7-15
As we were lifting the anchor today, Dave realized our
anchor was caught on an old mooring cable.
It took him about 20 minutes to free our anchor from it. That meant that all the time we were here our
anchor wasn’t set. It was hooked into
this cable. Once he lifted it, we didn’t
know if it was attached to anything, so I had to watch to be sure we didn’t
drift into anything. Wrightsville beach
is not a good spot for us. First
lightning 4 years ago, and now this.
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| the anchor has the half circle bar and it is attached to chain. The rest is the cable we brought up |
As we were leaving, you could see people enjoying the beach
and swimming.
Dave commented “the part the
sharks like is below the water.”
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| approaching the inlet to the ocean |
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| view with channel on the left and ocean on the right |
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| beach view from the ocean |
While we were under way, I decided it was smooth enough to
defrost the freezer. Afterwards, I
mentioned to Dave that he would feel better if he got up and moved around
instead of sitting at the helm all day.
He said he likes I that way. It
dawned on me that he’s been preparing
himself for this position for some time now.
I made meatloaf for dinner tonight. That will be good for sandwiches while on
passage. After dinner I tried to get
some sleep while Dave took watch. We
were a few hours outside of Moorehead City, NC.
We decided to continue to the Chesapeake, since the weather was good.
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| phone view on Active Captain/Garmin. left flag on left at 8:00am |
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| chart plotter of the shoals off of Cape Lookout, NC |
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| phone view of NC coast |
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| phone view of shoals off Cape Lookout |
July 16
I took over watch about 1:00 am. It was about 40 nautical miles to the Diamond
Shoals off Hatteras. We’ve been
averaging about 6 nm/hr. So that’s 6-7
hours. It was an uneventful night.
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| chart plotter view with waypoint set off of Cape Hatteras 1:20am |
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| 5:50am |
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| 6:15am I love this part of the day, but it puts Dave to sleep |
Dave was up by 7:30 am to take over watch just as we were
passing the Diamond Shoals off Hatteras.
There were red lights marking the area.
We had read to stay to the east of the furthest red light. We were lucky to have nice weather and other
boat traffic was further off shore. It
seemed unreal to be making our way past this area. There is a long history of ship wrecks off
North Carolina. Black Beard was known to
sail these waters.
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| off Diamond Shoals off Cape Hatteras. Other geometric figures are other ships |
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| phone view |
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| light house off of Cape Hatteras |
We took turns napping today.
The wind had been at our side last night, which rocks the boat.
Today it was calmer with “following seas”,
the wind on our back.
Again, I went to
bed early while Dave started his watch.
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| Example of Dave tethered to the jack line as he is bringing a jerry can of fuel to the cockpit |
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| testing his tether |
July 17
I took over watch at 1:30 am and we were already in the
shipping lane heading into Norfolk, VA.
What a sight. I really should
have studied the charts for this area before that moment. I’ll remember that before we go into New
Jersey/New York. At this time of night,
the shipping wasn’t real heavy. That
gave me time to look at the charts and my surroundings and get my
bearings. Dave slept in the cockpit
instead of below so he would be handy if I had any issues.
There is a bridge that connects Virginia and Delaware. It has a tunnel under the bay in the 2
shipping lanes, 1 into Norfolk area and one up the Chesapeake Bay. At night it is lit up, but goes dark where
the tunnels are. Pretty impressive view
to wake up to. At 2:15 am, an out bound
ship called me asking what my intentions were.
I explained where we were headed.
He recommended we move outside of the shipping lane to the “auxiliary channel”
on the north side. There was plenty of
depth. And I felt more comfortable with
a little more distance between us and those big ships.
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| our
boat on north side of shipping channel. purple line in center is the
bridge, but it goes under the water in the shipping lane |
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| not a great photo, but gives you an idea of what we were trying to avoid in the shipping lane |
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| crazy chart of Chesapeake Bay heading towards Hampton/Norfolk |
I woke Dave about 5:00 am before we entered the channel to
Old Point Comfort bay near Hampton, VA.
This area had been recommended to us.
It was pre-dawn, so Dave was searching the area looking for crab pots,
or whatever. The sun started coming up
after we finished anchoring. With a
clearer look at the area, we decided to move the anchor to move further out of
the channel for fishing boats.
We both crashed until about 11:00am.
Later, we took 4 diesel jerry cans to the marina in this bay to be
filled. Then we ate at the restaurant on
site called the Deadrise Restaurant.
Early to bed!
