We left St Augustine, FL headed to Beaufort, NC.  Beaufort is one of our favorite places and we were excited to return.  We were at sea about 3 days which was the longest it’s just been the two of us out there.  Luckily it was a nice sail and we easily fell into our routine of two hours on and two hours off.  That works best for us.  While one of us is on watch the other will sleep in the cockpit or just be puttering around the salon.  Stanley is usually sleeping somewhere!

New to sailing? Let us help you master the basics with these handy sailing tips and instructions for beginners. You can also read our sailboat buying guide and watch videos on sailing, plus compare sailboat brands to find the right one for you. Both novice and experienced sailors alike can benefit from a quick review of these beginner sailing basics, including taking the right instruments, like nautical clocks, barometers and more.

Choose calm, uncrowded waters If you’re just starting to master sailing basics and learn how to sail, then one of the most important beginner sailing tips to remember is to practice in ideal conditions of light winds and low traffic.
Choose a small boat to learn how to sail It’s easier to learn how to sail with fewer lines and sails. A small dinghy will be more responsive and easier to maneuver, and is also perfect for practicing test capsizes in (see tip #7 below).
Begin on a boat rigged with one sail Similar to the above, beginning on a boat that’s rigged with just one sail will make learning sailing basics easier and less complicated.
Follow sailing basics for safety There are certain sailing basics for safe boating that should go without saying, no matter what your level of expertise. These include always telling someone before you go out on the water, always bringing a floatation device and knowing in advance how to swim. For additional information, please see our safe boating pages.
Research tide, wind and weather conditions. Check the weather forecast so you can be prepared for whatever the weather might bring. Be sure to bring along adequate provisions, clothing and basic weather gear as needed. Boating and sailing basics means always being prepared.
Become familiar with sail control The best sailors are the ones who are able to adjust sail settings to take the best advantage of different wind and water conditions. In general, sails should be relatively flat when the wind is either very light or very strong, and full when there is a moderate wind.
Capsize on purpose. This may seem like one of the oddest beginner sailing tips we could suggest, but it’s better to practice how to handle a capsized sailboat within a controlled environment, as opposed to an uncontrolled one. We learn best from experience, and the valuable sailing basics you’ll pick up from going through a test-capsize in a small dinghy will serve you well in the event of a real-life one.

Here is Stanley enjoying the sail.

A beautiful sunset.

On the second day we caught a tuna!  Yes!!

Ryana was full of fuel, water and way too much junk food so we were ready to begin on our second longest leg in our journey yet, about 450nm from Fajardo, Puerto Rico to Provodenciales, Turks and Caicos. All things were in place to look like we were going to have a great journey; winds foretasted to be behind us, mellow seas and a well rested crew.

Day 1

We shoved off from Sun Bay Marina at 0730 and motored for about an hour until our long term course was established. With winds around 160 apparent and remaining fairly steady around 18knts we hoisted the spinnaker and got pulled down wind making about 6knts. All through the day we tried to remain within cell phone range of Puerto Rico as we did not yet have the Turks and Caicos dog import certificate (long story for another post). Diana got through a few times with them making the same promise, ‘You’ll see it in an hour’. Hours past and we eventually had to turn further north and still did not have the document in our hands.

A course change to the north required us to gybe the spinnaker, something we have only done a few times with much lighter wind. Needless to say lessons were learned as Pete and I both ended up with some nice friction burns on our hands. . . Ouch :(.  On a brighter note we got a nice sized Black Fin Tuna that was just right for the three of us for dinner, filled us up and had no leftovers. Come to think of it I don’t think we had leftovers the whole time Pete was with us.

We got into a good groove of two hour shifts that seemed to work well for the 3 days the 3 of us were out there. I believe I have mentioned that our helm is a bit exposed so I like another person in the cockpit during night watches. So we each would rotate through 2 hours on, 2 hours on standby (sleeping in the cockpit) and 2 hours off. As dusk began to fall we dropped the spinnaker and pulled out the jib with one engine keeping our speed above 6knts.

Day 2

As the sun came up we had some coffee and breakfast and rehoisted the spinnaker, which was flown for most of the day. Pete is not getting a fair idea of offshore sailing, this is too darn relaxing, though there is a bit more ship traffic than we are used to. More time was spent trying to get that darn import certificate and we finally had success by using up a lot of sat phone minutes, both by calling the T&C Ag Department and then by downloading a large PDF file. This makes us feel better as we were warned that the T&C can be a pain with a dog. The wind began to shift further south and you could really smell either the DR or Haiti, smelled like grass or field fires. Actually reminded me of college where they would burn the wheat fields every fall, strange to smell that 40 miles from nothing in the ocean. Though we tried, no fish today, in fact we lost all the line on one rod; it was big whatever it was. Pasta and sausage for dinner and we motor sailed into the night.

Day 3

An uneventful first part of the day sailing with jib only making good time, though we could see the wind clocking around on us. Late in the afternoon we could clearly see a front we were approaching. We spoke to a boat that was headed east on the other side and said they saw a few mild squalls with winds in the low 30s. Since night was approaching and the wind turned to be dead on our nose we decided to drop sails and motor directly to weather for the night. This made me feel a bit better as Pete needed to be uncomfortable for part of the trip! Well it didn’t get too bad, mild chop and winds 28-33 with a few gusts poking past 40. Things simmered down later in the night and were fairly calm by morning.

Day 4

Everyone was in good spirits as we’d be making landfall before noon and it wasn’t long until we got on the “banks”  This is our first experience sailing on “banks”; where the depth is between 2 – 20 feet. Obviously we can’t sail in 2 feet of water, but with the water so clear and lack of any real navigational aids you just have to become good at reading the different shades of blue in the water to make sure you don’t run aground. I checked, rechecked and asked the marina owner to check that my waypoints were right and we slowly and carefully made our way through the coral heads.

Pete and Diana were on the bows providing lookout, not so different than she and Brett did in Maine with those damn lobster traps. Initially Diana was calling out every dark spot, but since we were still in 15-20 feet of water those didn’t pose much threat. The last 2 miles into the marina were a bit more scary. Our GPS track looks like a zig zag up to the marina channel, which was just about 5 feet when we came in at low tide; totally fine had a whole 6 inches left! We slid up to the fuel dock unnoticed and immediately like our new home for the week, the South Side Marina run by Bob.

Okay, it’s really our 2^nd passage with Ryana, but since this time we were without our excellent crew, Jack and Cynthia, I’m counting it as our first! It was the first time our there with just Ryan, me and Stanley. We waited until we had favorable winds from the south and the seas were calm. We set out Wednesday morning planning to get into the Chesapeake Bay sometime on Friday. Since there were no places for a boat our size to come into the coast we knew it would be a straight shot up North.

We started out well with light winds (< 5kts) so we motored along. Stanley got sick once before he found his sea legs. Around mid afternoon the winds got up closer to 8kts so we tried sailing for a while. With the light winds directly behind us we weren’t getting anywhere so we turned the engines back on. Things were uneventful until nightfall and around 10pm we were rounding Cape Hatteras. There was a lot of traffic at that point and we were using radar to dodge boats right and left. Having AIS helped a lot too as it would tell us what the boats were, their course and destination. We even heard the Captain of a tugboat that was towing a large barge about a half mile behind him admonishing another boat for not having AIS. He said in his nice southern drawl that they were basically idiots for being out there without it! Luckily we do so you can breathe easier Mom and Cindy! 🙂

Soon after all this excitement I went to lay down and Ryan was on watch. I woke up a few hours later to find him marveling at (freaking out!) the huge lightening storm farther out to sea. He said it was so intense that there was at least one lightening strike per second! Come morning all this had died down and since we’ve been motoring we’ve made excellent time. The Chesapeake is within our reach today! Given that fact and also that the dog had so far refused to go to the bathroom in 24 hours we decided to throttle up the engines and try to make landfall Thursday, about 15 hours early. By late afternoon Cape Henry was in our sites and we started getting that excited feeling telling us we had made it!! We got a slip in Little Creek and pulled in there about 7pm, almost exactly 36 hours after we left Beaufort. What sa great feeling! We have reached our summer cruising grounds!