Well, “Hello from exactly where I was a week ago!”.
After Alice, a delightful new friend, offered to bring me a load of groceries from the local Walmart on Sunday 10/22, I raised anchor and sailed out at sunset. The winds, as forecast, were rather unpleasant.... but then became worse and worse and the forecast deteriorated as well. Various weather stations were reporting winds speeds of 30 kts and neither Monty nor I were enjoying ourselves at all. Forecasts told me that things would only get a little better in the next 24 hours and I knew that we'd be utterly miserable in the ocean, so I turned into the wind and fought my way upwind, gaining perhaps a hundred yards per hour, heeling over enough that my galley sink filled nearly full of salt water... By sunrise, things were a tiny bit better and by noon we were suffering from LACK of wind. After spending a night heaved-to, the wind picked up enough to sail a bit and we headed toward Tangiers Island, but the forecasts for THAT said we'd have trouble finding a sheltered anchorage, so we changed course BACK to our former spot and dropped anchor there at 1am.... and were fast asleep by 1:15.
In the morning, with Monty eager for land and water glassy and peaceful, I lowered the dinghy and tossed aboard the anchor line and bungee, then snagged my shoes etc.... and glanced around to see the dinghy twenty feet behind me. In my exhausted state, I had tossed ALL lines aboard. DOH!
SO.... swim? How about tossing in a paddleboard? Yes, but how about simply tying the anchor line to a fender and using the sailboat engine to motor over there? Even better: maybe use the slack 100' of anchor line to allow me to back the sailboat to the dinghy! That worked well!
Anyway, I'm back in a safe anchorage, recovering, repairing my leaking faucet, jib rip, cracked cockpit surround, etc. Monty is VERY happy to be back and I think the second and third nights out probably helped him [and me] with any PTSD we might have had from the rough first night: always important to get right back on the horse. And I've been meeting folks and swimming in the still-warm water. And there a some interesting "red beard" sponges growing here.
Cold strong winds will arrive Monday evening, along with rain and clouds. When it eases up, November 2, it looks like I'll be able to head south again... and it will be pretty cold and sunny... Thank goodness for an enclosure around the cockpit!
So many wonderful sunrises and sunsets...
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