Staying Warm

We are hunkered down in Deltaville, VA for the weekend. We sailed here Wednesday with 20 knots on the nose and a lumpy sea. The worst we have seen the Chesapeake. A little pounding and spray, but only a short 15 mile sail. On Thursday the wind was the same, so we decided to ride out the upcoming cold front here. We are about 35 miles north of Norfolk and the start of the ICW.

AC has the anchorage and marina a 5 star. The holding and protection are very good. After an 80 degree day on Friday, at 11pm the wind shifted 180 degrees and gusted into the 30's with rain. The temperature dropped about 25 degrees. Our fireplace has been our best friend lately. It keeps the cabin toasty warm.

We reserved a slip for Friday through Monday morning. This way we could reprovision and leave our little ceramic heaters running 24 hours. The marina provides a loaner car for free and the local grocery store was well stocked.

We plan to leave on Monday to continue working south.

Tech note: I know some of you like to hear about our electric motor. We went 4 days without plugging in and sailed/motored for 5 days straight. Our house bank stayed charged from our wind and solar. For the engine bank, the regen on this new controller works well enough to recoup whatever we used to motor up and down creeks for our anchorages/marinas. At 4 knots sailing we get about 1.8 amps going into our batteries. At 5 knots it jumps to 3 amps. We have seen as high as 10 amps, but a normal 6.5 knot sailing speed gives 4.5-5 amps. We are now torn as to whether to add a generator or a lithium phosphate battery bank. We figured we would wait to see how the rest of our trip to Myrtle Beach goes to make a decision.

Looking forward to getting the Nexus parts back next week. We have no instruments except our chart plotter. We have confirmation on shipment, so they will be waiting for us in Norfolk.