The day after Simon left for the airport, the weather changed. It went to a balmy 25c to a maximum of 12c and did not vary from that temperature. It just went from being dry and windy to wet and windy and back again. So while Simon was sunning himself in beautiful Noosa, I was experiencing my first teeth chattering weather for close to two years. Fortunately we did have reverse cycle air conditioner and Tourterelle kindly lent me a little portable heater that warmed up the saloon in no time.

Apart from the cold, the OCC dock in Norfolk was a lively and social in which to spend the next 10 days on my own. There were a number of other OCC boats also tied at the dock so my time was consumed by sundowners, dinners and a couple of nights of Mexican Train. I even watched my first rugby game for the year at the local Irish Pub with Ken and Jen from Lady Rebel. Fortunately Australia won against Wales.

Elizabeth River is a wealth of activity with always something happening from war ships, to tall ships to barges making their way up the river.

My job while Si was away was to start provisioning for our trip to the Bahamas and Cuba. Provisioning in the Caribbean is often challenging as the offerings are minimal and expensive. Si enquired about a tub of ice cream, it was priced at $40. In the land of plenty, this is a huge different from the $1.80 a tub that you can buy at the local supermarket. Our local Norfolk OCC Port Officers, Greta (who assists Gary) kindly took Ann and I shopping. I don’t think she realised how low on provisions we were. After a visit to Costco and Walmart, the car was filled to the brim. Once back on-board, finding a home for everything is always a challenge but managed to find space in the end.

Apart from running around trying to get the bow thruster anode (zinc) replaced and a number of different “to do” items that Simon left me. He also set me a goal to take pictures of some of the local mermaids that reside in Norfolk at various locations around the city.

Before I knew it, Si was back bearing plenty of gifts from Oz…picnics, corn relish, herbs and spices, rye flour. Yes I know that sounds strange but spices are crazy expensive and rye flour impossible to find. My sour dough starter would not be happy without it. Once he was home things all got a bit crazy. There looked to be a weather window for us to get around Cape Hatteras and into Beaufort (NC). As it was getting late in the season, the weather windows were getting less frequent and the winter weather pattern had started to set in. This meant that if an opportunity presented itself, we had to take it.

The trip to Beaufort is approx. 240nm or a bit under 2 days of sailing. Upon Simon’s return, we spent the morning preparing passage food, packing up the boat, organising lines for an easy get away and farewells to our wonderful host Gary and Greta and the other OCC boats. We left shortly after lunch to refuel before heading off. I had about 4 layers of cloths on (pretty much everything I own) in an attempt not to freeze to death.

The passage around Cape Hatteras was uneventful as we had nice wind and following seas. It only got a bit yuck when we came around Cape Lookout and had to head straight into the wind with the waves hitting our beam. After being nearly toppled out of bed, I convinced Simon that it might be a bit more comfortable to bring in the genoa and turn on the engine. After a bit of grumbling, Simon agreed and we waited for sunrise so to slowly make it through the inlet to Beaufort. As our anchorage is through a swing bridge that did not open until 8.30am, we dropped the hook and caught upon some much needed sleep.

That afternoon, we had a visit from the local OCC Port Officer, Dianne. She came bearing gifts as we had to divert a number of packages to her place due to leaving Norfolk in a hurry. We had a great evening with Dianne, Ian and Ann. We also soon discovered that Dianne was also our local social organiser.

The following night we were invited to a ribs night at her local yacht club. It was great to meet some of the locals. That night there was some wind forecast so after getting back to Aura, we let out some additional anchor chain and settled in for the night. I woke up around 1.30pm to the howling of the wind. Everything appeared well so I headed back to bed. About an hour later the wind seemed to be increasing so I was on constant watch. I heard a noise and stuck my head out the window only to see Tourterelle very close to us as they drifted by. I jumped out of bed and managed to throw on some clothes. Si didn’t bother with clothes as we both headed to the deck where we started yelling at Tourterelle in an attempt to wake them up. They narrowly missed hitting Aura by centre meters, they just drifted past and fortunately they didn’t foul or cause our anchor to drag.

We were successful in waking them and before long Ian and Ann were both on deck. They were only about 10 meters behind us and had drifted aground in the mud. They tried several times to pull their anchor up and launch Tourterelle out of the mud but the anchor windlass kept tripping (overload). Si helped them lay a kedge anchor in deeper water (that’s a second anchor) and they were able to pull themselves out of the mud and re-anchor. This was all taking place as 35 knot gusts blew through the anchorage. Not something that you want to repeat again any time soon. Fortunately, no damage was done as their yacht is designed with a retracting keel (dagger board) and to sit on the bottom at low tide. I was not able to sleep so continued to keep a look out until the sun came up and the wind slowly decreased.

That day we went to the local historical society thanksgiving lunch at the historical town centre. All the volunteers were dressed in period costume. We started with clam chowder soup following by a turkey and ham dinner accompanied by colour greens, green beans, broad beans, mashed potato and stuffing. The culinary highlight was the cranberry sauce. This was followed by pumpkin pie and washed down with sweet tea (pronounced as “sweeteee) (we might have bought some wine that also helped with the lubrication). After the previous night, we all felt that we had lots to be thankful for.

Historical Society Thanksgiving

I finished off the day with a little retail therapy before heading back to Aura for a very early night. Thankfully the wind had totally abated.

The following day, Diana kindly collected Simon, Ann and myself for a small provisioning excursion. We had all told her that we didn’t need much...yeah right. After a trip to Walmart and Lidle there was not room for another shopping bag. We are now well and truly provisioned and ready for the Bahamas.

Si completed the scheduled servicing, replacing the fuel filters, an oil change on the engine and he re-commissioned the water maker (As we are back in clean ocean water). We are now just waiting on the right weather window and we hope to be on our way. I can’t wait for that first swim!!

Thanksgiving @ Atlantic Beach