Good morning sailing fans.
Well… I realize we seldom use our website so far… but hopefully that will change. We spent the last 3 hard months being chased down by winter. The remoteness of our locations and the hectic sailing schedule made internet access very rare and difficult to access.
Today we are in Old Comfort Marina in Hampton bay near Norfolk Virginia. We found a nice marina with a reasonable rate. Only $2 per foot and a weekly rate at around $5.60 per foot… and we have internet access on the boat for the first time. We have really suffered for the last 3 months to get this far but we promised ourselves a rest once we reached the Chesapeake bay.
Most cruisers left here last week to get further south. For us though 15 degrees C is fabulously warm. We went outside yesterday with only 1 sweater!!! WOW!!!
We have been having the debate about taking the ICW from Norfolk to Beauford Virginia but opinions seem pretty varied about the safety for us of doing that. The bridge heights are 65 feet… we are 62.5 feet to the top of our VHF antenna on the mast. They have had record rain here and the water levels are higher than normal. The depths in the ICW are not reported because as shallow sandy bottom it shoals a lot. We draft 8 feet. So some people say yes we can and some say no we can’t. So at best it seems high risk for us to try to take the ICW inside around the dreaded Cape Hattaras.
So it seems we will do the safe thing and go outside. The weather in the Ocean for the last 3 days and the next 3 days will be unsuitable for a safe passage around Hattaras. Therefore we are having a much needed rest.
We keep watching the wind forecasts and it seems maybe the next window to go outside will be this Friday (Nov 16th) or Saturday (Nov 17th). We will make a big jump south as far as the weather window allows. Probably skip most of North Carolina and try to get to south Carolina for our next rest.
We are hoping that as we are getting beyond winters grasp the urgency of snow chasing us south will subside and we can slow down.
We will try to get 2 more videos completed today and posted up on you tube for you guys.
cheers…..