A Tale of Two Chemists: East Greenwich, RI to Portsmouth, VA

Sunday 1^st – Tuesday 3^rd October 2017

The ARC 1500 rally doesn’t leave Portsmouth, VA until the first week in November, but for various reasons it suited us better to move the boat down to Portsmouth in early October and leave her on the dock. That way we could pick the best weather window and also free up time to make some family visits without the pressure of having to move Cotinga south.

Rod, Brian and Sandy joined me for this trip. Rod (Gloria’s brother) and Brian (a friend from Concord Acton squash club) will also be making the passage to Tortola. Sandy is a friend of Brian’s and joined the crew at the last minute to give us some extra support for this leg. I think we worked really well as a team!

As I sit at home a couple of days after the trip, some of the details have already become a little foggy! I know for certain that we left East Greenwich at just after 10 am on Sunday 1^st and dropped anchor off Hospital Point, Portsmouth at just before 10pm on Tuesday evening. We covered about 390 nautical miles in 60 hours, at an average speed of 6.5 knots. The weather was beautiful with cloudless skies for the first two days and then a few fine weather, fluffy clouds on the final day. We sailed as much as we could, but with light winds mostly from the north or north-east (downwind) we ended up motoring or motor-sailing for 38 out of the 60 hours.

During the days we ran an informal watch system, but at night (6pm – 7.30am) we ran a system based on a cycle of 90-minute watches, where each person would come on watch for 90 minutes, then spend the next persons watch relaxing in the cockpit, but supporting the new watch leader, then the following 3 hours down below sleeping. This seems to work pretty well and although tired, we all managed to get some sleep at night, augmented by naps during the day.

Having sent out the link for the AIS tracker website we were a little disappointed to hear that the system lost us shortly after we passed Montauk on Sunday night. We now realize that our class B system is VHF radio based (rather than the much more expensive class A satellite systems) and relies on being reasonably close to shore monitoring stations or other vessels that may relay positions. The lesson here is that if we drop off the system we probably haven’t sunk, but more likely that we are out of range of a monitoring station! From our point of view on the boat the AIS worked brilliantly and we were able to see and be seen by other vessels and we initiated, and responded to, a number of radio calls that helped clarify navigational issues.

I do want to mention “the one that got away”. On Monday we were dragging a cedar plug behind the boat on a ~100ft long piece of line when we hooked a Dolphin fish Mahi Mahi). We hauled in the line and landed the fish on the side deck … where it squirmed, spat out the hook and flipped over the side! This was a great disappointment. Despite not getting fresh fish, we did eat well (no surprise there!). Rod’ s wife Sue cooked us a terrific lasagna that we ate on Sunday night. On Monday we had chicken and white bean casserole and on Tuesday, afteor r we arrived, we had Shepherds pie. For breakfast we ate bagels eggs on English muffins and some fruit. For lunches we had a variety of sandwiches. In truth we brought way more food than we needed and ended up bring a fair amount home again!

Everything on the boat seemed to work well. There were no breakages or mechanical issues. The seas weren’t always that smooth, with short choppy waves on Monday morning and then swells from the east on Tuesday, but everyone seemed to feel fine. I personally put on a scopolamine patch on Sunday afternoon whilst still inside Narragansett Bay and that seemed to help me a great deal. I was able to function well on deck and inside the boat without feeling sick and was able to cook, send/receive satellite phone messages and even take a shower whilst under way! All of this helped me build confidence ahead of the big passage, where it could get a lot rougher.

We had fantastic sunrises and sunsets, but perhaps the most interesting part of the trip was the last 20 miles as we made our way from the Chesapeake Bay entrance up to Portsmouth, passing an astonishing amount of naval ships and facilities. All of this was done in the dark, with fairly tight channels, many other vessels and lights of all sorts everywhere. This took a lot of concentration from all of us over a couple of hours. At one point I was absolutely convinced the US navy had sent a drone to check us out, but after a few minutes it became clear it was just a South West Airline jet coming in really slowly over our heads for a landing in Norfolk. Perhaps it is just as well that we arrived at the anchorage shortly thereafter. We dropped hook just before 10pm, drank a cold beer and ate the wonderful Shepherds pie, before essentially collapsing. We woke at 7.30am on Wednesday morning, and after a quick breakfast, motored the last quarter mile to the Ocean Yacht marina in Portsmouth, where we filled up with diesel and docked the boat.

We spent Wednesday doing odd jobs and relaxing. In the evening we went over to the Bier Garden and ate some fine German food with excellent beer, finishing up the day with “dark and Stormy” cocktails (rum and ginger beer) on the boat. On Thursday we took a taxi to the local Avis shop, rented a car and drove home. We dropped Brian in Philadelphia to visit family, and Rod, Sandy and myself made it back up to Rhode Island and Massachusetts by early evening (about 12 hours). The drive was not the highlight of the trip and when we return to the boat at the end of the month we are seriously considering flying!

Mike