December 14, 2008
Departed the anchorage for Albermarle Sound at 0850 p.m. Winds 5 - 10 mph. 45°, sunny. Destination, mile 100, the east end of the Alligator Pungo Canal, VA.
Managed to get underway a bit before Full Circle, headed out into Albermarle Sound and was able to put up the sails...ran with the genoa, then decided, after seeing Full Circle coming along, to put up the main as well. It was close hauled, but we were moving along at 6+ knots, no waves and little heel.
After getting through the Alligator River bridge, a wind shift and slight course change meant bringing in the sails...a shame, it had been a great motorsail. I checked tomorrow's forecast - small craft warning with winds out of the southwest. With the Alligator Pungo Canal lurking with an east/west run, my thinking was that there would be no chance of making the canal with any degree of speed or comfort tomorrow, as the winds tend to funnel straight down it - in this case, they would be on the nose and slow me down substantially. I called Full Circle and said I planned to do the canal today, even if it meant some night cruising, so as to avoid the high winds in the canal tomorrow. The other advantage would be an early arrival in Belhaven, allowing me to do some shopping and clean up the boat. (Sue, is that you I hear cheering in the cheap seats there??)
By the end of the day's run, we'd done 59 miles. A long day.
December 15, 2008
Departed east end of the AP Canal at 0830, winds S 10 mph, temp. 45 - 50°, sunny. Destination, Belhaven, about 10 nm.
With such a short run today, the plan was to sleep in until nature woke me. Nature arrived in the form of a VHF call from Full Circle at 0730. Sheesh, is there no mercy in these people???
Made coffee, admired the weather - it had to be 50° - upped anchor and was able to put sail up after getting back into the channel. Full Circle was long gone! I let the motor run in gear at idle to charge the batteries, but otherwise, sailed....ahhhhh!
Got into Belhaven and Axson Smith, owner of River Forest Marina, was there to greet me - and take about $11 for fuel. I've now used a total of $35 from Annapolis - even though I've only motored, or motorsailed. It's amazing how having the genoa out can reduce fuel consumption so much.
I've spent some time in Belhaven, fixing the boat, so I've gotten to know a few people. That's part of the fun of cruising, making new friends as you go. It's always interesting to catch up on your next trip. Sometimes, it's more than interesting!
On this trip for instance, I paid a visit on the new Town Manager, Guinn Leveritt, who I've mentioned before as the owner of the local ACE Hardware. Well....Guinn, a new broom in City Hall, had fired the Chief of Police and his lieutenant. They sued for wrongful dismissal...and then, the Norfolk police arrive and arrest...are you ready for this?
They arrest the former Chief, for a thirty year old murder! Seems that when the former Chief was a marine in Norfolk, a fellow marine was killed. The Chief married the man's wife, who is also charged with the murder (they're now divorced).
It appears that the publicity attending the lawsuit for wrongful dismissal smoked out a witness to the murder 30 years ago,, who saw the former Chief's photo in a newspaper article. The witness went to the police, naming the former Chief as the killer and implicating his wife. The former Chief is now out on $350,000 bail and with a bracelet on his ankle.
My friend Guinn now worries that he could be a target.....as well he should. The wrongful dismissal lawsuit has apparently gone away.
Well!
December 16, 2008
Departed Belhaven at 0745, winds light, temp. 50°, fog. Destination, Oriental, about 40 nm.
Fog. Visibility was limited to about 50 yards, maybe. Then, suddenly out of the grey mistiness, a fusillade of gunshots. Tom, the delivery captain of a Sea Ray 60 tied up behind me, and I, looked over to the sound. Duck hunters. The question of course was, how on earth could they even see what they were shooting at? The unspoken question was, if we're out there on the water, what if one of these brain dead rednecks shoots at some poor duck and we're in the area, invisible in the fog?
Not a question I really wanted the answer to, but I certainly thought about it as I headed out.
This wasn't the first time I've navigated in fog, there are certain techniques for it and the visibility was adequate, until about a half mile out, when the fog really settled in and reduced visibility to about three boat lengths - if a barge or tow was coming north on the ICW, he wouldn't be able to see me until it was too late to avoid a collision. Now I not only had duckhunters with rifles to worry about, I had to keep myself from getting run down.
I made a securité call on channel 16, advising of my position and heading, so that anyone who was out there could plot my position and advise me if there were a problem. The only response was Tom, who was coming up from behind me.
A better technique however, is simply to get out of the way, which I did with the help of my Garmin chartplotter. I simply sailed the boat over to a course about 1000 feet to the east of the magenta line, which would be the course followed by most boaters and the large tugs and tows I wanted to avoid. Luckily, this section of the ICW is quite wide and deep enough for most of that width, making this easy. Had I been on Goose or Adams Creek or one of the narrower sections of the ICW in North Carolina, I'd have been forced to stay on the line. This happened on the Erie Barge Canal while I was delivering a PDQ 36, the fog coming in so thick I could barely see the ends of the boat. That time, I only had paper charts, no chartplotter, and even with my crew watching for the edges of the canal, I managed to bump aground - still not seeing the edge of the canal. Had I had the Garmin on that trip, it would have been possible to run the canal following the cursor on the screen.
The fog finally cleared up after about ten miles. On approaching Maw Point on the Neuse River, the winds began to pick up, so I let out the genoa, furled about 50%. That turned out to be a wise move, because the winds quickly picked up to 20 knots and shifted to the beam.
Unfortunately, this also signalled a change in the weather, from warm and foggy, to clear, cold, windy and rainy! Of course, I was able to sail the rest of the trip to Oriental, but it was nowhere near as pleasant.
Now, a confession....on entering the Oriental Harbour, which I've been to a half dozen times in the last few years, I managed to...go aground. There's an unmarked shoal just to the side of the anchorage, and I hit it. I wasn't the only one either, another sailor got caught the following morning. Thank heaven for Sea Tow, because try as I might, I couldn't get the boat off.
After all of that, I decided to drop into M & M, a local pub/restaurant. At one time, this pub featured all sorts of M & M candy memorabilia - the new owners have sadly removed these things, but it's still a gathering place for the locals.
Americans are great folk for putting one at ease. The five men at the bar all said hello and quickly included me in their conversation. That conversation then lasted until nearly midnight - and when I got my tab, it seemed that only two of a considerable number of beers had gotten onto it along with my steak dinner. Someone it seems, had been buying me beer and I didn't even realize it.
Among the people I met was Captain Larry Walker, the owner of World Wide Marine Training. Larry also writes the syndicated column, From the Helm, and it was from that that I recognized him.
Departed the anchorage for Albermarle Sound at 0850 p.m. Winds 5 - 10 mph. 45°, sunny. Destination, mile 100, the east end of the Alligator Pungo Canal, VA.
Managed to get underway a bit before Full Circle, headed out into Albermarle Sound and was able to put up the sails...ran with the genoa, then decided, after seeing Full Circle coming along, to put up the main as well. It was close hauled, but we were moving along at 6+ knots, no waves and little heel.
After getting through the Alligator River bridge, a wind shift and slight course change meant bringing in the sails...a shame, it had been a great motorsail. I checked tomorrow's forecast - small craft warning with winds out of the southwest. With the Alligator Pungo Canal lurking with an east/west run, my thinking was that there would be no chance of making the canal with any degree of speed or comfort tomorrow, as the winds tend to funnel straight down it - in this case, they would be on the nose and slow me down substantially. I called Full Circle and said I planned to do the canal today, even if it meant some night cruising, so as to avoid the high winds in the canal tomorrow. The other advantage would be an early arrival in Belhaven, allowing me to do some shopping and clean up the boat. (Sue, is that you I hear cheering in the cheap seats there??)
By the end of the day's run, we'd done 59 miles. A long day.
December 15, 2008
Departed east end of the AP Canal at 0830, winds S 10 mph, temp. 45 - 50°, sunny. Destination, Belhaven, about 10 nm.
With such a short run today, the plan was to sleep in until nature woke me. Nature arrived in the form of a VHF call from Full Circle at 0730. Sheesh, is there no mercy in these people???
Made coffee, admired the weather - it had to be 50° - upped anchor and was able to put sail up after getting back into the channel. Full Circle was long gone! I let the motor run in gear at idle to charge the batteries, but otherwise, sailed....ahhhhh!
Got into Belhaven and Axson Smith, owner of River Forest Marina, was there to greet me - and take about $11 for fuel. I've now used a total of $35 from Annapolis - even though I've only motored, or motorsailed. It's amazing how having the genoa out can reduce fuel consumption so much.
I've spent some time in Belhaven, fixing the boat, so I've gotten to know a few people. That's part of the fun of cruising, making new friends as you go. It's always interesting to catch up on your next trip. Sometimes, it's more than interesting!
On this trip for instance, I paid a visit on the new Town Manager, Guinn Leveritt, who I've mentioned before as the owner of the local ACE Hardware. Well....Guinn, a new broom in City Hall, had fired the Chief of Police and his lieutenant. They sued for wrongful dismissal...and then, the Norfolk police arrive and arrest...are you ready for this?
They arrest the former Chief, for a thirty year old murder! Seems that when the former Chief was a marine in Norfolk, a fellow marine was killed. The Chief married the man's wife, who is also charged with the murder (they're now divorced).
It appears that the publicity attending the lawsuit for wrongful dismissal smoked out a witness to the murder 30 years ago,, who saw the former Chief's photo in a newspaper article. The witness went to the police, naming the former Chief as the killer and implicating his wife. The former Chief is now out on $350,000 bail and with a bracelet on his ankle.
My friend Guinn now worries that he could be a target.....as well he should. The wrongful dismissal lawsuit has apparently gone away.
Well!
December 16, 2008
Departed Belhaven at 0745, winds light, temp. 50°, fog. Destination, Oriental, about 40 nm.
Fog. Visibility was limited to about 50 yards, maybe. Then, suddenly out of the grey mistiness, a fusillade of gunshots. Tom, the delivery captain of a Sea Ray 60 tied up behind me, and I, looked over to the sound. Duck hunters. The question of course was, how on earth could they even see what they were shooting at? The unspoken question was, if we're out there on the water, what if one of these brain dead rednecks shoots at some poor duck and we're in the area, invisible in the fog?
Not a question I really wanted the answer to, but I certainly thought about it as I headed out.
This wasn't the first time I've navigated in fog, there are certain techniques for it and the visibility was adequate, until about a half mile out, when the fog really settled in and reduced visibility to about three boat lengths - if a barge or tow was coming north on the ICW, he wouldn't be able to see me until it was too late to avoid a collision. Now I not only had duckhunters with rifles to worry about, I had to keep myself from getting run down.
I made a securité call on channel 16, advising of my position and heading, so that anyone who was out there could plot my position and advise me if there were a problem. The only response was Tom, who was coming up from behind me.
A better technique however, is simply to get out of the way, which I did with the help of my Garmin chartplotter. I simply sailed the boat over to a course about 1000 feet to the east of the magenta line, which would be the course followed by most boaters and the large tugs and tows I wanted to avoid. Luckily, this section of the ICW is quite wide and deep enough for most of that width, making this easy. Had I been on Goose or Adams Creek or one of the narrower sections of the ICW in North Carolina, I'd have been forced to stay on the line. This happened on the Erie Barge Canal while I was delivering a PDQ 36, the fog coming in so thick I could barely see the ends of the boat. That time, I only had paper charts, no chartplotter, and even with my crew watching for the edges of the canal, I managed to bump aground - still not seeing the edge of the canal. Had I had the Garmin on that trip, it would have been possible to run the canal following the cursor on the screen.
The fog finally cleared up after about ten miles. On approaching Maw Point on the Neuse River, the winds began to pick up, so I let out the genoa, furled about 50%. That turned out to be a wise move, because the winds quickly picked up to 20 knots and shifted to the beam.
Unfortunately, this also signalled a change in the weather, from warm and foggy, to clear, cold, windy and rainy! Of course, I was able to sail the rest of the trip to Oriental, but it was nowhere near as pleasant.
Now, a confession....on entering the Oriental Harbour, which I've been to a half dozen times in the last few years, I managed to...go aground. There's an unmarked shoal just to the side of the anchorage, and I hit it. I wasn't the only one either, another sailor got caught the following morning. Thank heaven for Sea Tow, because try as I might, I couldn't get the boat off.
After all of that, I decided to drop into M & M, a local pub/restaurant. At one time, this pub featured all sorts of M & M candy memorabilia - the new owners have sadly removed these things, but it's still a gathering place for the locals.
Americans are great folk for putting one at ease. The five men at the bar all said hello and quickly included me in their conversation. That conversation then lasted until nearly midnight - and when I got my tab, it seemed that only two of a considerable number of beers had gotten onto it along with my steak dinner. Someone it seems, had been buying me beer and I didn't even realize it.
Among the people I met was Captain Larry Walker, the owner of World Wide Marine Training. Larry also writes the syndicated column, From the Helm, and it was from that that I recognized him.