By Rich
For those heading down “The Ditch” from the Chesapeake, the intracoastal waterway really begins with a passage through Norfolk Virginia. Here travelers will enjoy the awesome spectacle of our nation’s Navy warships. I got an extra treat by enjoying a sunrise timed just perfectly as a backdrop to my photos.
Continue reading Drivin’ South: Hampton Virginia to Coinjock Single Handed
By Rich
After two years of dreaming our moment has arrived! On November 29 Le Saberage pulled into Fort Lauderdale and tied up!
We’ll continue to post articles with highlights for each leg of the trip, but we thought it only appropriate to post a quick note celebrating our arrival and outlining some of the more fun trip superlatives. Here they are:
Voyage Calendar Period: October 21, 2016 to November 29, 2016.
Voyage Duration: 40 days, less 8 day break for a trip home = 32 days
Passage Days: 24
Lay Days in Port: 8
Miles Covered: ~1,140
Average Miles / Day: 47.5
Days in Intracoastal Waterway: 15
Days in Open Ocean Or Bays: 9
Engine Hours Logged: ~163
Days Traveling Via: Motoring Only- 11; Sailing or Motorsailing – 13
Nights Spent On: Slip – 20; Anchor – 10; Mooring- 2
Miles Single Handed: 767 (including all ocean and open bay passages; ~2/3 of total)
Days Single Handed: 16 (2/3)
Miles Double Handed: 373
Days Double Handed: 8
Groundings: 0
Grounding Scares: HELL YES
Mechanical Problems Causing Passage Delays: 0
Mechanical / Technical Problems Needing Work Arounds: 3 or 4
By Rich
The evening of Sunday, October 23 found me feeling a bit anxious about Monday’s forecast. As I sipped my evening scotch I listened to the weather over the VHF and looked online at Sailflow. The very same 20-25 knot westerly winds that I could hear whistling unrestrained through my Sabre’s rig were forecast to persist the next day – at least until 11am or so. At that point the forecast called for the winds to clock to the right and to moderate. If I left at dawn – which was necessary if I was to ensure a pre-dusk arrival in Hampton, Virginia – I would be leaving the tight Tangier inlet in a brutal chop and would need to beat straight into that same steep chop for 4-5 hours before the wind moderated and I could reach under more civilized conditions. Continue reading Drivin’ South: Tangier Island To Hampton, Virginia Single Handed
By Rich
On Sunday, October 23 I had a wild beam reach from Solomons Island to Tangier Island. I set a full main and jib shortly after sunrise and briefly worried that there may not be enough wind to make it to Tangier before dusk under sail alone. Boy was I wrong. Continue reading Drivin’ South: Solomons To Tangier Island Single Handed
By Rich
With a gale forecast to fill in during the evening, I was in a bit of a rush to make Solomons Island well before dusk. I caught a wonderful sunrise after leaving Lake Ogelton and TURNING RIGHT (south) instead of left (to haul out) for the first time since we’ve owned the boat. SO EXCITED.
Continue reading Drivin’ South: Annapolis To Solomons Island Single Handed
By Rich
It’s that time of year – when a train of sailboats packs up and head south for the winter. For the first time after two years of dreaming about it, WE’RE GOING WITH THEM! More exciting still, I’m doing most of the trip south SINGLE HANDED!
In fact, the trip is already under way. I’m home for a quick break while Le Saberage catches a brief rest in Charleston, South Carolina. I fly back tomorrow to resume the trip. Today, however, I am have some time between loads of laundry to work the keyboard and get some blog posts out! The articles will be significantly time delayed since I haven’t had any time at all during the voyage to blog.
I’m going to headline the series of articles Drivin’ South and will endeavor to make each as media heavy and commentary light as possible. I’ll also focus as much of my content as possible on “lessons learned” about the passages and destinations to benefit others who plan to head south.
Enjoy!
By Rich
Credit to Brian for this awesome video footage of Lisa and I sailing from Annapolis to Rock Hall Saturday, directly into a northerly that ranged from the low to upper teens in strength.
Days like these are why we sail!
By Rich
I was able to hunt down and identify the make and model of the French production boat I “raced” earlier in the week, which I observed making significant leeway relative to my Sabre while sailing upwind in a stiff breeze. Continue reading How Not To Design A Cruising Boat Keel
By Rich
I’m so heartened when I see that someone has lavished love an attention on an old production boat. We more or less expect people to love and care for high end models like Hinckleys, but isn’t there even more virtue in finding that someone has lavished love and attention on a 1970’s production boat? Here in Rock Hall I stumbled across this gem, a sister ship to our 1979 Pearson 40, Endeavor. All these years later I still find the design – for all of its flaws – to be uniquely striking. Look at the love someone has shown this gem.
She still looks almost totally original; I can only hope and assume that the bow pulpit is off for repair and will be re installed! Notice how they have retained the teak dorade box aft of the forward hatch, with its novel hinged cover to store winch handles. Ironically, my 1989 Sabre also has a deck mounted plexiglass lid, under which winch handles were to be stored. Both boats harken back to an age when halyard winches were on masts, which as a single handler, I often long for!
By contrast, I find it heart breaking when an old boat has been blocked in a yard and left to rot. In the photo below, this older production boat probably wasn’t constructed all that well, but the hull form looks to me like it would sail very nicely. Note the deep forefoot, long cord length keel, and generous deadrise (see my last post!). It’s so sad, and so unnecessary at the same time. If someone had just maintained this boat, then two nights ago they could have been out on the bay with me, beating into that stiff southerly, giddy as this boat cut through the chop in a canter, just like my Sabre was. I wonder what the owner was doing instead. I wonder if it was anything like as meaningful. I’d bet good money he or she was in front of a TV, sitting with an idle brain, wasting time as this poor baby wasted away in the yard, unloved.
Consider the Pearson 40 I found by contrast. In this photo, look at the time they spent replacing the weather boards with plexiglass, and lovingly varnishing the teak coamings in the cockpit. Whoever you are, those of us who love sailboats thank you. We’re part owners of these wonderful creations, and we’re part stewards of them on behalf of mankind.
By Rich
Stay with me here, because even I think I sound a bit like an old fart with this line of reasoning. It could well be that we all have an affinity for things that remind us our our youth. A such, I could just be getting old and prone to lamenting the passing of the “good old days.” But just in case I might be right, let me pose the following question for debate: have the best-sailing cruising boat designs that history will ever record already been built? Are marketing and other business considerations distorting contemporary yacht design away from the best hull forms in a manner similar to the way the IOR racing rule distorted 1970s designs? Here is one article, and another that can serve as primers for the discussion. Continue reading The Late 1980s: The Golden Age Of Yacht Design?
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