Rested

Norfolk, Virginia, N36 55 W76 11
October 30 Well, we made it OK into Norfolk at dawn Saturday. The night was great but cold. The sky was clear and the stars beautiful. Early in the night the winds shifted so that we had a more comfortable point of sail. I set course for the Chesapeake Bay entrance, set the monitor for self-steering and set the foresail only (no main sail.) There was enough wind to make Tarwathie go 6.5 knots (hull speed) without any more sails. For the rest of the night I never had to touch anything. There were almost no other boats out there. We could have gone below and slept the whole night, but that’s a no-no. These are the waters where we were harassed by Crazy Ivan (the tugboat and barge with nobody steering) last summer. Also, just the night before we heard the Coast Guard rescue a man in a sailboat that sailed right onto the beach north of Atlantic City. Somebody always has to stay awake.

Anyhow, we’re here safely but we were both exhausted from lack of proper sleep. We’ll have to do better on the sleeping thing if we’re going to manage long ocean passages. We just rested and slept much of Saturday. Didn’t even write a blog.

Today is Sunday, the sky is blue and the temperature will reach nearly 68F (20C). That vindicates our decision to push for coming south. At our age and living outdoors a little warmth is much appreciated.

We’re at Cobb’s Marina in Little Creek. Our blog readers will remember this as the place where we stayed last June, and where we saw the sailing vessel Misty Isles (see the June blog entitled Misty Isle). There are stores and restaurants nearby, so it’s a good place to rest up.