Category: Trans-Atlantic

Hours after writing our last post, we had a change of heart, and diverted to Cape Charles. We found a cozy anchorage in Cherrystone Inlet in not much water. After “feeling our way” in shallow water at low tide (read run aground three times), we made it to a lovely bucolic anchorage where we saw commercial crab and oyster fishermen, but no other sailboats. We spent Wed night, and Thursday all day here, taking the dinghy 2 miles into Cape Charles and back. Cape Charles used to be the Ferry terminus for the Ferry to Norfolk, a business that folded with the completion of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel.

Tomorrow, the plan is to get going early, with the next stop Bermuda.

Instead of telling what we plan to do, we will be telling what we just did. After our morning weather briefing, we were encouraged to expedite a bit, so we have started our long sail this morning at 8:32. We have had lackluster wind until a half hour ago. Wind is now 11-12 on our Port bow. We are maintaining our desired course, but we have to make a slight left turn to go out the Chesapeake Bridge Tunnel, so we are hoping the wind will shift as well. Morining should find us about halfway to Cape Hattaras.
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Well, we are still in our slip in Regent Point Marina. The weather the last days had been delightful. Unfortunately the weather between here and Bermuda has been less so. We have delayed our departure for three days, and it looks like we will untie the lines tomorrow morning, and start our trip. We plan to sail down the Chesapeake Bay to Cape Charles, and, if we have time, anchor there for our last full night’s sleep before starting out to Bermuda Thursday morning. We have made good use of these three days, making a number of optional repairs, and culling some of the many possessions we realized we could do without. The rule of thumb is 1000 pounds (food water and stuff) for each crew member, and 2000 pounds is a bit of a load for a 10,000 pound vessel. All winter, Olive Oyl sat with her bow lower than her stern, but now she is on an even keel.

It is another year, and we are about to embark on a new voyage from the Rappahannock River in Virginia to the UK, yes— England. Our planned route is Virginia to Bermuda (1 week, more or less), Bermuda to the Azores (3 weeks), and Azores to Falmouth (2 weeks). We plan to spend time visiting Bermuda and the Azores while we are there.
Today we are packing our boat, and making last minute repairs, checking supplies, finding a spot to put everything in our little boat, checking software, and making sure our blog still works. Yesterday, we finished installing our new dodger, and mounted 4 small solar cells on top.
Our long term goal is to sail the British Isles until it gets too cold to be fun, and find a place to leave Olive Oyl while we return to Virginia for the Winter. Next year we expect to continue our sail to other parts of Europe.
Note: we are using expressions like “plan” and “goal”. None of this is “cast in stone”.
We plan to start out tomorrow (Sunday) morning.
The picture shows the inside of our Sprinter van packed halfway to the top.