Back in the South

We crossed the mouth of the Potomac just before dark last night, and anchored in Virginia waters a couple hours later. We're finally back in the South after a little over four years. We're still a long way from home, but it should start to get a bit easier now.

The weather looks good for the next couple of days, so we hope to make Norfolk by tomorrow night. I need to pick up a radio, and will probably hang around through Thanksgiving. It looks like we'll take the ICW down as far as southern North Carolina -- the engine's working better now, so a few days of motoring shouldn't be a problem.

I did have another belt break during the trip yesterday. We had just crossed the mouth of the Potomac and I noticed a different sound coming from the exhaust -- it had stopped pumping water. I quickly shut her down, pulled of the cover, and saw that the small belt for the impeller was missing. I'd tightened it up a couple of days ago because it was really loose, but I probably got it too tight. Anyway, we were up and running again in a few minutes.

That might have been a little exciting, but no where near as exciting as tying in a reef earlier. We were under a SCA until noon, so we didn't get underway until 0900 -- figuring we let it settle down a bit before we got to the bay. I raised the main in the Patuxent River, but had to motor sail to make it around the channel markers. At that point, the wind was about 15, gusting to 20, which was consistent with the forecast.

However, once we rounded the point and turned south, it picked up considerably -- I learned later that it was gusting to 30 knots. It wasn't real bad, but I decided it might be a good time to reef the main. I'd never done it in strong winds, so this was a good opportunity to try it and get some experience. It was also a good spot with no traffic and lots of sea room.

A job that should be completed in a few minutes at most, must have taken me at least 30. First of all, I'd run the main halyard into the cockpit, which meant gong back and forth to the mast to loosen it and drop the main. Since I haven't done this much, it's not marked, so I can't just loosen it and go forward and pull down the sail.

Secondly, I don't have my jack lines setup right now, and with the netting laced onto the lifelines, my tether won't slide along, so I have to continually hook and unhook as I move along -- it's only 6 feet long. Couple that with a trial and error method, and you get the picture. Oh, and did I mention it was blowing 30 knots? When I lowered the sail and tried to hook the tack and pull in the clew, she essentially hove to, which kept the sail full and made it tough to do anything.

I finally had to drop it completely in order to finish tying it it, but after that, she was fine and we continued on. I'll work in my technique, but I think it boils down to speed. Once you get caught broadside to the wind, your options are limited.