We got up at 6am to finish prepping for departure, ran over to the fuel dock and headed out. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous, but it all settled back once we got under way. The smoke from the Canadian fires was pretty intense, and we ended up wearing masks for a good part of the day. There was a steady stream of boats, and the inlet was a mess between wake and current. Once we cleared the channel, were escorted out by a few pods of dolphins and we were able to get in a (very little) bit of sailing before the wind died off.
On my watch, I picked up an AIS target heading directly towards us. I checked the details and our CPA was only a couple hundred feet, and she was making 30+ kts. It was a military vessel called Stiletto, and I tried hailing them twice to no avail – fortunately they eventually altered course. We looked her up later, and it turns out she’s an M80 Stiletto prototype multihull designed for combat in shallow coastal waters (which explains why she was able to come flying at me across Cape Lookout Shoal!). It was really cool to see such an interesting vessel up close – even if she did give me a bit of a scare.
It was calm, mostly too calm to sail, and that’s just fine with me when facing a Hatteras rounding. With the Gulf Stream being so close to shore, it can be an absolute beast in the wrong conditions. We rounded the Cape overnight during my off-watch, and I came on with Hatteras Light still visible in the distance off our stern to port. There was some patchy fog but it didn’t stick around long, and the only thing that was remotely challenging was watching out for all the center consoles that came out to fish with the dawn.
Saturday morning, Chris broke out the fishing gear and we trailed a line while we motored along. Just as we were discussing what to have for lunch, we got a hit. It was a beautiful Spanish mackerel, and Chris made amazing fish sandwiches with the brioche loaf we bought at Les Ciseaux. Nothing’s better than fish that’s caught, cleaned and cooked immediately like that. That, and seeing a few more loggerhead turtles, was about the extent of the excitement for the day.
The breeze freshened as we approached the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel, and it was nice to be able to sail after all that time on a glassy sea. Unfortunately it kicked up a short-period sea, but at least it was on the quarter so we weren’t trying to beat into it. We anchored up in the York River around midnight, tired but glad to be safely around Hatteras and looking forward to some Chesapeake sailing.
