Catamaran Delivery, Day 1: Annapolis, MD to Norfolk, VA

We motorsailed and then motored overnight down the Chesapeake Bay, in unexpectedly sporty conditions.

I have some experience in stiff chop and wind-against-current, albeit in our first boat (Wanderer, a 35’ Pearson), and not a 41’ catamaran. While sleep was held at bay by the combination of cold, unfamiliar environs, and only plywood under my bag, I was surprisingly alert come sundown, and elected to take first and third watches. I am grateful that I did, as the first watch (8pm-12am) was a bit like riding a roller coaster. We bounced, bucked, and yawed across the bay, especially once we passed Point Lookout, and had to contend with the full fetch of the Potomac River pushed by the N-NW wind, against the current.

The Potomac pushed chop into the Bay overnight, as we passed.

Our captain went below to sleep, and the owner and I stood watch. Noticing some water in the port bilge under the engine, he went below a number of times to pump it out, and was keeping a close eye as it sloshed around, uncertain if it its presence was a new development.

Working below when the boat is so unsettled is, in my experience, a guaranteed night of seasickness, and in between joining me in the cockpit he was not only working in the bilge, but was doing so largely upside down in order to reach the water. Every time he’d come out, his face was a bit paler, and I felt for him. Seasickess is the worst hangover you’ve ever had, while sick with the flu and strapped to a barely-in-control carnival ride.

Keeping watch on a cold night in MD.

I had a fine time. We had some shipping to contend with, but I stood and sat at the wheel, nudging the autopilot as needed, but mostly just kept an eye out for crossing vessels. I was relieved at midnight, slept until 3:45am, and mostly woke without issue for my second watch. Dawn at sea (although the Chesapeake doesn’t quite qualify as such) is always stunning, and brings a change in tide of its own, from “what the hell am I doing this for?” in the dark hours of a cold, uncomfortable passage towards a kind of resurrection of the love of sailing.

Passing the Norfolk naval base at dawn.

The sun rose as we passed by the Norfolk naval base, where destroyers and aircraft carriers sat at the dock. I went below to sleep, and dozed off in my cabin as we motored into the ICW, passing under the first bridges.