A little help from Yanmar on both ends of this sail. Light winds just as I passed Fort Wool with an incoming tide and again entering the Back River with an outgoing tide. Except for these two instances, excellent sailing all day in a gentle NE wind. Perfectly calm night on the boat and low 60's made for wonderful sleeping weather.
Century Club: George Hernandez
Monday, September 25, 2023
Number of days:
1 day
A friend in town for a few days and the weather cooperated enough to get him out on the water. Light NE breeze gave us some gentle sailing then we motored out to the Elizabeth River to see the Navy ships.
Thursday, September 21, 2023
Number of days:
1 day
Another nice afternoon. I arrived at the marina mid-afternoon. Staying on Willoughby Bay I just sailed back and forth until dinnertime. I anchored on the east end by the 'bird's nest' turnpoint for Thursday races.
There was only one shower within 200 miles of my location and I managed to find me! Fortunately it was short lived!
With forecasted increasing winds, I decided to spent the night in the marina rather than anchored out. Through the night the winds picked up and by Friday evening we were really feeling the effects of Ophelia. After dinner I drove out to the marina to check on things. Gusts of 50 knots created problems for a few boats. One piling broke affecting two boats which was being delt with as I arrived. A little later another boat broke a dockline and was hitting its neighbor. It took 4 of us to get it back in position and secured. Later another was loose but the marina staff was unable to bring it back into position and just put out fenders to minimise damage.
This wasn't even a full hurricane! Can't even imagine 100 or 150 mph winds...
Tuesday, September 19, 2023
Number of days:
1 day
I just motored out onto Willoughby Bay and drifted doing a little fishing and enjoying a beautiful sunny afternoon.
Nope. Didn't catch anything...
Saturday, September 16, 2023
Number of days:
1 day
Originally, the plan was to sail my boat to Middle Ground Light and photograph the race from there. However my help was needed on the comittee boat so instead I went out with Tim Etherington on the Hampton Yacht Club's Deadrise. The sun was in my face so not the best shots, still got a few decent ones.
Thursday, September 14, 2023
Number of days:
1 day
Last of the fall series on Willoughby Bay. Good north breeze made for a fast race. Normally I anchor out for the night after the race, cook dinner and watch a movie. Unfortunately the winds were forecast to increase through the night. Gusting over 20 as I pulled into my slip gave me a little excitement and forced me to back all the way out of the aisle to try again. This time with more speed to maintain steerage. Lesson learned!
Thursday, September 7, 2023
Number of days:
1 day
A moment of excitement on the photo boat!
Motoring out of my marina and turning east towards the mark I hadn't been underway 10 minutes when the diesel stopped. Fortunately no bang, grind or squeel. Opening the genoa immediately I continued on to my planned anchor point. The fuel gauge said 60%. It then dawned on me that it's been at 60%, like forever... Yep, gauge or more likely sending unit failure. A squeeze of the bulb confirmed no fuel in the line.
The scary thing is that I had motored into our narrow channel in total darkness during peak tidal flow the other night returning from Tangier as I unknowingly was on the edge of fuel exhaustion. It's good to be lucky...
Tuesday, September 5, 2023
Number of days:
1 day
Sailing out at sunrise, taking advantage of favorable morning winds and outgoing tidal current, I made great time and the chartplotter indicated a 4 PM arrival in Norfolk. All going well until the flies arrived. Hundreds of them. Some biting. I spent probably 8 hours wacking at them until my fly swatter fell apart. I've never experienced anything like this. After that, my old AOPA had was used for the rest of the day until it was falling apart. It felt like a sci-fy movie! Finally in the evening no more flies. No wind either so I motored the final 8 miles arriving at the channel near Fort Monroe in the dark.
Only a couple pictures as it was a full time job swatting at flies. So many that I several time had to dump buckets of water in the cockpit to wash the bodies out the scuppers!
Monday, September 4, 2023
Number of days:
1 day
After breakfast I motored into the east channel to Park's Marina. Knowing it is a narrow and shallow channel, low tide was the best time to enter. Moving very slowly and running aground twice it was easy to get back off. Crabbers coming in told me to stay on the green side. There were spots on the red that appeared to only be a few inches deep! Arriving at Park's Marina I was unable to pull into any of the slips due to the fast tidal current and my shallow water alarm sounding when 5 feet away. I finally tied up to the dock right in front of the now abandonded office parallel to the channel. I walked the island, had lunch at Lorraine's, visited the airport, took a second walk before deciding to take advantage of the high tide to return to my anchorage on the south side of the island. Going back out the way I came in, rather than the deeper and shorter channel to the west, put me much closer to the anchorage. In spit of staying to the green side I did briefly touch bottom on the way out even though it was just past high tide. Glad I got that out of the way when i did as it made the morning departure so much easier!
Sunday, September 3, 2023
Number of days:
1 day
On the move shortly after sunrise. Sailing, then motoring when there was a lull. Overall made good time and arrived at Tangier just before sunset. Anchored at Cod Harbor Sand Spit south of the island for the night. Peaceful night in a south breeze.