February Delivery Trip

[jtsails]

Thought I would write up a report on my delivery trip this past week. I recently purchased a 1976 C&C 38 that was berthed in St. Michaels. The boat is in pristine condition but has very little equipment. It still has the old pressurized alcohol stove and the original Atomic 4 engine that has never been rebuilt. It does have pressure water (cold only though) and a nice roller furler. We left St. Micheals Thursday morning and were greeted with 15-20 knot NW winds, right on the nose for the first leg down the Miles River. We hoisted the main and motored on through in about an hour and a half, getting a little wet and cold in the process, but not too bad. Once we got to the bend in the river we headed off on a beam reach, unfurled the jib and rolled along at a good 8 knots headed towards Solomon Island. The wind lightened up as the day progressed and we ended up motoring the last few miles. When we arrived at Solomon Island we tied up at Spring Cove Marina and took advantage of their nice facility to shower up, then we headed next door for a very good meal at the Captains Table.
(cont)

[jtsails]

We were up and at it early on Friday, but couldn't top off the fuel tank until 8am. With that done we headed out with the goal of making Deltaville. The weather was decent, mid 40's but no wind at all. After a long day of motoring, it became apparent that we would not be making Deltaville in daylight. I wasn't very comfortable going into the channel there at night with our 6 ft draft so we headed into Indian Creek and Kilmarnock. We called Chesapeake Boat Basin, and I can't praise the dockmaster, George, highly enough. He really bent over backwards to assist us in every way possible. After cleaning up, we took George's advice, along with his courtesy truck, and headed for KC's Sportsbar for a nice Prime Rib dinner. Upon returning to CBB, we relaxed in front of the fireplace in the Lounge and checked out the forecast for Saturday. The morning sounded okay, but the afternoon forecast was terrible with high winds, a big drop in temperature, and possibly snow. After a lot of discussion, we decided that the best option was to fire up and head for Norfolk immediately. We departed Kilmarnock at midnight and headed back out for the overnighter down the bay. Weather was pretty much the same as it had been all day, mid 40's and no wind. We had an uneventful night and arrived in Hampton Roads at about 8am. That allowed us to continue up the Elizabeth River and get through the first 2 bridges and the lock at Great Bridge before calling it a day. When the front came through during the afternoon with very gusty wind and snow, we very very pleased to be tied up secure and warm! The second half of the trip down to Oriental, NC is looking good for this week.
James

[CalebD]

I'd guess that somebody was taking care of that old Atomic 4. With plenty of TLC they can make a good auxiliary engine. Mine is from 1967 and still running.
Looking forward to the rest of your delivery report.

[jtsails]

Well, got busy working on the boat and never remembered to post a report on the second half of the trip... oops! We had left the boat in the care of Atlantic Yacht Basin in Chesapeake, VA for the week and pulled out about a half an hour before sunrise to catch the last opening of the Centerville bridge before rush hour. I had to run the stuffing out of the old A4 to make the bridge, but it never voiced any complaint! Had an uneventful trip through the C and A canal and stopped to top off the fuel tank in Coinjock. Folks there were very nice and helpful and we even managed to get a pretty good bottle of Cab to go with our dinner that we cooked later. We decided to anchor near the mouth of the North River for the first night and cooked a really good spaghetti dinner to go with the wine we found in Coinjock. That turned out to be one of the darkest nights I've ever seen after the misty rain and fog rolled in. Not a light to be seen but we spent the evening watching college basketball on the ipad streaming through the iphone, isn't technology wonderful!.Saturday dawned with much better weather and after motoring to the mouth of the North River we hoisted the sails and had a great sail across the Albemarle Sound and up the Alligator River. Along the way we were entertained by the Navy fighter pilots who gave us an impromptu air show as they were doing their exercises at the nearby bombing range. We especially enjoyed the LOW-level flyby that the F18 pilot treated us to! We decided to push on and try to make it into Belhaven that day, and arrived at Dowry Creek marina just a little after sunset. I was a little embarrassed when the dockmaster pointed out that the running lights on the bow were backwards, it confused the heck out of him as he was guiding us into the marina. Once again, I have to give praise to the folks at Dowry Creek for their hospitality and help. We had a really good dinner at George's Oyster Bar and retired for the night. Sunday brought the best conditions of the whole trip with temps in the mid 60's and a nice 10-15 knot easterly breeze. We were able to sail almost the entire way into Oriental and even broke out the spinnaker for the final 2 hour run into the harbor. Nothing like arriving in style!!!!