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Pics are out of order, launching pic is last. I don't know how to fix it now but whatever. After hearing the engine run on land for about 15 minutes on Sunday, I still planned to launch Monday at 8 am, because the weather Sunday night was supposed to blow through and leave fair weather Monday morning. The storm stalled, so Monday at 8 was howling winds, rigging whistling, etc, so I delayed the launch and instead of motoring to a nearby dock as planned to fuel the boat, I drove back and forth with gas cans and fully fueled the boat, and filled an extra 15 gallons worth. From what I knew of the rating of the motor, it should only burn a gallon per hour, with a 20 gallon tank, I should have easily made it to Coinjock, NC, the next easily available refueling stop.
I was terrified of the Chesapeake bay part of the trip because high winds cause ocean height waves out there, but higher frequency. 4 to 6 foot seas on the ocean can be far enough apart to float over the swells and not get beat to death, just not a comfy ride for people that get seasick. 4 to 6 foot on the bay is a long ass kicking day.
At 10 AM I finally said fuck it I'm going or not at all, and had them launch the boat. The winds were still bad and from the North, but supposed to die down. Nobody else was stupid enough to launch that day so when I was in the water, and they knew I'd never seen this boat float, hell most of the marina employees who hadn't worked there more than 5 years had ever seen it in the water either, so they offered for me to tie off to the dock and take all the time I need to be sure she floats, check out the engine, etc.. I went below, the bilge wasn't filling, the engine cranked and didn't run hot after ten minutes, in fact it was running cold, so I pulled dock lines and took off.
In the Rappahannock river I did ok, but when I went due East in the bay to hit my channel marker to turn South I got beat to holy hell. The boat was rocking so hard, I quickly learned that no matter how well you secure shit inside the boat, you didn't do it well enough, and damn near decided to turn back, but the weather was supposed to calm, and waves weren't coming over the sides, just beating the shit out of the boat, so I kept going.
Things gradually improved as I kept going but when I turned South I learned of a flaw in the design of these sailboats and their bilge pumping system. With a heavy following sea, waves splash through the little drain hole at the back of the cockpit, and since I'm motoring she's squatting a little in the back anyway, so over the course of many hours I'm gradually taking on water, and the bilge pump switch is down below, hence the mention of my oversight on that earlier.
EDIT: Carrying on. Traveled South down the bay for hours, and the bay is big enough that watching the shore for progress seems like I'm going nowhere even though my app on the phone says I'm moving at a good pace. I see from the cockpit that the bilge is slowly filling with water, easing up to the floor level of the boat, but I can't let go of the tiller because of the rough seas, or I'll go out of control and get kicked sideways and beat hard again by the waves. I keep motoring along and finally in the afternoon I'm at the intersection of two major shipping channels in the bay, I'm close but not quite where I can turn West and go towards the James river and the tunnel underneath, but I see it on the horizon, and finally the water in the boat is beyond my comfort, so I go down below to hold the bilge pump switch after shifting to neutral. I go below and immediately the boat is sideways and rocking hard again, I'm pumping the bilge, and the microwave inside falls on me from the rocking..I put it where it belongs and it falls on me again, still pumping..I get the bilge dry and go back to the cockpit and holy shit..the hard rocking slammed the rudder to one side, with the tiller between the storage lockers, and it broke the tiller off at the base, and locked the rudder to one side..
So now I'm totally freaking out, no steering, rudder jammed, and in two shipping channels in a 29 foot boat and might get run over by an air craft carrier or something..I totally lose my shit for a few minutes, throw the microwave overboard just to watch it sink...(it sunk thank God, or i might have jumped in after it to be sure the bitch sunk) and call Boat US to ask for help. They answer and dispatch a local tow guy who calls, but when he calls another wave suddenly unjams the rudder, so i say give me ten minutes, i'll call you back, the rudder just unstuck..I put what's left of the tiller back in the bracket and with twine and duct tape I'm able to steer again. So I call back and tell him for now I'm functional, and heading towards where his base is, if i have any further problems I'll call again.
By this time I've drifted for about an hour, already took off two hours late, so I cut the corner through water that I knew was deep enough for my boat, but that I'd learned earlier the hard way was littered with crab pots, etc..so I go straight for the James river tunnel, dodging floats for pots, and making up time..The pic of the big ship was after I had crossed the tunnel finally, and was safe out of the bay. I then turned into the Elizabeth river and passed aircraft carriers and all and it was getting dark, I was on the phone with my old boss who was tracking my location through my phone app, and it was too dark for me to read my charts anymore, so I went by his reckoning, and finally found a place safe to anchor for the night, at almost 9 pm, which is the pic in the dark. I went ot the front of the boat, threw out the anchor, and fell asleep right on the deck for about an hour before i got cold and went inside the boat. I didn't know it at the time, but I'd accidentally made it to mile marker 0 of the Intracoastal waterway, which was my intended destination.
