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October 28, 2005
N34.4 W76.4 Beaufort, North Carolina
Our journey from Norfolk, Virginia to Beaufort, North Carolina would take 30 to 40 hours. An early departure with reasonable winds would put us in late afternoon the day after departure. Another overnight sail. We are so getting used to these.
The journey was full of complications. For one, the journey included Cape Hatteras, famous for bad weather. For another, we anticipated crew. But Toby couldn’t join us until November 3rd. And yet another, we had hoped to sail with Rhumboogie, a Morgan 50, who couldn’t go until November 8th. Norfolk is a nice place to be, but not for too long.
The weather forecast showed favourable winds and good weather. Cape Hatteras is the most eastern point of the United States, and is where the warm northbound Gulf Stream meets the cold Jet Stream. The result is generally poor weather and rough seas. As a general rule, sailors avoid any wind with an east component. Cape Hatteras creates its own weather.
Sam emailed from Rhumboogie to say that the forecast for Cape Hatteras had changed. East component, rain, stronger winds. We decided to go anyway.
At 3am, I woke in a cold sweat. Sort of an out-of-body experience. I was crazed about the east component in the forecast. The challenge is that an easterly wind blows us into the cape. This would be bad. I wavered. I lacked confidence. I could not make a decision about wanting to go. I tried to connect to the internet to check weather, but couldn’t connect.
Corsair, a Beneteau 50 next to us in the marina, expected to sail the same morning after having a diver scrub the bottom of the boat. They were heading straight to Florida. We agreed to meet over coffee at 5am to review weather. They didn’t surface. My doubts increased. Had they chickened out?
We decided to go.
At 9am, I called brother Jeff, our standby weatherman. He confirmed that the forecast was for stronger winds, but no rain and no storms.
We carried on.
We rounded Cape Hatteras at 1am. The winds had been picking up, as predicted. At around 2am, the winds really picked up. 30 knots, then 40 knots, then 50 knots. And a couple of 60 knot gusts. We shortened sail, put on full foul weather gear, tightened our life jackets, and began preparations for the worst. The rains came, the seas swelled.
We were wet. We were cold. We were safe.
Perhaps the worst weather we had experienced on our 8,000 nautical mile journey, but not the roughest. We rose to the challenge. Pulled together our courage. What would we do? Turn back?
We pulled into Beaufort, cold, damp, sleep deprived, mentally frazzled, and physically exhausted. We docked, plugged in, turned the heat on, and warmed up.
We have a wonderful, safe sailboat, who delivered us through a classic low pressure storm in cold weather. We would not have it any other way.
Posted by dave at October 28, 2005 12:06 PM