Sails out, at long last

Thursday 2 Dec, Deltaville VA to Kitty Hawk NC, cruising day 5: Departure from the Chesapeake and heading out into the big bad Atlantic. In December!

11am feels like a perfect departure time. Enough time to get up late, have a casual coffee and breakfast, then lift anchor all refreshed and leisurely.
The morning is casual at first, until I get an email from Ivan in Spain, offering to log-in and take a look at our Mastervolt charging issue, while we have good WiFi. So I rush around setting up the USB connection, loading the software etc, then make the call to him. But sadly, he is busy for the next hour, and then the next few days are a big holiday in Spain. It will be another week before he is back at work. Hmm. All the set up for nothing, I should have made the call first ☹. Back to thinking about departure checks.

Oana has secured all the cabin and food for re-heating is all ready to serve. Bang on 11am, military style (!) we lift the anchor to depart Deltaville and our safe little duck-pond anchorage (aka Fishing Bay). As expected, the chain was caked in fine mud (or is it duck poo?) which took some washing off. Looking forward to sandy bottoms in warmer climates. And sandy anchorages too. Haha.

We then slowly weave our way back out the Deltaville channel, and on entering the main Chesapeake River we do what we have been waiting a year for – unfurling the new sails and getting wind in them.
First issue. The furl-out button on the pedestal is not working. But luckily the buttons on the remote control are. Then, with the furler now working, the mainsail refuses to come out the mast! But it just takes a quick furl-in to tighten the coil inside the mast cavity, then it all comes out perfectly. The genoa unfurls too.
And once they are trimmed and perfectly set, all the weight of maintenance, costs, time and effort seem to fall away, just like water off a duck’s back. OMG the new sail on the new rig look simply amazing, stunning, beautiful …. Wonderful! We are on a shy reach and already doing over 9kts in 13kts of wind. It feels super powerful, as new sails should of course.

But oh no! This speed will cause an issue. We cannot go this fast and make the right passage timing! What to do? We need to reef down. In fact, we furl the sails completely away (just to check we can, before going out into the Atlantic) then we unfurl again to a reefed position. But even then, with only 2/3 the mainsail and 2 reefs in the genoa, we are still doing 8kts in the flat water! Blimey. A bit like the Captain, these sails are more than just good looking 😊

Silliness aside, a real problem we have with the sails is getting them furled away without creases forming in the furl. For the first few rolls they furl cleanly. But then on the lower part of the genoa and mainsail, creases start to form and get worse when we furl-in further. We already saw this when we first put the sails up. And to fix it, Ray and I had to pull heavily down on the foot while furling them in. But that cannot be done when at sea. Impossible.
We try different halyard tensions, but looser makes it even worse. We try different back pressure on the sheets, also different boom angle, and backstay tension on and off, all with no improvement. We will have to consult with Elvström on this one. It will be annoying if we end up with creased sails at the get-go. Once those creases are “ironed” in, there will forever be crease lines across the sails ☹. Not pretty, and not good for the fabric either.

With the sails reefed, the initial leg of 30 miles to the Chesapeake entrance is calm and leisurely. And we pass though the gap in the causeway, the gateway into the Atlantic, at 4:30pm. 30 minutes ahead of schedule. This is normally a busy commercial thoroughfare with naval traffic into Norfolk, the world’s largest naval base, and commercial ships heading up to Baltimore port. But gladly there is very little marine traffic tonight, bar several naval boats out training. Along with unlit Black-hawk helicopters zooming this way and that playing their war games.

We get our first wonderful red sunset just as we start the leg down the Virginia North Carolina coast, starting at Virginia Beach. The wind is lighter than forecast but the direction keeps us hard-on the wind, as expected. With wind forecasted to increase, at dusk we set a very conservative rig: deeply reefed mainsail and cutter, with the genoa completely rolled away. This means we are going a bit slow, but we are already ahead of plan.

By mid-evening, as we put Virginia Beach behind us, the wind rapidly picks up after its usual sunset lull. And soon it is 20kts gusting 23. This wind speed is no issue when sailing off wind, but pressed hard-on, it is not pleasant. We have 30kts across the deck (apparent wind) and the waves are building quickly. Not an ideal first test of the new sails, rigging and refurbished hydraulics, and at night too. Nor a good situation for Oana’s first sail after a long break. Upwind sailing motion always gets her seasick, and she already had to take several cinnarizine pills since departing. Although it’s an offshore wind, the closest we could make it to the more sheltered shore (without tacking in) is 5 miles. And the seas are soon slapping the sides of the hull and spray is flitting across the deck.

I reef down even further. The clew of the mainsail is now only ½ way along the boom. The cutter can be reefed, but as it is more of a blade sail (high aspect ratio) I prefer to leave it full. And I must say, it is driving us like a freight train – so much better than our last cutter which I never fully made friends with when it came to trimming. The reduced sail does nothing to reduce our speed. We are still doing 7.5knots hard on the wind, but with less heal. Although Oana is far from having fun, this is where I sit back and just watch in awe at how this Hallberg Rassy machine revels in such conditions. Thundering along, any wave that challenges Cloudy Bay is simply parted and remnants thrown backwards over the deck. As we plough through each wave, I can almost hear her shouting “take that… and that… come-on, bring it on!”.

We are using our “coastal” nav lights rather than “ocean” at the mast top. Meaning we have the green and red lights on the pulpit. These are lighting any water that breaks over the bow in a green and red flittering light show. And talking of lights, we are super impressed with the new spreader LEDs (aircraft landing lights). 2 pointing up, 2 pointing down. The 2-down light up the deck like an arena. And the 2-up light up the mast and sails brilliantly. I find myself turning them on frequently to observe the sail trim. And to take video of the spray and wave breaking over the deck. Some of the wave remnants are now making it all the way down the deck and over the sprayhood, which is certainly living up to its name tonight! And the deck scuppers are all making loud sucking noises, like old bathtub drains used to do, as the deck water spirals down them, back into the sea.

Spray and green water on deck usually means drips through all the hatches. This is our next disappointment. Checking the recently installed new foredeck hatch, which is receiving the worse of the waves, I find very small drips coming from the rim on the hinge side. Not through the hatch seal, but apparently through the rim joint onto the deck. Pfff. Here we go again. If a new hatch doesn’t cure it, maybe the Chernobyl method really is the next step! And the other leak is in the mid cabin hatch. This one has never knowingly leaked in the past, so it has received no maintenance by me. But it is now leaking where the support hinge is bolted through the Perspex. That should be an easy fix. But for now, it’s towels on berths again ☹. The recently sealed saloon hatch is, thankfully, not showing any drips … so far.

Late evening, we see “Starfish Enterprise” on AIS ahead of us. We had motored passed this catamaran in the Chesapeake as we left Herrington 4 days ago. Oddly, it is moving directly towards the beach. Then we see it turn and head back out to sea. Eventually they call us on the VHF for a chat. I ask them why they were heading for the beach? They reply they are just tacking along the coast. Tacking? …oh of course. A catamaran does not go to windward like a monohull. Pfff, never a catamaran for me. You might even do better sailing a square-rigger to windward! And soon we have overtaken them and their AIS plot disappears several miles to our stern. At least when the wind swings, they should be able to make it to the Hatteras on one tack. I hope so. Maybe we catch up with them in Beaufort, they seemed like a new crew.

With the boat motion becoming more difficult, a brief going down below seemed to be the final straw on Oana’s seasickness. So I took her down and tried to make her as comfortable as possible in bed. I was already prepared to be up the whole night, given the condition, but I still have to fight Oana’s objections at my insistence that she stays there, with no need to come up for a watch. Once we are round the Hatteras, I can sleep all day. But for now, I feel bad for her. Seasickness is such a horrible condition, and she is only out here to be with me. And that makes me feel bad.

As midnight approaches, we are level with Kitty Hawk and spot-on time with the plan.