4 days, 3 nights afloat and Deltaville!

We’re beginning to feel like real sailors --- left Savannah early Wednesday morning.. We took 2 days and 2 nights non-stop to reach Morehead City, 290 nautical miles. Our friend there, Michael, wasn’t available, so we stopped just for diesel and headed back out into the open water. Another 2 days and a night, and we were in Norfolk! We passed the infamous Cape Hattaras, “Graveyard of the Atlantic” and its Diamond Shoals that extend out about 12 miles, at about 11 PM. The evening had turned from hazy to clear and moonlit, mild SW winds as predicted, rather awesome to see the Cape Hattaras light house for several hours, from more than 20 miles away.  Here is sunrise and a fellow cruiser heading north, looking much like Latitudes, all just off of Hattaras.

Traveling like this has its own set of challenges. Like meals. We need to have one good dinner before dark, preferable something that can be easily cooked while underway. Then we need another meal around 3 a.m. That has to be prepared in advance and stowed in microwave bowls. One night wasn’t bad, but I’m definitely running out of over-nighter meals! The days aren’t bad; we get a lot done. If the seas are calm we can take showers. But the nights are long. We take shifts after dark, about 3 hours each, one being on watch while the other one sleeps. Those are long 3 hour shifts. We usually don’t see anything except another ship or two. You can’t read because the light would ruin your night vision. We usually just listen to music.

We wanted a quick stop in Morehead City for diesel but were told that the diesel dock was occupied and could we wait about an hour. Not much option, so we agreed. Much to our surprise, the boat at the fuel dock was the Amistad! The Amistad is a replica of the slave vessel that was overtaken in a mutiny by a boatload of slaves. Here’s the story if you don’t know it --- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Amistad

The current Amistad is based out of Mystic, CT, and is used for a training and goodwill ambassador boat with other tall ships. She has been on a tour, visiting Key West and other points south.  Here is her website  http://www.amistadamerica.org/

Their time at the dock was longer than expected, so they generously offered to let Latitudes raft-up beside her, run the diesel line across both boats, and allow us to fill up our tanks. We did!

The captain even sent over a crew member to come aboard and help us move and tie up with them as “there are only the two of you…”. Very sweet.

All fueled up, we left Morehead City and headed back out into the open sea, about 20 miles out, another over-nighter in store. I’ve never had luck fishing in the Atlantic, so I asked the marina owner if I could catch anything out there and what to use. I got the usual “I guarantee this will work!” and ended up buying a cedar plug. Now, I’ve seen these before, other cruisers have them. But I’ve never heard of them working. However, we dutifully rigged up the line and dropped it in about an hour of out Morehead City and had a hit with a 30" king mackerel within an hour. We couldn't get him cleaned up before we had the second hit, this time a Little Tunny. Tired of cleaning, we left the line in the boat for a couple of hours, put it back in, and bingo! Within 15 minutes, another Little Tunny. I’m sold! (and we didn’t put the line back in, either!)  We've GOTTA get Luke a better filet board!

We made it to Norfolk just in time to be picked up by ex in-laws Judy & Joe.  It was great to see them again and catch up.  Judy made a great dinner for us - Luke even ate her sweet potatoes!!!!
Back in the Chesapeake with its icons:

Wolf Trap Light House

Lots of crab pot floats and nesting ospreys.

Latitudes back in the familiar fold of Deltaville

And a beautiful Chesapeake Bay Sunset as a fitting finale to a great 3300 nautical mile winter journey.

Luke's Perspective:

In the Cruising community we often rub shoulders with ordinary looking sailors who have done extraordinary things -- cruise the entire Caribbean, circumnavigate, etc. In comparison to those, we feel like neophytes, having done so little, and will certainly never do so much.

Yet when we sit back and reflect on what we have done over the past several years, it too seems amazing and somewhat overwhelming - we have cruised the entire Bahamas, and the entire Atlantic seacoast, from Miami to Canada. We’ve now passed nearly all the major capes of the Atlantic Seaboard – by sea:

- Cape Henry into the Chesapeake
- Cape Hattaras and its dreaded Diamond Shoals that extend 12 miles out
- Cape Lookout and it’s Cape Lookout Shoals, 12 miles out
- Cape Fear and its associated Frying Pan Shoals, about 12 miles out
- the lesser known Cape Romaine, a bit NE of Charleston,
with the notable exception being Cape Canaveral.

- Northbound – Cape May, the southern tip of NJ, Cape Cod, Cape Ann, the location of Glouchester and Rockport, and numerous capes in Maine.

We've lived on our little boat, 5 1/2 months this last time, mostly self contained, mostly happy, always learning, seeing new places, meeting new people. It's been quite a journey, quite an experience.