Legit or insane?
From Hampton, VA to Beaufort, NC
It’s Tuesday Nov 28. I finally have 2 crew coming in by Thursday morning. I’ve hired a weather router to help me plan for the Hatteras rounding. I read the recommendation - and it is to leave no later then Wednesday morning. #$&@! REALLY? Will I never leave Virginia?!? What is the outlook for the next 7 days? Abysmal. Storms. High winds. What will I do with this crew? It doesn’t make sense for them to show up when we can’t leave for over 5 days. I will have to start all over trying to line up crew with a possible weather window. I ask them both if they can come in a day early - but no. They can’t. How do people do this?
So I seriously consider doing the Hatteras rounding solo. I talk to friends from the Constitution marina to check myself (before I wreak myself). They think the weather window is appropriate. I file a sail plan with family and friends. I start a whatsapp group with family and friends. I will turn on starlink roaming so I will have internet for the whole trip. And I decide to try. If anything seems off or the alarms don’t seem to work correctly, I will turn back. I take vacation from work the 29th & 30th.
It’s the morning of the 29th. I refueled the day before (pulling up to a fueling dock on my own - really need to figure out a solution for getting lines to the dock hands, especially when pulling up on the starboard side since the throttle is on the port side). The Docks at Downtown Hampton, where I’ve been docking when not anchoring nearby, have been amazing! So helpful and generous. They have let me hang onto the fob for the showers and laundry while anchored nearby. I need to return them before I leave. I lower the dinghy attach the motor and try to get in. The dinghy is soooo deflated! Dammit, is nothing reliable?!? So I squat in the middle of the dinghy since I can’t sit on the side and motor into the dinghy dock. I drop off the fob and return, putting off dealing with the deflated dinghy for another day. I pull up anchor (covered with mud and oyster shells) and set off at 8:20 am.
For the most part it is a non-event. During the day there are several false positive radar alarms due to the reflection from the waves (I’m assuming). I stay in the cockpit all night sleeping until an alarm wakes me. It takes about 24 hours to get out to the tip of Cape Hatteras. I’ve been able to sail/ motor sail most of the way there. I round the cape during the day, but am very exhausted. I want to sleep but there are so many fishing vessels, it’s like dodging lobster pots around Boston! Finally towards the afternoon there are not many vessels, and I get to sleep for and hour or two at a time.
I arrive in the wee hours of the morning and decide to go to Moorehead City and anchor outside Sugar Loaf Island until the morning when I will try to arrange a slip.
It turns out Moorehead City is having some sort of festival and doesn’t have any dock space avaialble so I book a marina in Beaufort (Bo-fort, not Bu-fort), NC. There’s a pretty funny anecdote of me trying to get my anchor on the bow (i.e. it’s twisted 180 degrees) witnessed by a fellow boater. But I finally manage to get it up ;) onto the bow and head over to Beaufort. I dock and there is a really nice restaurant on site so I treat myself to a really nice dinner and a glass of Sancerre (holla KC!)
For the first time when talking to people I’m using “I” when referring to sailing and several people ask if I’m doing this alone. It feels so weird to say yes. Are they judging? Are they impressed? Do I deserve it? I’m just trying to let it all sink in.
