Hatteras

Norfolk to Beaufort, NC

A tale of 2 sails: it was the best of sails, it was the worst of sails! For the best part... we left Norfolk at noon on Friday to hit the perfect weather window. At 11am today (Saturday) we rounded the graveyard of the Atlantic — Cape Hatteras. Here is a picture of the llama shaped lighthouse that delineates the fine line between treacherous shifting Diamond Shoals and the northerly Gulf Stream (about 3 knots). Even with our careful navigation, our 5 knot engine is only moving us 3.5 knots right now, so clearly the line is not fine enough.

Before Hatteras, dolphins escorted us out of Virginia Beach.

Now for the worst of sails... after Hatteras, the waters remained calm until around 2am. Because of our slow progress we did not make it to our destination before the forecasted 20+ knots of wind (with gusts near 30). Of course we took our sails down and motored, but even so I (Andrea) was thinking "Great, now everyone is going to tell me 'I told you so' when I die at sea" (jk). But it was actually terrifying at several points during the night when we were in the trough of a wave and the water was over our heads. I kept rehearsing in my mind what we would need to do if something bad really did happen. Finally dawn arrived just as we were nearing our destination of Beaufort NC. We filled up our 55 gallon tank with 56 gallons of deisel! Damn -- I (Duane) had no idea we were about to run out of gas.