No umbrella drinks (yet)

We’re tucked in for the night at the Centerville Waterway Marina near Great Bridge, VA. We wanted to make it through the numerous bridges and locks near Norfolk today, but we didn’t have the energy to continue on or find an anchorage south of here on the ICW. The captain crashed shortly after arrival due to the last twenty-four hours…..
See it all started when we departed Bohemia Bay with the high tide at 10:45 yesterday morning, we were making fantastic time through the Upper Bay with the tide pushing us along. There was little wind to only a slight breeze on our stern, to the point that around Poole’s Island it was almost a dead calm. Because of the lack of a breeze, I didn’t rig our genoa and our traveler still needs to be installed before we can unfurl the main sail. We had a largely uneventful start to the trip and I was more than happy to motor the whole way to Norfolk due to the fact that we still have a large amount of provisions to stow and some other items that haven’t found a home onboard yet. I played with the new electronics and educated the crew on how to use them. Nermal was an especially difficult student.
We discussed the watch schedule in the afternoon, and as the captain I made a statement that I wanted to be at the helm as we passed the mouth of the Potomac (notoriously one of the more difficult stretches of water on the Bay.) As we continued south very quickly it looked like we would arrive at the Potomac around midnight. Due to the excitement of the trip I was more than happy to take the majority of the time at the wheel, I know the Bay and the instruments and I shaved a few hours off our trip. As it neared midnight I almost remarked to Sabrina what an easy trip we were having, and thought about getting some sleep instead of piloting the boat to Smith Point on the south side of the Potomac. Since you’re reading this narrative, you’ve probably guessed that it didn’t continue easily from there.
Moments after thinking I could go below and get some sleep, the Potomac hit us. The wind started to build to about 10-15 knots from the NNE in opposition to the outgoing tide and it was hitting JV directly on our port quarter. Due to the opposing wind and tide the waves were steep with a short period and cresting around us, the autopilot couldn’t keep up and we often found ourselves swinging from 30 degrees off course to the port to 30 degrees off to the starboard. In addition to this the steep waves were causing us to roll about 20 degrees from side to side very frequently. It was at this point that I disabled the autopilot and steered by hand till we crossed the Potomac.
Lest you think that we are in over our heads with this trip, believe me, both of us would have LOVED to sail in these conditions. But, as you may recall, I didn’t rig either of the sails before dark because of the early calm conditions. In addition, all the items we still had to stow that were loose in the boat weren’t helping matter. Furthermore, we just completed all our work on the boat, and we haven’t had a proper shakedown cruise. You can go crazy in the early morning hours trying to remember if you tightened all the bolts and snugged down all the hose fittings.
Lesson learned – batten down the hatches and prepare to sail regardless of the forecast.
On the bright side, we did 160 nautical miles in 24 hours and pulled into the Norfolk approach just after 10:00 this morning. The engine performed flawlessly, and the electronics and the electrical system work just like I imagined. (For all you night sailors, radar and AIS are the best inventions ever, I don’t know how I ever did without, and that’s after only one night of using them.) As we continue south through this stretch of the ICW we’ll finalize all the items that were causing us problems last night.
I lost my internet connection and had to finish this from my phone. I’ll post more photos when I get a chance, but here’s the boat before departure.