Friday, September 5: Running Free
| Start: Norfolk , VA (Little Creek Marina) | Miles: 44.2 nm |
| End: Fishing Point, Deltaville, VA (anchor) | Time: 9hr26min |
| Weather: Breezy wind, mild temps | Waves: Lumpy 2’, following |
It feels so good to be running free. Just a sporty young monohull heeler with no lines or docks fencing us in. Fresh wind in our sails. No more lingering work for the batteries, the electronics, or the engine.
Last night we partook in the boat name-changing ceremony, asking Poseidon and the four winds for their favor (and obviously the one true God). The boys wrote and read poems of Blue Heeler’s future, and we toasted to the adventure ahead of us.
The wind shifted all around, and the engine was on for about half of the trip. The south wind made it a fun run, but the lumpy seas were only really comfortable when we were running dead downwind. We tied up a preventer to keep the boom from jibing, and we ran for a long day.
We anchored just south of Deltaville tonight in 15’ of water. At anchor, Rainier wanted to jump off the boom, so we tied the preventer back on, and he (eventually) worked up his courage to jump in.
Saturday, September 6
We motored around the point to anchor in Deltaville for a more protected anchorage. On the way, we saw a big sail race happening out in the bay as we were going around, and decided to sail in their direction to see it a little closer. The winds quickly picked up from 12 knots to 25 knots in the bay, so we had to quickly reef, and we decided to just head back into the Deltaville bay.
The entry into Deltaville is a narrow dredged channel through a sandbar. There are spots I could’ve stepped off the sailboat onto a 1-ft bar on one side, and jumped to land on the other shore. It was a bit nerve-wracking, but we made it fine. The town uses that sand bar as a park. It was a warm and sunny Saturday afternoon, so there were dozens of people out throwing footballs, throwing a ball for their dog, or just lounging in the shallows. After we anchored, we came back and played soccer on that sandbar and SUP’ed around the deeper areas. All of the sudden, a stiff 25-knot gust came in and the temperature dropped 20 degrees. A storm was blowing in, so we hurried back to our boat. By the time we got back to the boat, the wind had turned180 degrees, and that wind shift tripped the neighboring catamaran’s anchor, and blew it onto shore. We watched a local fisherman help get the catamaran off the shore and back to the anchorage.
Sunday, September 7 – Deltaville Deadrise
On shore, we explored Deltaville’s Chesapeake Maritime Museum. We learned about its storied boatbuilding industry, and the Deltaville Deadrise (a type of small boat developed to harvest oysters in the choppy Chesapeake). The boys also got to blow off some steam chasing each other around on land. We also met up with our friends on SV Bigger Boat, who are docked here for the next month to get some work done.