[Rhodes22-list] Oriental to Ocracoke - Labor Day

[Alex Bell]

Peter,

I tried to resopnd to this earlier today but my transmit side of email 
failed me.

Regarding Ocacroke and Silver Lake keep in mind that at 6 knots, you 
will be traveling over water for over 9 hours. Bring lots of ice and 
cold beverages. Hope you have a bimini to hide under when the sun gets 
intense. Bring food, it;s a long trip and as mentioned by another 
poster, it's a destination and I would add that there's not  an 
intermediate stopping off anchorage. Of course, there's lots of 
shalllows you could anchor in to take a break if you needed to. The 
whole Sound is shallow.

Silver Lake, according to local knoledge given to us by the yacht club 
here tells us that it's not a good anchorage. They usually reserve a 
slip at the marina because the holding power of Silver Lake is a 
problem. Not sure why, but everyone that's been there tells me the same 
story. Maybe their AC units won't work well unless tied to a dock with 
power??

Be aware that there is a ferry that runs regularly from Cedar Island to 
the south and the channels are a bit narrow and tricky and the ferry has 
the right of way. No matter if you;re under sail, they are afforded 
right of way based on restrictive manuverability. Besides, they're much 
bigger. The good news is with a kick up rudder and pop up centerboard, 
you can slip into the shallower waters to avoid such problems as the 
channel being skinny. I'd suggest you get a chart for the area so you 
can be aware of the 1 to 2 foot depths out there where it looks like it 
should be deeper. If we were to make the trip, we'd take Kizmet and we'd 
need to pay attention to the depths and channel. That kind of makes my 
blood pressure go up. I hate going aground.

Going to Ocacroke is an adventure. Have some fun and be safe. Sailing 
with a group is a real good idea. It's best to set up a common channel, 
like 68 to keep in touch with each other during the passage. You'll be 
out of sight of land, so being prudent, you'll want to chart your course 
and steer a compas course. This will give you a chance to brush up on 
navigation skills. Your comment about keeping an eye out for the weather 
rates highly with me. If you feel it's too iffy to go all the way to 
Ocracoke, just sailing around Pamlico and the Neuse around Oreintal is a 
kick so all isn't lost over weather.  Good Luck.

Alex Bell

Peter Thorn wrote:

>Bill W, Alex, Rummy, Ed and Everyone,
>
>There seems to be some growing interest among some of my trailer sailing buddies to sail from Oriental NC (Neuse River) to Ocracoke NC (Silver Lake anchorage, Outer Banks).  It's a distance of about 50 miles and the idea would be to sail there and back in three days -- provided we have the full co-operation of the weather.   
>
>Friday 9/2 would be travel and rig day.
>Sat 9/3 early departure
>Monday 9/5 or Tuesday 9/6 would be de-rig and go home day.
>
>If the weather turns bad, I will bail.  It's too early for Nor'easters, so if we don't get a hurricane the weather is most likely to be OK.  Prevailing winds are SW and seabreeze is likely.  Each skipper is going at their own risk and is solely responsible for their own safety.  
>
>So far, George B (Greensboro, NC - renovated Paceship 23) and Lawrence M (Cary, NC) - Tanzer 26) appear to be very interested in this trip.  There may be a few other boats from the Greensboro LTYC trailer sailor club.
>
>Any Rhodies interested in joining us would be more than welcome.   With a good eye on the weather, the Rhodes 22 is a quite capable vessel for this trip across the second largest essentially landlocked body of water on the eastern seaboard. 
>
>PT
>Raven
>Chapel Hill, NC
>
>
>
>
>
> 
>
>
>
>
>__________________________________________________
>Use Rhodes22-list at rhodes22.org, Help? www.rhodes22.org/list
>
>
>  
>