Outbound on Pratique: November 2012: Pratique to Florida

Predicted Path of Hurricane Sandy

Hurricane Sandy hit Connecticut pretty hard, but Pratique was in Little Creek, Norfolk VA where Sandy's effect was far less devastating. When we returned on Halloween Night, all was quiet and Pratique was just fine. Howdy Bailey of Howdy Bailey Yacht Services kept an eye on her during the storm--Thanks, Howdy! So shortly after midnight Steve, Hank, and I cast off the dock lines and began the short leg from Little Creek out the mouth of the Chesapeake and into the Atlantic.

November 1, breezing down the NC coast

Steve says, "Bring it on!"

Hank on watch

The reason we left Norfolk on November 1 is that for insurance reasons, sailing south of Norfolk in "hurricane season" is forbidden. So most people start the southern journey after November 1. Fortunately we already had Pratique staged to go south from Norfolk, so she was out of Sandy's bullseye of one and two days earlier.

The reason we left after midnight was to round the potentially dangerous Cape Hatteras in daylight. That strategy proved correct, as Hatteras posed no issues. However, Cape Fear the next day was a different story. The wind and waves picked up, and was on our nose for what seemed like an eternity. In the pic below I superimposed the water temperature color data upon the nautical chart off North Carolina. That gives the best representation of where the Gulf Stream is. You can see the Gulf Stream just east of our course (the warm water) around Frying Pan Shoals off Cape Fear. We need to stay in the colder, blue colored water because further offshore the GS would be against us. The sketched arrow shows the wind on our nose, and the waves off Frying Pan in the hash-marked area were downright nasty!

After we rounded the shoals we decided to take a break so we headed north for some shelter in the Cape Fear River. Just to starboard when entering the inlet we discovered a true oasis--Bald Head Island Marina. Here are some photos from their website:

And here we are the next morning after a good meat lasagna dinner and a great night's sleep!

Pratique, and the Bald Head Island Ferry next to us

Tied up to the fuel dock

Following a restful night at the dock and a good breakfast, at 1100 hrs we headed out of Bald Head Marina only to find that the autopilot was malfunctioning! After a bit of trouble shooting and some phone calls, it became clear that especially since it was a weekend, it was not going to be an easy fix. So at 1600 we again departed, making a straight line course for Jacksonville FL. I figured we could hand steer since the weather was forecast to be pretty good for the next few days. So that is what we did!

Back in the saddle!

The highlights of this leg were the dolphins following the boat, and the couple of "small tunas" we caught along the way. I think they were Little tunny--not very tasty!

On Monday morning, Nov 5 we decided we'd head in to Amelia Island, and make a few phone calls to see if there was a chance to get the autopilot looked at, but that was not meant to be. Knowing that our final destination was Ft. Lauderdale, the headquarters of Outbound Yachts, I gave Phil another call to see what he thought. He and I were both aware of a low forming off the Florida coast. When Phil also learned that I'd be losing Steve, who was going to have to fly home from Jacksonville (remember I said earlier that work too often gets in the way of these adventures), he happily volunteered to help with the final leg. He'd meet us the next day in Port Canaveral. So we decided to have a nice lunch on Amelia Island, then say good-bye to Steve and head back out to sea, headed for Canaveral.