Waiting on the Weather
- svliahona0
- Jul 21
- 3 min read
We had planned to leave Hilton Head Island in late May, but the skies had different plans for us. After many hours of studying the weather forecasts, an early-June date was selected for Liahona's departure. We found crew. We alerted the marina of our plans. We provisioned. Two days before our scheduled departure, one crew member, Everett, started his 70-hour bus journey from central Canada to South Carolina. The morning before departure we got the bad news from our weather router: "Don't go." Our other 3 crew members cancelled their plans. Everett returned home. The trip would have to wait.
Our next date would be June 22nd. Jeff got a new plane ticket. Andrew and Kelly rented a car for their one-way trip from home. Everett decided not to take another chance on the long trip down.
Getting out of the marina would be difficult as the tides are very strong in this area. Liahona would have to wait until slack tide to begin the journey. Bright and early Sunday morning the crew filled the diesel tank and set sail for Hampton, Virginia. The entire journey took about three days in calm, clear sailing conditions. Unfortunately, the mainsail furling motor stopped working again, after its recent repair, so the Genoa and Mizzen sails would have to do. The motor would have to be sent back to the repair shop, so that they could re-fix it.
Back on dry land, Miriam and sister, Susan would drive up to Hampton to meet Tim and crew at the Bluewater Marina. Susan spent the night on the boat and drove further north to visit her family in Northern Virginia. Jeff, Tim and Miriam took the water taxi downtown and spent the early part of the day looking around Hampton. Jeff flew home that night. We spent a couple more days at the beautiful marina, swimming in the pool, taking the water taxi to Hampton and doing laundry.
We were also able to see many close friends from Elizabeth City, N.C. and this area while at the dock. We hadn't seen any of them in 17 years. It was absolutely fantastic!! Thanks for coming up to visit!
We visited the Maritime Museum in Newport News and went to Harpoon Larry's for dinner with our friends. We saw them several days later for shopping and lunch. It was fantastic seeing them. We also went shopping with Norris. Also a sailor, he knows what it's like to need to do shopping while in port. He took us to West Marine and Food Lion. Thanks so much!!
We moved to a nearby anchorage next to Fort Monroe. We were able to dock our dinghy at the marina and walk to the fort. We had a nice tour, both in the humid heat and in the AC. When we returned to the dinghy, the throttle would not regulate, so Tim tried to fix it. I went looking for a ride back to the boat. The throttle was completely stuck. Fortunately, I found a boat that was willing to tow us back home. Tim work hard and got the motor working again. Whew!
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