Blue Water Cruising
When
I retired in 2016, I bought a 1974 Hallberg-Rassy sloop, a Rasmus 35 from an
Arkansas cabinet maker who had rebuilt her and taken her to the Med and back. I
named the boat Pleiades and kept her on a mooring off Tampa Bay. I sailed her to Cuba from Pensacola, to Isla
Mujeres and Cancun in Mexico, and spent three winters cruising the Exumas, a
chain of mostly uninhabited islands running southeast from Nassau. It’s hard to say enough wonderful things
about these islands –they are simply spectacular, and snorkeling is a total
delight (one spot is called The Aquarium, and the name is no exaggeration.)
This
year, I decided to move Pleiades up to the Chesapeake. I contacted friends and lined up three crews
–one for the Tampa – Nassau leg, one for the Exumas (had to have a farewell visit),
and one for the Nassau – Chesapeake leg.
I think most of my crew was new to offshore sailing and some were pretty
much new to sailing in any form. You know how people are always telling you, That
sounds great, let me know when you go out again –well, watch what you wish for:
you might get asked to crew!
Pleiades
is a well-found boat with two cabins, a composting head, and a salon. Each cabin has two berths and we set up leecloths
to keep us from falling out when heeling. I had flown down to Tampa early and
provisioned the boat with food and drink.
Pleiades has a large fridge and small freezer space, and food is crucial
on a passage since it breaks up the day and can be a joy to look forward to or
a disappointment if not carefully chosen. We had meals planned for three weeks
and lots of snacks –nothing like a granola bar and handful of dates when you go
on watch at 2:00 AM…
We
set out on April 30, finally casting off lines at 2:00PM to sail into what
appeared to be a squall line but which we outran. Sailing down the coast of Florida, we had light
to moderate breeze just ahead of the beam and our motor had fuel delivery
problems which ultimately became the ongoing demon of the trip. Many fixes,
many reversals. However, we were five days to Nassau with a stop in the Keys to
visit and enrich the local NAPA parts store.
We
stayed at Nassau Harbour Club Marina, where I’ve been many times before –good
people and just across the street from an excellent liquor store, grocery, and
Starbucks. What more could one ask for?
Dinner at Potters Cay, a collection of little restaurants under the bridge to
Paradise Island –you can pick any one and not go wrong, just be sure to order
the conch salad and fried plantains. We
saw a Spotted Eagle Ray from the restaurant deck, nosing along over the cast
away conch shells that litter the bottom.
Back
in Nassau, we made another obligatory trip to Potters Cay and had another huge
meal. Another crew trade and some more work on the motor and we were off for
the Chesapeake. I had purchased a
special forecast from noted weatherman Chris Parker, who advised us to go up
the Gulf Stream as far as we could, noting that we would have southerlies for
quite some time. I should say I took
this advice with some trepidation, for the only really dangerous experience
I’ve ever had offshore, over 15,000 nautical miles, was in the Gulf Stream with
a northerly wind and I’ve always crossed the Stream pedal to the metal ever
since and certainly never chose to ride it up the US coast.
However,
we had little wind for days, and what there was came out of the southeast, so
we were comfortable nursing the motor and being appreciative of the Gulf
Stream’s three or four knots going our way. A bananaquit came on board and
stayed for a while; swells appeared and faded again; and we watched a total
lunar eclipse against a background of bright stars. All in all, it was a relaxing
six days until we got to the latitude of Beaufort, North Carolina.
And
there the wind shifted northeast and built, and the seas built to eight to
twelves, and having seen this movie once before, we decided it was time to
leave the Stream and sail to Beaufort, where we went up the Intercoastal
Waterway to Norfolk and into Chesapeake Bay. We encountered one brutal little
squall in the Bay, just as night fell with me on watch, but otherwise, it was uneventful
all the way to Cambridge, where we arrived salt crusted and deeply satisfied.
We’d been on board 22 days and had sailed just shy of 1600 nautical miles, the
last 300 in the ICW and Chesapeake Bay but most of the rest with no land in
sight.
Many thanks to Richard for sharing this sailing experience with us.
