It took us about 20 hours to come down from the Patuxent River to here and we had just about every kind of weather condition.
After filling our water tanks at Spring Cove Marina, we motored out into the bay and almost immediately got all our sails up. With main, mizzen, Yankee and stays’l flying, this boat definitely becomes the view people pay millions to have from their waterfront properties.
We sailed effortlessly for a good part of the day but eventually the wind died and we were motor-sailing again. The sound was intrusive after the whisper of sailing, but it was still good to be enjoying the voyage past beautiful homes and the occasional brown pelican and swiftly flying flocks of ducks skimming the water.
At midnight Sandy woke me for my watch and we were still on the engine, but at about 2am we had enough wind coming over the aft quarter for me to cut back the revs, and then as the wind stiffened I could kill the engine altogether.
We’d furled the big Yankee earlier on because when there was no wind it was just slapping. As it happened the wind got strong enough for this old girl to lift her skirts and fly down the bay, hitting 8.4 knots at times. As the wind got still stronger I furled the mizzen, proving these furlers will work under pressure without having to round up into the wind.
We were still going too fast when it was Tom’s watch (4am) so we took in the rest of the sail and were doing 4 knots on bare poles. We were trying to get to Norfolk after sunrise because it’s a busy port with a big naval base, cargo ships and tugs pulling barges all over the place, and a narrow channel. Not the kind of thing we wanted to tackle in the dark.
The sea also became extremely lumpy and agitated, throwing stuff around below and us in the cockpit. We’ve become spoilt with the flatter water of the upper bay.
It’s Monday now and we’re making a few more modifications to the furling systems to avoid chafe on the outhaul lines. I think that will be the final tweek for them. We have to chop about 4 feet off the spinnaker pole and that should make it about the right length to hold the yankee out where we want it. It will also make the pole more manageable.
It really is a small world.
Spring Cove Marina where we took on water is run by Trevor and Liz. It turns out that Trevor is an ex-Knysna lad. Not only that, but he and Tom were both doing their circumnavigations in the early 80s and ran across each other a number of times.
Our other interesting experience there was not quite so enjoyable.
Friday was the beginning of the season in that area and the local Tiki Bar was putting on a big bash starting about mid afternoon. The police had cordoned off the area and crowd control was the name of the game. Tom and I decided we’d go up to see what it was like but be back before sunset because there was a tornado watch in force. Not wanting to risk being pick pocketed in the crowd we both left things such as drivers licences, credit cards etc on the boat.
We were battling into the wind for quite a distance when the outboard motor started overheating and eventually cut out. As it cooled we started it again and decided we’d forget the Tiki Bar and head back. The noise from the bar was already putting us off, and if the weather turned foul the last thing we needed was an unreliable motor to get back.
As we were innocently heading home, the water police came along side. They were on duty to round up drunks later in the evening.
“Good evening gentlemen. Where are your Maryland registration numbers?”
“This is a tender for a foreign going vessel, so it’s not registered here.”
“Well, it has to be. And where are your life jackets?”
“We are an Australian registered vessel, and you don’t need life jackets in a tender there if there are 2 or more people on board.”
“Well, you have to have them. Where is your ‘sound device’?”
“Sound device? What sound device?”
“You have to have an approved sound device in the boat. How big is that outboard?”
“9.8 hp”
“Anything over 7hp has to be registered too.”
“Well, I didn’t know.”
“You haven’t complied with a single thing! No lifejackets is an indictable offence. I have to book you for that, we have no leeway. The rest I can issue official warnings for. Have you got a drivers licence?”
“I’ve got an Australian one.”
“So you don’t have a Maryland drivers licence?”
“No, I’m not driving, and I’m just visiting here”
“Can I see your Australian one?”
“It’s back on the ketch.”
“So you have no ID”
“Not on me”
“How long are you going to be here?”
“Less than 24 hours.”
He turns to his colleague, somewhat confused... “We’ve got nothing on this guy. He doesn’t exist.”
Not sure I liked the sound of that but it was looking like a good thing.
Short colleague to colleague conference...
“Here’s what we’re going to do. We’ll forget about the life jackets, but I’ll write you an official warning for the rest. And here’s the US Coastguard number. Phone them and find out if you should display your Australian registration number on your dinghy...????”
Still scratching my head on that one.
They were really decent, friendly guys dealing with something they’d never experienced before. I don’t know why they didn’t just let us go with a verbal warning, but I guess all that police training got in the way and they had to write something!
Right now it looks like Wednesday is shaping up to be the day to head out for our jump across the Gulf Stream. Not much bureaucracy out there.
Until next time...