West Palm to the Chesapeake

Wed June 25th 2008 Deltaville Va 12:25 pm We left West Palm noon last Sunday. 2 hours out we were boarded by the US Coast Guard. We were flying Matt's US Marine flag in the rigging. They were very courteous and were training a newbie...wanted to do a safety check. The head man and another on the boat had just come back from Iraq. They thanked me for Matt's service and wished him home safe. After 45 min they were off and on their way back into West Palm before the line of thunder storms hit.
By 6:30 pm we were in the Gulf Stream sailing north with the poled out genny. Over the next 24 hrs we covered 203.6 miles at one point hitting 12.5 knots. One hell of a ride. The 2nd day was close to 200 miles...one rolly night....the boat roll more when the poles are out since there is no stabilizing effect from the main. By Wed afternoon we were 120 miles east of Wilmington NC. The sky turned black and the radar showed a huge line of thunder storms. Joyce asks...whats that. Damn it was a waterspout...thats a tornado on the water...just as dangerous and the land based tornado except there is no debris in the 200+ mph winds.
We rolled up all the sails , secured the boat and motored off at 90 deg to the water spout. We start looking around and see 5 others...damn...time for the harnesses and tethers. We motored for about an hour or so dodging the worst of the storm and lightning. We had gone in with the wind from the south at 10-15 knots...then I checked the wind instrument...I thought it was broken ...wind now 15 from the north...then looked at the sail....damn...wind was from the north.....not a good thing when you are in the Gulf Stream. I yelled down to Joyce....we needed to get the pole down quickly..10 minuets later we had the pole stowed and were back in the cockpit. I went below to check out our options....we were in the western half of the Stream...we were about 25 miles from the west edge, further from the east side. We set sail for Wrightsville Beach some 80 to the west. By this time the apparent wind was in the high 20's with gusts over 30 knots. The seas were growing from 8 to 10 ft to the 12 to 14 ft range. We were on a beam reach...(wind from 90 deg) zipping along at 7 to 8 knots....not a bad ride...better than the rolly night 2 nights ago. It was not pretty..but the Lady handled it nicely...just befor dark we exited the stream, the seas laid down some and we let the auto pilot drive us through the night. Joyce woke me about 5:30...winds were down and we were motorsailing . Joyce said we had 1 boat aft, but could not see them on the radar....Joyce crashed...I tweaked the radar and picked up our tail...5 miles back at our same speed. At 1st light I made the decision to go north to Beaufort some 40 miles distant. Our tail makes the same 90 deg turn staying 5= miles off...just out of sight. The Coast Guard guys down in West Palm said there was always some one watching.....they followed for another 2 hrs then sped off at 25 knots to the NE. We made it into Beaufort before dark...ended up staying till Sunday...waiting for wind from the right direction before going around the infamous Cape Hatteras.
We were up at 4am and motoring out by 5:30 am. Little or no wind...so we motor sailed. Damn...using up my .40 cent a gallon diesel.DAMN....that 25 gallons cost me $ 125 bucks....I was able to get 150 gallons for 60 bucks back in Margarita...I still had about 40 gallons of the cheap stuff left...but thought I might need some for the trip up the bay. The old guy at the pumps said very few boats are out due to the fuel prices. We topped off the water and headed across the bay to this State Park. Seems they had sunk some Victory Ships left over from WWII to create a sea wall and fish have.We arrived before dark and dropped the hook behind the relics. We slept in to catch up on our sleep....that was the last overnight for a while....we have been sailing hard for the last week. We decided to sail over here to Deltaville...about 30 miles. The Bay is a bummer to sail up...winds are light and variable...tides and currents can almost stop you. We sailed out of the lee of the Victory ships into 15 knts form the north....and what way do we want to go???? you got it NORTH.. Since the distance was only 30 miles...I decided to tack a few times to save my new expensive fuel reserve. Between the tide and the wind. the best we could do was 3.9 knots....damn....turned the key...now motor sailing at 4.9 knots with the engine at 2000 rpm...normally I can motor at 5 knots at 2000 rpm....motor sailing I should be at 6 plus ....so we motored on to Deltaville. DAMN Bay....Costing me about $1 a mile in fuel.
So we decided to sit here today...rest up...go for a bike ride and wait for wind tomorrow.