April 29th - 2019

The Captain and The Crew

The official start date for the ARC Europe Rally is May 4th.  However, as things turned out we ended up being the only boat leaving from Portsmouth, Virginia.  All the other boats were departing from Nanny Cay in the BVI.  Therefore we were able to set our own departure date.  The decision was made to depart on April 29th at the end of one low pressure system and before the beginning of another.  The 4th looked horrible as far as weather - we would have been stuck in a low pressure system for days and it would have made our Gulf Stream Crossing treacherous.  Our crew arrived on Saturday evening which left us one day to complete the safety briefing and make sure the crew knew where everything is on the boat.  A bit of pressure as we thought we would have a few more days with Matt and Ben before departure.  

Filling the Jerry Cans

 The goal was to reach the mouth of the Chesapeake by 1900.  The trip to the mouth of the Chesapeake from Portsmouth is about 5 hours.  We left our slip at 1230 and headed to the fuel dock.  We thought we would have enough time to go out into the Chesapeake and practice hoving to (a protective maneuver in the event of a storm at sea).  But...as it was it took 45 minutes to fuel up!!  There was still a north wind which made the Chesapeake choppy and uncomfortable.  The wind was due to shift by the time we reached the Gulf Stream on Tuesday but that evening the wind actually died off altogether and a dense fog settled in as we were off the coast from Cape Hatteras.  Unfortunately, there was also a lot of ship traffic to go along with the fog.  We could see the boats on the radar and AIS but that was it.  Ships passed us by and we never saw them... we never even saw their lights!  Interesting start to say the least.