technology competition and staying at our house Sat night. But that was "best case" and not something to plan on.  When traveling north up the Atlantic coast, it is always best to plan on stopping at Beaufort and only continuing around Hatteras, an extremely dangerous cape, under the best favorable weather conditions.    We were up early Tues morning and through the Bridge of Lions by 0700, heading for the open ocean.

      The Castle of San Marcos at St Augustine quickly passed by.

   The winds were light and sea conditions mild, with just enough wind angle to motorsail towards the Gulf Stream, providing enjoyable conditions for the crew.  It was not to last...

  We would be traveling for 2-3 days up the Gulf Stream so it was time to set up the fishing gear and see what we could catch for dinner. We use hand reels with 200lb test line, line thick enough that you can pull it in by hand - not so we can catch 200lb fish. We use a blue lure to simulate a flying fish and a yellow/green lure that simulates a squid. We tie the line to a bungee which provides both a cushion for when the fish hits the lure and a telltail indicator for when you have a fish hooked.

   We motorsailed all day to the northeast heading towards the Gulf Stream, which we would reach about midnight.  At 1930, less than an hour before sunset, and prime fishing time when the big fish start to feed, we had a fish on the line. Turned out to be a small mahi-mahi, but big enough for a good size meal for two. Actually, these smaller fish are better tasting than the larger ones. This one was bleeding already from the hook as we hoisted him aboard and he made a mess of the boat, but we soon had him under control. We also use alcohol (gin or vodka) to squirt in their gills and stop the thrashing. This one was small enough I could hold down. That doesn't work with the 3-5ft long ones.

   As predicted, we picked up the west wall of the Gulf Stream about midnight and were soon zooming to the north at 10kts, riding a 3+kt current. Unfortunately, the wind and seas also picked up as we entered the Gulf Stream. We had 3-4ft waves riding on top of a 3-4ft swell striking us broadside. That meant anywhere from 3-8ft waves we were bashing through sailing at 6-7kts in the 16-18kt winds. We were making great time and the forecast was for the conditions to ease off over the next couple days. Meanwhile we were in classic Gulf Stream sailing conditions with confused seas, a very rough ride and not at lot of fun, other than going fast.
   Morning arrived 6 hrs later and the crew was not having a good time. Sue was staying close to the rail and made several  contributions to King Neptune. Rivah was not throwing up but clearly not feeling well.  The forecast was for the wind to ease off but instead it was increasing. We knew we could not go another 24-48 hrs in these conditions. This was not a race we were in, it was supposed to be "fun." We decided we could pass on seeing Chris and Jackson, since we hadn't planned originally to see them anyways. We exited the Gulf Stream heading for Georgetown, SC.

   Amazingly, within an hour of turning to the west, we were out of the Gulf Stream, the waves dropped to the normal 2-3 ft and the wind dropped to 10-12 kts as forecasted. In hindsight, we could have just continued to the north alongside but out of the stream and on towards Beaufort but, we had already decided to go to Georgetown and up the Waccamaw River which is the prettiest section of the ICW. We motored all day towards Georgetown as the wind dropped to 5 kts and seas flattened and arrived at the inlet at 2000. We motored up the channel and finally decided to pull over and stop around 2200 in a pocket to the west of the channel. The wind was now down to near zero and we had a quiet night at anchor in the Waccamaw River mouth.
   The next morning, we rethought our situation and realized that heading offshore we could get to Beaufort in 30 hrs, before dark the next day, and save ourselves 3 days of motoring up the ICW and several very shallow spots and numerous bridges. We raised the anchor and headed back out to sea. Along the way out the river you go pass the Winyah Bay lighthouse and, a whole lot of shrimp boats.

   Winds were still very light (as forecasted) so we motorsailed up the coast and around Frying Pan Shoals at midnight and on to Beaufort.

   Once we could make the turn to the northwest around the shoals we were finally able to sail in the southeasterly breeze and by 1400 the Beaufort inlet was in sight. Along the way, we were visited by the USS Eisenhower, CVN 69, that was conducting sea trials off the NC coast. It was amazing how fast the carrier could come over the horizon into clear view then quickly disappear back over the horizon. She must have been doing high speed maneuvering trials as we saw her appear and disappear about 3 times.

   Murphy's Law again met us as we entered Beaufort Inlet at max outgoing current. Like Fort Pierce, Beaufort is a wide and well marked 30 ft channel, so there is no danger entering as long as your motor works properly. Otherwise there are strong currents and shoals on either side of the channel that are quite dangerous for sailboats that can't go in the right direction safely. As usual, the inlets are a busy place with sport fishing boats coming in and out adding to the challenge.




   Safely back in the ICW we had several hours of daylight left to keep heading north. We had several boats in company all heading north after wintering in Florida or the Bahamas. There are always interesting sights on the ICW which this time included a canal motorsailor from the Netherlands working its way north and further on, the first time we have ever seen a sailboat towing a jetski alongside. That's a real bipolar sailor!

   At the end of a long set of days it was time to anchor and sit back and enjoy the sunset. In 3 days of near continuous motorsailing, we had cut 8 days out of the normal ICW trek from St Augustine and had just 2 more days to go until arriving home.

St Augustine

   Sunday morning, after a last coffee with friends,  it was off for St Augustine. Our great weather (for motoring) was holding up and it would be an easy motor up the ICW.

   The ICW is a slow route, but there are many interesting sites along the way. Someone has a keen artistic spirit designing this dock house. The angled lines are constructed by design and give this small house a unique appearance. 

   The weather was nice and sunny but the current was against us the entire trip up the Indian and Halifax Rivers. It would have been just after sunset when we arrived at St Augustine, so we decided to pull over and anchor for the night just off the ICW. Our first attempt to anchor in a small pocket off the ICW in what was charted to be 10 ft of water came to a quick halt as the water rapidly went to 5 ft. Seems some shoaling has filled this pocket. We backed up abruptly and continued on up the ICW, then saw 2 trawlers anchored on the eastern side in a large area charted at 10-14ft. As we slowly entered this area we saw depths up to 18 ft and were soon safely anchored off the channel and away from the other boats for another quiet night. Initially the wind blew briskly at up to 20kts but it died off by midnight.

   We were underway early Monday morning and fueled and moored at the St Augustine mooring field before 10 am. Plenty of time for some sightseeing and dinner with family before departing for sea the next day.

First stop was lunch at Pizza Time along St George Street. They claim their pizza is "Second Best" in America and we can attest that it is pretty good. 

   Another treat was the presence of the Spanish replica of Columbus's flagship the Santa Maria. I was surprised how small this ship actually was. We talked to a crew member who related that the ship "bobbed like a cork" on the ocean providing a very uncomfortable ride. Fortunately they have two diesel engines that can get them from port to port along their America tour so they are not dependent on favorable winds unlike Columbus.

   The real purpose of the stop though was to see again our new great- nephew. We had a great dinner with Johnathan and Sami and Crewe.

Indian Key to New Smyrna

   We departed Indian Key on Wed the 24th, motoring into relatively calm conditions. Now we were on a bit of a schedule as we wanted to visit with friends who were in Florida from Texas and only available on Sat evening the 27th. With good conditions, we could make it to New Smyna by Saturday afternoon.
   The weather gods were cooperating. We motored all day up to Miami and made the turn to the north up the Florida east coast at 6pm. The weather continued to look good up the east coast so we decided to not stop for the night and continue offshore to Fort Pierce.

   Most of the pleasure boats were off the water by 6pm but we still had to watch out for commercial vessels coming and going from Miami, Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach inlets. Having an AIS receiver allows us to see their location and course and help stay out of their way. Additionally, our experience is these commercial vessels are very professionally captained and we watched several alter course and speed to not interfere with our sailing course where we had the right of way. Here is the Magic of Disney departing from Miami right as we passed northward across the channel.

   The advantage of heading north up the Florida Coast is the Gulf Stream is there to aid you. As we angled eastward off Miami we began slowly picking up the northbound current at about 5 miles out. First one half knot, then 1kt, then building to 3kts as we passed by West Palm Beach. Here is a photo of our chart plotter showing speed made over the ground. Our boat's theoretical max speed through the water is 7.2kts. Here we are going 8.4kts over the ground. Later this would build to 9kts over the ground while we made 6kts through the water. These favorable conditions were speeding us along towards our destination.

  As we sped along, the wind slowly died - good for a comfortable ride but bad for making good time. There were no complaints from the crew though who have experienced far worse conditions in the Gulf Stream (and would again later in the trip).

 All good things must pass and as we passed by West Palm Beach making 9kts and now had to turn to the northwest to proceed to the Fort Pierce inlet we quickly came out of the Gulf Stream. Within a couple hours we were completely out of the stream and back to a much more normal 6.5kts. As we approached Fort Pierce at dawn, there were several other sailboats coming in from the Bahamas, also timing their arrival for dawn.

   While it was prudent planning to time our arrival at the inlet just after dawn, it also matched up with maximum outgoing current flow of up to 3kts. Fortunately their was no significant opposing wind so the entrance was just slow and bumpy, not dangerous. Once we were inside the inlet and into smoother waters, we were greeted by the US Coast Guard, conducting routine safety inspections of vessels. Since it has been over 10 yrs since our last boarding, it was our turn. No problems with the inspection as we are well stocked with safety gear. Rivah was initially not happy with a strange vessel pulling up alongside but she settled down quickly and let the USCG crew do their job. Within 15 mins we were back on our way up the ICW.

 We made it to Vero Beach before 10am for a quick pit stop for fuel, water and oil. It was a well choreographed stop by Sue and we were quickly on our way further north towards New Smyrna and it was still only Thursday morning. Lots of time to make our Saturday commitment with friends. Thursday evening found us at Cocoa Beach where there is a very convenient anchorage just off the east side of the ICW behind the Cocoa Beach bridge with protection from the southeast winds. We spent a quiet night there and were off early Friday morning for New Smyrna.

    

   The weather continued to be cooperative and we had an easy motoring trip up the ICW to New Smyrna arriving in mid-afternoon. We were greeted with construction on the bridge but there was ample room for one-way traffic through the bridge.

   Unlike during our trip south, there were no restrictions on the parking at the public dock with no special events going on. We left plenty of room for another boat to tie up but we were the only boat there for Friday and Saturday. Our fender boards provided us good protection alongside the dock pylons.

  Its always a treat to visit with Tara and Carol, where the food is delicious.