All at Sea, Part 2

“…and what solitude is more complete, or more poetical, then that of a ship floating in isolation on the sea during the obscurity of the night, in the silence of immensity, and under the eye of heaven?” – Alexandre Dumas, The Count of Monte Cristo

Position: 34°43’00.3″N 76°39’55.5″W

Signal bars on your smartphone are poor indicators of signal quality. Each phone company has their own approach to showing signal strength and the little bars on your display indicate only that you’re in touch with your service provider. The bars don’t guarantee your call will go through, or if it does that it will be clear enough that the receiver can understand you.

As we approached Beaufort, North Carolina, we began getting an occasional text message, then emails. Eventually, with enough bars, I tried contacting Customs and Border Protection to understand the procedure for clearing back into the United States. After my third try the very helpful officer on duty answered my questions, asked me a few questions like, ‘is everyone on board healthy?’, and allowed us to get off the boat long enough for dinner and shower. ‘The office opens at 7:00AM, so call us anytime after that,’ he said.

Our slip at the marina was a couple down from a large sailboat curiously named ‘Miniskirt.’ Miniskirt is a 32 metre (105’) Ron Holland designed cutter. Aleta is a cutter. Other than Miniskirt’s massively upscaled rigging and gear, our boats were almost identical (not really – ed.). Within a couple of minutes we learned that the storm we followed in had struck Beaufort and lightning had hit Miniskirt’s mast and knocked out some of her electronics. We breathed a short sigh of relief for having missed the storm and for the fact Miniskirts’ mast is about 30’ taller than Aleta’s, because way out to the west were some very ominous clouds heading our way.

Fruits and Nuts

An hour later, the sky turned dark grey, great folds of cloud hung down and began swirling above us. Lightning cracked and rumbled, and then roared briefly as the rains poured down. It was, to quote my mother, ‘biblical’, Hollywood-style weather. Charlton Heston could have parted the waters against Beaufort’s backdrop (if he hadn’t been fooling around with monkeys, see: Planet of the Apes Redux).

The next morning shone bright, clear and cooler and we invited CBP on board almost before we’d had coffee. Our officer was there within minutes, she’d been inspecting another boat, and walked us through the process. We learned that vegetables aren’t allowed in, fruits aren’t allowed in, meats that are packaged and labeled USDA are allowed in, but our Bahamian chicken legs were heading to the dumpster. She was very business-like and, as a boater herself, offered us useful advice on procedures and staying cool in hot weather (frozen grapes!).

None Shall Pass!

Those of you who travel, know that CBP has been busy in the past few years. They launched Global Entry to expedite frequent travelers through customs, and an app called Mobile Pass for those that don’t have Global Entry, yet provides many of the same benefits. They’ve installed self-service customs kiosks at many major international airports.

For boaters there was a service called the Small Vessel Registration System, designed to speed clearance by pre-checking passengers via a float plan. I hadn’t registered before leaving, a process that involves face to face interviews and a background check (as it should). Turns out the SVRS is being replaced by another app, ROAM (Reporting Offsite Arrival – Mobile). So, we signed up for that instead. As a taxpayer all this seems like real value. I don’t believe the CBP has us on their list of miscreants. Instead, they’re working on ways to make entering and leaving the States easier and free up officers to chase higher value targets.

With updated weather forecasts we slipped out and headed north to round Cape Hatteras, and the Graveyard of the Atlantic, towards the Chesapeake. A front was due to blow through the mouth of the Chesapeake with squalls in the 30-40 knot range in the wee hours of the morning. To avoid that we planned our course and speed to, a) miss the storms, and b) arrive in daylight.

Night Crossing

Wind, absent in the early afternoon, gently increased to the point where we could make 3-4 knots over ground and pass a quiet night heading north along the coast. Standing three hour watches was just enough to enjoy Aleta’s tender cradling motion, while soaking in the beauty of the night. Red flashes from buoys or towers twinkled in the distance, while an occasional dim green starboard light indicated a far off ship heading our way. The moon in its last quarter rose late and shone serenely as Aleta burbled along her way.

Sunrise came in resplendent crimsons, yellows and blues, breaking through the scattered thunderheads off to the east. All of us, having had a good night’s sleep, were grateful as we watched the last line of ugly, dark clouds exit the Chesapeake, leaving us with 15 knot winds and a fabulous day’s sailing.

The Commodore

Tacking back and forth we spent hours on our rail making scant forward progress against the northwesterlies. But it was worth every hard fought mile. We eventually dropped a snug anchor in the East River off Mobjack Bay. Our big adventure of crossing a significant chunk of open water for multiple days was for all intents and purposes over.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it now, I love it when a plan comes together! We learned a huge amount. That our instincts about getting over-tired were clearly correct. That you can’t have enough information about the weather, no matter how much information you have. That slowing down is as important as going fast in making forward progress, and that trust and teamwork, as in so many aspects of life, makes for better decisions. More importantly, in sailing you can’t control all the variables, Mother Nature isn’t so transparent, but you can control your response to them, which is what makes sailing so much fun.

A very special thanks to Tom, aka The Commodore, for being there. We couldn’t have done it without you!

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