To Summarize

First some statistics

We (Robert Brown and I) left Dinner Key marina at 7:20 am on Tuesday, April 26. We did the trip north in 4 hops

1. Dinner Key to Beaufort, NC (643 nm in 75 hours
2. Beaufort NC to Dowry Creek Marina (63 miles in 10 hours)
3. Dowry Creek Marina to Coinjock Marina (72 miles in 11 hours)
4. Coinjock Marina to Baltimore (203 miles in 31 hours)

The entire trip took 7 days and 5 hours (171 hours)
We had 128 engine hours
We used 127 gallons of diesel (or just about 1 gallon/hour - we were running the engine around 3200 rpm from about Coinjock to Baltimore...mostly to try to outrun storms...not entirely successfully...which probably explains the relatively high fuel usage)

Next, Some thoughts

Ocean voyaging is tiring. With two people aboard we did 3 hours shifts from 8pm to 8am (I did 8pm to llpm and then 2am to 5am and Robert did the others). Even though the seas were relatively calm this trip the boat was rolling a lot and I found it difficult to sleep and so felt somewhat sleep deprived. I'm told that after about 3 days you get more used to the rhythm of the seas and the shifts and are able to sleep better, but we weren't at sea long enough to achieve that state. Had we gone up the ICW from Florida we would have slept every night, but it would have taken several weeks, rather than several days so that was a good tradeoff. But I'm still not sure how much I would enjoy and extended ocean voyage. Except for the occasional dolphin there is not much to see during the day except water stretching to the horizon in all directions. At night there are beautiful skies, far more than you can see on land (there is no light pollution at sea) but that comes with the anxiety of making sure you are watching for other boats and such that can be difficult to see at night. To this point, I very much appreciate the wonders of AIS which lets you see and identify vessels over 20 miles away making it easier to avoid them and making it easier to contact them by radio to negotiate a safe passage. Radar would be helpful for smaller boats that don't have AIS, but there don't seem to be many of them out in the ocean..I saw hardly any while we were 100 - 150 miles offshore.

I must admit that I don't understand how short-handed crew (e.g. a couple) are able to cross oceans, spending 30 or so days at sea and claim they enjoy the time at sea. I do understand how nice it is to get to the destination and then use the boat to cruise around wherever it is they end up, but I'd worry about the effect of sleep deprivation. Again, it may be just that I haven't been at sea long enough to "catch the rhythm"

I do very much enjoy the ICW voyages, especially the scenery through the countryside and the stopping in small towns, meeting the people and "seeing the sights".

I have come to believe that such trips should be taken slowly, much the way we took the trip from Baltimore to Charleston last fall. We took 3 weeks and found it enjoyable. Coming back this spring we covered about the same distance in 3 days and it was more of a chore than an enjoyable voyage.

The next time, and I'm hoping there is a next time, I'll do it slowly both ways.

Oh My God!!

The day started just like the last two days...cast off about 6:15 into cool,cloudy, not too windy weather and I thought this would be as uneventful as the last two days.....Wrong Again!

We crossed Currituck sound without going aground, a departure from last year and things were looking good. Up the North River and the sun came out and things were looking real good. We listened to the weather report and there was much talk of southerly winds and things were looking so good we decided that we just pass through Norfolk and continue up the Bay, sailing overnight to arrive in Baltimore on Tuesday..Maybe not so good.

Things started to go sideways when we got to the Great Lock...till then things were again uneventful, but as we waited for the Great Bridge bridge (gotta love the name) we notee that not one but five tugs pushing barges joined the queue. 

The bridge opened, we all filed through on our way to the lock, but this time there were two lines, the one on the right had the 5 barges (the first in line was a double barge) and the line on the left was the usual collection of power boats and sail boats...but then one sail boat started cutting the line, moving ahead accompanied by much yelling from the boats he was cutting off. But he ignored all that and ended up near the beginning of our line.

The lock opened. The double barge went in first and occupied the entire North wall (the one without the rubberized wall). The power and sail boats started filing in but immediately there were problems..The line jumper didn't know what to do and ended up cross-wise to the lock. The Lock Tender, who was quite frazzled spent too much time trying to help with with the result that several of the other boats were ending up cross-wise as well - again accompanied by much yelling and screaming. The boat in front of us kept backing up into us so we bowed out to avoid hitting him, The boat behind us ended up facing the opposite way...and so it was up and down the line..

We finally got tied up, the water level went down about two feet and off we went

Things started looking good again.  The sun was out, there was a gentle breeze - from the West, but that's good too and so we went on through Norfolk and started up the Bay by about 4pm...Robert grilled some steaks on the grill pan I have, sautéing onions and peppers as a dressing for the steak and things were indeed looking good.

But then a very loud alarm came from the VHF...it was the NOAA weather alert warning us of impending thunderstorms bearing high winds, dangerous hail and much rain and lightening. We looked up and sure enough, off to the East was a large black cloud. We turned on the radar and there it was in all its red glory....Foolishly we push on, after furling the sails.

Within minutes the rains came..then the lightening!  I had the first watch and all through it there was torrential rain with lightening crashing all around. Most bolts were cloud to cloud but some cloud to sea (and besides, with all the rain and fog we were really in the cloud). One bolt must have landed within a few hundred yards and the crack of thunder was nearly simultaneous with the bright white light of the bolt.

The radar kept showing more of the red blobs (indicating active cells) coming towards us. Most passed behind us (I had turned the engine up to its max of 3400 rpm to get away as fast as possible) but a few managed to hit us full on. This lasted all through my 3 hour watch and through most of Robert's watch...a most harrowing ride. 

Happily (luckily) besides getting wet there was no harm

In retrospect of course it was foolish to go on, but once we were in the storm, which was very fast moving,  it was probably just as well to stay away from land as much as possible. Perhaps we should have not started up the Bay, but the weather forecast said "possible thunderstorms in the evening", which is what they say nearly every day, all summer long, on the Chesapeake. We could have waited a week and not heard a different report.

Perhaps the right thing is not to even consider night travel on the Chesapeake and do what we did coming down (in company with Hayden and Radeen), which is to anchor each night...I now think that is the wise thing to do on the Chesapeake.

But, as I write this, it is 8am on Tuesday morning, 7 days and 1 hour since we left Dinner Key Marina and we are passing the Rhode River. We are traveling at 6.7 knots and should be in Balltimore in about 5 hours.....All in all, not a bad run.

Finally...to Coinjock

We cast off from Dowry Creek at 0615 into a cloudy, cool morning headed for Coinjock which is 73 miles away.

We were quickly into the famed Alligator-Pungo canal, a 28 mile long, 100 foot wide canal that runs straight like an arrow from the Pungo River to the Alligator River, which we reached 4 hours later. From there it was a two hour run to the Albemarle which happily was calm and quiet today and then into the North River which led us to Coinjock - 11 hours after we started today journey

We had a bit of excitement just before coming into Coinjock...a tug pushing a barge holding a large part of a bridge

Was coming down the North River as we were going up. We called ahead to the tug operator asking him where he wanted us to be to stay our of his way (he has very limited maneuverability so it's incumbent on us to stay out of his way. We scooted to the inside part of a curve as he swung around the outside part of the curve...we passed without incident

Coinjock Marina was just a bit further on

You can see the office in the background with boats lined up along the dock..we went past, turned around into the current and found our place in the line of boats.

After briefly tidying up we went into the restaurant and partook of the. Main Event - a 32oz Prime Rib! (Robert only had the16 0z portion)...As before it was wonderful...I only took a small portion back to the boat to have for lunch tomorrow

We haven't yet decided whether to stop off in Norfolk tomorrow or continue on through to Baltimore (which means an overnight trip up the Chesapeake Bay)..We'll look at the weather tomorrow and make our decision while underway