Moving South Phase 1

When I last wrote on Oct 8^th, we were in Herrington Harbour (Deale, MD) getting ready to leave.  Elena left for Russia on the 10^th and I departed on the 11^th sailing alone to Deltaville.

As soon as I got underway, I discovered that the autopilot would not steer to starboard.  A bit of investigation and a few phone calls to the techs ashore concluded that the steering computer (circa 1990’s technology) had burnt a transistor.  Maybe it could be repaired or perhaps the entire autopilot system might have to be replaced.  The choice was to hand steer to the next best repair stop or to turn around a go back for repairs which might take up to two weeks.  The ­cold weather was beginning to have an effect on us and much of the steering south of Norfolk would have to be hand steering anyway, so I decided to press on and continued to Solomons, Md on the 11^th, anchored at Reedville on the 12^th, and arrived at Deltaville, Va. on the 13^th.  I motored most of the three days due to light winds but got some great sailing in on the last day.  All in all, a pleasant sail and it was good to know I can still handle this old boat alone.

As mentioned in the last update, the generator was overheating and shutting down.  The expert in that particular generator type was in Deltaville and by backflushing the cooling system was able to get it to run consistently.  We concluded that something had gotten in the cooling system and caused a blockage.  We are keeping our that was the last of our problems for a while.

I also had the same guy look at the autopilot, but it became obvious that he and his colleague were not familiar with the system and gave up quickly.  I had heard from several sources of an expert in Oriental NC, so we will have it repaired there.

Elena returned from Russia on the 17^th and stayed with Jamie to recover from the flight.  My youngest daughter, Jessica, her husband, and their son came to say goodbye on the 18^th—a nice visit.  Elena finally got to the boat the evening of the 18^th.   Jamie (my oldest), her husband, and their two daughters, Zoe and Ellie came by to say goodbye on the evening of the 19^th.

Every night in Deltaville, a group of boats would come in to anchor for the evening.  Often there would be 10 or 11  boats at anchor and every morning most of those boats would get underway for the trip south.

There were forecasts of heavy winds for the 20^th through 24^th, so we stayed in Deltaville.  We topped off on fuel (52 gallons, about a half of tank) on the 24^th.  On the 25^th, we got underway for Norfolk and points south.  Winds were good all morning and we had a nice sail.  We could see (easy visually or on Automated Indentification System or AIS) that we were sailing in company with at least 12 other boats within a range of 5 miles.  We turned into the Hampton Roads channel at 4pm and proceeded pass the Naval Base with aircraft carriers, helicopter carriers, and destroyers moored at the base.  (It was actually interesting that the number of ships seemed to be much fewer that when I was stationed there, but that may just be a memory failure).  We proceed all the way to downtown Norfolk and anchored neared the Naval Hospital at Portsmouth  at 7pm.  The anchorage was extremely crowded but we found a spot and settled in for the night.  This is Mile Zero of the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW).  Miami Florida is at Mile 1095.

The next morning, we began a routine that would take us through the next week.  Up at 6am, breakfast at 7am, and underway at 8am.  We passed under our first bridge at 8:30 and went through 10 miles of the industrial area of Norfolk, reaching the locks at Great Bridge at noon.  We went through the locks with about 15 other boats.  The next stop, Coinjock NC, was another 40 miles and at 5 knots, that would be an eight-hour trip through a dark and narrow canal, often in open water with shallow water on either side.  So, we tied up an Great Bridge for the evening, stocked up on a few groceries and settled in for the night.  Going from Hospital Point to Great Bridge we went through 9 bridges–3 railroad that are always open, 3 high rise that we would go under, and 3 bridges which had to wait to be opened–and 1 set of locks between the Elizabeth River and the Chesapeake and Albemarle Canal (a great rise of all of two feet, but without it, the C&A would drain into the Chesapeake Bay.

Great Bridge, by the way, is the sight of an important, if small in scale, Revolutionary War battle in which the Americans won and which drove the British governor out of the Virginia.

Underway again at 0800 from Great Bridge, we traveled the 40 miles through the C&A canal, part of the ICW on October 27th.  This would be a eight hour day of motoring at 4.5 knots through 40 miles of swamps and shallow bays and rivers.  Somewhere along the way we entered North Carolina and entered waters that Elena had not yet seen.  We arrived at the small town of Coinjock whose sole purpose I conclude is to provide a stopping point and a gas stop for us southbound cruisers (at least in the fall).

On the 28^th, we were again underway at 0800 entered the Albermarle Sound, an open stretch of water, at 11am.  We had winds of 15-20 knots from the North and sailed across the Sound for 3 hours until we entered the Alligator River at 2pm.  We motored up the Alligator River and anchored at 5pm.  Latitude is now 35 degrees 45 minutes North (Deltaville was 37 degrees 33 minutes).

On the 29^th, we again entered a long canal, the Alligator River-Pungo River Canal and began another 40-mile transit under engine power.  We passed under another two bridges and emerged into the Pungo River and anchored off Belhaven, North Carolina at 4pm.  Latitude at Bellhaven is 35 degrees 31 minutes.

The 30^th promised to be a good day for a sail.  We could cut a lot of miles off the trip by cutting through another canal, but instead I (with Elena in minor protest) electing instead to sail an extra 20 miles out in the Pamlico Sound.  We had a great wind from astern and it was a very pleasant sail.  Unfortunately, we had to work around a shoal area and, after the turn, we were directly in the wind and motored the last four hours, anchoring after dark at 7pm in the Neuse River just off Oriental, the destination for this phase of our trip.  We pulled into the marina the next afternoon and made arrangements for the autopilot repair techs to meet us there.  We are waiting for them now.

Latitude here is 35 degrees 5 minutes.  We are now well south of Cape Hatteras and in a place we could winter over if we had to.

We wanted to take it easy on the engine and generally maintained 4.5 knots (max speed for us is about 7 knots).  At 4.5 knots, we were passed by all the motorboats behind us and most of the sailboats.  She began to record all the names of the boats that we saw in the canals and recorded 23 sailboats and 19 motorboats.  There many more, these are only the ones that we got names for.

Sophia is operating reasonably well and Elena has been making sure I am adequately medicated and fed.

A few “observations”:

·         Going 5 mph, you realize just how big this country really is.  It is still hard to imagine how this country was settled during its earliest days.

·         There are a lot of people working hard.  Going through Norfolk there was so much activity, such as construction and ship repair.  It is often hard to get out of our little universes to understand there is a lot of activity going on that we may or may not appreciate.

·         There are a whole lot of folks doing exact what Elena and I are doing.  Good to know that this cruising thing not such a strange idea.

One other note, I have not had a haircut since May.  The ponytail is coming along slowly.

We will be moored in Oriental for a week or so, with electricity, good WiFi and well protected from weather.  Next stop is Beaufort/Morehead City from which we intend to make our first offshore jump to Southport, North Carolina near Wilmington.  From there, we will make continual jumps offshore until we get to Florida.

No word yet on Elena citizenship.  Word from USCIS is the background investigation is continuing.

We have been careful about our political talk all the way down, thinking we were heavy in Trump territory.  Here in Oriental it must be a small patch of liberalism cause there are at least one Clinton yard sign for each Trump yard sign.sophia-sails-oct-2016