Another week, another state or two closer to the Bahamas

It feels like we are back into the thick of cruising life. Not that we actually left it, but now we are out of the Chesapeake and visiting new places again.

After we left Solomons we took two days, of motoring, to get ourselves to Norfolk, Virginia. Norfolk is an interesting city to sail into. It is home to the largest naval base in the world. We had previously stopped at Hampton, just across the inlet but sailing up the Elizabeth River is unique because you get to sail past an impressive array of naval ships, and they are very large! There were destroyers, aircraft carriers and other support ships. It is like there is a naval gray shoreline.

We arrived at the anchorage just across the river from Norfolk and immediately went to shore closest to us, which is actually Portsmouth. The dinghy access was at a public port around the corner from the anchorage and across from what looked like a naval ship workyard. It is even more interesting seeing the big naval ships under construction wrap and on shore. It was a friday evening but Portsmouth was not very busy at all. We just walked down the main street and it had some nice old historical buildings but we didn’t see much else. We did see a Children’s Museum of Virginia. Simon was disappointed we didn’t arrive in time to see it.

After our walk, we stopped in at German Restaurant for dinner. We used to a frequent a German restaurant back in Victoria. It was probably our favourite restaurant. Unfortunately, it closed and we haven’t found something similar since. So, we had to try this one. It was reminiscent but not the same. Still, it made for a good evening.

The next day we decided to give our hull a good cleaning. Kevin had noticed that we seemed to be losing speed in recent weeks and he thought it might be because we had a dirty bottom. We had noticed barricles building up too. Kevin wanted us to maximize our speed as we went around the Cape of Hatteras, so he felt it was important to do this hull cleaning in Norfolk, despite the very scummy waters in that river. So, he and I donned our wetsuit, put in earplugs (to avoid getting anything in our ears like bacteria and bugs) and jumped in. First, I have to say, the water on the east coast is much warmer than on the west coast. Even as the temperatures are dropping here, it is still actually doable getting in the water. It is not the 3-5oC water we have back at home. That being said, I was still happy to be wearing a wetsuit (not to mention the fact that I felt it protected me from what was in the water). It took us several hours to go around with a scrapper and hand scrubber to get rid of the worse of it. And we didn’t even bother to dive under to get the very bottom or keels (we will do that in the Bahamas). Kevin did have to go under a little to scrap the properllers though. It turns out they had at least 2 inches of barricles all over them! We were hopeful this would make a difference to our speed and we did notice at least a 3/4 knot increase in our speed as we went around the cape the next day.

That afternoon, we took our scooters to shore and took the long way to a grocery store for some provisioning. It gave us the chance to check out Norfolk a little. There are several lovely looking districts. We didn’t get the chance, unfortuantely, to spend much time in the downtown core though, or see any of the many museums they apparently have. The next morning was our weather window for going around Cape Hatteras, so we had to leave. When going around the Cape, which is known to be rough, we have to consider, not just the winds but also the currents and gulf stream. We don’t want them to be in opposition to each other because it would make for a very rough passage. The gulf stream that runs up the eastern seaboard comes very close to the cape, and shifts slightly side to side, so you have to consider if it gives you enough space to go by the cape and not go into the gulf stream. For the winds, we prefer to stay closer to shore where the winds tend to be weaker. The gulf stream runs towards the north and moves at about 3 knots. At the time we were looking to go, there was less winds and the gulf stream was wavering away from the cape so that we could stay out of the worst of the winds by sticking close to land, and out of the gulf stream. Plus the winds were better than they were projected to be a few days later.

We headed out at 6am the next day to make sure that we arrived in Beaufort, North Carolina, during daylight hours (which are much more limited now!). We did not count on sailing much because the weather window meant not much wind, but we would take that in exchange for calmer seas. However, we put up our mainsail as we exited the bay in hopes of some sailing. We tried, so did the boats around us, but we all had to give up and put down our sails after about an hour or so. The wind picked up in the middle of the night, but for us, what we have for our mainsail at sunset, doesn’t get changed until morning. It is hard enough going up front to the mast to change the sail, let alone doing it in the dark. We can adjust the head sails more because the sheets run back to the cockpit.

This was a cold passage. We are not used to cold when on passage. All the way up, it was warm, but now it goes down to 10oC at night and we are outside the whole time. In the middle of the night, we had to pile the layers and blankets on. The waves still proved to be rough despite the predictions so, many of us were nauseated and wanted to stay outside where we felt better. The little kids all slept under piles of blankes in the cockpit all night. Kevin had to make dinner because I wasn’t feeling up to it. He made us all canned chili. It tasted a little like Chef Boyardee, but edible and (most importantly) kept us warm. The kids were less impressed. Turns out they have pretty discerning taste buds having had fresh-cooked homemade meals their whole lives. The waves finally settled as we turned around the cape and had the waves coming from behind instead of on our beam. The next day we had a slightly calmer trip into Lookout Bight (on the cape outside Beaufort). We even got to sail for a few hours. On route we saw a shark near our boat! It was so cool. We also saw large red jellyfish and more dolphins. The dolphins came and swam so close to the boat that they were bumping into it and we could have touched them if we had reached down.

Lookout Bight was a beautiful calm anchorage. We dropped the dinghy as soon as we set anchor and took it to the shore to wander the beach and play frisbee. There were several large jellyfish washed up on shore and so many beautiful seashells. That evening the skies were clear and Owen and I stood on the stern of Seasura marveling at the starry sky. I was really looking forward to seeing the night sky when we were crossing the ocean, but I have to say, even in more rural anchorages like this one, the sky is impressive. It feels like you are in a planetarium and the sky is a dome so, if you walked 500m in any direction, you would hit the wall of stars. You can see the milky way clearly and it is very calming. The anchorage was so calm, that once the sun went down, you couldn’t tell you were even on water.

The following morning, we headed farther south to Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina. We had some friends that were stopping there and thought it might be another good place to stop on our voyage towards Charleston. The trip over was unfortuantely a lot of beating into the wind and current. It meant we were very happy to enter the inlet when we finally did.

Wrightsville Beach has proven to be great place to spend a few days. Foul weather was predicted to blow in a few days later, so we made ourselves comfortable expecting to be here for at least 5 days. More of our fellow kid boats joined the same day or a few days later, so the kids have had plent of time to socialize and play in the well developed playground and sport fields that are less than a kilometer away from the dinghy dock. What’s more, when we first arrived it was 26oC outside! We enjoyed 2 days of warm sunny weather doing trips to the playground and morning walks. I am happy to say I have found somebody to go walking with while waiting for Kevin’s toe to heal. The kids did school as well, trying hard to make up for the lack of school done on our passage days. One day we took our scooters to the grocery store farther from the beach. It was a little trickier than previous trips because there were no bike lanes for half of it, but we managed. Some drivers were very supportive, and other’s not so much (we may or may not have had a middle finger flipped at us!).

Friday ended up being a boat repair day (and forgive me if my terms are not clear when I describe the repairs). As we pulled into Wrightsville, we noticed that our generator wasn’t working as it should. In fact, it was shutting itself off after 30 minutes because it was overheating. On our first couple days here, Kevin tried small things to fix it. He figured it was the cooling system. The generator is kept cool when seawater is brought in through a pump and moved passed a heat exchanger. He thought perhaps this wasn’t working well because there was steam in the exhaust which is a sign that the cooling isn’t working as it should. He also cleaned a strainer. He then noticed that the engine oil was low and added some. We had been negligent in our generator maintenance. At first it seemed that these things improved it, but then after 45mins it turned off again. The next day he and Owen worked on repairing it in earnest. They closed the seacock and worked through the system, flushing the hoses and taking the pump apart to look at the impeller. Turns out the impreller only had 1 of it’s 12 blades still intact. Most had broken off and consequently rubbed the plate it sits on so that there were grooves in it. So, they replaced the impeller and turned the plate over, sanding down the grooves to allow it to spin. However, after this they weren’t able to get the water flowing the way it should. It took them several more hours to realize that bits of the impeller blades had not just gone down the hoses, but also up the intake hose blocking the intake of the seawater. Once they got those out, the generator worked again. Without the generator, we were running low on battery power (not as much sunshine power these days) and water (we prefer to run the watermaker when the generator is on to conserve battery power). So, we are relieved that things are now working. For a while there, Kevin thought he might have to put in a new pump, which wouldn’t get to us until Charleston and would cost us (as usual). The boys were rewarded for their day of work by a night of drinks and socializing with other boating families.

Tonight is our last night here. It has been rainy, cold and wind these last few days. After one more trip to the playground to play ball sports and run around the play structures, we are ready to move on. I think I might try to get one more walk in tomorrow morning though – hopefully to see the 6km long beach associated with this town before we go. It is very hard to believe that I will be back in Victoria in just a week.