Sailing Sans Souci

Uncategorized · November 3, 2024 3

Aground! A harrowing adventure wherein Hugh vomits and Sylvia cries

Approaching the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel

There are many scenarios in which you would want to motor in a sailboat, i.e., drive under the power of the diesel engine rather than the wind in the sails. For example, you may need to motor when navigating narrow channels; where there is a lot of other boat traffic; in a harbor; or when docking or casting off. When the winds and/or current are not favorable, you may choose to “motorsail,” which involves putting up a sail or two and also running the engine to get to your destination faster. 

Afraid to motor far due to a cracked propeller strut (see previous posts), we set sail on Friday morning for the nearest marina where the boat could be hauled out for necessary repairs: Cape May, NJ, to Cape Charles, VA, about 142 nautical miles (163 statute miles). Sans Souci is built for stability and safety, not for speed, but with the right wind conditions, we were hoping to average about 5.5 nautical miles per hour (knots). Our plan was to sail about a third of the way on Day 1, anchor overnight in Ocean City, MD, get a good night’s sleep, and finish our journey to Cape Charles on Saturday.

Friday began with Hugh pulling up the anchor at 4 a.m. and I (Sylvia) hurriedly getting dressed to catch up, since normally anchoring is my job. Then, since we were sailing into a stiff headwind (25-30 knots), Hugh motorsailed out of the harbor and for the first few hours, being careful not to throttle up too much, which would put pressure on the prop. Those were some rough hours in steep seas. The boat was pitching so violently that items normally secure below deck were falling all over the place, Command strips holding various items were flying off the walls, and Salty Sailor Hugh, who had to keep adjusting the sails and reading the navigation screen in the dark, succumbed to motion sickness and spent several minutes heaving over the side of the boat. 

After crossing Delware Bay, about 4 hours after our departure, the wind mercifully shifted and also Hugh made the decision to hug the coast more closely, which made the ride more smooth.

Our first pelican sightings!

Inconveniently, I had a work call at 10:30, which I had to conduct below deck. Even though my colleagues know I live on a boat, they really didn’t seem to understand why I needed to keep my camera off. While me bouncing up and down and turning green might have been amusing to them, it would also have diminished the productivity of the call. As soon as my call was finished, I promptly returned to the cockpit for air. 

By afternoon, we were really looking forward to getting into Ocean City and dropping anchor. We turned into the channel leading to the Ocean City marina and were suprised to encounter a very strong current flowing out against us, even though it was supposed to be low tide already. It should have been slack tide, which would have allowed us to easily motor in. As it was, Hugh had to rev the engine, which made us very nervous. As he was navigating in a more shallow stretch, which should have been six feet deep even at low tide, he suddenly said that his depth gauge was reading just 1.5 feet beneath the keel of the boat, then 1.2 feet, and before he could throttle back, we were aground, with Sans Souci‘s keel mired in the sand. He tried to reverse, but afraid to push it too hard, it was to no avail. So we sat there, in the middle of the channel, hoping the tide would start to come back in and lift us off the bottom. Yet, the tide was still going out, so we might have waited for hours had it not been for two fisherman in a power boat who slowed down while passing us to ask if we were OK. They then did a heroic thing and caught a line that Hugh threw to them from the stern of our boat to theirs. Hugh put the boat in reverse and they were able to pull us backwards out of the sand. We then motored the hell out of there, but …

Lies! This is where we went aground. The chart clearly says it is 6 feet deep.

Since we couldn’t get into Ocean City, we realized we would need to sail overnight to get to Cape Charles.  And we would need to sail most of the way, motoring as little as possible, so as not to blow out the prop strut and get stranded at sea. That’s when I cried. But I knew Hugh would get us through, so I rallied and did what I could to prepare for the long night ahead.

The wind had died down, so our progress was slow. Normally for an overnight sail we would take turns at watch, alternately staying awake and sleeping for 3-4 hours at a time, but we were already both very tired. Since we were going slow (1-3 knots), we decided to both sleep in the cockpit (the boat has autopilot) until the wind picked up. I am not a good napper, so it was hard for me to sleep even though I was dog tired, but I got a little shut-eye. Hugh can sleep more easily, so he set an alarm on his phone to go off every 30 minutes. He would awake, check our surroundings, and go back to sleep. 

A view from the enclosed helm

It was a new moon in a cloudless sky. With no engine running, we could only hear the boat pushing through the water, waves hitting the boat, and occasionally the sails catching some wind. We watched Venus rise, so brilliant that it reflected off the surface of the ocean. I spent my awake time looking at the stars and imagining I was on a camping trip.

Around midnight, the wind finally picked up … and up, with gusts of up to 32 knots, allowing us to make up time and distance with speeds of up to 10.5 knots! Yet it was smooth enough for me to get some more sleep below deck. I never took my shoes or lifejacket off, just in case we ran into more trouble. I slept longer than intended and awoke around 5 a.m. to give Hugh a bit of a break. He continued to do most of the driving, including sailing us under the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel and navigating into the Cape Charles marina at around 2 p.m.

Another dirty boat job, the pump of the aft head

After docking the boat and checking in with the staff, we managed to take showers, walk to a nearby restaurant for a bite and get back to the boat before collapsing into our berth. We both slept for about nine hours, but thanks to the time change overnight, we were still up bright and early this morning. After breakfast on board, we walked into town and explored a bit, then returned to a bunch of boat chores, including washing down the boat, filling the water tanks, and thoroughly cleaning the pump assembly of the aft, manual-pump head (toilet), which had become clogged again. Apparently it needed more than the clean out that Hugh had done last week, and fortunately he had some new parts (including a diaphram and joker valve) that he could install, so it now works better than it has since he bought the boat three years ago! 

Tomorrow should be a peaceful day of working at our day jobs. Let’s hope.

 

Sans Souci safely at a slip at the Cape Charles Yacht Center

Exploring Cape Charles, VA

 

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3 Responses

  1. Linda says:
    November 4, 2024 at 1:00 am

    Cool!!

    Reply
  2. Gloria says:
    November 4, 2024 at 2:57 pm

    A real nail-biter! Glad you made it safely ashore for repairs and got some rest.

    Reply
  3. Wendy Farrar says:
    November 5, 2024 at 1:37 am

    What a life you two are living! Love hearing your adventures; thanks for bringing me along.

    Reply

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