Today was forecast to be pretty nice with 10-15 mph winds from the west which would swing northerly around noon. I figured I would head north from Windmill Point on a beam reach and visit Reedville which is 16 miles away. Then the wind would change and I’d have a run back to Windmill Point. I didn’t think to check the tide which I ended up fighting the whole day. I ended up going 40.7 miles in 9.25 hours. Average speed was 4.4 mph with a max of 8.1 mph.

It was so calm at the boat ramp that I launched without brailing. The improvements I made over the winter have really made rigging easier, although it still took about 35 minutes.

Heading out of the marina at 7:20 am with the faintest breeze. Someday I want to make a topsail for ghosting along. But I think that’ll have to wait until after I get camping aboard figured out.

Out into the Rappahannock and the breeze picks up, but the only waves come from a passing deadrise loaded down with crab pots.

Just about at the end of Windmill Point. Straight ahead is the Eastern Shore about 20 miles away.

I made the turn at the point and headed due north on a beam reach in beautiful weather and I settled in for a pleasant day of sailing. Reedville hasn’t popped over the horizon yet, but I could see the far part of Fleet’s Bay. Somewhere along here I scared off a flock of surf scoters… they’re big fat ducks with a white patch on their forehead and back of their neck. Dad did a lot of duck hunting and he always called them skunkheads.

Alas, Mother Nature didn’t check the forecast and the wind went northerly way before it was supposed to and I had to start tacking. I was also fighting the current which I had neglected to check before leaving. At times it was a bit frustrating since the wind seemed to keep shifting, or maybe it was being influenced by the land which made it a bit difficult to know how to keep making progress. One of my tacks got cut a bit short when I came across some watermen working a trotline. At the time I thought it was a gill net and didn’t know if I’d get tangled up in it.

About 3/4 the way to Reedville I went by Dameron Marsh. This is a low lying, marshy area with relatively shallow water all around. I managed to skirt by with 50 yards to spare and it was pretty rough. The wind had picked up and the waves were short and steep.

Crossing Ingram Bay was the roughest part of the trip with lots of white caps and gusty wind. It wasn’t quite to brown pants level of wind, but there was definitely sufficient wind. Once I managed to get in the wind shadow of land it got a lot better. One of these days I really need to figure out reefing…

Heading to Cockrell’s Creek where the waves really calmed down.

My original plan had been to go to Reedville and get lunch at the Crazy Crab and then check out the wooden skipjack and buy boat at the Fishermen’s Museum. But it was already 1:30 pm so I decided to head back after checking out the smoke stack at Omega Protein.

The menhaden fleet at Omega Protein. These ships rely on spotter planes to find schools of menhaden in the Chesapeake and Atlantic. Then they drop a pair of purse boats which encircle the school with a net. The fish are vacuumed out and later rendered down for their oil at the factory. Rendering puts off a powerful smell of money and I remember getting a whiff of it as a kid 15 miles away when the wind was right. These days it’s not as bad since regulations have improved.

This is a menhaden ship from the 1940’s which carries the purse boats on davits. Modern ones have a pair of ramps at the stern to winch them out. Right now all the purse boats are stored on land beside the stack.

The Morris-Fisher stack was built in 1902 and stands 130 feet tall. A decade ago it was in real danger of falling down… a huge chunk was missing from the top, there were cracks running down the side, and bricks fell off regularly. Funds were raised and it was restored in 2011.

Not in very good shape! From savethestack.blogspot.com and https://www.hmdb.org.

Reedville was at one time the richest town in America. There were over a dozen fish factories along the creek and many owners and ship captains built their mansions on “Millionaire’s Row.” The red roofed building in the center is the Crazy Crab where I was going to have lunch and on the left is the ruins of a fish factory. You can just make out a few of the mansions too. One of them, “The Gables” is made from bricks used as ballast and has a mizzen mast running through the center of the house to support the roof.

Heading out of Cockrell’s Creek there are some more ruins and piling.

Back into Ingram Bay and the wind and waves started picking up. But it was great because I was on a 14 mile broad reach!

I averaged about 6.5mph which is a little slow because by now the tide had started coming in again. I mostly sat on the side deck straddling the rowing thwart. Lots of hiking and the leeward side of the boat had a constant stream of foam shooting out. The waves were probably about 2′ with an occasional bigger one. It always looks scary until the boat just slides up the face and it’s gone.

Back to the familiar waters of Windmill Point.

These guys have front row seats to all the hurricanes and nor’easters.

Wing and wing after making the turn into the Rappahannock. I’ve been thinking of building some kind of combo whisker pole/boom crutch, but I haven’t quite got it figured out yet.

I dropped the jib as I approached the entrance to the marina. Closer to the boat ramp I let the peak droop to depower the main with my new snotter led aft arrangement. Then I removed the toggling snotter block and dropped the main halyard. The sail came down easily without hanging up on the thumb cleat due to the new spiraling robands, I definitely think the winter improvements are working well.

This guy’s got a bit of work to do before summer fishing! While I was waiting for a guy to pull his boat out, he asked me how old mine was. He was pretty surprised when I said three years, he said he thought it was “an original!” I think someone has complimented Ross’s design on every outing.

In my rush to get the boat ready for the vacation back in May, there were a lot of odds and ends that didn’t work all that well but weren’t bad enough to prevent me from using the boat. So I had a few days of repairs to do and then I re-rigged everything to make sure it all works. Furling the sail around the sprit works pretty well, but a brail line has shot to the top of the new list of things to improve.

I probably look ridiculous and my mileage drops from 44 mpg to about 28. Fortunately I don’t have to go far.

Launching Moga at a nice boat ramp on Windmill Point at the mouth of the Rappahannock River.

Here’s a satellite view of the area and my track for the day. You can see the marina at the tip of Windmill Point that I launched from. I grew up sailing around here in a 70’s era Sunfish I bought with grass cutting money. Making day trips to Parrott island, Mosquito island, and Grog island or just around the bridge and back was how I’d spend summers. Sadly, Grog island has washed away and is no more.

And here is the data I collected. GPS track, speed vs time, wind speed and direction, and tide. The winds started out pretty blustery in the morning, but they were down to 10-15 by the time I launched at 10am. Then later around 6pm pretty light to nonexistent. My total trip was 32.7 miles in just under 8 hours.

From the GPS track I calculated tacking angles as best I could. The wind was pretty light on the return trip and the better tacks were when the wind picked up. I have no idea whether these are good, bad or indifferent. The 122.77º tack was when I had a terrible crease in the sail though. Making the snotter and downhaul run back to the cockpit is also high on the list of improvements.

Blasting up the river on a broad reach. I had both the main and jib up, so just over 100 square feet of sail. Probably too much, but fortune favors the bold I suppose. For over an hour I averaged 6.5-7mph with a peak of 8.7mph. A few times a gust put the rail under, but the side decks gave enough margin that I could let the sheet out some. The extra wide rub rail that gave me so much trouble when I built the boat turned into a handy spray deflector. It was satisfying to see the water coming up the hull forced out nearly horizontal. Surfing down waves was pretty fun, although I’m still sitting too far back. A tiller extension makes it onto the list.

Approaching the bridge. Things have calmed down quite a bit since the bigger waves closer to the point. Still doing 6-7mph.

About a mile past the bridge the wind drops out and stays shifty. A small sailboat ahead of me takes down her sails and motors for Carter’s Creek, but turns around and comes over to me to get a look. The skipper gives me a thumbs up and heads back. Credit to Ross, every time I’ve had the boat out someone has given me a compliment. Later I briefly tried to go wing and wing, although the jib didn’t want to stay out. Should have used an oar to boom it out, but didn’t think to.

I make a wide sweeping turn across the mouth of the Corrotoman and start tacking upwind. Hopefully the tide change is helping me. I’ve got a pretty bad crease in the sail, so I try heaving to and adjusting the snotter tension. Heaving to works pretty well and I get the crease out, although fixing the crease would become a theme. I need to figure out where the snotter should live and epoxy a little thumb cleat onto the mast so it can’t slip down. And run the line back to the cockpit.

Little known fact, cardboard boxes are the epitome of high class yachting.

See the line of cars? Traffic is eternally stopped on this bridge. Two years of painting the superstructure (which still bleeds rust), a year of repaving, and annual month long inspections. Back in the 90’s they redid the deck by removing a section and you had to drive over the hole on these big steel humps. Like a little bridge on the bridge.

Sailing dinghy converted to motor boat!

Smooth running once I loosened the gas tank vent.

Impromptu tiller extension. I need to make something that will fit inside the hollow tiller arm.

Graph of speed vs time

Here’s an overview of the area. On the left is the Chesapeake Bay, on the right is the Atlantic. There’s a 1.25 mile opening between Fisherman Island and Smith Island and I imagine the waves can get rather nasty through here.

And here’s an overview of our trip. The green line is going out, the red line is walking around on land, and the yellow line is our return. All in all, it was 7.5 miles of rowing, sometimes against some fierce current.

Free canoe/kayak launching spot

Heading over with a patient and very understanding wife who would probably rather be sitting on the beach!

Trying to find the entrance to the stream.

So close, yet so far away.

Making our way up the stream. We stopped straight ahead where all the marsh grass is flattened down.

Looking down the staircase.

Me at the top!

Looking down at the entrance.

Looking to the northeast. There are long lines of trees surrounded by marsh. Twice a day, all that water comes rushing down the stream on its trek to a lower level of potential energy. Then the moon drags it back up over the marsh as the earth turns and the cycle repeats.

Looking south towards the fire control towers and the Atlantic beyond. These towers would direct the artillery batteries on where to aim during WWII. U-boats definitely operated in this area and there were many ships sunk off the coast. U-230 and U-566 even laid mines in the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay.

Looking southwest towards the tip of Smith Island. Beyond is Fisherman Island which is the southernmost tip of the Eastern Shore. On the right is the Bay Bridge Tunnel and where I snapped my original photo.

Looking west back towards the boat ramp where we launched. That is Raccoon Island in the center, and Skidmore Island to the right.

Looking north to the stream we came up. You can just make out my wife in the canoe where the stream makes a hard 180º. There’s a bit of a trail that leads to the ATV tracks.

Leaving the lighthouse.

Heading to the launching spot.

Taking the ferry from Hatteras to Ocracoke. I stuck the spars through the forward bulkhead hatches with moving blankets wrapped around them to protect the varnish.

The first launch! And it floats surprisingly!

After launching Moga at the public boat ramp, my wife and I rowed around the point, through The Ditch, and into Silver Lake. The cottage we rented was located at the very southern end, so the first trip was right around a mile long. The boat rowed well and I didn’t have much trouble. The homemade oarlocks could be improved, as well as adding a loop of line for a foot brace. But otherwise the boat was easily moved and tracked well.

The very first sail! The harbor was full of anchored sailboats, so I had to dodge them as I was figuring the boat out.

Coming by on the starboard tack. More tension on the snotter would help the diagonal crease in the mainsail, and I need to make a tiller extension to get my weight closer to amidships for better trim. Dragging an immersed transom creates a lot of drag.

After getting a bit of practice I took my wife out for a bit. It was easier having her manage the jib sheets instead of having four things to keep track of. We got some great compliments from people motoring out in a dinghy and some other cruisers sipping wine on their sailboat.

Our path from Ocracoke to Portsmouth while dodging the sandbars.

On our way to Portsmouth Island! I spent about 20 minutes wondering why the main sheet was so heavy before I realized I’d rigged the ratchet block backwards. After reversing the block it was much easier to trim the sail.

Docked at Portsmouth Island, looking towards the old village. This was a nice dock made from concrete, although a long bolt put a nasty gouge in the transom. I filled it with thickened epoxy and sanded it smooth when I got home.

Walking down the main road from the dock to the village. There were a few mosquitoes, but it wasn’t too bad.

It started to drizzle just as we got to the village, so we hid under the porch at the Theodore & Anne Salter house until it slacked off.

The post office and general store. The mosquitoes and green heads were starting to be a little more of a nuisance, but not too bad.

We walked across a small bridge to the Methodist Church where we were promptly swarmed by every flying pest on the island. It was unreal how bad they were, despite the fact we’d used a lot of bug spray. We literally must have had 30 flies buzzing around our heads in a constant cloud, and the only way to keep them off was to swing our hats madly and sprint back to the boat. All I can say is that something must have changed since people lived here, because there is no way I could. Maybe back in the day there were enough people to go around for the flies, but let me tell you, today they are vicious.

Heading across the inlet back to Ocracoke Island after surviving the insect apocalypse. My wife is admiring all my hard work to build the boat…

Approaching the entrance to Silver Lake.

Coming through The Ditch into the harbor after a long day. We sailed eleven miles and the boat did a wonderful job. I’m really pleased that I chose this design… it took a lot of work to build, but it is really rewarding in how well it sails.

Tacking through the crowded anchorage in just a hint of a breeze.

Tacking through The Ditch was tough. It’s only 50 yards wide and the wind was nearly gone. I just about pulled out the oars, but a puff of wind got us through and into the sound.

Once we made it out of the wind shadow of the harbor we had better sailing. Those are the Cedar Island and Swan Quarter ferries behind me.

After heading out into the sound a bit we got an impromptu opportunity to do a man overboard drill. A gust of wind blew my hat off so we did a figure-8 to get back to it which avoids gybing.

Sailing around waiting for the sun to set.

The Ocracoke Lighthouse peeking just above the tree line.

Getting closer to sunset!

Here’s a picture my mom took of us over by the boat ramp. There was quite a crowd gathered watching the sunset and we got a number of compliments when we landed. We later searched through social media and found three pictures and one video of us!