Salty Dawg Rally to the Caribbean, November 2020

 After a week of preparations, we left our dock at Bluewater Yachting Center in Hampton, Virginia and headed for the fuel dock. As usual, the Salty Dawgs provided excellent preparation support but could not conduct the social activities because of Covid.  What a bummer!  We were excited to have my sister and brother-in-law Betsy & Bob; Keith; and good friend Pia and her (spoiler alert!!) fiancé Mark as crew.  We were delayed from the scheduled departure date by one day because of Hurricane Eta's projected path but left the fuel dock by 11:00 am on Tuesday, November 11, 2020 with cool temperatures, fair skies and a nice breeze.

As we sailed across the Hampton River, over the Hampton Roads Tunnel and out the Thimble Shoal Channel, a pod of dolphins swam around us for a few minutes.  What a good start to our passage! We also saw some military activities with helicopter, hover craft and other vessels and a destroyer as we exited the Chesapeake Bay.  It was fun listening to their VHF announcements to stay clear of the activities, some sounding rather bored with their routine but others sounding more enthusiastic.  Pretty cool.  The sunset was beautiful and several other Salty Dawgs were near us.  We sailed with the jib and full main for the first two days and did about fourteen hours motorsailing.

Early in the morning of the third day, I got up for my watch with Betsy & Keith.  The wind had built during the night and the seas were building, too.  When I had to use the head a second time, I thought, "Oh noooo, this is not good!" The very confused, building seas combined with trying to take care of business made me seasick.  By then, everyone else was up so I went below to try and rest.  Betsy was also feeling a little queasy, though not as sick as I was.  Pia was kind enough to take my watch that night and fortunately, I was feeling better the next morning.  The wind had built and we put a couple reefs in the main.  Although the waves were big, they had settled in to a pattern and had a long enough period that it didn't bother me.

By the 4th day, the wind was a steady 30 knots and we were sailing with 3 reefs and the staysail. We sailed hard on the wind on port tack for the next four days with wind pretty steady at 30 knots - seldom below 25 knots and lots of 35 to 40 knot gusts.  The waves were spectacular, with blue water constantly washing over the deck. We developed quite a few leaks, including three hatches, the port running back, the staysail tack fitting and the two biggest chain plates.  We were also constantly taking water in through the windlass hawse pipe.  Everyone and everything, inside and out, were caked with salt.  Clothes that Betsy and Bob had stored in the cabinet in their cabin got wet from a chain plate leak.  All of our clothes in the hanging locker in our cabin got wet from the running back leak. It was very tiring being constantly heeled over and pounding through waves, but everyone remained cheerful and healthy. 

Joli and the autopilot were champions, taking the pounding without too much trouble.  That is, until the second to last evening, when a wall of water coming over the deck took out the windshield on the dodger.  All who were in the cockpit were soaked.  We were able to tie it up to give us some protection and we were all happy it had not happened sooner.  Then, the next morning, the remote control for the autopilot stopped working.  Bob and Mark went to the aft cockpit to hand steer as we were hit by several squalls.  With rain, big waves, big wind and more storms around us, Mark looked at Pia and she smiled back from the center cockpit.  He mouthed, "Marry me!"  She said yes!!! So in spite of the rough conditions, the crew and boat did awesome, especially Pia and Mark. The main autopilot continued working and we motorsailed the last 30 miles into Magens Bay, St. Thomas.  With the anchor down and sails put away at 5:45 am on Thursday, November 12, the rum began to flow.  

We're now in Yacht Haven Marina, St. Thomas and we are in clean-up/repair/recover mode.  We are happy to be back in the Caribbean and feel fortunate to have the great crew that we had.  Hopefully, family and friends will be able to visit us this winter.

Trip Summary:  1341 nautical miles, 39 engine hours, 8 days 19 hours, 6.4 knots average speed

    

Charleston, SC to Cape Lookout, NC to Hampton, VA

Charleston was wonderful.  In spite of Covid-19 and the curfew enacted following rioting, looting and vandalism in the downtown area, we were able to visit with friends, reprovision the boat and enjoy the restaurants in Charleston.  The Marina Variety Store at Charleston City Marina was open at half capacity and we enjoyed shrimp and grits for dinner the first night we were there.  We liked it well enough that we went back for breakfast (more shrimp & grits with fried green tomatoes - Yummy) on Sunday.  Our new friends, Debbie and Rich took us blueberry picking at Champney's Blueberry Farm and then to lunch at Vickery's and a walk on the boardwalk in Shem Creek Park.  We had fun watching the pelicans, egrets and dolphins wait for scraps from a shrimp boat as it came in.  We stopped at the seafood store right on the dock for some shrimp and the Farm Market in Mount Pleasant and then drove back over the Arthur Ravenel, Jr. Bridge.  It was a very busy day for me and Pia while Bryan enjoyed his time alone on the boat.

Our friends from the Sandusky Yacht Club, Jackie and Paul, picked us up and took us to the liquor store, grocery store and lunch at Magnolia which was delicious.  It was great to see them again and we appreciated the ride and walk around downtown and the Battery.  It was a bonus to replenish our liquor and food stores.  Jackie & Paul came to the boat for a cocktail before heading back home.  Some friends of Pia's from Minnesota had arrived in the area on their boat after spending the winter in the Bahamas and they also stopped by for happy hour.  It was so fun to visit with old friends and make new friends in Charleston.

We left for Cape Lookout on Friday morning after a week in Charleston.  Wind and waves built that night and as we were approaching Cape Lookout, the waves had really stacked up and we decided to head into Beaufort rather than Cape Lookout Bight.  Since we were not familiar with this area, it seemed like the Beaufort Channel would be easier to manage but it was very rough with waves close together.  It reminded us of the Sandusky Bay Channel after three days of a strong northeast wind.  We anchored near the Coast Guard Station for the night and left for Cape Lookout the next afternoon.  We had completed 244.4 nautical miles in 1 day, 6 hours and 36 minutes.  Our average speed was 8.0 knots with a max speed of 12.9 knots.

Cape Lookout was a beautiful spot with the anchorage protected all the way around, surrounded by beaches and the spectacular Cape Lookout Lighthouse.  We were lucky enough to see 6 or 7 wild horses, including a colt, on Shackleford Banks as we entered the bight.  Our long-time friend Jude came for the day with his 14' Pointer.  We had a nice long walk on the beach and a boat ride up to the lighthouse.  The Coast Guard coastal patrol boat Razorbill picked up a mooring buoy near us and deployed a RIB from its transom.  Pretty cool.

We headed for Hampton after spending 4 relaxing days in Cape Lookout.  The first day out, there were many storms all around us but we avoided most of the rain and the wind did not get above 15 knots.  It was much calmer over night but still cloudy.  After rounding Cape Hatteras, the wind switched and built so that we had large, close together waves by the time we were within 50 miles of the mouth of the Chesapeake.  We were so happy to get to the dock at Bluewater Yachting Center after 227.6 nm, 1 day & 8 hours at an average speed of 7.0 knots.  We are right back where we started  last November to head to the Caribbean with the Salty Dawg Rally.