We enjoyed our time in Portsmouth/Norfolk, and it felt SO good to finally be cruising again. We took a day off to explore, but being a Monday, EVERYTHING was closed. Even still, we had fun walking around, grabbing lunch at Grain and stopping in at Prince Books. The rest of the week flew by, and before we knew it, it was time to face the part of our trip that I most feared – rounding Cape Hatteras. If you’re not familiar, this excerpt from ncpedia.org explains better than I can:
Cape Hatteras has long been known to mariners as the “Graveyard of the Atlantic.” Its fame and reputation, however, come not from the cape itself, but from the succession of ever-shifting underwater sandbars, known collectively as Diamond Shoals, that extend seaward to the very edge of the Gulf Stream. They are formed by the violent collision of the warm tropical waters flowing northward in the Gulf Stream with much colder currents coming down the coast from the north, resulting in almost constant turbulence.
We checked weather forecasts again and again, and they showed little to no wind for most of the passage until we were well around Cape Hatteras. While it meant we’d need to motor, I’d rather that than a rough passage.
We departed at 1800 and once we got out to the Chesapeake Bay Bridge & Tunnel, I headed to bed. Even though we didn’t have any wind, there was still a decent swell left from the system that blew through the day before, and I had a hard time sleeping as we rolled back and forth.
I had the early morning watch, and our course kept us close enough to shore that I was able to listen to music for a good chunk of my watch. When signal got weak, I broke out my audiobook, ‘Tanqueray’, a joint effort between Brandon Stanton of Humans of New York and Stephanie Johnson, the incomparable Tanqueray herself. If you know me, you know how much I love reading actual, physical books – I love the feel of the paper, the way it smells, the weight of all those pages bound together – and I never got onboard with audiobooks. Now that we’re making more offshore passages, I thought listening to a story during those long, late night watches might help keep me awake. I’m hooked, and I wish I’d gotten into them sooner – I’ve added downloading a book to my pre-departure ritual.
This passage was much warmer than our passage to Norfolk, and I eventually left the protection of my perch in the companionway to take in the beautiful night behind the helm. While Stephanie told her story, Orion appeared in the night sky to keep watch over me and I was reminded what’s so special about night watches.
The day was mostly uneventful, but as we neared Hatteras, I was still nervous. Models showed the Gulf Stream extremely close to shore, so we elected to go inside the light tower that marks the outer edge of Diamond Shoals. The water was crystal clear, and we saw so many sea turtles. On my watch at 1415, we officially cleared the shoal and were around Hatteras. A short while later, a pod of dolphins raced over, as if joining us in celebration. We made such good time to Cape Hatteras that we found ourselves needing to slow down to avoid arriving in Beaufort in the middle of the night.
As the sun set, a breeze finally filled in but we chose to wait to raise sail, which turned out to be a mistake. Overnight, the wind continued to build to 15-20 right on the nose, and we had wind and current opposing. Stiff, peaky, short-period waves formed and it was no longer safe for Chris to go forward to clip on the halyard, so we were stuck motoring. We would have been going too fast under sail anyway, even with just a reefed main.
I woke up as we bashed into a series of waves stiff enough to stop us dead in our tracks. I knew I wasn’t getting any more sleep before my watch, so I layered up and went on deck. Even under power, we bore off and took a tack in towards shore, settling our motion considerably.
Eventually, Chris went to try to get some sleep and as tired as I was, I took my watch. We paralleled Cape Lookout shoal, and I’d need to tack to head for Beaufort Inlet once we cleared the red marking the shoal’s end. Obviously tacking under power without sails up is easy… but being so tired, making sure I was tacking at the right time was less so. It’s amazing how being tired and being in a situation that COULD become dangerous makes you second guess every little thing. I must have checked my COG relative to that red buoy and my plotted course a hundred times after I turned, and I was STILL paranoid that I’d turned too early.
The extra distance worked in our favor – 0600 found us approaching the Beaufort channel, and I realized as much as I wanted to give Chris a little more sleep, I was far too tired to spot all the center consoles out fishing the area (one I hadn’t seen passed well clear but scared the crap out of me). As the sun rose, we passed through the mouth of the inlet and the waves finally laid down.
We dropped anchor while we waited for Town Creek Marina to open and had breakfast, and I took advantage of the down time to get the boat put away. I’m happy to be back in Beaufort and looking forward to exploring a little more. And I’m so relieved to be past Hatteras – it gets so much easier from here.
