scone before sailing

Tied up Chestertown waterfront for a scone and iced tea at Ever Grain Bread Co before sailing today.

Corsica River

The view out the bedroom window.

Fairlee Creek

Anchor down after 24 miles down the Bay on a cool grey day. Hope to make the Chester River tomorrow.

taking a weather day

Made it to Rock Hall in seven hours of rain yesterday with a forecast of rain through tonight with possible gusts to 30 mph. So taking a weather day to dry out and repack with the added bonus of seeing friends Mary Lou and Fred. When I chef last night forecast was good for heading north tomorrow.

taking a weather day in Rock Hall

the Choptank River

packed

On the road early tomorrow morning.  Below is my tracking url.  Looking forward to seeing friends in St. Michaels in a couple weeks.


https://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0JPDqxA4Ln2kgAnlVGkFVHAji21Fr0M76

the Gulf Stream

It looks like Webb has gone ENE into the Gulf Stream where he'll get 2 kts, maybe even more, help from the current.

ARC GLORIA on the waterfront

Columbian tall ship in town.  

Fifty years of training at sea.

This year's class: 51 women, 3 men.

bound for Chesapeake Bay and St. Michaels

Webb Chiles cast off this morning from Hilton Head, bound for Chesapeake Bay, St. Michaels and the Mid-Atlantic Small Craft Festival.

He had a favorable wind (top image) and off course the Gulf Stream (below) to carry him north.  You can follow his yellow brick track here..

https://my.yb.tl/gannet/6726/

I will scan the waters as I cross the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel later this week on my way to Cambridge to launch for the fall sail.  Maybe I will see the grey hull and white sails of the 24' Moore GANNET that Webb has sailed over 25,000 miles on his current circumnavigation.

no one said goodbye / no translation needed

The past few days on Hatteras Island no one ever said goodbye.  Not the people at the hotel, the clerks at the grocery store, folks out for a walk on the beach, deputies, friends or waitresses in restaurants.  They did not say "see you later"  or "take care."  Instead, they all said the same thing.  "Be safe."  

Hurricane Florence threatened but did not damage Hatteras Island.  The first high tide with a storm surge, late morning Thursday, breached the dunes.  Not a problem in itself, but weakness in the dune line makes the narrow parts of the island vulnerable to following high tides with storm surges.  Fortunately for the island Florence moved on and the the surge decreased the following high tide.  

There may have been hurricane force gusts, but only briefly.  There were warnings about tornados.  Water spout were seen skipping from the sound to the ocean.  But there was no damage, no homes flooded, no injuries. 

Leaving the island this morning, we had to talk our way past a checkpoint, we had breakfast in the upper Outer Banks.  Heading back north, the waitress said "be safe."

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I have been following the blog posts for MiRaVar, Lorenzo's sailing raid on the French coast of the Mediterranean.  Written in French and Italian, I've had to use google translate to read the entries.  The latest posts - photographs of sailing boats, beautiful water, smiling faces - need no translation. 

the boxer

A Hatteras native was explaining the problem to us yesterday.  Storms like this, the ones that hang off they coast, they just keep on hitting.  He squares up to my colleague and punches him solidly in the shoulder.  My co-worker looks a little bit stunned but before he could do anything the islander continues, saying the storm hits again, and again, and again, and again, getting louder with each "again" until he was almost shouting, accompany the word with another solid punch.

We had round one for the boxer named Florence this morning, high tide just before noon.  The dunes, man-made dunes, breached well over an hour before full tide.  Ocean water running down the streets as if they were rivers, pieces of wood, asphalt and streets signs being carried downstream. 

I wanted to get to Hatteras Village at the southern tip of the idea but the last stretch of Hwy 12 between Frisco and the village had multiple breaches in the dune line.  We could have made it there, but if the road gave way we wouldn't have make it back.  We'll save that little trip for later.

I have received many emails from friends checking in on me.  I am find, safe and dry.  Thank you.  We've got electricity and internet and ac.  The grocery store across the street is open.  This is easy.  

We'll see how we are doing after round 2, round 3 and round 4.

X marks the spot

I guess I did not take the hint from yesterday as I checked into a boarded up Buxton motel a mile or two from Cape Hatteras.  The gentleman at the counter had to use a drill to remove the plywood sheet from over my hotel room door so I could get in, a first for me.  He also gave me a late bucket and several towels to collect rain water that blows in under the door, not a first for me.

The forecast for Hatteras has improved, which unfortunately means the forecast had gotten worse for areas to the south, mainly between Wilmington NC and the South Carolina line.  If the forecast holds true they may have a very difficult time over the next few days.

The above wind map is the forecast for 11 a.m. tomorrow with the eye of the hurricane just off Cape Fear/Wilmington.  My location is marked by the red "X" and indicates winds of about 35 mph, not at all uncommon for the Outer Banks.  I still need to get a look at rain and wave forecasts to get the full picture.

take a hint

We did not make it to Hatteras Island.  A phone call let me know that the people who run the hotel I consider to be "safe," people who never evacuate the island, were in fact evacuating.

I hear that most of the island is empty.  I will find out for sure tomorrow when I sneak over for a day trip, returning to Nags Head in the evening.  Nags Head and the upper Outer Banks has evacuated too.  It is like a ghost town.

People who never evacuate are evacuating.  Maybe I should take a hint.

waiting on hurricanes

An email from friend and fellow Pathfinder builder/sailor Rik tells me that he is waiting in Aruba for Hurricane Isaac.  By this time tomorrow I will be on Hatteras waiting Hurricane Florence.  Rik tells me he has made use of his wait by producing a little video about his Pathfinder VANESSA competing in the Aruba International Regatta.  Take a look and you'll see some serious sailing.  Direct link below.

https://youtu.be/Z7ociPQy7qM

I enjoy having a Pathfinder sailing in common with Rik.  Waiting on hurricanes, not so much.

calm

just wondering

How well do butterflies do in 130 mph winds and 20 inches of rain?

next Wednesday

From the Category 6 blog...

Scenario 1: If the high-pressure ridge is stronger and extends farther west, that would increase the chance of a hurricane landfall along the East Coast, particularly over the Southeast U.S. coast between Georgia and North Carolina, with the hurricane then driving inland.

• Prognosis: Increasingly possible. The latest 0Z and 12Z runs of the European, GFS, and UKMET models all support this solution.

Scenario 2: If the high-pressure ridge is weaker and doesn't extend as far west, that would diminish but not eliminate the chance of a landfall. However, that could still bring Florence uncomfortably close to the East Coast, resembling a slow moving nor'easter. Several days of damaging surf, coastal flooding and beach erosion would occur in this scenario along at least a portion of the East Coast, with the mid-Atlantic coast at risk of a direct hit.

• Prognosis: Possible

Scenario 3: Florence may remain sufficiently far enough offshore to avoid even significant coastal flood impacts.

the golden spoon, from the Pilgrim

Checking my fishing gear yesterday I noticed that my favorite casting lure for fall on Chesapeake Bay, a golden spoon, had lost its luster.  I put it in a little bag with some ketchup - don't ask me where I got this idea I don't remember - and let it sit overnight.  Bright and shiny this morning it is soaking in fresh water to clean the ketchup off. 

In the fall bluefish and stripers often chase the bait fish to the surface, easily recognized by the erupting water and gulls diving in to grab a fish.  Cast a golden spoon into that and there a good chance you'll have a fish on the line.

Haven't completely decided the path for the fall sail.  I'll put in at Cambridge and work my way north.  How far north I do not know.  I would like to get back to to explore the Chester and Corsica Rivers, maybe even making it up the Chester to Chestertown.  And then of course back down south to St. Michaels.

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I received this and a few other photographs from the Pilgrim this morning from somewhere near Astorga, Spain.  This is supposedly a busy time for the Camino, but look down the path to the right and it appears to be not too crowded.

to drift or not to drift, a sailing raid

The question for the holiday weekend is should I drift, or not.  Hot and humid, the wind forecast has proven accurate for Saturday and Sunday at almost no wind, save for the violent thunderstorms that form in the late afternoon.  I've been doing boat work and house work to keep busy, checking the forecast for tomorrow and hoping for better.  That's is tomorrow forecast above, purplish-blue for 0 to 5 mph wind.

I checked last year's sailing and was pleased to find the image above, a favorite by friend Mike Goodwin.  Obviously we had much better wind then.

I have been following, via google translate, Lorenzo's plans for an upcoming sailing raid near his home on the shore of the Mediterranean.  Translating as best I can, it looks to be 60 to 80 miles of sailing over four days, perfect for Lorenzo's finely built Pathfinder ASTRID.  It is coming up soon, the dates are September 12-16.  I'll look forward to reading about the sail (then shortly thereafter take off on my own little raid, 14 days on Chesapeake Bay).