Monday 29 Nov, cruising day 2: A pleasant day, relaxed at anchor in Deltaville, Virginia. Then I look at the weather…
Having made initial jump yesterday, finally breaking away from Herrington and motoring to the south end of the Chesapeake, today we spend a wonderfully relaxed day at anchor in Fishing Bay, Deltaville. While only 80 miles on, we can at least declare we moved to a different state. We are now in Virginia, the first of 4 states we need to cross before Florida … and warmth!
Funny, every time I say Virginia, I think of the Blue Ridged Mountains and the trail of the lonesome pine. Tell me, is that country, or western? Or just the usual cry-in-your-beer music from these parts 😊. Whatever, it won’t leave my damned head! We need to get to North Carolina before the song drives me totally crazy.
Fishing Bay is a wonderful anchorage but more akin to a duck pond than the kind of bay we are used to. There are leaves on the water, ducks paddling around, and land no more than ½ mile away in any one direction. But so very peaceful this time of year. In stark contrast to the pilot that warns of jetskis and “runabouts” constantly disturbing the peace, in the summer season.
We are up late, having slept like drugged babies. It’s a stunning early winter day outside, but bloody chilly. So we are inside most of the day except for a quick foray into the cold to raise the solar panels and take in the surroundings. Luckily, with our WiFi booster we can easily link into the nearby marina network. Odd that the password is the same as Herrington marina… coincidence?
Most of the morning is writing the summary for the maintenance marathon just completed, and the blog from yesterday’s river cruise.
Before we know it, it is already 2pm and for the first time in the day I study the weather forecast. And study it, and study it… and then some more. By 4pm, my conclusion is that there is a very narrow window for rounding Cape Hatteras and getting into Beaufort (36-hour passage) before strong SW head winds start. The problem with this leg is there are no safe anchorages along the way to run to, if you get it wrong. The only possibility is to turn around and come back, and even that might not be possible!
This passage plan means leaving at 6am tomorrow and having strong winds in front of the beam all the way to Hatteras (22 hours away), then very light headwinds to Beaufort. Not particularly appealing, but I just cannot see another opportunity for as far as the forecasts stretch, 7 days ahead.
Oana is not amused about a before-dawn cold start, nor that this has snapped me out of my newly relaxed mode which she was quite enjoying. But she reluctantly says: if we have to, we have to. So, I go up on deck as much to avoid her glare as to prepare things to leave. I ready the deck wash hose to wash the anchor of inevitable duck poo, halyards are tensioned, runners on, sheets ready to unfurl. Now we can just get up and go.
Back inside the boat I want to quickly inspect the propeller shaft and new PSS shaft seal. But the new dive compressor now resides over the inspection hatch! Hmmm. Still, it is quickly raised up with my small block-and-tackle and I find all is good down there. I was concerned for shaft seal leaks after our 12 hours of motoring, and also that my shaft-clamp into the Aquadrive may have somehow slipped. I have a friend in Romania whose prop-shaft fell out the back of the boat on his Beneteau 49 last summer, causing him all sorts of grief, as you can imagine. I don’t want that happening to us! Not on a Hallberg Rassey, oh no no no!
The rest of the evening is glued back on the weather screen. To be honest I’m really not happy about the plan. Something doesn’t feel right, not only that it may well not be an unpleasant sail for Oana’s first.
Hence a 5am alarm is set and final decision will be made with the updated forecast. And I have a feeling the decision will be strongly swayed by my warm bed calling me back again 😊
