Homeward Bound

The easterly wind continued to blow strong on Sunday and it rained much of the day. We enjoyed a noon meal with our nephew and his wife. The forecast for Monday indicated a period before 11:00 where the wind would be moderate from the WSW, but after 11:00 it was suppose to pick up to 25-30 from the south. If we were going to be able to use the day, we would have to run outside to get to Manasquan before 11:00 and then run down the New Jersey ICW in the shelter of the barrier islands. Looked like a plan! We were up early, recheck the forecast on the computer, look at the conditions outside, and make a final decision. Things looked like our plan of yesterday would work. We cast off from the dock at 6:40 and headed across Lower Bay and around Sandy Hook. The sea conditions were delightful, a lazy swell with just a small ripple on top. At 10:30 we turned into Manasquan Inlet, stopped for some fuel, and started down the inside route. By 11:30 the wind was blowing 25-30 from the south, and the waters of the inside route were choppy, especially Barnagat Bay. The 3' chop was not any challenge for the boat, but as soon as the bow kicked up the water, the wind made sure we gave the boat a good salt water bath. One more time we were glad to be under a hard top and behind a windshield, nice and dry. We finished the day in Beach haven, NJ, logging on 83 miles for the day. We got in about an hour before the next cold front came through, bringing some showers and a blast of wing from the NNW. So we even got the boat rinsed off. Now I call that planning! The wind forecast was WSW, 20-25 for Tuesday. Our plan was to run inside down to Cape May. The wind was SW, 20-25 when we woke up. We got underway at 8:55. The run was 71 miles, winding through the back side of several beach front communities, Atlantic City, Ocean City, Stone Harbor, and Wildwood, under several draw bridges, some we could just squeeze under and others we had to have open for us. We arrived at Miss Chris Marina at 5:45 and were put in a slip next to another looper boat from Beaufort, SC. Small world. At the end of the day the wind did back around to the West. Wind was forecast to be lighter on Wednesday from the WNW, but we were starting up Delaware Bay and any NW wind has a long fetch down the bay, generally resulting in some serious waves. The Bay is also tidal with a normal current of 1.5 each way. I figured if we waited until after the max ebb, we would still have enough tidal flow to reduce the wave, and by the time we got up the bay about 30 miles into the narrower section, the waves would be smaller and if we timed it right the tidal flow would change and we would get a push for the last part of the run up to the C & D Canal. Well, I maybe over engineered the run, I didn't consider all the rain they have had which resulted in a much stronger ebb flow than normal, in fact twice as strong as normal and I expect there may not be any flood up higher in the river. Consequently we ran against a 2.5-3 MPH current all the way to the C & D Canal, and some 3-4 foot waves on the nose for the first 25 miles or so. We put ODYSSEE up onto a plane, going through the water at 16 MPH but only making 13.2 MPH or so over the ground. We spent a lot of energy to put 72 miles under our keel getting to Chesapeake City for the night. On Thursday we left Chesapeake City at 8:30. Back on the C&D Canal at slack water. Within 30 minutes, we started getting a push, and we got a push all the way to Kent Narrows on our way to visit with my sister and brother-in-law in St. Michael's, MD. The wind in the upper Chesapeake were quite strong, on the side, much more than forecast. To smooth out the ride we put ODYSSEE up on a plane for two hours until the wind died and we turned to the SE into Kent Narrows. The rest of the ride was very pleasant and we arrived at my sister's dock at 4:20. After a delightful weekend in St. Micheal's, we pushed off again south bound on Monday, October 5. We arrived in the Solomons to have dinner with our "Looper" friends on their boat LAGRACE. Spent Tuesday at the Spring Cove Marina and were joined by other "Looper" friends. After sundowners on ODYSSEE we all went to the marina restaurant for their Tuesday special, two dinners for $21.00. It was blowing gale force winds on Wednesday, so we laid low in the harbor, but did move to an anchorage so we could make an early departure on Thursday. The wind died all day Thursday. We had the wind and waves on our stern so the remaining wind and sea during the morning were tolerable. By mid afternoon the wind was light and variable. We were able to get all the way to Yorktown where we will spend a couple of days visiting Willamsburg and other historic sits in the area. We are on a mooring ball at Riverwalk Marina right in the new village at Yorktown. The National Park system operates buses throughout the "Historic Triangle". Yorktown, Williamsburg, and Jamestown operate shuttle buses around the three individual sites. All buses are free. So we could pick up the 9:30 bus from Yorktown to Williamsburg, and spend all day in Williamsburg, or we could transfer and go to Jamestown. The only hitch, we had to be on the last bus from Williamsburg back to Yorktown at 3:30. In three days we were able to see all we wanted to see at all three sites. Jamestown is by far the most interesting from an historical point of view, it is the birthplace of our country, and as they continue to dig on the archaeological site continue to discover and confirm the history of 1607. We left Yorktown at 4:15 PM on Sunday, October 11 and spent the night at the downtown marina in Hampton. Monday morning we met looper friends for breakfast, did some provisioning, and left for Portsmouth at 11:15. We fueled up and pumped out the holding tanks before tieing up to the free docks at Portsmouth. Tuesday morning we left at 8:30 to head south down the Dismal Swamp canal. The bridges across the ICW have restricked openings before 8:30 and the second lock opening at the begining of the canal is at 11:00, so no reason to start out too early. Tuesday was a delightful day and it was very relaxing gliding through the canal at 6 MPH. We made it to Elizabeth City by 6:30 that evening and tied up to the free docks. The weather was predicted to get rainy and windy from the north for the next few days. We are 150 miles from Morehead City where we plan on meeting our son and his family for the weekend. Two 75 mile days would get us there Thursday evening. On Wednesday we ran 77 miles to an anchorage on the Pungo River east of Bellhaven and on Thursday we ran 75 miles to the Morehead City Town Docks where we are tied up. Will, Nancy, and our two grand kids arrived at the boat at 8:15 Friday night. We all settled into the boat for the night with a plan to go to Cape Lookout bite on Saturday for the afternoon and anchor for the night. Saturday morning the wind was blowing hard from the NW, it was drizzling, and it was chilly. It was about 11:00 when we left the dock in Morehead City for the 15 mile cruise to the bite. The channels in the bite and Core Sound are affected by every storm so there are no good charts. The Channel buoys are constantly moved to reflect the changing water levels. We poked our way east of the channel to a spot near the light house and dropped the anchor. We launched the dingy with the intention of rowing everyone ashore. On the second trip back to the boat both oar locks broke and we had to fashion oar locks from rope. By now the wind had increased and getting back to ODYSSEE was difficult. With everybody ashore, we walked across Cape Lookout to the Atlantic beach, did some shelling, flew a kite we had brought with us, and walked to the lighthouse. The wind was still blowing as the late afternoon came upon us. It was going to be difficult to get everybody back to ODYSSEE with our makeshift oar locks. There is a ferry dock at the lighthouse, so I went to talk with the ranger to see if we could have permission to bring ODYSSEE into their dock to pick up our passengers, and if so how much water was at the end of the dock. Permission was granted, and with the high tide we would have, we should find at least 6' of water. Will and I went back to take the dingy out to ODYSSEE while the others waited at the lighthouse dock. The rangers guesstimate of 6' was confirmed and we slowly brought ODYSSEE into their dock which is designed to handle 18' outboard ferry boats. Mission accomplished, we moved over to the SW corner of the bite to anchor for the night. We set two anchors at high tide with a flood tide and the wind both from the west. The anchors set well in the sand bottom, but with the high wind we left a 1/10 scope in the anchor lines. At about 11:30PM the wind died some and the ebb tide current became the strongest force on the boat. With the angle of the boat to the wind, the reverse current took the boat south towards shore. At 12:25 AM we were awakened by the bump of the boat hitting bottom. Will and I went to the drive station and turned on the depth sounder and chart plotter. The depth read 3.3 ft and the chartplotter showed we had moved about 200 ft. from our original anchoring position. We checked the tide table, low was forecast to be 12:28 AM at -0.1 ft. So in just a few minutes we would go through low, the current would turn to flood, and by 1:15 or so we would have an addition 4-6" of water which, with the current change, we should float and end up at our original position. At 1:20 AM the boat floated free and within about two minutes the boat was back in 29 ft. of water. The tide would be high at 7:33 AM and the current would reverse again shortly thereafter. So we were up at 6:30 AM, and had the anchosr up by 7:00 AM and on our way back to Morehead City. The wind was still blowing and it was chilly so we went back to our dock at Morehead City Docks, plugged in the boat, turned on the heat, and had a nice breakfast. We played Monopoly the rest of the morning, went to Atlantic Beach for a late lunch, and said goodbye to the Gorgen's at 3:30. We left Monday morning for home, pretty much in delivery mode. We had two bridges that opened on a schedule that dictated our schedule. We timed the bridges perfectly, having only to slow down for the second bridge. We traveled 93 miles and anchored behind Carolina Beach near Wilmington, NC. If we can keep up this pace we can be home next Thursday afternoon. It will be nice to get home, it's been a long, grueling trip. Tuesday we were unable to do as well as Monday. The pontoon bridge at sunset Beach only opens on the hour and we timed our morning to be at the bridge for the 1:00 PM opening. A little further down the waterway we went through Myrtle Beach, with a     1-1 1/2 current against us. Between all the "no wake" zones and the current, we only logged in 88 miles today. On Wednesday we will get to the Charleston area, and with luck, get home late Thursday afternoon. We anchored Wednesday night in the Stono river just south of Elliot Cut. The weather was very nice today, sunny with a high temperature of 76, light SW wind. We travelled 92 miles today, averaging 9.1 MPH speed over ground while going through the water at 9.7 MPH most of the time. Again we pushed water more than we got a push. We have 76 miles left to our dock. We pulled up the anchors, yes we used two because of the reversing tidal current in the Stono River, at 8:00 for the last leg of our journey. As we approached Beaufort, the tide was high so we were asble to take two short cuts, taking 5 miles off the day. As we had done when we finished the Great Loop, we strung all the courtesy flags from the states, countries, and provinces we had passed through in the order of our trip, from the bow rail to the cross arm on the signal mast, and flew these flags as we approached the end of our day. In all her glory, we tied ODYSSEE up at our dock at 3:55, a journey complete and safely at home. We logged 6096 miles under our keel since ODYSSEE was last tied up in front of our house. WOW, what an odyssey.