Well we heard on the news that on Dec 21 we had a warm weather window, so we figured we would leave and go with it South, so we were not stuck in the marina over the holidays. Things were not all finished as usual but we could not wait any longer. So the adventure part 2 begins.....
Of course I am looking back on notes and the log book to see who what where from 2 months ago, but we left later in the night on our first leg...and ventured out into the Chesapeake and made it to Pax River. NOW I'm going to make it clear for some of my fellow Canadians that don't know what the ICW is verses Off Shore..... Off Shore is Off Shore -- Ocean... ICW -- is in most areas a inter coastal water way.... meaning it can be 100 feet wide to few miles in some bay crossings and such. And the ICW can be anywhere from 50ft (we saw in some bays) to .00 ft deep.And the charts are not always right. So this information plays a significant role in going down the ICW with a TANK like Sparta that takes at least 6ft 2 in . So technically if you watch your tides and depth charts you should be able to make it fine.. So this is what we are working with.
Our first 24 hours out we pushed on trying to get to Norfolk as fast as the weather was holding out. It was not bad but lets not for get its like being in a convertible, we have a soft top but no heat!.
It was like Trucking all over again, Bruce said everyday we will slow down and not go so hard when we hit warm weather...... So we spent Christmas eve in Great Bridge, Virgina tied up along the City Dock along with a few Canadian friends.
Christmas this year was very strange for us, first time in 24 years with no kids, no family, no tree, no snow just the 3 of us and as you can see 50 friends.
So from there we came accross some choppy 4-6 waves and winds gusting to 45-50 m/h going out through Neuse River ( this is like a big Bay ) Not a nice day, windy , rainy, but it was a getting our toes wet in bad weather.....
So the next day about 6:30 am we ventured out of the ICW Off shore from Beaufort N.C. the weather straightened up as we got farther out the water became quiet nice. We ventured out about 30 miles, the sun was shining and waves were calm. We shut the engine down and did some work on securing our hatches and bolting down the life raft that we did not get done before we left. We continued motoring and sailing testing out our sails for the next 12-14 hours..... Im not use to all this so Bruce was not getting any sleep I will add. Things were going ok..... Until we come around CAPE FEAR...thats the name really and I know why now!!!! As you go around this point that sticks out there is then what they call the Frying Pan Shoals.... and if we would have stayed out things would not have been so bad... BUT we had been off shore over 24 hours and very tired and I THOUGHT it was only going to take 3-4 hours to get back in shore and we would anchor and sleep..... BUT I NEVER NEW.... We with out knowing picked the worse area to come into shore... Southport..NC.
So we are 3 hours into coming in and the weather turns, the waves are getting like Ive never seen before, 10-15 ft and wind blowin like crazy. The waves are so bad from the shoals hence the name "frying pan shoals". At this point it was half way in, then if shit was going to go worse this was the perfect conditions... The engine goes papapap dead.... YEAH dead and bouncing around worse in the BIG ASS waves, but hey the sun was finally up so we could actuall see how BIG. So Bruce goes down below to see the fuel filters to be plugged, so we had to change them. Now let me paint the picture clearly.... "we have been up over 24 hours, rough seas, everything that I thought was secure down below was all over the floor, and very hard to walk without being tossed from one side to the other and did I mention every time I went below I was feeling sick?" So quickly we grab the filters, tools and bruce goes into the very warm engine room while I sit on the floor out side the door and hand him tools with one hand and hold a bowl to puke in with the other! So within a good 1/2 hour Bruce had us going again but because of the rough water it shook up so much stuff in the fuel tanks that we had to keep banging on the fuel pick up tube because even that was starting to plug..... And we still had a good 2 hours to get back to shore. BUT did I mention that the sun was up...lol...
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