Once our friends headed home, it was back to business. We left St. Augustine on Monday, March 25. We had 37 days to get Alaya tucked away safely in the Chesapeake and get our butts to an island in northern Michigan. A big ask but we hoped it was doable.
We sped through (at 7 mph) northern Florida and most of Georgia over the next three days, stopping for a day in Savannah, GA to meet up with my sister and her family. Kate, Steve, Jacob, Anna and Lee had been in Hilton Head all week on Spring Break. They drove down to Savannah to visit us and Alaya. We had a great day exploring the city together, we even took the kids on their first public transit bus ride!
The next day, we headed north again. We made it to Charleston, SC two days later, just in time to celebrate Easter at our favorite, White Duck Taco Shop. On our way to Charleston, we monitored the weather closely, really hoping for favorable weather for an ocean passage. Unfortunately, it never really came. So, we trudged along on the ICW.
Two days north of Charleston, we entered the Waccamaw River in South Carolina. All of the sudden, it felt like we were back in the Hudson – the Waccamaw River was so beautiful! We were pleasantly surprised since we skipped this section of the ICW on our way south in the fall. We spent the next three days hunkered down among the Waccamaw’s beautiful forest as we waited out some weather. We were lucky enough to get a slip at Osprey Marina, a small marina right off the river with nearly 360 degree protection from the wind.
After the winds died down a few days later, we headed north again. We had two tedious days through the narrow and busy sections of ICW between Myrtle Beach and Southport, spending more than 10 hours a day at the helm.
Once we made it through Cape Fear, a tricky ocean inlet/river near Wilmington, SC, we were officially in North Carolina – only one more state to go! There were a few more long days before we arrived back in Beaufort, NC; reuniting with our friend Bruce at Safe Harbor Jarrett Bay. It felt great to be back in Beaufort, one of my favorite places along our journey south.
By this point, we were exhausted but had gotten into a pretty good rhythm. Generally, we woke up around dawn and motored throughout the entire day. We were only able to motor-sail a few times. We tried to be anchored or docked by late afternoon, made a quick dinner and then went to bed as the sun set. Then we’d do it again the next day.
We had favorable weather for the next few days which helped us get through the wide open Pamlico and Albemarle Sounds pretty comfortably. One highlight of this section was observing the solar eclipse from the water. We didn’t have any eclipse glasses but Lucas figured out how to safely watch the eclipse with our binoculars. We got to about 70% totality which was enough to cast a weird brown filter to the sky and water for a few minutes. It was so cool to see this phenomenon from our floating home!
We crossed into our last state, Virginia, on April 10, docking at the free dock in Chesapeake, VA. We still had about 60 miles to get to our final destination but we had to wait out another low pressure weather system. We spent a lovely four days in Chesapeake. We explored the area and worked on some boat projects while we waited. On our second day at the dock, a steel boat, SV Kelper, pulled up in front of us. We met Allie and Andrez, who traveled all the way from the Falkland Islands, off the coast of Argentina. They have sailed thousands of miles in the Atlantic over the past 30 years. It was amazing to hear their stories and learn more about their experiences ocean sailing and living in the Falkland Islands.
After waiting one extra day for the winds to die completely down, we left Chesapeake at dawn on April 14. It was a very cold but incredibly beautiful morning. Together with SV Kelper, we went through the Great Bridge drawbridge before dawn and locked through our last lock, the Great Bridge Lock, as the sun rose. We motored our last few miles up the ICW, navigating under three more railroad lift bridges, including one that made us wait for nearly an hour. We officially left the ICW as we motored into Norfolk’s Harbor, 157 days after we had entered it last fall.
We parted ways with SV Kelper in Norfolk. I really, really hope we cross paths again!
Lucas and I continued into the Chesapeake, thrilled at our progress and so glad to be back in open water. The weather couldn’t have been nicer, we had light winds on our stern. We decided to set up our whisker pole, so we could better sail downwind. Andrez taught us a new way to put out the pole and it worked great! Just as we were fiddling with the whisker pole, two dolphins jumped out of the water at the bow! It felt like they were saying “Goodbye for now!” I’m really going to miss my silver friends.
We traveled the next 40 miles under sail, no Pierre for the first time in weeks. It was a fantastic end to our first cruising season. We pulled into Safe Harbor Stingray Point in Deltaville, VA around 5 p.m.
We made it, on time, to Alaya’s new summer home!
