For the purpose of this blog I will label the days of this delivery starting on our departure from Norfolk, VA.
Today we woke up in the marina to rain and fog and cold. Our diver showed up around 9:00am to clean the bottom. BRRRRRRRR He had quite the system for working in cold water though. He had built it all himself and it consisted of a instant on propane hot water heater which he had mounted on a heavy duty dolly with a plexiglass wind screen mounted around it. The intake hose for this ran off into the sea water and on the end of it was a commercial grade deep well submersible pump. The outlet hose of the hot water heater ran down the air hose to the regulator. The air came from a motorized Honda air compressor which was mounted on a heavy push cart which had trays on top full of cleaning brushes, scrapers and heavy pads as well as old and new Zincs of a wide variety. The air intake from the compressor ran out of the compressor and up a PVC tube with a wide screened air intake on the end that could be directed into the wind to keep the exhaust from the compressor motor out of the air intake. The diver wore a heavy wetsuit which he had run little hoses down from the neck to both feet and hands and the rest of the water would just pour right down the suit warming the whole wetsuit. It was all a pretty impressive setup and he was a very meticulous and thorough guy. He spent a couple hours cleaning the bottom, checking the zincs and the general condition of the hulls as well. In the end his bill was $250.00 which was pretty reasonable considering the work he did and the water temperature. It will sure speed up the trip.
Once the hulls were clean we were ready to go and Bob was looking pretty sick. He had been suffering from a cold for a couple of days and it had developed into the flu. Fearing he might get us all sick, he reluctantly decided to stay behind. We filled up the fuel and started motoring out to the mouth of the Bay. On the way we passed the newest aircraft carrier “George HW Bush” which was sitting right next to the “Harry Truman.” There was a sub sitting in the next docking bay as well as a missile frigate, Marine he-lo carrier and a bunch of destroyers and some resupply ships. Before dark we raised the main but the wind was too light for it to be of any use yet so we dropped it again.
Day 2
The fog came in through the night so we watched for ships with the Radar. The fog was so thick as we entered the Gulf Stream in the morning that visibility was almost nil. We are crossing the Gulf Stream right now. I am getting my first lessons on the motion of a Cat offshore. The swells are about 6 feet and close together and we are on a beam reach with around 15 knots of wind. In a mono-hull we would be heeled over and the motion would be significant, Loose items would be sliding to the low side and a lee cloth would be to stay in the high side berths. On “Sweetest Thing” right now my coffee mug is sitting on the table (not one of those freaky looking conical mugs designed to stay up right either... just a normal mug) My berth is aft on the “high” side and I have felt more motion at anchor... well at anchor on a cat... Ubunto hehehe... sorry had to throw that in there David and Lori. Don’t get me wrong there IS motion right now but it is very friendly and easy to get used to and nothing as dramatic as the motion of a mono-hull in similar conditions. I do think the feel of a mono-hull under sail is more exhilarating. This doesn’t really feel like sailing to me. But we are going an average of 9 knots with plenty of 10. Hmmmmm I am writing this blog on a Mac and now I am learning to love a Cat... what’s next? Who knows... maybe I will start eating, all veggies, granola bars and going to juice bars with all of the other people next time I visit Seattle. Just kidding.
Riding The Stream on 2 Hulls,
Captain Tofer, John, and Dylan
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