The Time Had Arrived—Florida Here We Come

November 9, 2021

The weather window to begin our journey south had finally arrived. It was not as long of a window as we would have liked, but we needed to go before the weather in the Bay succumbed to winter! Our crew was set with Ben, Bill, Don and myself.

We were told by the weather routing service that we should not round Cape Hatteras until midnight, to allow time for the wind to cycle. Thus, we spent the morning with last minute chores such as paying the marina bill, getting ice, washing clothes, filling up with water, giving the boat a rinse, stowing all loose items, and of course showering, because it would probably be several days before we could indulge in this luxury again.

At noon, we cast off the lines, pulled in the fenders and said goodbye to York River Yacht Haven, for real this time (at least I certainly hoped so). The York River was extremely calm and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky.

We motored along and watched the birds as they skimmed the water looking for their next meal.

It was hard to believe that it was still rocking and rolling out in the Atlantic. We raised the main, but the wind was not favorable. So we mainly motored our way into the Chesapeake Bay.

We dodged tankers and other ships as we crossed the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and Tunnel.

It took about five hours to reach the mouth of the Bay and pass Cape Henry. By this time the light was fading as last Saturday, daylight savings time began.

Just about the time we were leaving Chesapeake Bay behind, wouldn’t you know it, our starboard engine began sputtering. I had this sinking feeling that we would have to turn around and wait for another weather window. However, Ben quickly dispelled this notion. He said, “We are going, this is our weather window, and we are going!” I have to say while I was glad we were not turning around, it certainly made me nervous to begin our trip with only one engine. Ben believed it was probably a clogged fuel line, but it would have to wait until daylight for us to address the issue.

In addition, now that we were running with only our port engine, the auto pilot was making a terrible grinding noise. We were hoping against hope that it would not go out too. It was almost depressing that we had spent so much time, money and energy working on the boat this summer and we couldn’t even get out of the Bay without issues. Oh well, suck it up Kitra. We were going!

As we entered the Atlantic, we realized we were surrounded by numerous other boats leaving to head south. At any one time on the chart plotter, we saw 12-14 boats. Our friend Robert was ahead of us somewhere, and the people we met at the marina on AquaFrolic were about an hour ahead. Everyone who could, were making the trek down the coast for warmer water and weather.

Once we got settled, we ate hamburgers for dinner and worked out the watch schedule. Basically, we would have a four hours on and four hours off schedule which was staggered so that someone new would come on every two hours. This would always keep a fresh set of eyes on deck.

The wind was mainly on our nose, but we kept the main raised in case the wind cycled so that we could eek out all possible speed. We ran most of the night at 6-7 knots with 4-6 foot seas.

It surprised us that the sliver of a moon lit up the sky as much as it did. There was not a cloud in the sky so the stars were amazing and Orion was as bright as could be! The planets Jupiter, Saturn and Venus also stood out brightly against the night.

We set our course for Cape Hatteras anticipating rounding it around 8:30-9:00 in the morning. We were glad we would be arriving in the daylight hours as one never knew exactly how the current, wind and sea state would be at this cape. One friend says the best way to round Hatteras was under motor. That worked fine for us.

The night slid by uneventfully except for the loud auto pilot which made it difficult for me to sleep in the berth. So finally, I got a few hours rest from 3:00-5:30 sleeping in the salon. My next shift was from 6-10:00 and I was super happy to see the beautiful sunrise as I came up on deck.

November 10, 2021

We rounded Hatteras just about 8:30 and we were glad that we had stayed somewhat offshore as the current was ripping against the wind and the waves and we could only make about 3-4 knots of speed over ground.

We had been told to expect the wind to clock to the west as we rounded the cape, but it did not shift as much as we had hoped. So we continued to motor sail and it was quite a bumpy ride. The waves were still churned up from the prior storms, but at least they were only about 3-5 feet until opposing 8-foot swells joined them. Then it was sort of like sliding down moguls and crashing into trees. Because of the sea state and the noisy auto pilot, we ended up hand steering for the rest of the day. I had not been the most confident hand steerer in the past, but today I gained some confidence despite having to constantly modify the course for the shifty wind and the crazy waves.

By 16:00 since most everyone had finally had a nap to catch up on sleep, we ate a simple dinner of frozen pasta and garlic bread. Then it was getting dark again. So the night shifts began in earnest. Another night at sea, but at least the sea state had calmed a bit so that we could use the auto pilot again, and it was not as chilly tonight as it was last night.

 

As we rounded Cape Lookout about 20:00, the wind shut off completely. So we lowered the main and continued to motor our way towards Wrightsville Beach, NC. Most of the vessels began to veer south towards Cape Fear. So it was not as busy of night keeping track of all the vessels that had traveled with us yesterday. We had plenty of time to star gaze, enjoy the bioluminests and the falling stars. When the moon disappeared, the night was so dark you could not see the horizon. It was peaceful and calm except for a rouge wave once in a while that would unexpectedly rock the boat.

November 11, 2021

As sunrise broke, we found ourselves outside our destination, Wrightsville Beach.

We were all super happy to make our way into the channel lined with homes and docks. The beach looked beautiful too.

We went straight to the fuel dock to replenish the sixty-five gallons of fuel we had used during the passage.

For dinner Ben and Don went to the seafood store to buy mahi, shimp, potatoes and key lime pie. The grilled fresh seafood was quite a treat and the key lime pie was decadent. It was nice to sit and enjoy dinner without quickly eating and beginning the watch schedule.

November 12 2021

We thought we would need to stay several days in Wrightsville Beach waiting for the wind after the front passed last night, but after listening to the weather routing webinar this morning, we had a window to hop to Charleston if we left in the afternoon.

Around noon after Ben and Don cleaned the Racor filter in the starboard engine to get it running and tweaked the noisy auto helm, we raised anchor and headed out to sea again.

We spent hours going around Frying Pan shoals at Cape Fear. The sea state was quite nice until we got close to the cape. Then the sea became choppy and stayed that way for a good part of the night after rounding it and turning towards Charleston. The wind was supposed to clock to the west during the night, but we have decided that our bow attracts the wind because no matter which direction we turned our bow, the wind was directly on the nose.

We had a very noisy fly by as a plane flew directly over our mast!

Otherwise, it was an uneventful night as there were not many boats about and all we could do was motor and tweak the main sporatically to try to catch what breeze we could. We traversed at about 6 knots most of the night. By sunrise the wind had shut off completely and the seas were flat.

However, a pod of about 20 dolphins join us on our journey for about 30 minutes playing between the hulls. At one point some of the them looked like syncronized swimmers as they swam in a circle, while twisting, turning and diving one after the other.

We arrived at the channel to Charleston, SC about 12:00. The Channel was extremely busy with tankers, pleasure crafts and even a sailboat race.

Before anchoring we went to Charleston Marine Center to a refuel. The staff there were so helpful and pleasant!

We anchored by the aircraft carrier in the bay and found it ironic that its name was Yorktown, after all the time we had spent in York river this past summer.

For dinner, Don and Bill decided to dinghy across the bay and purchase some pizza for dinner. They were quite the spectacle as they carried the 28” pizza through town and brought it back to the boat in the dinghy. Ben and I were amazed when they brought it aboard. It was super yummy and we were all ravenous as we had not eaten lunch today. So not much of the pizza was left after we devoured it.

 

November 14, 2021

 We were sad to see Don leave this morning, but he needed to get home for his anniversary! He would be sorely missed, but we really appreciated him spending the week with us.

We will hang our here until Monday and, if all goes well, we will complete the final leg to Florida on Tues when we arrive in St. Augustine. Awe sunny, warm Florida soon, we hope!

 

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Be sure to leave comments and questions in the comment box below. Thanks for coming along our adventure with us!