Chesapeake Sunrise

[cheoah]

I sailed my boat up to Annapolis from Oriental in June, great trip. When the wind shifted to the N, Force 6, I couldn't resist and had a great 150 mile day singlehanding to Norfolk. Chartplotter went out at dark, back to paper as I surfed past one commercial ship after another....and talked to all of 'em. Winds were gusting over 30, but had dropped considerably by morning when I shot this video. I was in wool and goretex, end of June. Just a couple days prior were heat advisories, and a few days after, the derecho bowled through.

It was the first time I used a window so aggressively - singlehanding. There were nasty storms still sweeping through Norfolk when I turned out of East Bay, but cool, dry, air quickly filling in from behind. It was a blast, with a few moments of terror, like when one behemoth just appeared from nowhere. I was completely alert, hand steering all night, but mattered not, as the TINY sidelights twinkled just like the buoy lights that led me south. I issued frequent Securite' calls after that, when I realized my native radar was poorly tuned...

[mbianka]

Sounds like a great ride. Thanks for sharing it. Sounds like AIS would help a lot more than the radar. I thinking of installing it myself soon.

[cheoah]

Definitely Mike. I've got the Standard Horizon VHF w/ AIS, but chartplotter went down, and in turn, AIS. Going to change that setup, and need to step up to a transponder, really. The proximity alarm on my Standard is too quiet to hear under power, even at the command mic.