The sail went pretty much according to plan. Fri 10/15 was rough, a 24 hour
sail from Annapolis to Norfolk, beating into a 10-15mph south wind. It was
a pretty wet trip. We inched our way through Hamton Roads on Saturday
morning fighting the wind and waves punching us in the face. We met friends
in Portsmouth and had dinner. We docked at Tidewater marina.

We pushed off around 7am Sunday and dropped an anchor off Nag's Head NC
around 8pm. The trip through the ICW during this leg was the most
interesting. We exited the ICW at North river and proceeded down the
Albermerle Sound to Nag's Head.

On Monday, we lifted anchor at 4am and snaked around Roanoke Island (in the
pitch dark...Jim at the helm and me at the charts shouting right and left
rudder). We had a perfect sail down the Pamlico Sound. The sun shinned,
wind pushed us at 7-8 knots, and the dolphins chased us into the channel for
Ocracoke Island where we tied up at 2:30pm. Ocoke is a neat place. We
toured the island, ate dinner, and watched the Yankees get there butts
kicked.

The weather took a bad turn on Tuesday. We changed our plan to go outside
and continued down the Pamlico Sound to the Nuese River where we picked up
the ICW, joined the fleet, and bounced from pole to pole to Beaufort NC. We
tied up at the Dockside Marina in Moorehead City around 6:15pm.

This time of year, the sun is coming up around 7am and setting at 6:30 pm.
We were concerned that the bad weather was going to continue to limit us to
60 mile days since there is no way to negotiate the ICW at night. We got an
early start on Wednesday and continued our trek on the ICW to Wrightsville
Beach.

The bridges became a problem for us. Most open on the hour and we missed
the Sears Landing swing bridge by 5 minutes. Fortunately, there was a
marina close by where we took advantage the delay to fill up the diesel
tank. Jim ran to a place to get us a couple cheese burgers but the reality
of fast food service made him give up and run back to the boat empty handed.
We wouldn't miss the bridge a second time. We tied up at Scott's Hill
Marina at around 7pm for the night.

Shoaling was a problem on Thursday. The depth alarm went off several times
but the lowest it got was 6 feet. The sailboat behind us warned of 2-3 feet
shoaling at the Carolina Beach Inlet. He drew 5 feet and wanted us to be
his canary in the coal mine to lead him through it. We didn't see anything
worse than 6 feet. There is a lot of fear and confusion in the fleet and a
lot of chatter on the radio on the ICW. We picked up a strong 2-3 knot
current that pushed us through the Carolina Cut into the Cape Fear River at
a speed of over 8 knots. When we came out of the cut, we banged a hard left
rudder into the Carolina State Park Marina where we tied up, filled the
diesel and water tanks, and took a long hike to the Food Lion for supplies.
After a 3 hour layover we pushed off and went out the Cape Fear Inlet for
the 48 hour off-shore sail to Florida. We wondered why people were looking
at us with bugged eyes while we were going out at 4pm and everyone else was
coming back in.

Tempest was at her best that evening with a 10-15 mph N wind driving us into
the Atlantic at 8 knots. A couple hours latter, the wind picked up and we
reefed the main. Around 11pm we took the main down all together and sailed
with only a small head sail but still maintaned 7-8 knots. The seas built
up during the night and the sky was ugly. We had a problem and couldn't
start the engine to charge up the batteries so at 2am I installed the new
battery that I procrastinated installing before we left. When the sun came
up at 7am on Friday, we considered setting a course further west toward
Charleston (we could have arrived there at 10am) but decided that the snot
we were sailing through was better than trying to negotiate an inlet that
the coast gaurd was telling people to avoid, so we toughed it out. Fridiay
night wasn't as bad, weather wise, but i was fatigued and it was my longest
night of the trip. Jim held a steady course while I slept like a rock and
woke up a half hour late for my 4am shift.

Things were looking much better on Saturday morning when the sun finally
came up. The wind was at our backs and we surfed down 6 foot swells,
pushing us into the St John's River inlet around 3:30pm. We missed the
Jacksonville, Main Street bridge openning. It is under construction and
only operates from 6am to 6pm. We got to it at 6:15pm. This actually was a
fortunate event. We tied up at the Jacksonville River Landing (on the north
side of the bridge) where boats can stay for 72 hours, free of charge.
There are dozens of restaurants, bars, and street entertainment. Jim found
an Adam Mark Hotel within walking distance and got a room. Jane, who drove
to Myrtle Beach to visit her daughter the day before, drove down and met us
at the hotel around 10:30pm.

We had breakfast on Sunday morning and Jane and I set out to find the Ortega
River Boatyard by sea while Jim drove the car to find it by land. We both
arrived within minutes of one another. The boat yard is nice. The weather
is incredible. It was 90 when we left at 3pm to drive back to Maryland. We
got back to Annapolis in 12 hours, stopping a few times, once for dinner
that probably lasted 45 minutes. Jim got into his car and drive back to NJ
and I jumped on the bike to ride to Darnestown with Jane covering my back in
the Pontiac.

It will take a few days to recover but all-in-all it was an adventure. Jim
and I are wondering how many more our old and worn out bodies can handle.
After all, we're not 50 anymore. A 2+ week trip down the ICW would be a
cake walk. There are some pictures on
http://mywebpages.comcast.net/lily0523/jaxtrip.htm



Ray Dickler

Tempest