April 28, 2009

Cape Lookout Cruise

Ashore at Cape Lookout

26 April - With just one week remaining before I sail back to Chesapeake Bay, Teresa and I did a weekend sail to Cape Lookout. It's a hooked shaped peninsula about nine miles up the coast with a huge but well protected anchorage within the bight of Cape Lookout National Seashore. It is technically the southern most point of the Outer Banks so weather can get funky in an instant but we had a near perfect two days of clear sky and mid 80's temperatures.
   We departed Beaufort in a stiff 17 knot southwesterly breeze and quickly encountered steep waves in the opposing fast current in the ship channel. Lastdance pitched at very steep angles and on several occasions we took a foot of solid green water over the deck right back to the dodger. Teresa did great on the helm, negotiating our way through the malstrom but with nothing to do, and to Teresa's surprise, I became queezy. Things flattened out once we got seaward far enough to where the shoal water outside the channel deepend and the effect of wind against current diminished.
   An hour later we sailed through a pod of huge dolphin and soon after that, we entered Cape Lookout and anchored deep in the bight which gave us good shelter from the wind and put us close to the beach. There,we could easily ashore and explore the sand dunes and search for the wild horses that live and run free on the beaches. Teresa proved to be a sailor's sailor as she sipped dark rum with me while we lazily passed the afternoon away in the cockpit. We then enjoyed dinner with a couple of excellent filets along with baked potatos and a surpurb bottle of Dry Creek (Mariners Select) Cabernet, gifted to us by Captain Mark when we were in Maryland last month.

   The next morning we had breakfast in the cockpit, and then dinghied ashore and walked along the shore and dunes until Teresa became agitated by the empty beer cans and bottles that littered the otherwise pristine beaches. She then cajoled me into helping her collect as many as we could carry back to our trash bag aboard Lastdance, and I felt darn good about doing it!
   We had a great sail back to Beaufort. Then, after furling our jib in the Morehead City ship channel and just outside the small secondary channel leading into Beaufort, the engine wouldn't turn over. I thought it was a starter/electrical problem but nothing I did changed the fact that we were engineless in the 2 knot current. We sailed slowly under the main and waited for Boat US, thankful for my Unlimited Towing policy
   Once back at Town Creek Marina, friends Ted, Linda and Dan joined us with 5 pounds of fresh caught shrimp, half of which we boiled in Old Bay. The other half we sauteed in butter and herbs. Linda also brought along a pound of excellent cole slaw and after three, 2 liter bottles of wine, the impromptu party dwindled to an end, all agreeing that it doesn't get any better!
   With Lastdance under repaired, I'm spending as much time as possible with my daughter-in-law and grandkids as well as planning for my departure. I get underway on May 4th for the first leg of my voyage back to Maryland. I’ll first sail to Belhaven where I’ll leave Lastdance in order to attend Teresa’s daughter’s graduation back in Raleigh. On the 11^th I’ll get underway again, bound for Norfolk where I’ll re-enter beautiful Chesapeake Bay. I’ll most likely stop on the Rappahannock, Solomon’s Island and then Annapolis before sailing into Baltimore’s to rendezvous with friends for our annual Memorial Day weekend raft-up. Teresa will fly in on the 22^nd and participate in three days of revelry in Inner Harbor before flying back to Raleigh.

Sailboat Bill in s/v Galena is sailing back from his winter adventure in the Bahamas. He’ll be about a week behind me but with my five day layover in Belhaven, he might catch up with me, in which case we’ll end our journeys the way be began them, sailing in company and enjoying the camaraderie of sheltered anchorages, and lots of the demon rum. Who knows, maybe he’ll sail along to Baltimore. Sail on!

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