Sept 5, 2023 & Oct 26, 2023
Cape Hatteras, NC
10nm off the North Carolina barrier islands that hide the lovely ICW (Inter coastal waterway) we sail past thousands of shipwrecks pushed onto the shoals & rocks - by the 3W’s (wind, weather, & waves) and this pesky west 2.2 kt current. This far offshore and it’s only 50ft deep, and breakers foam a 1/2 mile away, it’s not a place to lose attention (or an engine)! I’ve been laying awake many nights nervous of this section of our passage ever since our boss said to East Coast it for Hurricane season…
I was excited to be able to tell anyone that would hear, that Stacey & I have sailed Wild Rumpus from its splash in Cape Town, South Africa 🇿🇦 all the way to my birth state of Cape Cod (Yeah, Massachusetts OK - but it sounds better the other way). We just passed the 10k nM odometer & earned our second swallow tattoo …
Cape Hatteras would be our longest stretch with just the two of us onboard , it’s about 250nM and if the weather is wrong ~50hrs (or if really wrong = not making it at all)!
October 26th 2023
Well we made that once in a lifetime passage around Cape Hatteras, without any problems other than it was so calm the insects hatched and invaded the boat!!?
Now hurricane Tammy, has delayed our return to the Virgin Islands, and we find ourselves heading back south along the coast (after some North East adventures I'll have to catch up on soon🤞), and back around Cape Hatteras 😳. Insurance dictates that we cannot head south of South Carolina before November 1st, so we took the "before the storm" weather window to make the bigger passage to the USVI, just a little shorter.
Now we sail back around that massive point of land, and this time we have 10 knots of wind (so no bugs🤞), and three other cruising sailboats with us doing the same passage. The sunset is stunning, and the near full moon comforting, we have Irina aboard - an experienced sailor who sailed up from the Virgins with us to Bahamas, we are not sailing out into the big blue for another week or so, life is good as long as I roll with the changes👍.
Cheers everyone & sorry I've been to occupied to keep us this blog... there's hopefully more time to reflect and write now, so I'll try and catch up🤞🤞🤞.
