November 21 – December 6, 2024; 16102 nm and 2087 days after departure from La Rochelle

With our new stay sail we had a fast sail in very cold weather conditions and with quite heavy winds finally leaving Annapolis MD. A 24 hour trip down the Chesapeake Bay straight to Norfolk VA. That was a perfect test for the new sail and rigging. We were very satisfied and therefore happy that we had chosen to get a new stay sail with a furler. Our previous one was a very small removable one which was only useful in super strong wind. In fact we needed 25 + knots to even think about using it. That said made it rather useless for us. So with a second reef in the main and using the stay sail Altimate was just flying through the water without heeling over much in 20+ winds. For us for sure a huge gain in better, smoother sailing.
We stayed a day and stretched our legs in the old historic town of Portsmouth VA. It lay across the Elizabeth River from Norfolk where we were anchored. It was nice to stroll through the village and watch the typical town houses. Nothing more, nothing less, nothing interesting which would have kept us staying for longer.

From Norfolk it was ICW (Intra coastel waterway) travelling again until Beaufort NC. Motoring through pretty landscape in freezing cold weather conditions. (I was wearing 3 layers of pants and 6 layers upper body clothing!!!) The trouble in the ICW was that one can’t really use the autopilot as the waterway meanders through the landscape with many curves and boats passing. That meant one of us had to be constantly at the helm freezing. Boy I hated it! I am not made for cold weather! We both were looking so much forward to warmer weather. We just couldn’t wait to go south. Anyway, apart from the cold weather the trip was easy and in 4 days we arrived in pretty Beaufort NC. Our plan from here was to go directly to the south east coast of Cuba. Passing the Bahamas and going through the windward passage between Cuba and Haiti. The day before we arrived in Beaufort, a Tuesday, we were super excited as it looked like that there was a pretty good weather window for leaving the following Monday. That was the reason we kept on going instead of hiding the forecasted storm on Thursday just a few nm before Beaufort in a protected anchorage. Very excited about our suddenly soon possibility to finally leave, we were eager to arrive soon. First we went to a gas station to fill up Altimates’ belly before setting the anchor in Taylor creek.

Then it happened! Stupid us! Even though we knew the anchorage, we touched the ground with the rudder. Bummer! Actually that shouldn’t have been a problem with our lifting rudder as it was designed for shallow waters. Yet it didn’t went up “automatically”. There is a release plate which is supposed to break if the ground is touched and the rudder is not lifted to let it free. Damn it, it didn’t break!!! The rudder didn’t move anymore it was stuck in a position roughly a quarter up. Noooooo. Very annoyed we still found an anchor spot and tried to check the rudder. But in such cold weather conditions we were not very motivated to jump in the water. Therefore we skipped the dive and just tried to figure out what was the issue from above the water. After the first frustration, being mad at ourselves and realising that our weather window would be gone, our brains started to work normal again. First we figured we need to fix the problem before we go any further (sounds like a logical and easy decision but we really wanted to leave). Second we had to find out what was the problem. El Capitano’s big head started to work and soon he was certain that it could only be a bend in the hydraulic cylinder ram. After being reassured by questioning some other Ovni owners who came up with the same idea we were already in organizing mode. It was clear that we could only get this cylinder in France from Alubat yard which designed the boat. Of course it was already night time in France so we just send an email to get a quote for the cylinder including an express delivery to Beaufort. Fortunately we got an answer in the morning (sometimes the French guys do not answer immediately, therefore we were very happy about their fast response!!!) and could fix the deal. Now we had to find a yard which could lift us out as soon as we would get the spare part. The problem was that we couldn’t get hold of anybody in charge of the only two yards who offered lift outs in Beaufort. We couldn’t blame them as it was Thanksgiving. So we were forced to manage our emotion as well as patience at least until Monday.

just to show how cold it was – (and also because I didn’t take much pictures in Beaufort it was just too cold)

Luckily our friends Kellyanne and Ty came once again down from Durham to see us. That was a very welcoming distraction from our rather bad mood because of our rudder dilemma. We had a late lunch and spent a lovely Saturday afternoon catching up with the two of them. Oh and on top of that they had spoilt us with delicious pecan Christmas sweets. That was so sweet! Sunday and Monday we did some final grocery shopping. Altimate was by then completely stuffed with any kind of food, beverages and anything we could possibly think of what we might need for the next three month. The economic crisis in Cuba still severely impacts people’s life. They endure blackouts and acute shortages of food, medicine, and other basic items. So we hope to even maybe help a few people out with basic food or medicine items. We shall see.
Tuesday morning we tried again to finally get a schedule for a haul out. The spare part had surprisingly already arrived Monday evening. Such relief!!! The weather god showed a promising weather window to leave upcoming Friday. So we were very eager and desperate to get a haul out scheduled. It turned out to be a long and frustrating morning. We kept calling the two yards but the person in charge never seemed to be there or interested in calling us back. It was already two pm when we eventually got the information that the yard, we had finally reached, couldn’t give us a a lift out that week. At least they gave us a name and number of another yard which was 10nm up the ICW who might have been able to help us. They could have lifted us the very next day but they wanted a strange supplement in our insurance which we couldn’t and didn’t want to provide. They again gave us another name and number from a yard a couple of miles even further away. And hooray those guys were very responsive and made it possible to haul out the next morning. Yesssss!!! Finally!! We left very early at dawn in freezing cold weather and reached the Bock Marine yard just after 8am. At 8:30 El Capitano was already trying to get the screws out.

At about 11am the new cylinder was in its place, working and even including a layer of primer. What a relief! The old cylinder was indeed properly bend. Fortunately the yard had helped us with cutting off the old one. Usually it was easy to get the cylinder out. But being bend it was not possible anymore to lift the rudder which was necessary to get the second bolt out. So, lucky us, that they had the tools to just cut it off. A primer layer and one coat of antifouling later we paid our bill and already at 1pm we were in the water and on our way back to the anchorage in Taylor creek. Such a great day! We were so happy that everything in the end went so fast and smooth. And as I wrote before isn’t it always fun to spend money? The next night and day was forecasted with very strong winds and gusts of up to 40 knots. A cold front was going through. But that was actually good as the end of the front gives us the opportunity to head south. Today is Thursday the 5th of December and we are ready to set sail very early tomorrow morning. Boy I’m so excited! The trip will take about 8 to 10 days and we hope to get directly to Santiago de Cuba. Bye bye USA hello 🇨🇺Cuba.

It could be that we won’t be allowed to use Star Link in Cuba. If so I won’t be able to easily upload new blog entries. Just to let you know if it is getting quiet for a while…