Heretic Sailing

We left the Chesapeake and sailed to Hampton, VA, where we had fun meeting up with some friends of Seth and John from college.  We then left Hampton before the sun rose on the day before Thanksgiving in a strong gale.  Because of the gale, we did not go outside Cape Hatteras, but instead went through the Intracoastal Waterway to Beaufort, NC.  We went through three bridges in Norfolk, VA and then into the rivers and canals of the Intracoastal Waterway.  We wanted to make the 11am opening of the Dismal Swamp Canal locks.  We heard on the radio that a bridge had lost power and were switching to generator power. The lock operator at the Dismal Swamp also ran the bridge immediately after the lock, but he couldn’t raise the bridge if the wind was over 50 mph. We had to wait until the storm abated a little more. We were glad we did not go outside Cape Hatteras.The storm calmed down, we went through the bridge, and on down the canal. The Dismal Swamp Canal is 50 feet wide, 30 miles long, with 6 feet of water.  Apparently it was dug by slaves with shovels in the early 19th century.   We had almost made it to the dock where we were to spend the night (we couldn’t make it to the lock at the end before it shut down for the night), when we saw a tree all the way across the canal.  This stopped our progress for the day and we anchored.

Seth and Nate investigate the downed tree.

We called the lock we had left, to report the tree down and he said that since it was now 6:00 on the night before Thanksgiving, nobody would be out there until friday morning.  But then, after dinner and after dark a boat pulled up. It’s the Army Core of Engineers in their whaler with a chainsaw. Unbelievable. They get to work sawing and pushing, and finally they said they needed their big barge to get it out of the way, and they’re not sure if they can get the authorization to use it on Thanksgiving day. But sure enough, Thanksgiving morning at 7:30, there they are. They pick the tree up, cut it into pieces, and it is all cleared up by 10:00. We are truly indebted to the crew of the barge Elizabeth, below.

We make it through the lock on the other side, down to Elizabeth City.  We set the chute sailed down Albemarle Sound. Around dusk we took down the spinnaker, in fear of tearing it.
We moved on down the Alligator river the next morning, experimenting with our storm sails, just to see fast we could set them, but then settled in for a nice sail before the canal. The wind held right into the canal, so we sailed right in, to the chagrin of the other sailboats following us.
We were woken by shotgun blasts Saturday morning. We finally decided that it would be less scary to get up and move the boat than to hide in bed any longer, but it turned out they were only duck hunters. Through more canals and sounds, then into the final canal to Beaufort. We cruised across the sound right to the harbor entrance, and ran aground hard.  Unfortunately, we were so hard aground that TowBoatUS had to tow us out.  The TowBoat guy told us that the channel which is marked as the main entrance on our chart, is no longer maintained.
We are now in Beaufort, anchored right off the remarkably nice waterfront, doing maintenance and preparing for the offshore leg to the Bahamas. The housing for our primary fuel filter is cracked, so it lets air into the fuel system. We are waiting until the part arrives.

It’s been a while since we’ve had internet access. We’re going to leave the Chesapeake in a few days, as soon as we get our work done, and our charts arrive. We left New London after one night’s stay. We had a good time with Elissa, Seth’s sister, and then had a very fast sail down Long Island Sound; we had 20 knots and a strong favorable tidal current, so we arrived in Oyster Bay at 3:30 am.  In Oyster Bay, we met Larry Glenn, the boat’s former owner, and took him out for a sail.  Through his membership, we were happily able to tie to the Seawanhaka Yacht Club dock and to use their facilities.  We also met up with Ellen’s mother who took us out to an early Thanksgiving dinner at a steak restaurant.  Ellen met a friend of a friend, Diana Russell, and she generously had us all to drinks and dinner at her lovely house there.

Ellen and John in November weather off Rhode Island.

Seth navigating us down the East Coast.

After 2 nights in Oyster Bay, we headed for the East River, to go through downtown NYC. Here is Manhattan seen from the water:

We then cruised down the NJ shore. We anchored in the Cape May harbor 2 nights after leaving Oyster bay.

We sailed around Cape May into the Delaware Bay. The next day brought a good strong breeze, which carried us quickly up to the entrance of the C&D canal (Chesapeake and Delaware). The current through the canal was really strong, which saved us at least an hour of motoring time before we arrived in the Chesapeake. Both of bays are very shallow, to the point where we hardly ever sail with the centerboard down.
Nate’s grandparents and a friend of his from college came out for a day sail Saturday. It was an unseasonably warm day, with plenty of wind, and there were a fair number of boats out enjoying it. We hope to go south again soon.

We arrived in New London, Connecticut this afternoon, after a good sail for the past 48 hours. Ellen and John took Heretic through the Cape Cod Canal at around 8pm last night, on a very strong favorable tide. We saw some fin whales earlier, off Provincetown, MA, from a distance.  We’ll spend tonight here at Seth’s sister’s place at Connecticut College.