Catching Up
So much to write about! I thought of separating this in to different posts (to look like I’d written this over time). But that would be silly.
So….
Taking the Boat Down for Cock Island
I decided to take the boat over in two hops this time, rather than on long one. It was a mixed blessing doing so. The first day, we left about 3 in the afternoon, expecting to make the halfway point (Salt Ponds), within 5 hours. The weather prediction was for gale force winds, and, of course, I was nervous. But Steve had driven about an hour down to take the boat with me. And, not doing it in that time meant a long day on Friday. Steve checked the York River from Yorktown and called it good, so we set out.
Mistake of course. At least 3 hours while we were out there, there were heavy winds and 4-5′ waves. I wasn’t too nervous. I’d taken the time to roll in the jib and reef the main, so I was feeling in control. Bad part was the last hour and a half, when we had driving rain, lightening, and thunder.
Steve N., who was meeting us at Salt Ponds, to take us home for the evening, found a local, thank goodness! who could give us directions on how to get into the marina. Since it was now dark and visibility was poor, we appreciated his advice!
Friday was a dream. Not alot of wind and sailing, but very relaxing. Steve, his sister, Bethany, and her boyfriend, Larry, helped me get the boat the rest of the way into Portsmouth, where we docked right next to Steve R’s Excelsior.
Being next to the main party boat at Cock Island is a mixed blessing. Being next to the main party boat at Cock Island and having your moms come in to watch you race, well, it keeps you sober a bit longer. 😀
Cock Island Race
We ran a beautiful race! We started on time (hooray)! The winds were perfect. We flew the whole time. Mind you, we didn’t come in last, so we did okay. But the sailing was perfect, no matter what the outcome!
Going Home
Alex called the dockmaster at the private marina where he lives and was able to find us a slip for the week. So, going home we were able to break it up into two slices again. The first slice was the Saturday following Cock Island and the second that Sunday.
Jodi, her daugher, Shannon, Paul and Grant helped me take the boat from Portsmouth to Salt Ponds. Erik and I took it the rest of the way to Wormley Creek. Saturday was very relaxing. Wind kept shifting, so sailing was a challenge, but it was a good day on the water. Sunday was another wavy and windy day. Unfortunately, we were fighting the waves most of the time, so using the engine to make progress was the better bet.
All in all, though, it was a marvelous week.
Wednesday Night Races
Cock Island is coming up soon, and I want to be ready for it. I’d rather not be as nervous about getting the boat hurt as I was last year. So I’ve signed up for the Wednesday night races on the York River.
I don’t know how common those are elsewhere. But this area has at least 2 series of this type: one on the York River, and one near the mouth of the bay. They’re fairly short courses, and held each Wednesday night.
We started on the last race of the Spring series. My crew were Dew-Man, Betty, Paul and Grant. We left the dock about 5:30, in what looked like possible storms. We headed towards R-24, the starting point of the race. As we did, there was chatter on the radio, discussions about whether the race should be cancelled. It was decided ‘no’. But the start time was adjusted, and we missed when it was going to be. We were near the start line (which changed once because the wind had shifted), but got off about 3 minutes late, I’m guessing.
Smoothly on our way, but not knowing what the course would be, we followed the other boats. Not hard, since the group that started after us mostly passed us like we were standing still. 😉
We made our first tack. So far so good. Second tack, and the boat spun around. Not sure what I did. Oversteered? Well, took it all the way around and continued on our way, a bit more behind the pack than before. Next tack went smoothly. The one after that, a full 360 degrees. See a pattern here? Yeah, tacks to starboard were not going well. :'(
Made it around the mark after the rest of the fleet, and ran into the dead wind that everyone else had. The storm was looming at that point, so Dew put on his foul weather gear. I turned the helm over to him, donned my own, then started passing out jackets. Rather than heading towards our mark, Dew headed the boat towards the opposite shore, picking up a nice wind. When we tacked after that, we were flying! 7, 8 mph and the boat at bout 30 degrees tilt.
We crossed the finish line in just under 2 hours. Everyone else was gone, so no one got our time, and we were marked as ‘Did Not Finsh’. Too bad I didn’t record our finish time – could have mailed it in. But ah well! It was just a practice anyway!
[Top]We Made the Front Page of the Paper
Photos: http://www.dailypress.com/news/dp-womensailors,0,4858720.photogallery
The story is no longer available. But you can see the summary at: http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/dailypress/access/1582692271.html?dids=1582692271:1582692271&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&date=Oct+25%2C+2008&author=&pub=Daily+Press&edition=&startpage=A.1&desc=SAILING+ISN%27T+JUST+A+BOYS%27+CLUB+ANYMORE
[Top]Sailing Solo
I have quite a few friends that enjoy taking the boat out with me. Which is great, because it’s meant I could sail just about every available weekend since I got the boat.
Yesterday was different. I had sent out the schedule the middle of last month, but hadn’t had any responses for this weekend. I sent out notice again on Thursday, suggesting I might divide it up since it is a 10-hour journey between Bennett’s Creek (origin) and Wormley Creeek (home, our destination). But still no takers.
Then, Petra asked me to help crew Fair Winds with her for an upcoming race. I said I’d be happy to. She said that they’d be practicing, to figure out who what have what position, and to learn to work as a team, today. So that meant trying to get the boat back in one day. And, since I hadn’t had any takers, that mean doing it solo.
Well, the weather report looked unimpressive: highs in the mid-70’s, winds starting from the north, then moving to the east in the afternoon, 5 mph. Although I had learned from bitter past experience not to believe the weather reports, I held onto the hope that they were going to be right this time and that it would be an uneventful sail. Eventful is fun when you have others aboard. Eventful is to be avoided the first time you solo!
I slept aboard that night, hoping to get an early start, and set the alarm for 6:30 a.m. I had an awful night’s sleep! My v-berth is warm and cozy and I usually sleep in it like a baby. But I was nervous about going it alone so spent alot of time conscious that night.
The alarm went off at 6:30. I listened to it, then finally got up and turned it off. I used the head while I was up and discovered to my dismay that the holding tank was so full the head wouldn’t flush. 🙁 Then I went back to sleep, or tried to. After about an hour of just laying there, I got up, changed clothes, and started preparing for the trip home. I pulled covers off of winches, sail and steering wheel. I put the GPS in place, double checking that the batteries were in fact new. I boiled some water and made a cup of instant French Vanilla Capucchino. I poured a cup of bleach into the water tank (it’s pretty dirty and I wanted the bleachy water to slosh around in there a bit). I pulled up the fenders and removed the lines holding us to the dock. I started the engine and started to pull forward. It was immediately obvious that there wasn’t enough room to move forward; I was too close to the dock perpendicular to the one I was moored to. So I backed up instead.
I learned something new about my boat with backing it up there. When it’s in gear and backing, it turns towards port. When it’s in neutral and backing, it turns starboard. I’ve known for a long time that you can’t steer the thing when you’re backing it up. But now I know how better to maneuver it!
Low tide was about 7 a.m. and I was pulling out about 9. That made me feel safer about getting under the power lines again, but a bit nervous about getting stuck in the mud somewhere along the way. But pulling out of Bennett’s Creek was a dream. I stayed to the middle of the creek and had no problems at all. I did move a bit more towards port when going under the power lines, just to give myself some room.
When I reached the mouth of the creek and started to enter the Nansemond River, I had the second issue of the day: I did get stuck. And, since this was a new area for me, I wasn’t sure which way to go to get unstuck! Part of it was the flow of the river problem we had coming in: the water was moving so fast that it tended to pull the boat off-course fairly easily. It took about 1/2 an hour moving back and forth, left and right, to get out of there. I was almost ready to call a boat tow when I finally started seeing the depth gauge rise.
Getting into the James River was no problem from there. But when I hit the James, the traffic picked up. Maneuvering around wasn’t bad; I just had to pay close attention.
I crossed the Monitor-Merrimac tunnel without a problem. Once on the other side, I started checking the GPS for the points that Dave had programmed in on our trip up. I knew that he’d kept us to the Hampton side of the river since it was shallower, to be able to work with the current. I also knew that, much like other sailing around here, you can get too shallow! So I plugged in the points, kept to the course, and motored to the Hampton-Roads tunnel.
The temperature was great and the water glassy, meaning a power boater would have loved it. And the folks on the river were mostly fishing, it appears. So I’m guessing they loved it, too. But this sailor was hoping for just a bit more wind.
The wind showed up about the time I crossed the Hampton Roads tunnel. But it was coming from directly behind me. Since I didn’t want to worry about accidentaly jibes, I left the sails down.
There was less traffic in the bay than there had been on the river, so I let Auto Helm start do some of the sailing so I could grab breakfast and fiddle around with the music and other toys on the boat. Auto proved to be a great companion for the journey! I could head down into the cockpit for quick trips without worry what what happening. Mind you, I did make sure there were no crafts within miles of me before I did! Bad part was, towards the end of the journey, I’d step away from the wheel and assume I’d put Auto on task when I hadn’t. But when the boat started turning on its own, I realized my mistake and fixed it quickly.
The wind shifted direction a bit farther down, around Grand View. So I hoisted the main and gained about a knot an hour. A little farter on, it picked up more, so I unfurled the jib as well. I then tried putting the boat in neutral, found all the speed I had was from the wind and not the engine, so I finally killed the engine and enjoyed the quietness of the sail.
It was great! This is why I enjoy sailing. The quiet. The water. Playing with the sail trim to get the optimum speed and stability. It is absolutely awesome!
The wind picked up quite a bit more not much later. It also shifted more to my rear, so the jib was doing me no good and I rolled it back up again.
I was still sailing pretty well under just the main. But, as I reached the mouth of the York River, the wind got stronger and the waved got pretty choppy. Rather than pull the main down all the way though, I used what I had learned from Dave on the trip up and reefed the main instead. I also started the engine, to keep the speed up.
That was pretty cool, reefing it myself. I put Auto in charge of the wheel, put on a life jacket (just in case!), unlatched the main cleat, pulled the sail down a bit, then tied the reefing line at the luff. I then pulled in tight the lines that brought in the leach and cleated them. It worked pretty well! I did go back into the cockpit, and the leach was folded in an awkward manner. I went back to the mast and tightened the lines again. That seemed to do the trick!
I turned the motor back on and took over for Auto, who didn’t seem to handle the waves too well. Kept changing direction, then overcompensating.
The stormy seas didn’t really last too long. But the wind stayed pretty strong. But rather than try to remove the reefing, I just unfurled the jib again. That worked like a charm! I actually did about 7 knots then, the fastest I’d gone all day.
Good thing, too. I can see the towers from the refinery and power plants that sit right beside the marina when I keep 4 Degrees before I get into the York River. And, just like the long trip home in a car, when you get real antsy when you reach your home town, those towers start making me antsy to get back home.
But I was able to keep that sail configuration the entire way back.
Coming into port was uneventful. I didn’t hit bottom once. And, of course, Wormley Creek is a protected harbor, so I couldn’t even tell there was a storm on the other side.
Miscommunication
So I get a call from Petra a few weeks ago, and just for the heck of it, I ask her if she wants to help me move my boat to a marina nearer to work. Erik’s going to be out of town this week, and I’d been wanting to to do the ‘camping near work’ – bit with it for awhile now. Living a 30 minute drive away isn’t as much a killer as some of the drives I’d made to work in the past. But it’s nice to be able to listen to the traffic report and laugh because you don’t have to worry about all the problems they’re reporting.
Anyway, she said she’d love to, and to give her a call back the weekend before so we can arrange for transportation. She asks where we’re moving it to, and I tell her it’s a marina about 5 miles from work.
I called her on Sunday and told her I had a ride home from work so I could leave my car at the marina. That way, I could give her a ride back to hers at the other end.
This morning arrives and I find that I have both her and Dave along. Hooray! I would have loved having a day with Petra alone. But Dave is one of the three people who taught me most of what I know about sailing, so it’s always a pleasure to have him around.
So we start preparing the boat to take off and Petra asks where, specifically, we’re going. I show her on the charts and she’s a bit taken aback. She thought, when I said ‘about 5 miles’ that I meant we were taking the boat to a place 5 miles from where it was now. Nope. It’s actually about 40 miles away. Well, she laughed. Luckily, she’s retired and Dave is semi-retired, so taking the whole day to do this wasn’t a big problem.
I had checked the weather report the night before. Partly cloudy with scattered showers. Winds 10 – 15 mph. I didn’t check it that morning, but I looked at it again on my Blackberry. Same report.
Well, the sky was overcast that morning as we left. But usually a weather report like that means it will burn off by noon or so. But it wasn’t to happen today.
We took off around 9 a.m. There wasn’t any wind to speak of going down the York River. It picked up some by the time we reached the bay. But we were going straight downwind, and didn’t want to veer and add to the mileage. So no sails yet. We hoped, however, when we reached the James River we could put them up, since we’d be heading off at a different angle.
We could see a storm ahead of us towards Hampton. We hoped it would be gone by the time we got there. Well, it was gone from Hampton!
As we approached the Chamberlain Hotel, before crossing over the Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel, Petra called her daughter, who worked over at the local community college. She said there was a pretty bad storm over her way.
Partly cloudy. Scatter showers my @#$%.
We did put the sails up as we crossed the Bridge-Tunnel. But before we reached the Monitor Merrimac Bridge-Tunnel, the rain started. And it was coming down hard! I thought we were getting hail! Luckily, Petra and Dave had brought along rain jackets. I, of course, had my foul weather gear aboard. I also have a ton of extra stuff that was left by the previous owner (well, some of the stuff the left is useful!), and I loaned Petra a pair of rain pants.
So we were set. We took down the sails. Then the lightning started. And that’s when I was very glad that Dave was along. He knew about a pullout near the Monitor Merrimac Bridge where we could wait out the storm, which is just what we did. We parked and I pulled out some butternut squash soup I had aboard and we had lunch while the storm passed.
Bad thing about this whole experience was that our timing was then pretty far off. We hit the Nansemond river just as the sun was beginning to set. By the time we got to Bennett’s Creek, our final destination, it was dark. Cloudy skies. Last quarter moon. Luckily, there was enough light from the surrounding houses that we could at least see a little bit.
And, of course, there were shallow spots. But (pat, pat), I didn’t hit bottom once! Came close though. The James River current is pretty strong. Trying to stay the course when entering the Nansemond River was nigh to impossible.
We had one more white knuckle moment. We had to pass under some high voltage power lines. And, in the dark, it was hard to see if we were going to make it or not. As you can tell, since I’m writing this, we did.
I offered to take Dave and Petra to dinner, then renigged on the offer. I was plum tuckered out. But I did give them a rain check!
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