June 11... Hospital Point, Norfolk, VA to Mobjack Bay, VA
We got away around 6:30 and motor sailed through the ship lanes of Norfolk before traffic got bad. I tied in a double reef in the main while still in the harbor and as we left we were sailing for the first time in quite a while.
Once in Chesapeake however, we found that the forecast of 10 to 15 was off by half and when we made our turn north had seas of 6 to 8 feet hard on the nose. It wasnt the wave height that was the problem but the frequency. For most of the day we found ourselves going over one wave and nose diving into the next with literally tons of water pouring over the boat. Luckily our friends on "Solitaire" shot some video of us rocking and rolling and made a DVD, so we can relive this nasty trip again and again.
Anyway, we plodded into them at making 3mph over ground for most of the day. Jim radioed to say that since our ETA in Deltaville was projected to be around midnight, we might consider an alternate anchorage. We followed "Solitaire" into Mobjack Bay and anchored off the East River.
After putting everything away and replacing the sail covers, I spent a few minutes repairing our davits. One of them had worked itself out of it's base and needed some attention. The torque on them is amazing when we are pounding into heavy seas . At some point this summer I need to add another cross member to strengthen the system.