Coastal Jump #3: Around Cape Hatteras!
15 November 2022 | Posted from St. Augustine, FL
Roger Wallace | Initially rough, then nice
This blog is post dated as I start to catch up on posts after the last big jump; crew changes; and the Thanksgiving Holiday. I hope it is worth the wait.
The last paragraph of my prior blog post summarized the plan and weather routing for rounding Cape Hatteras (Diamond Shoals) and Cape Lookout. Going by the numbers, things worked out great- we rounded Cape Hatteras one hour ahead of the weather routing estimate and in the expected light conditions. We arrived at Beaufort, NC as planned (just after sunrise). The facts on the water were slightly (my crew may argue otherwise) different. Ignoring the fact that Cape Hatteras is called the graveyard of the Atlantic- sailing around Hatteras is a big deal and this will, as a result, be a long post.
We left the docks right at the 3pm planned departure. We motored slightly more than a mile down the Hampton River and into its access channel. We pulled out the foresail even before we were out of the Hampton River access channel and we were off. Departing the Cheasapeake was a fast beam reach on just the foresail. It was a great introduction for Fritz who was given the helm while there was still daylight. We started shortening sail almost immediately in an effort to stick to the plan.
We passed through the Cheasapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel right near sunset. Pathfinder was moving fast and we continued to shorten sail. However, she insisted on doing 8 knots even with only a third of her new foresail. Slowing Pathfinder down proved to be a challenge. Clearly, she is an ocean thoroughbred! Oh, and Kudos to our new yankee cut foresail- it is everything we wanted and at an incredible price.
Our first night wasn't pretty. Winds were 25+ knots with gusts over 30. The winds were NNW trending NNE and there was 100's of miles of fetch. The prevailing waves were out of that direction and consistently 10-12ft. All that was expected. Although I anticipated the left over affects of Nicole to factor in during the night, they took on a leading role in the form of creating big confused seas instead of a minor cameo appearance. The remnant swell from Nicole came in from the ESE. I estimate that we saw occasional 15-16ft waves due to constructive interference and it also meant that the seas hit from different angles which was the most significant factor.
Being the ocean thoroughbred she is, Pathfinder handled these conditions just fine. She rose on the waves very nicely. Her crew on the other hand ...
Mid November nights are long (13-14 hours) at these latitudes in the Northern Hemisphere. Night time also means the crew losses most visual references needed to calm the stomach. Oh, and we're hand steering. I am thankful that Fritz joined us for this jump. The rough conditions turned Peter all the possible shades of green and he was out of commission for a short period of time. To Peter's credit, he wasn't down for long before he insisted getting back into the rotation despite his continued chumming for game fish. Next time, Peter just needs to remember to put out a hand line to capitalize on all that effort. It was good to have a third crew member in the rotation and Fritz didn't get sick which was reassuring to me. I made one contribution to the sea after an extended time below deck checking systems; fixing one issue; tending to Peter; and navigating. My queasiness came on fast and was a "one and done" situation. It's the first time I have been sea sick in my life and I've seen some incredible rough conditions a long time ago in Alaska. We compared notes with other boats that did the same jump and everyone commented about the difficult conditions of the first night.
The seas and winds backed off near sunrise and continued to slowly drop during the following day. One positive impact of the rough night time conditions was that they helped slow Pathfinder down and kept us in tune with my weather routing done before starting the jump. We were slightly behind the routing at sunrise. Late morning sailing conditions were a blast- we hit 10.9 knots at one point and got us back in sync with the weather routing- even slightly ahead. We had to gybe several times to stay along our planned route because broad reaching was more comfortable than being straight down wind. We did more rapid gybes as we rounded Hatteras to stay in the narrow lane that makes for a good rounding.
The "lane" for rounding Hatteras from the North is outside Diamond Island Shoals and inside the Gulf Stream. Nicole made that lane narrower than usual and we sailed into the eddies on the west side of the Gulf Stream before reaching Hatteras. The lane was there, the winds and seas continued to decrease and our rounding of Hatteras was actually very easy. We sailed between R "2" and R "12" as we rounded Hatteras and the Diamond Shoals. And yes, I made sure Fritz had the honors of being at the helm given that he was the new Commodore of the Diamond Island Yacht Club. It was very rewarding to see the Diamond Shoals Light platform (now abandoned) as it is an iconic structure for ocean sailors. We rounded Diamond Shoals officially at 3pm- 24 hours into the jump.
Once clear of Diamond Shoals, we settled in for the end of the day and our second night. Rounding Hatteras had the benefit of reducing the fetch from 100's of miles to 20 miles which made for flatter water. It is a treat to sail at night in good, clear conditions. Night sailing during November has the added benefit of the Leonid meteor showers which has many bright meteors and goes on for an extended time. We have seen many meteors on each ocean jump and they keep getting better and better.
The passage from Hatteras to Cape Lookout was also easy. We kept the boat moving along approximately 20 miles offshore and gybed 8-10 times during the night. We rounded Cape Lookout and the associated shoals a couple of hours before sunrise and came onto a close haul for the final approach to Beaufort, NC. We sailed Pathfinder right up to the edge of the channel entrance where we had turn straight upwind and start the engine for the final entrance. We were on anchor a short time later.
Entering a nice harbor after a long jump has a special feeling that is hard to articulate- it is an amalgamation of feelings of calm, satisfaction, camaraderie,exhaustion, appreciation and amazement that is memorable.
Here are the summary numbers for the trip:
- total distance: 250nm (plus the nm's added by gybing)
- elapsed time: 42 hours
- avg speed: 6kts
- estimated worst weather conditions: Beaufort force 6