Written on July 17th 2002 and additional story and pictures added December 2002

May 25, 2002 Logbook entry: 

Sunday, 16:40 - The Adventure Starts NOW! Cast off lines at Summerfield Boat Works and motored out New River to Lauderdale Marina fuel dock.

Roy Taylor, a friend of Bernie Jaktis who helped me purchase Quietly has joined me to help me sail Quietly to Savannah.  Roy is a retired Air Force Test Pilot and amazes me with his laid back approach disguising his keen perception and exceptional talents. To become a Test Pilot, Roy had been a Fighter Pilot, and Fighter Pilots have a well earned reputation!  Robin, Roy's wife later tells me that the reason Roy was such a good Test Pilot, was his quiet confidence and exceptional attention to detail coupled with his flying abilities.

Sunday, 18:50 - Fueling completed with 100 gallons of diesel on board.  Departed Lauderdale fuel dock to pass through the 17th Avenue bridge at it's 19:00 opening as the sun begins to set in the west ending a beautiful day.

The weather is clear with a 10 to 15 knot wind from the east.  Not at all what the weather guessers were forecasting.  Their forecast was for 9 foot seas with strong winds out of the North.  Exactly the weather you did not want to be sailing North off shore up the coast of Florida in.  Roy and I discussed whether we should just start out up the Intercoastal Waterway (ICW for short) or take a look at the off shore conditions first had.  "After all, we can all ways come back in and go up the ICW."

Both of us with over 30 years of flying experience have learned well that the weather guessers are not all ways right and often a quick look see for your self is worth the look.  This was the case as we headed out the Fort Lauderdale "cut" and into the Atlantic Ocean.  The sea was calm with light winds from the east which made for nice sailing on a beam reach (that is when the wind is off the side of the boat which is one of the best sailing conditions).  We decided that with Fort Pierce just six hours away as a safety port we would continue sailing off shore up the east coast of Florida.  As we approached Fort Pierce in great sailing weather we decided to continue off shore and picked St. Augustine as our next safety port if the weather was to turn bad.  By morning we were off St. Augustine in great weather and we continued towards Jacksonville.

Monday, 5/26/02  07:10 Speed 6.7 Knots Course 358, Weather good, off Cape Canaveral

When we started out, I had told Roy that I was likely to get seasick as I had not taken any medication on purpose as I wanted to push my self to become accustomed to the motion and sensations of sailing.  Sure enough a little out of Fort Lauderdale as we settled into the routine of sailing and the motion of the ocean, I had gotten a little sea sick and just quietly leaned over the side rail of the cockpit and cleared my stomach after which I was fine for several hours as I had expected. 

This I had learned the summer before when sailing off the Norwegian coast where I won the dubious honor of the most number of times with my head in the "bucket."  Actually a Tupperware bowl that each of had been given as we joined the crew of Mahina Tari.  If you are feeling seasick, or the malaise as it is called, I had learned that for me the best remedy is to just get it over with.  Then I feel much better and can continue in my duties. Such was the case as we continued to sail past Jacksonville and by this time I was no longer sea sick at all though the seas had begun to get a little more rough as the wind had veered to the north.

I was to hear Roy telling some friends of this later in Hampton, VA that when I had my first bout of the malaise just out of Fort Lauderdale that he had thought "Oh no, here we are just an hour off and he is sick.  This is not going to be a good trip. Dalton will go below and stay in bed the entire trip."  He was surprised, even shocked when I looked up and continued on at the helm and at no time let the malaise keep me down or from doing my watches.

Tuesday, 5/27/02  08:15 Speed 6.2 Knots, Course 350, Weather good, off Jacksonville

It has sailing as we continue on past Jacksonville  as the winds began to veer (a term that means change in a counter clock wise direction) more to the north and on our nose so we cranked the engine and continued motor sailing north. Several hours north of Jacksonville as the winds increased and the seas begin to build and we increased the throttle of the engine the engine began to stall above 2200 RPM.  We stopped the boat and changed the Racor fuel filter quite sure that the problem must be that after sitting up for most of a year and then being out in the sea there must have been some dirt in the fuel tank that had got shaken up and into the fuel filter.

Tuesday, 5/27/02  13:50 Speed 5.1 Knots, Course 350, Weather good, seas building in north wind. Off  St Mary's Inlet.

The engine problem was continuing at any throttle setting above 2200 RPM as we were passing by the outer ocean buoy off of St. Mary's Inlet.  I joked with Roy that in flying it was never the first problem that became the emergency, it was all ways the third one.  Here we had the fuel problem, the wind and seas were increasing... One, Two...  Here we were just off St. Mary's Inlet.  I told Roy "lets head in for a nice dinner and evening ashore while we think about the problem."

Tuesday, 5/27/02  16:30 Docked at Fernandina Harbor Marina.

We headed in St. Mary's Inlet to the small town of Fernandina Beach Florida.  On the other side of the bay was St. Mary's Georgia our intended destination, but as they say, the Inn was full which turned out to be ideal because Fernandina turned out to be a delightfully charming town. 

We had sailed 48 hours with a total distance covered of 281 Km for an average of two 140 Km days! Before I purchased Quietly, I had estimated that her average would be in the neighborhood of 120 miles per day, so 140 was excellent!  We had actually logged three days off shore for experience reporting purposes as we had started out and sailed more than four hours off shore on Sunday evening and then arrived in Fernandina at 16:30 on Tuesday.

The marina operated by to city of Fernandina Beach could not be nicer and Fernandina Beach's downtown has been fully restored to its 1850' grandeur.  Roy and I spent the evening exploring the town, it's old buildings and homes, it's pubs, and it's restaurants.  After 48 hours on the ocean, Roy enjoyed "the coldest beer in the locker" while I enjoyed home made lemonade.  Dinner was at a restaurant recommended by the locals at the marina.  Definitely some of the best shrimp I have ever eaten.  They were swimming just hours before as Fernandina is the center for shrimp boats in the area. 

Over dinner of we discussed what could be causing the problem and decided to change the engine mounted fuel filter as well as the Racor in the morning.  The Racor had been full of dirt and perhaps some had clogged the engine filter when we had changed the Racor.  The next morning after breakfast we changed the filters and that did in fact solve the problem.  The wind was still out of the north which would mean motor sailing off shore with 9 foot seas or continuing north following the ICW.  That was an easy choice as some of the prettiest parts of the ICW are in Georgia and South Carolina.

Wednesday, 5/28/02 10:05 Depart Fernandina Beach for St. Simon Island Georgia via the ICW

With breakfast warming out tummies and the engine fuel problem solved and tested we turned north up the ICW for St. Simon Island.  It is a delightful and scenic trip along low islands and marsh lands of south Georgia and behind the resorts of Jeckle Island. 

I was certain that my friend Samantha from Colorado parents have a cottage here and I attempt to give her a call, but alas, she has an unlisted number.  I have known Samantha for six years meeting her when we both were working at WestStar Bank.  She left the bank two years ago so to become a full time mom for her daughter as Erin entered the first grade and started music lessons and all the things that young girls want to do.  Shortly there after Samantha's husband was transferred to Estes Park, Colorado where they now live next to the entrance of Rocky Mountain National Park.  But as I was saying, Samantha's home number was unlisted so I did not get to talk with her from from here...  But as she later corrected me, her parents cottage was further north at Cape Fear, North Carolina.  So I once again thought of here as I later sailed past far out in the ocean past Cape Fear.

One thing very different about sailing up the ICW from sailing in the ocean.  In the ocean you can relax, but sailing up the ICW takes constant attention as you are sailing up narrow rivers, creeks, man made channels and very seldom across small bays.  Another thing you must get used to is seeing the depth gage reading only 1 foot (12 inches) of water under Quietly!

This was especially so as we entered the narrow channel up to Golden Isle Marina at St. Simon Island.  The depth gage read 0 two or three times as we skimmed along just above the muddy bottom ghosting along as we approached the marina.  Roy had stopped here the year before when he and his wife Robin were bringing Contessa, their Morgan 44, up from Florida when they moved to Virginia.

Wednesday, 5/28/02  16:50 Docked at Golden Isle Marina

Today we covered only 38.4 miles.  What a difference verses the distance we had been covering, but we had planned it to be an easy day as we wanted to stop here for the evening.  Tomorrow would be a long day as we wanted to try to make it most of the way to Savannah.

Golden Isle is a large marina which seemingly caters mostly to power boats, but the facilities are nice with three good restaurants, a swimming pool with shower facilities, and a nice pub looking out over the docks which becomes the first order of business.  Roy has his usual "the coldest beer in the house" and I have a diet coke.  As we look out over the docks, Roy's cell phone rings and it is Robin talking about a puppy and will it be ok if she goes to see it?  After the call, Roy looks at me and says "By the time I get home we will have a new puppy.  There is no way Robin is not going to bring that puppy home."  Sure enough, during dinner the phone rings and the puppy's name is Buddy.

I am really getting spoiled now... I LOVE fresh shrimp and I am having it every day!  You can take boy out of Louisiana to Colorado, but the can not take the Louisiana out of the boy... {laughing}  Just stick a plate of fresh fried shrimp, hush puppies and cold slaw in front of me and I will follow you any where!

Thursday, 5/29/02  06:25  Depart Golden Isle Marina

The alarm clock went off at 5:30.  Today we want to make an early start to get at least 3/4th of the way to Savannah today so as Roy has a flight home from Savannah late tomorrow afternoon.  We ghost out of the marina with the depth gauge reading 0 most of the way until we reach the ICW channel and then we have a whole three feet of water under the keel as we once again turn north up the ICW.

There was a large group of power boats docked at Golden Isle which were headed north to Savannah.  As noon approaches we begin to have these boats pass us as they head to Savannah.  Having slept late and will be in Savannah before dark as they average 15 to 18 knots motoring along compared to our 6 knots motoring up the ICW.  Ah, but they do not get to enjoy the scenery as much as we do...  Much of the sailing today is in marshes which seam to have no edge as the water simply disappears into the tall grass along the ICW channel.  We pass a tug pushing a large barge north as another powerboat passes us both at a wide point in the channel.

Thursday, 5/29/02 3:30  Passing Moon River Georgia

We are really making excellent progress and there is the possibility we may make it all the way to Savannah before dark!  But as we round the bend in Moon River it suddenly gets very quiet as the engine stops!  Roy says "It sounds like we just ran out of fuel." To which I answer; " I just checked the tank two hours ago and we had over two inches of fuel" as I check the tank again.  Still two inches.  I switch tanks to the full tank with 100 gallons in it as Roy says we will have to re-prime the engine.  We are lucky and the wind is not behind us.  At this particular bend in Moon River, the wind is behind us and Roy pulls out the Gib to keep us moving and disappears down below to re-prime the engine.

"Give it a try." he calls up. "It may not start the first time so give it a little time."  The second try it rumbles to life just as we come to another bend in the river.  I go down and mark the dip stick to show "Empty" when there is two inches of fuel in the tank.  Actually, this is not unusual as there is often a small amount of "unusable" fuel in the bottom of a tank and the shape of this tank is such that two inches in the bottom is only about a gallon in the bottom corner of the 60 gallon tank.  Lesson Learned!

We continue on up Moon River cross another small river and then head up yet another as twilight is beginning to settle in on the river. 

Thursday, 5/29/02  18:30  Docked at Isle Of Hope Marina

Approaching the small town of Isle of Hope Georgia we decided to spend the night here at the Isle Of Hope Marina just 10 miles short of Savannah.  We have covered 81.2 miles in 12 hours.  Quietly is proving to be a fast boat as that would be over a 160 mile sailing day!

Isle Of Hope, Ga. is a very small and extremely picturesque town.  Something right out of a Spielberg movie.  The owner of the marina arranged for a neighbor to pick us up and take us to "the best seafood you will ever eat" at 7:30.  "Just be standing here next to the road at 7:30" he says.  Off we go to shower and clean up and arrive back at the road just at 7:30.  There is a white car there waiting for us with a gentleman who gives us a short tour and history of Isle Of Hope as we drive perhaps a mile up the road to the restaurant.  "Don't worry about getting back" he says. "Just tell the hostess you are from the marina when you go in and when you are finished she will take care of getting you back to the marina."  Sure enough after another great seafood dinner of fried shrimp and fired catfish and a whole bowl of hush puppies the lady who has been tending bar runs us back to the boat.  On the trip back we learn that she bartends just to help out, her real job is the music teacher at the local school!  Small towns in the south do have their charm....

Friday  5/30/02  10:05  Departing Isle Of Hope for Palmer Johnson Marina, Savannah, Ga.

Roy and I have a delightful conversation with Lou and his wife Elandra over tea and coffee this morning aboard another boat at the Isle Of Hope Marina.  Lou is a most interesting fellow and Elandra is as charming a British lady as one could meet.  They were on their way south back to Florida.  I guess I should keep much of our conversation in confidence but suffice it to say Roy and I enjoyed the visit and the CIA can cozies we received are the talk of our boats!  Lou did make a kind and generous offer to me.  He said; "The last thing you want is to go sailing into a country and find out that the person sailing with you is wanted by that country!  When you find a cruising mate, let me check her out for you."  Hmmmm.....

The trip up to Palmer Johnson Marina was only 6 miles and we made it there in an hour after watching the dolphins play along side the boat in the Wilmington River.

Friday 5/30/02  11:10  Docked at Palmer Johnson Marina

We arrived in time for Roy and I to walk to Tubby's Restaurant for a last lunch together before Roy has to catch his plane home.  It really has been a great week and I have learned an immeasurable amount from Roy as well as becoming great friends.  I am looking forward to meeting his wife Robin when I get to Hampton in a few weeks.

I have a few days to explore Savannah, Georgia, a city I have heard about all my life but have never been to.  When I catch the bus in to town from the college down the street from the marina, Imagine my surprise when I am looking at the bus route map and discover that the bus has come from Isle Of Hope.  Though six miles by water, it is only a mile away and is considered a suburb of Savannah!

The bus ride into down town and the "Savannah Historic District" takes most of an hour as the bus winds it's way through neighborhood after neighborhood.  The direct route is about two miles, but the bus takes over five miles as it serves many neighborhoods.  It is an interesting ride as is any bus trip through a city... I have learned in my travels around the world that riding the local busses gives you a taste of the city that most tourist never get.  You see people standing outside their homes, small family owned businesses, children playing in the school yards, and in this case huge oak trees with Spanish Moss handing from that completely cover the road in places where you would think that you were traveling through a tunnel.

I arrive downtown at 11:20 and the buss driver directs me to "River Street" which is the original Savannah harbor where ships brought in slaves and loaded cotton for the return trip to Europe in the 1850's.  Today the old wharf buildings are now shops and restaurants catering to the thousands of tourist, of which I am just one. There is a local art festival setup along the shore with a band playing.  An announcer is saying that the Coast Guard demonstration will be delayed a few minutes because a huge container ship is making it way up the river to dock.  The container ship slowly passes as I am looking through the artist exhibiting their works along the river walk.  There is the mix of the usual artist you see at these sorts of things, paintings, jewelry, pottery, and wood carvings.  There are artist selling had made southern dolls in the dresses of the 1800's southern ladies.  The Coast Guard starts their demonstration of a ship fire (now only a smoke signal) with a simulated call for help.  Soon there is a Coast Guard helicopter over head and a fire boat approaching from another direction.  Swimmers jump form the helicopter and swim to the simulated victim helping into a basket which is quickly raised to the helicopter which speeds off to the hospital as the fire boat sprays the small boat that has the smoke signal in a can on its bow.  The young coast guard auxiliary volunteers on the small boat are having a great time in the spray from the fire boat.  It is a hot day, over 100 degrees now and the water must feel very good!

As I turn and walk towards the wharfs I see a shop with a sign that reads "Savannah Candy Kitchen - The home of the Original Praline"  Now I am not supposed to eat candy, much less Praline's but asking me to do that would just be too much! {laughing}  With luck when I enter they are giving away small samples, I take one and it melts in my mouth...  If you have never had a Praline, you have never lived...  They are a gift from the southern kitchen gods!

With this divine taste in my mouth, I am now hungry so I pick a restaurant that purports to have the best shrimp po-boy in Savannah.  Well I must disagree with their claim as Tubby's shrimp po-boy is much better! I finish just in time to walk over to Reynolds Square where I am to join The Savannah Stroll walking tour of the central historic district. 

Our guide for the stroll is a young man who is a Masters student in History in college here.  The stroll is a walk through time as we stroll the streets and squares of old Savannah.  Old Savannah was founded by the Englishman James Edward Oglethorpe who landed on the shores of Savannah river in 1733.  Built around a grid of squares and broad thoroughfares, it is today a unique city.  Today the squares are are beautiful parks in downtown Savannah.  But then, they were the built to provide security and communication in case of attack or emergency.  It was really very ingenious.  At the center of each square was a guard tower which was in plain view of the guard tower of the surrounding squares.  If an emergency happened in any section of town the guard would ring a bell signal the guard of the surrounding squares with a flag, gunshot or light which would pass the alert.  Thus the entire town could be alerted in a matter of a few minutes.

The squares and their surrounding homes, churches and old buildings give Savannah a character all her own.  Bits and pieces of Savannah's rich and colorful history adorn virtually every corner of downtown, lending the city a unique style found nowhere else.  As we walk through the city with our guide he is telling us the stories of how the city grew with the cotton and slave trade.  Perhaps you will find fascination in the possibility presented in one of his true story's in Savannah's history...

A friend of General George Washington, General Green was sent to Savannah along with his wife and two young children from Rhode Island.  Shortly after arriving in Savannah and getting his family settled into their new home, General Green wished to take a long walk around Savannah.  As was his custom back home in Rhode Island General Green dressed in his proper attire including wool pants, a wool shirt and his wool dress coat and wool hat.  This was to be his first and last walk in Savannah as it was a hot day in mid August.  While his dress would have been appropriate if warm dress in Rhode Island, in Savannah it resulted in General Green dieing of a heat stroke!  General Greens widow was now faced with the problem of raising her two children and maintaining a household with out a husband, so she wrote to their friend General Washington who had sent them to Savannah.  She told General Washington of her husband's death and ask if General Washington "could send her a small sum of money to support her and the children and provide for the children's education.  This prompted General Washington to travel to Savannah to visit his friend's widow and personally give her the sum $47,000 which at that time was a small fortune.  His trip was widely promoted as General Washington's Southern Tour, but now you know the real purpose of his trip!

With this sum of money, Mrs. Green wrote to Yale University where her husband had attended and asked if she could hire two professors to move to Savannah to tutor her children.  Shortly there after two gentlemen arrived in Savannah to tutor Mrs. Green's children.  One of these gentlemen was Eli Whitney who in addition to tutoring the children became fascinated by the process of picking the cotton seeds out of the cotton bows.

At this time cotton was a small crop as it was extremely difficult to pick the seeds from the cotton bows. Savannah's major industry was silk!  Though very expensive, cotton was just too hard to process to make it profitable.  During his second year in Savannah, Eli Whitney invented a machine that would pick the seeds out of the cotton bows.  The Cotton Gen made cotton a very profitable crop as it's price was very high and now a machine could do in a day what before took hundreds of hands to do in a month!  Savannah become the Cotton Capital of the World and quickly became one of the richest cities in the world as "Cotton became King."  More and more cotton was planted and now the problem became having people to pick the cotton.  With fortunes being made traders began bring slaves to Savannah on their ships that would sail away loaded with cotton.  At the height of the cotton trade it is reported that there were over 1000 ships loading or waiting to be loaded with cotton in Savannah harbor.  As the demand for cotton and the resulting profits grew, so did the slave trade spreading from Savannah on to Charleston and other cotton producing cities.

Now for our history student guides supposition:  If General Green had not come to Savannah, he would have not have died, Mrs. Green would have not written General Washington, Eli Whitney would have not come to Savannah, the Cotton Gen would have not been invented, there would never have been the need for so many workers and thus the slave trade would have never have occurred and with out the slave issue we would have never fought the Civil War!

Interesting...

There is so much history in Savannah, this is just one of many historical stories we learned during our walk through the city.  As we visited the large cemetery in the historical district he showed us where the union soldiers moved all of the grave stones to pitch their camp there.  While camped there, many of the grave stones were defaced by changing the dates such that people died before they were born.  This was a great distress to the southern families.  Even today, most of the grave stones remain stacked along the back wall of the cemetery as no one knows which one goes where.

There is a monument in the cemetery commemorating the over 5,000 people who died in the Yellow Fever outbreak in the 1850's which killed over 1/3 of the population of Savannah in a single summer.  Today that is just hard to comprehend...

After the history walk I walked down to the old market area where the slave trade had flourished.  Today it is shops and restaurants where I had dinner and then took a cab back to Quietly.

During the remaining days of may stay in Savannah, I toured the city some more, spent a day with friends who drove over from Hilton Head to spend a day with me and of course found more work that need to be done onboard.  One item was to go through a month mail which had finally caught up with me.

After a delightful if short stay in Savannah, Wednesday found me setting sail once again up the ICW for Charleston, South Carolina.

For anyone who has been following my journey, you know that I have been very remiss at keeping my journal up!  So here I am anchored off St. Johns in the US Virgin Islands on Christmas day 2002 trying to remember my journey north!  So if it seems a little sketchy, it is only because my gray cells are beginning to fade in the sun.

The trip up the ICW to Charleston took only a few days and was my first time sailing Quietly by myself in unfamiliar waters.  The excellent chart pack kept me right along the "magenta trail" as it is called.  The reason for the name is that the centerline of ICW channel is marked on the charts with a magenta line.  Very far from the line and you will find yourself aground in the mud!  Something I managed to avoid... well except for one turn when I felt the bottom but managed to slide over the shoaling to continue the trip with out having to call Boat-US to get me off.

The first evening I anchored in "Alligator Bend" in a very flat section of the country with marsh all around .  Nothing but me and a few pelicans who kept dive bombing the water around me to catch some fish.  Then in the middle of the night I awoke to bright lights through the port hole...  No, not a flying saucer, but a passing tug boat pushing a barge.   We chatted briefly on the radio as I confirmed that I was well out of the channel.  The captain said he had not seen many anchored out in Alligator Bend and was curious to see a sailboat out in the middle of know where.  The power boaters that traverse the ICW must go from marina to marina and never seam to anchor out.

The next day took me through the town of Buford where I stopped for lunch and a quick tour through the historic town.  The old homes along the river were of course fantastic with Spanish moss hanging out of the old oak trees and the old downtown was nicely preserved, but a typical tourist area with T-Shirt and Antique shops.  Lunch was a BLT (Bacon Lettuces and Tomato) sandwich from a tiny sandwich shop that was just large enough to order in and then take your sandwich outside to tables under a huge oak tree.  The place seamed to be a real locals place as I watched people walking from all over town to get there.

That night I again anchored out along the ICW channel, this time along with a few other boats up a small river.  Being off the main river, this night I was not awoken by bright lights and had a most pleasant and restful sleep.  Being some what of a late riser, when I woke up after 8:00 the next morning the other boat had all ready left.  So I took my time fixing breakfast and pulled up the anchor at about 9:00 heading for Charleston which was only about six hours away.

I arrived in Charleston at 5:00 in the afternoon, just when the tide was rushing in.  And that was a BIG deal as the tide in Charleston is approximately six feet and the current associated with the tide races along at over three knots.  Yes you guessed it... The Charleston City Marina is right along the main river channel with the full flow of the river.  My first attempt at coming along side the fuel dock was to be an exercise in how to never come close in the current.  The second attempt I managed to get close enough that the dock boy caught my bow line and managed to cleat it off as the boat slowly settled back next to the dock.  After fueling, the marina people were very nice in telling me they were working on freeing up a slip[ for me.  Actually they had a slip all along, but the let me stay tied to the fuel dock until slack tide so I would not have any problems getting into the slip.  I must admit that I was very appreciative of this!

Charleston is a place not to be missed!  While I enjoyed exploring Savannah, Charleston is an order of magnitude more interesting and beautiful.  Charleston is actually a quiet small city entirely on a peninsula surrounded by other communities and urban areas.  Thus Charleston is the ultimate southern city to tour on foot or bicycle spent a wonderful five days there riding my bicycle along the narrow streets admiring the architecture and restoration of the old homes. 

One afternoon while riding my bicycle, I stopped to visit with a couple where were working in their yard.  We had a delightful conversation for several hours about the history and architecture of the town.  The homes are all situated what we would consider sideways on the lots with the main part of the house facing the side gardens.  The story was that there was a high tax base on the number of feet that a house was along the street, so the trend quickly was to turn the house.  Of course the other reason was to turn the house towards the sea where the wind came in the afternoons to keep the houses cool...

The old slave market still stands and in use today as a market for baskets and hand made goods as well as a farmers market.  Surrounding it is a plethora of wonderful restaurants and shops of every description.  My favorite was the candy shop where they were making pralines... those are to die for!  Being a Type II Diabetic, I only took two small samples and resisted the urge to buy a box...

I was joined  in Charleston by Brian Wilson, a friend of Roy's who joined me to sail Quietly on to Hampton, Virginia.  Brian is a US Air pilot with lots of seniority such that he was able to arrange his flight schedule to spend a week sailing with me.  My plan was to proceed off shore from Charleston to the Chesapeake and the weather was cooperating.  The morning after Brian arrived we pulled out of City Marina at slack tide and headed out to the Atlantic. My planned route would take us east of Cape Lookout and out around Cape Hatteras beyond the 1000 foot depth contour.

With the wind just forward of the beam and delightful weather sailing comfortably, we had settled into an easy watch schedule.  Our course took us 150 miles off shore from the North Carolina coast and then we were to pass well east of Hatteras light. Brian had made this trip several times so I was feeling very relaxed about the trip and our progress as we approached Cape Hatteras following the 1000 foot contour line.  It was 9:00 in the evening and Brian's watch so I went down to sleep. 

I was awoken two hours later to pitching and rolling like I had not encountered before and a shout from Brian.  I flew out of my bunk and as I came out of the hatch Brian told me that my notebook we were using it for navigation had just been splashed directly by a wave and quit.  That was the subject of the shout. 

At that point I was concerned about our position and at why the seas had turned so rough.  Brian told me that all was well as he was taking a short cut near the Monitor Monument (the location where the Iron Ship Monitor had been found).  As I looked out in front of us I could see the lights of the barge which was the Monitor Monument.  We were fully 10 miles closer to the cape that I had wanted to be.  The rough seas were caused by the strong Gulf Stream running up over the shallow cape as the current is forced to turn east.  I quickly plotted our GPS position at the navigation station to confirm our position and returned to the cockpit and yelled over the sound of the waves for Brian to "Turn 090 Now!"  He replied that it was not necessary as he had taken this route several times. Again I shouted "Turn 090 Now!" and again he said it was not necessary.  I took the helm and told him to go down and take his crew rest and I turned 090 and headed east out to deeper water and calmer seas.  As we reached the 1000 foot line the seas were again gentle and I turned north along the cape as originally planned.

Later in the evening I turned west and crossed back into shallow water well north of Capt Hatteras at the place I had planned where in fact the seas were calm and we proceeded along the coast to the Chesapeake Bay entrance arriving the following afternoon. The plan was to proceed to the Salt Ponds Marina just north of Hampton, Virginia where Roy and his wife Robin were to have their boat Contessa preparing to depart in the Bermuda Cruising Rally put on by the same people who were to do the Caribbean 1500 I was signed up to participate in in November. 

When we arrived and tied up to the dock at Salt Ponds at 9:30 in the evening, Roy, Robin, Robins sister Ginger and all of the children were there to meet us!  It was a very warm welcome indeed.  As the evening got along Roy pulled me aside and told me that one crew member had dropped out of his crew for the Bermuda Cruising Rally and asked if I would like to crew with them out to Bermuda and back starting that weekend! I told him I would think about it that evening and give him an answer the following morning.

Though tired from just spending five days off shore, I thought it was an opportunity that I could not miss. Especially as I would get to experience what being a boat in a cruising rally was like which would help me prepare for the Caribbean 1500 in November.  Thus I made an early morning call to Roy to tell him to count me in!

Continued in the section "Bermuda Cup".

Home | Christmas 2001 | Moving Aboard | Sailing Up the East Coast | West Marine Bermuda Cup | Summer in Hampton Va. | Caribbean 1500 Rally | Virgin Islands | Sint Maarten & French St. Martin | Statia | St. Kits | Nevis | Montserrat | French Guadeloupe | Isle Des Saints | Antigua Clasics Week | Dominica "Land of Natural Beauty" | Martinique & St. Lucia 2003 | Bequia | Grenadines | Grenada | Trinidad West Indies | Togago Cays & Union Island | St. Vincent | John's Graduation & US Vacation