Day 3, Year 10: Passage to Norfolk, Virginia, Day 3
Date: Monday, October 13, 2014
Weather: Overcast, Clearing in PM, Temp in the 70’s, Winds SE to S 15 to 20
Latitude: 37 46.404 N
Longitude: 075 15.399 W
Miles Traveled: 318 Nautical Miles
Location: Offshore SE of Chincoteague Inlet, Delmarva Peninsula
Our decision to head directly to Norfolk was a good one. We are beating into SSE winds but the seas are fairly calm and it is a good ride. The wind was SE overnight and earlier in the day putting us on a beam reach. The sailing has been great. And the forecast for strong southerly winds in the Chesapeake Bay over the next couple of days would have made getting down the Bay difficult. We will be in Norfolk sometime tomorrow morning and try to make it to our first stop on the Intracoastal, Great Bridge, for the night.
I know Mark is loving being out here. He always loves being at sea. But I am continually surprised at how much I love it. From the beginning, I have been a reluctant sailor with no real desire to sail. But once you get me out here, I love, love, love it. I complain when it is really rough, but I never want to go back. On this trip, Mark and I both have found ourselves just staring out at the water for long periods of time. I know both of us are thinking that we would just like to sail on offshore to South Carolina, but then we would have to go around Cape Hatteras with the Gulf Stream coming up from the south and stronger south winds on the way. Not a good idea. But it is tempting. Mark and I seem to immediately adjust to our three hours on, three hours off overnight schedule, and we nap during the day. So we are never really tired on passage. It is a special time for us. And this trip has been blessed by the light of moon every night. Love that moon light.
This morning Mark made radio contact with Lee Kaufman in Little River. They have been trying for three days to get a good radio connection and this morning’s was the best. But just about the time Mark got off the radio I heard his phone and tablet dinging letting us know he had email. We were evidently close enough to Ocean City, Maryland to have a good phone signal. I was able to use the hot spot to connect my computer to the internet and check the website. It is back up and running and I posted the logs from the past two days. We had sent them to the site through Ham email, but somehow they were not posted. Once we are in the waterway, we will probably have cell service again and will once again be able to post daily logs via the internet. At least I hope that is the case.
Hope everyone enjoyed Columbus Day. We all know the little ditty, “In fourteen hundred and ninety-two, Columbus sailed the ocean blue.” I want to write a new ditty, something like, “In twenty hundred and ten plus four, Mark and Judy sailed over the ocean floor.” Help me. My ditty sounds awful.
