First Overnight Passsage

This week, we completed our first overnight passage!

Our previous most recent plan, was to just do a shakedown cruise on Tue Oct 29, see what was working and not working on the boat, then head back to the marina for the night. After that, on Wed, we were going to head out to the Atlantic coast and head down the coast to Charleston, SC, or as far as we could reasonably get with good weather.

With sailing, plans change. Frequently. So we ended up motoring out of the (very cold, btw) Severn River, into Mobjack Bay. Once we got out there, the weather was nice, sun was out, and Predict Wind was showing we had a relatively calm weather window for the next few days. So we decided to just keep going!

We filled up on diesel at Cape Charles and ended up motoring all the way out to the east end of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and anchored under the shadow of the bridge for the night. That anchorage was not super protected, so I personally had my doubts about the hired crew choosing that spot, but it turned out to be fine.

Next morning at first light, we pulled up anchor and headed out. Unfortunately, the wind was pretty much directly against us so we were obliged to motor. Day motoring was enjoyable and even exciting with all the new experiences. Sun was out, visibility was excellent, daytime temps were t-shirt and shorts.

We paralleled the Chesapeake Bay Bridge south for almost an hour, and passed over the tunnel portion of the bridge to get out to the Atlantic. This bridge is like, REALLY LONG, by the way. There is a lot of commercial shipping in that area so there were occasionally gargantuan container ships within a few miles of us. We were within sight of land most of the time so it didn’t feel like we were on a big ocean crossing adventure.

Night watches on passage were a whole other experience. It was one night away from a new moon that night so it was very dark. We relied on our Garmin AIS as well as radar to navigate in the dark. (Yes, Luthien is equipped with radar! Kind of wild). Terri and I had the 9 pm - 12 am watch.

Once the sun went down, it got COLD. I somehow had it in my head that my fancy Musto offshore jacket would keep me warm but it turns out that thing is really just a wind / rain shell. I found myself bundled up in a base layer long sleeve, light wool t-shirt over that, and fuzzy hoody under the Musto to keep warm.

It was HARD staying awake. At various times I had to stand up at the helm, stepped away from the helm and did mini squats on the deck, did whole-arm hand clapping, and gave myself pep talks during my shift to keep awake. Finally the shift was over, I stumbled down to our cabin, and fell asleep instantly in my bed and slept like a baby until morning.

AND, we had four crew members (myself, Terri, and two hired crew) to rotate the watches, so we were only on watch for 3 out of 12 hours, which is not bad. Some of the sailing channels we watch on youtube have crossed the Pacific with only husband and wife.. That seems really crazy to me now. I cannot imagine attempting that with only Terri and I. The boat could handle it, but it is super mentally fatiguing for the crew. Possibly it’s like training for a marathon and one can build up to that after a few years.

OH, AND we rounded the notorious Cape Hatteras in calm seas around 3 am or so. So that was a big relief.

Anyways, we are at a marina in Beaufort NC, for the week now. Captain and crew have disembarked, That’s a whole other story, but this blog is already too long. Beaufort is super cute and it is SO MUCH WARMER than VA. Nights in VA were getting down to low 40s F / 5 C. NC is 25 degrees warmer than that - 67F / 20 C overnight. We do have a diesel heater on board, but it is noisy and uses fuel. Here in NC we don’t need to turn the heater on, which is very nice.

Cheers! See you again next week!