Beaufort, NC to St. Mary's River FL/GA

November 29-30. From looking at PredictWind, I thought we could go from Beaufort, NC, around Frying Pan Shoals off Cape Fear and reach the St. Mary’s river in a little over 2 days.  The assessment from Chris Parker suggested otherwise:

By dawn Mon29 wind is 340@23g30, and you could depart BeaufortNC, heading SW around FryingPanShoal.

NNW winds abate quickly, and by Noon are well under 20k, and by Sunset about 15k, so by the time you get offshore to pass S of FryingPanShoal conditions should be reasonable.

Wind-less RIDGE of high pressure wedges its way E into your area Mon29 night, killing wind completely.

RIDGE shifts S quickly Tue30, ahead of next ColdFRONT, and your adverse SW-WSW winds build rapidly, into the 15-20g25k, 4-6' range by Noon or early afternoon on Tue30.

I asked Chris his confidence level in the strong NW winds abating during the day Monday before deciding to depart.  I didn’t want to sail all day with gusts in the low 30s.  He assured me they would abate.

Crew ready for departing Beaufort Docks

We left the dock at sunrise and set off into the ocean heading for Frying Pan Shoals.  With double reefed main and the small inner jib, we were in the ocean and moving at 7 – 8 knots by 0730.  We started off using the autohelm.  As we got further out, the wind and waves built and after a few times of a wave/gust combo heading the boat dead downwind, we decided to hand steer for a while in order to avoid a crash jibe..  We were seeing gusts in the low 30s and SOG speeds of 10 – 11 knots on a broad reach.  The inReach reported our top speed at 11.3 kts.

The wind did abate before dark and eventually we started motor sailing to keep our speed up and make for a smother ride since the waves were outsized for the wind.

Sunset as we near Frying Pan Shoals

After passing Frying Pan Shoals at 1800 in 35-40 feet of water, we turned onto a course between Winyah Bay and Charleston.  However, before long, an update from Chris led us to confidently alter course toward Fernandina Beach.

Sunrise Tuesday morning (just like the previous sunset), it is going to be another beautiful day!

We motored and motorsailed all day Tuesday.

We had a beautiful crescent moon both days, rising just a little before sunrise.

At sunrise, we were motorsailing at 7 knots and nearing the entrance to the St. Mary’s River. With less than 5 miles to go to the entrance channel, I stopped the motor and we slowed to a leisurely sail at about 3 kts.  No need for speed now except I knew it would mean missing slack current in the river and we would be motoring up the river against strong current.

Sailing towards the St. Mary's River entrance.

Thanksgiving in Coinjock

Neil arrived while we were having Thanksgiving dinner at the Coinjock Marina restaurant.

Great Bridge to Coinjock

Wednesday, November, 25, 2020. Today we had to pass one of the significant hurdles for our trip south, the Pungo Ferry Bridge.  Water level varies by wind direction and not by a regular tide.

Here is our berth at Atlantic Yacht Basin before we left about 7:30 am.

It was so calm, I pulled away from the dock while Diane slept in.  There were some beautiful stretches of the ICW on this part of the trip.

Our first 65' bridge is visible as we get underway on the ICW.

This one should not be a problem, but it sure looks close.

The Centerville Turnpike swing bridge had been damaged by a barge a few weeks prior to our trip and was permanently open for a while.  That would have been our only bridge opening for the day.

By 10:15, we were approaching the Pungo Ferry Bridge.  The North Landing River tide station which is relatively nearby showed 0.31' (https://water.weather.gov/ahps2/hydrograph.php?wfo=akq&gage=nlrv2).  I had notes from reading other blogs that said "A level reading near zero and we saw 65+ feet under the bridge.  When it showed 2.75 on the river gauge, we saw 64 feet of clearance."  So, I figured we should be able to fit under the bridge.  As we approached the bridge, we could not find any boards to let us know what the height of the bridge was over water and continued through slowly.  Our VHF antennae contacted the bridge supports -- not a something we like, but we realize that something we have to live with on the ICW with Owl Moon.  Coming out the other side, we see boards to the left and right, visible only to northbound boats!

East side board (interpolation says 65')

West side board (65'?)

I think it was a bridge height of 65' because we usually make contact with our VHF antenna on 65' bridges.

The rest of the day was uneventful.  We arrived at Coinjock marina at 1:15 pm.

HYC to Great Bridge

Tuesday, November 24, 2020.  Monday was a lay day in Hampton that we used to do some provisioning and visit with family in the warea.  Tuesday morning, With a short day on the water and cool temps, we departed HYC at the civil hour of 9:30 am after the sun had been up a short while to warm the air some. We were able to motor sail some on a reach with the genoa across Hampton Roads.  That was fortunate because we had close to a knot of adverse current.  By the time we reached the Elizabeth River, the wind died and we rolled in the jib.  We were also no longer in an adverse current.

Reached Intracoastal Waterway Mile 0 by 11:20

Just before noon, about 5 statute miles into the ICW, we were being hailed by a Coast Guard boat who wanted to board us for an inspection.

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We continued making our way slowly down the ICW while they did their inspection.  Soon after they departed, we arrived at our first bridge opening, the Gilmerton swing bridge.  

We arrived at the Great Bridge Lock 20 minutes before the 1:30 pm opening for southbound traffic.  Once the gates opened we were the only boat entering the lock and nobody joined us while we waited for the gates to close.

We stopped for the night at the Atlantic Yacht Basin just beyond the Great Bridge Bridge.  We were side tied to the dock right on the canal.  With very little boat traffic, it was a quiet night aboard.

Pandemic Cruise to New Bern - Chesapeake Bay Leg

November 20, 2020 With the pandemic raging, no plans for Thanksgiving, and fall sailing on the Chesapeake coming to an end, we decided to bring Owl Moon to New Bern, NC at the end of November.  We departed Annapolis a little after sunrise on Friday morning.  With a good breeze out of the SSW, we had to tack down the Bay after reaching Tolly Point.  Owl Moon sails well upwind for a cruiser with her new sails.  We had kept to the west side of the Bay, out of the adverse current and once the wind moved a little more the SW, we began motorsailing all the way to the LPG dock.  We arrived at Solomons at 3:50 pm.  After getting some additional fuel at Solomon’s Yacht Center, we anchored in Bow Cove off Mill Creek.

Departing Annapolis

November 21, 2020 John was up before sunrise, raised anchor, and got underway at 6:50 am while Diane slept in.  The sun was just coming up as we turned out towards the Patuxent River.  It was a light air day so we left the motor on and were able to motor sail much of the day.  By the time we reached the south side of the Potomac, the wind became lighter and we dropped the main, motoring the rest of the way to Fishing Bay where we off the Fishing Bay Yacht Club a little after 3 pm.

November 22, 2020 John was up again before sunrise and had us underway at 6:30 am while Diane slept in again.  Today we had wind!  We had a great sail through the morning in 15 knot east breeze until the wind died as we neared Hampton.  Making great time on a reach down the Bay, we arrived Hampton Yacht Club at 1:00 pm.

Shakedown Cruise to Broad Cr. on the Magothy R.

With the mast back on the boat and critical things repaired, we decided to do a shakedown overnight on Broad Cr.  Our friends Nancy and Ron Hames were also going there on their Island Packet Mandala.  We left Annapolis in the early afternoon on Saturday and were able to sail for a bit.  It was great to be sailng again on Owl Moon.

First sail on Owl Moon after lightning strike!

We ended up motorsailing most of the way to Broad Creek because the wind had came up from the NW after we pased under the Bay bridge and we wanted to arrive in time for cocktails and socializing.  We found Mandala anchored in the inner section of Broad Creek and rafted to her.  We kept our social distance and remained in our own cockpits for cocktails.

Thank you Ron and Nancy for sharing your anchor for the night.

As predicted, the weather changed overnight.  We had a chilly and drizzly sail back to Annapolis.  Nevertheless, it was nice to be sailing again on Owl Moon.  The rain let up in time for us to dock.

Fast Trip Home

Our friend Greg Shea met us in Newport on Sunday, August 11 to help with the delivery home.

Sunset Newport Harbor

We left at sunrise on Monday morning and decided to make the long trip to Mt. Sinai Harbor on the south shore of LI in order to have a shorter day on Tuesday when bad weather was forecast. Although we had fair current out the Narragansett Bay and along the RI shore, the current turned against us by the time we reached LIS.  When making less than 4 kts SOG in the far eastern LIS we bagan second guessing our decision to head for Mt. Sinai with ETA at that speed 11 pm.  Late in the afternoon the current finally turned in our favor and the wind filled in giving us a speedy motorsail to finish the day.  We entered the harbor at sunset.

Tuesday was another early sunrise start.  We didn't have far to go, but wanted to get into Port Washington ahead of the weather.  We picked up our mooring at Manhasset Bay Yacht Club and had lunch aboard before taking the launch in for showers.  Several other Corinthian boats had also come into the Bay and we all got together for a delicious dinner at Wild Honey.  We had Patriot, Dulcinea, Irish Mist and Kelly Girl.

Wednesday morning we left our mooring at 9 am with the goal of getting to Throgs Neck Bridge at 10 am, the time of slack before ebb at Hell Gate.  We hoisted the mainsail at our mooring and did not take it down until we arrive in Annapolis 33 1/2 hours later.  It was a record delivery for us, catching the East River, the Delaware Bay, and Chesapeake & Delaware Canal as the current turned in our favor.

Nearing the Bay Bridge, we are almost home.

Moving average of 7.7 knots is well above the average I use for estimating time