Catamaran Delivery - Day 0 - Annapolis to Norfolk

I arrived in Washington, DC last night, and then took a Lyft to Annapolis. The catamaran we’re delivering was in Edgewater, MD, on the northern side of the Chesapeake Bay; after dinner at the marina, we turned in for the night.

This is my first trip on a cat; largely, it’s comfortable, warm, and relatively spacious. It sails very differently from the monohulls I’ve been on, obviously. In some ways, it doesn’t “feel” like sailing - but we raised the genoa while motorsailing earlier, and made 6.5kts for much of the day, despite light and variable wind.

Setting off under motor and genoa.

The delivery captain and the boat owner discussed a few options, and landed on a plan to sail through the night. I honestly don’t love night passages; my experiences have only been in the cold, and it currently feels like 29F with windchill, and even colder with our apparent wind.

Thankfully, the cat has a large flatscreen TV in the bridge deck, and a VGA-to-HDMI repeater that lets us monitor the chartplotter (and AIS) from within the warm cabin. The owner and I will stand first watch from 8pm-12am, which I vastly prefer to second watch; I have yet to sleep for more than a few minutes on the trip, in part due to the new environment, and in part due to a hard berth without cushions, and only my sleeping bag.

The chartplotter, repeated down to the flatscreen in the main salon, where we could keep watch during the day in relative warmth.

No complaints here, however. Being on a boat, even if the seas are rolling a bit and the weather is frigid, remains deeply satisfying, if not always pleasurable.

We should arrive at Norfolk at dawn, where we’ll likely refuel, fill the tanks (as the watermaker is not working), and hopefully rest a bit.