First Overnight Ocean Passage

posted by Ardys

Approaching departure time

Talk about the perfect weather window!  We motored out of Morehead City at 1700 last night and onto the Atlantic by 1745.  The night was beautiful—a bright three quarter moon, stars and very gentle breeze.  You guessed it—motoring again.  There wasn’t enough air moving to fill a sail with only 3 - 5 knots.   Instead, we soldiered on through the shrimping boats at work in the darkness, their decks all brightly lit as they hauled huge nets up out of the water.   Binoculars are great for viewing this activity at night.  

In spite of not being able to sail, I enjoyed the early part of our evening on the Atlantic very much.  Warmer than anticipated; we were comfortable with fleece and  windbreakers for several

do

Dolphins coming alongside for a send-off

 hours.  The boat rocked to and fro on the ocean swells rolling against our beam (the side of the boat).  It made me think of the boat as a giant cradle swaying and dipping, off kilter just a little unpredictably, at times.  Ahead of time, Carl had made us some grilled pork sandwiches from our left overs.   We would not need to use the stove while underway.  So, we had our dinner, a fresh pot of coffee, munchies and a warm dog to snuggle with—what more could a sailor want?  Two of us were taking turns at the helm, more or less just to verify that we were satisfied with the route we had given our new auto pilot, Data. Yes, we have named our autopilot after the most logical and intelligent character of the Starship Enterprise.  Data would never be unpredictable or quirky.

I know that we have some friends on land that are wondering ‘why in the world are Carl and Ardys going out on the ocean at night?’ If you are one of them, I shall explain the rationale based upon these two important variables, distance and desired arrival time at anchorage. 

New chart plotter works great

Distance and time to travel:  The journey by water between the inlet of Morehead City/Beautort and the inlet at Wrightsville Beach is about 71 nautical miles.  (Since we’re talking about the ocean, measurements are again calculated in nautical miles, not statute miles.)  NORTHERN STAR has a sailing speed or a motoring speed of up to 7 or 8 knots.  However, realistically, we could count on 5.5 to 6 kts/hour, or 6 to 7 mph.  So, that comes out to be approximately a 11.8 hour sailing (or motoring) trip.   

Waiting for sunrise to enter inlet

Arrival time at anchorage:  Sunrise — 6:50 AM.  Sunset — 4:50 PM.  10 hours of daylight.   When we sail in familiar waters, we may be willing to arrive in the dark.  Since we have never been to the Wrightsville Beach anchorage, nor to the inlet leading from the ocean to it, there is no way in h*** we were willing to arrive there in the dark.  It’s not like there aren’t navigation aids at night, the same ones we use in daylight hours.  In fact, at night the red and green navaids are lit up and flashing at different intervals that make them identifiable from one another in the dark. All of that is depicted on the paper and electronic navigation charts in front of 

us.  This is very good.  In addition, there are ‘caution’ navaids flashing yellow at night.  That’s good too.   Some other navaids are white, flashing or not.  Again, good.  However, a lot of other things are lit up at night too.   Some of them are stationery objects not meant to be navigation aids.  It is at least feasible that a boater could potentially be temporarily disoriented even with the lights.  It goes without saying that we don’t want to be in the way when that boater’s orientation goes awry.  Clearly, leaving at night and arriving during daylight was the way to go.  

One of four sailboats heading toward land

The weather changed a bit while we were on the ocean, as weather is wont to do.  We were not surprised by this.  It was anticipated by forecast.  By midnight the rocking of the boat was more like a crazed tilt-a-whirl.  Carl tried to nap from 2400 to 0200. Our clear skies and practically nonexistent breeze from the east changed to cloud cover, and a definite cold wind from the north along about 0200.  While I was trying to get a couple hours of sleep below, Carl put up the connector between the dodger and bimini in anticipation of rain.  That was about 0400.  We both stayed up from then on.  The rain held off until we were outside the inlet leading into the waterway behind Wrightsville Beach.  Three other sailboats materialized while we waited for sunrise to proceed through the inlet; obviously followers of the same rationale we were using.  We followed each other in to shore between the long breakwaters like a string of ducklings heading for home.

Ardys and Carl.  Jax is by my feet.

We anchored in hard wind and cold rain surrounded by beautiful beach houses on stilts.  Carl took Jax to shore and then we all slept.