Day 46, Sunday, October 18th
Ocean City, MD to Chincoteague, Va
This is how to run aground: Top is Navionics map of Chincoteague. Yellow is my track, the red arrow my intended destination
This is how this looks like in reality - I found my supposed clear path blocked by a whole beach. WTF? At first I anchored to get my bearings, but as you can see my anchoring spot wasn't real nice. In the middle of the surf, actually.
I decided to go along the shore and look for a better spot. I ran into the trap you can see in the satellite photo. Caprice bounced on the bottom once, than again, eventually coming to a stop. Reversing didn't free her, but the swells made it possible for me to push her forward and reverse course. I bounced several more times, thinking that each of them might be the one that makes me get stuck for good. At this point I hadn't yet seen the satellite photo, and not knowing what lay ahead the safest course seemed to be to reverse out of this spot on my own track. Finally I got into slightly deeper water.
When I looked at the satellite photo I realized I had been led into a trap that didn't exist on the maps. I now used that photo to find my way to the little cove I'm currently anchored in.
The day had started a little more pleasantly. Since it was freezing cold (45 degrees or so) I didn't get up very early and had a leisurely breakfast before fighting my way against the rising tide back into the ocean. The incoming current was over 3 knots. Unfortunately there were no dolphins in the inlet, and I didn't spot any ponies today either. But the wind was steady, if a little chilly, and I sped south.
A dolphin appeared at some point and swam alongside for a few minutes, but I didn't manage to get a photo. Maybe tomorrow?
In the early afternoon the wind diminished and I shook out the reef on the main sail, and maintained a good speed. The weather looked a little ominous in the later afternoon, some dark clouds appeared, and when the wind refreshed I put the reef back in. Not much later the wind really started picking up and I had a recurrence of my dreaded dinghy problem. I'm dragging the inflatable now, and to avoid the running away/overturning/swamping problem I lift it somewhat up on the swim ladder. This has worked well so far, but today the wind got so strong that the dinghy started lifting off completely and twisting on its back. It would soon lift off again and do another twist, and so on. Its rope was eventually getting a serious twist in it which lead to it shortening and pulling the dinghy even higher and leading to more twists. This and the increasing wind made me pull in the main and deciding to pull the dinghy on board. But how to do this in the strong wind? I first thought to turn against the wind, start the engine and pull the dinghy onto the stern. However, in really strong winds with large waves and swells the autopilot can't keep the boat steady on a course against the wind. As soon as the boat turns a little to one side, it quickly develops a strong urge to turn more, and the autopilot over corrects and makes the boat oscillate. So instead I decided to run with the wind and pull the dinghy to the side and then up on the side deck. Once I had managed this I deflated the dinghy and tied it to the lifelines. Tomorrow I'll pack it in the bag and put it below. I really should only drag it in calmer conditions, I now learned.
The wind was still howling and I was a bit exhausted so I decided to just motor the rest of the way into Chincoteague. Caprice is considered a 'wet boat' in a blow, and slowly motoring into the winds was a drier way to get to shore. And that's when that beach appeared where it didn't belong...
The day had started a little more pleasantly. Since it was freezing cold (45 degrees or so) I didn't get up very early and had a leisurely breakfast before fighting my way against the rising tide back into the ocean. The incoming current was over 3 knots. Unfortunately there were no dolphins in the inlet, and I didn't spot any ponies today either. But the wind was steady, if a little chilly, and I sped south.
A dolphin appeared at some point and swam alongside for a few minutes, but I didn't manage to get a photo. Maybe tomorrow?
In the early afternoon the wind diminished and I shook out the reef on the main sail, and maintained a good speed. The weather looked a little ominous in the later afternoon, some dark clouds appeared, and when the wind refreshed I put the reef back in. Not much later the wind really started picking up and I had a recurrence of my dreaded dinghy problem. I'm dragging the inflatable now, and to avoid the running away/overturning/swamping problem I lift it somewhat up on the swim ladder. This has worked well so far, but today the wind got so strong that the dinghy started lifting off completely and twisting on its back. It would soon lift off again and do another twist, and so on. Its rope was eventually getting a serious twist in it which lead to it shortening and pulling the dinghy even higher and leading to more twists. This and the increasing wind made me pull in the main and deciding to pull the dinghy on board. But how to do this in the strong wind? I first thought to turn against the wind, start the engine and pull the dinghy onto the stern. However, in really strong winds with large waves and swells the autopilot can't keep the boat steady on a course against the wind. As soon as the boat turns a little to one side, it quickly develops a strong urge to turn more, and the autopilot over corrects and makes the boat oscillate. So instead I decided to run with the wind and pull the dinghy to the side and then up on the side deck. Once I had managed this I deflated the dinghy and tied it to the lifelines. Tomorrow I'll pack it in the bag and put it below. I really should only drag it in calmer conditions, I now learned.
The wind was still howling and I was a bit exhausted so I decided to just motor the rest of the way into Chincoteague. Caprice is considered a 'wet boat' in a blow, and slowly motoring into the winds was a drier way to get to shore. And that's when that beach appeared where it didn't belong...
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