Graveyard of the Atlantic

Cambio’s route from Hampton VA to Beaufort NC

November in Chesapeake is a fascinating place.   The Great Lakes is emptying out its snowbirds through the New York canal system and South along the Eastern Atlantic seaboard. Annapolis has finished the boat show and the host of attendees head South for the winter in droves, hopping along the weather windows in a giant boating adventurer’s cocktail party or cruising the Inland Coastal Waterway (ICW), avoiding the great, late storm patterns. 

Cambio was among them.  The 41’ Cheoy Lee Pedrick left Lake Ontario on September 1.  Headed, like so many others, for the boat show and then Bahamas. 

But the number one question asked among the cruisers is “are you going inside or outside?”  referring to the long slow trip along the ICW or the stormy but often faster Atlantic Ocean route.

Cambio left Hampton Virginia on November 3 after a leisurely motor down the Chesapeake and a stop in Hampton for some repairs. 

Our plan was to take the outside route past Norfolk, out to the Atlantic, turn right, sail 48 hours, and then run down past Beaufort and follow the weather windows the rest of the way along the Eastern shore. 

First the expensive repairs, including replacing the Vdrive, and inspecting the diesel and fluids.  The starter engine had been replaced while we were docked in Donald Trumps old dock in Atlantic City.  It was an expensive dockage, but it was more costly for him.

Then the travel plan.  Lachlan, our new crew spent the day before ensuring the weather was reasonable.  It is a 48 hour journey along a shoreline where the weather can rise up and be ugly so it is worth making the best plan for good weather.  Lachlan drew a plan and route that forecasted no more than 6 foot waves and no more than 17 knot winds.  Cambio had rode 30’ waves into Barnegat Light and 24’ waves the length of Lake Ontario so these reasonable limits.   The next plotting required that we check where safe harbours were along the route, the inlets and shifting shoals, and lighthouses and shifts.    What else? Rule #7 of sailing is, “There’s always something else”!

7am November 2, Cambio left right on time, past Norfolk, turned to starboard around Virginia Beach, and headed South in reasonable conditions with the wind somewhat North, and following seas.  The sun went down near as we went by Currituck Sound and we set night shifts. 

I couldn’t see the oil gauge.  We were rocking and there isn’t much room between the wheel and the cockpit seats, so I took a photo.   Oil gauge was at zero.  One of the crew went down to check the oil.  We turned it off immediately.  Happily the main was reefed.   We decided that the genoa would help calm down the roll from the wave action but first we needed to  bring the entire boat to order, and a failure in the furler or genoa sheet assembly could be harmful.  I didn’t want anyone having to go forward I this mess.  It was safer in the cockpit. 

Lachlan started strategically analyzing what should be looked at.   I recall his mantra that night, “Find the problem; work the problem”.  

The engine was off.  It was no longer any opportunity, nor was it a problem. 

The reefed main and the following seas pushed us approximately south just off the wind.

With the engine off, there would be no more power generated so we did a few things.  We reviewed the watch schedule that so our strengths were used as best needed.  We turned the autohelm off and began hand steering.  We brought out the charts for a review.  Very quickly we realized that Navionics was the best routing system for the rest of the planned route.  It gave us a red line with an arrow to steer by, making hand steering in the dark much easier and kept us very aware of the depts and location. 

We would have to stay off the sandy beaches on the west and stay away from the gulf stream on the east.  We could not go to the against the wind into the north 

There was a big unnamed hole that showed up dark blue on Navionics.  We decided to turn right when we got to the edge of that hole, towards the shoals south of Cape Lookout.    The winds remained messy and I was glad that the second reef was in the main.  

I’m going to post this now.  There is a lot of adventure stories to add and I’ll probably turn this into 3 more stories.   I’m going to leave this segment with a few thoughts.  

1. We made it safely.  Nobody was hurt.
2. Henri Ragatlie and Lachlan were incredibly professional and the kind of crew one would want in such a situation. 
3. The boat needs a new engine, and
4. Another boat was about 7 hours ahead of us, inshore, and ahead of us.  Her name was Wasa with 4 souls on board.  She had some similar misfortune and hit the beach near Ocracoke inlet and sank.  All aboard survived.   A local marine salvager, Jay Phillips wrote the story of Wasa and has some pictures published on the web at https://phillipsboatworks.com/news/shipwreck-1-for-winter-2023-on-the-outer-banks-and-counting/.  It is very worth while the read.  Thanks jay.

Thanks for coming back to Sailing Cambio blog.  I’ve been on the hard in Beaufort, North Carolina fixing Cambio and want to get down to the Bahamas before the hurricane season arrives again.  Questions and comments are always welcome.    philcheevers@hotmail.com