Going the distance?
It’s Friday November 3rd and Liz and Henri can stay with me until Tuesday. We had way over estimated how much progress we would make and they change their tickets back to Boston to leave from Norfolk. Again we decide to leave in the wee hours of the morning on the 4th to time the arrival into Norfolk during the daylight, which is about a 30 hour sail.
The day is going well, we are taking shifts and making good progress. I’m looking ahead at Sunday and Monday and they are perfect for going around Hatteras (the “graveyard” of the Atlantic). The advice that was given to me last year was that you want to time your journey around the cape to have almost no wind. (Go into the options of ICW - mast is too tall, vs around the cape where the current of the gulf stream going north with warn air hits the cold air flowing south and the unpredictability of winds and squalls). I’m getting excited about the possibility of just a brief stop in Norfolk for fuel and then continuing around Hatteras with the amazing crew of Liz and Henri! But I don’t want to push them so I don’t say anything.
Then around mid-morning Henri mentions that the conditions look great for going around Hatteras and that it would be a shame if we didn’t take advantage of that (or however the French would phrase it)! I’m so excited! I was dreading having to find crew to help me get around Hatteras and this would get me past the most difficult part of the journey (at least geographically). So we agree to just stop in Little Creek, VA (the closest fuel dock to the entry to Norfolk) to refuel and then continue around Cape Hatteras. Liz and Henri change their flights to fly out of Wilmington, NC!
We continue with the sail and get ready for the night shifts. I’m on shift at 2 am and everything is going well. Then around 4 am an alarm goes off and I jump up to see that the autopilot has failed. This is not too uncommon. If sailing in heavy winds and weather helm overpowers the rudder (i.e. the wind is so strong that the weight of the keel can not counter balance the force of the wind on the sails that the boat turns into the wind regardless of where the rudder is positioned), the auto pilot can not maintain the course and sounds an alarm letting you know you have veered off course. I jump up and grab the wheel. I try to determine how far off course we are and try to correct. At night this can be quite difficult with very few landmarks to help. But I find the general heading and turn on the autopilot. Within seconds the autopilot fails again. I try again and again with the same error: “Rudder response failure”. So I settle in at the helm manually controlling the direction. An hour later Liz comes on shift. I tell her what has happened and she wakes up Henri. She’s worried I will leave her alone at the helm with no autopilot - but I assure her I would not leave her to handle this situation on her own.
Long story short - we can’t continue around Hatteras and decide to divert to Hampton, VA.