Norfolk, VA
To see as much of the world as we can,
Using the smallest carbon footprint we can,
Spending the least amount of money we can,
Making as many friends we can.
Life at anchor means taking the dinghy everywhere. When Red Ranger is our home, the dinghy, named Scout, is our car. We're looking at a replacement. We really like the air-floor because they're light.
She was new in 2012. It's been a good, long run. But. Her days are numbered …
CA loves the marshlands around here. Bird heaven. Our neighborhood hawk is making sure CA's not here to grab the delicious rock pigeon.
There are other neighbors, too.
In case we needed any reminders that we've moved south.
Upgraded our mid-ship cleats.
Here's a picture of one of the old 6½″ cleats.
Good for ½″ line. Rock solid.
You can see the new dock line behind the cleat. It's ⅝″ and you can't really make a proper clove hitch around …
This isn't our first rodeo. We lived aboard in 2012 and 2013.
Great experience. The 2012 year, in particular, everything was new. We had a million questions and asked everyone. Lots of people gave us much needed advice on how to live on a small boat in a big ocean …
We're not going anywhere until February.
Time for sight-seeing and general post-passage relaxation.
Time for home handicrafts.
This is the Bruce "Claw" anchor that broke loose at sea.
This is not how it was secured then. This is new.
I've got three points of contact …
Going to sea requires a bit of humility. If things go wrong, a problem rapidly escalates to absolute catastrophe. Of course, Murphy's Law applies here — anything that can go wrong, will go wrong. Did Murphy describe Poseidon's essential cruelty and get all the credit by having a law named after …
We're glad we decided to wait one more day in New Bern.
The wind is still from the N and cold. But it has moderated from Gale force and Storm force down to simply a cold wind. There are only whitecaps in the river under the gusts.
Last dock day, we think. Here's the river whipped to whitecaps by the wind. It's blowing in the 30's, gusting higher.
I'm not used to seeing rivers with whitecaps rolling down them.
But the wind is blowing straight down the river, providing maximum fetch to create …
Tied to a dock, with shore power, listening to the wind howl.
I prefer to be at anchor in high winds. We have really good ground tackle. It does, however, mean we're trapped the boat. We're not up to playing dinghy in high winds.
But. I also prefer having …
Tomorrow (Saturday) and Sunday have a forecast of rain. More than that really. We're looking at this forecast for Zone AMZ137:
"GALE WARNING IN EFFECT FROM SATURDAY MORNING THROUGH SUNDAY EVENING"
That's alarming.
The whole RED-ALL-CAPS styling really adds to the sense of impending doom.
And …
Too windy (and cold) to do anything. Rain was expected. So we stayed put.
Counting the days between today (Thu4) and this forecast: "Stiff N wind becomes milder Mon8 with a HI nudging offshore. The HI completely collapses wind Tue9-Wed10."
We're going to try to do …
Starting our fourth week of this cruise with a few more days of waiting for weather. Here's the latest from Marine Weather (MWXC).
"Stiff sailing along the coast Sun7, becoming milder Mon8. Motoring Tue9."
This Tuesday thing appeals to us. The NOAA Marine Forecast doesn't quite reach that far into …
Weather Watch in New Bern. Having fun going into town.
Not having fun with the dinghy. The floor can no longer be pumped up. The hole got bigger through lack of attention. The floor is a rubber bag at this point. I think it can be repaired. I'm secretly hoping …
Watching the weather. Carefully.
Chris Parker says "An extended travel window may open behind the second offshore low pressure system Sun7-Mon8 as a HI shifts offshore".
We're sitting still until then. We expect stinky weather Friday and Saturday. "Showers return to coastal areas Thu4 with scattered squalls persisting offshore; Widespread …
Coffee Shop WiFi!
Yay.
Posh lunch joint with fancy wait-staff!
More yay.
Lovely walk around town.
Even more yay.
We're killing time waiting for the weather to turn nasty. Anchor remains fixed near 35°6.1884′N 77°1.9218′W.
New Bern. The tangle of bridges and marks here is pretty crazy. We have many bars of AT&T connectivity, so we think we can synch our various photo albums, Kindles, and cloud storage.
We'll be waiting here, we think, for almost a week. The weather outlook is great for …
Today, amongst other things, we endured a lot of wind. A real lot. Plus rain. The forecast is gusting to over 30 all day and into the late night hours. We may have seen gusts to 40. We're rocking and rolling all over the place. The anchor is holding, and …
Belhaven was pleasant. Very small, and also very alive.
The trip down the AIWW from Belhaven toward Oriental is perhaps the prettiest section of this journey. Did I take pictures? No. It's difficult to capture in a single image.
The Pungo river starts out wide; one could consider sailing down …
Belhaven Marina. It's very small, and a very narrow fairways. Great amenities.
Narrow.
Did I mention that the fairway's narrow?
Bigger boats have to watch the wind and tides to make a clean getaway. We're hoping for light air tomorrow so we can get out. It's …
We've gone, it seems, almost nowhere. We're anchored a few miles past SM 135 on the AIWW. Norfolk is SM 0. We've taken 7 days to go 135 miles. Not quite 20 miles per day.
Beaufort is near SM 205. We're about ⅔ of the way there. It may actually …