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
