Brrr..fort

Leaving Rhode Island in 70 degree weather, we packed bathing suits and wore tee shirts and shorts. Heading south toward warmer weather, we envisioned days of sunshine and maybe a few cooler autumn nights. It was 43 when we woke up in Beaufort with a north wind gusting past 25, dropping the wind chill into the teens. A stalled low pressure system off the coast promised more of the same for a few days. This sent us to town seeking hats, gloves and socks. When Kathy went to try on a sweatshirt, she had to peel off 5 layers of outer of clothing! Fortunately, SkipStone has multiple heat sources and we have used them all. 

Those who have sailed with us, or cruised in tandem with us, will notice a distinct change in our preferred overnight venues. For 40 years, we have sought professionally maintained moorings to secure us to Mother Earth while we slept. For the landlubbers reading this, moorings are really big anchors placed in a harbor and spaced so that each boat has room to “swing” with the winds and tides. They are available for overnight rental in most popular harbors. One advantage is that the boat usually faces into the wind, which provides below deck ventilation through the hatches and portholes. Another advantage is a certain amount of privacy between us and neighboring boats; an important consideration when our nearest neighbors are 3 boats tied together who decide its a good idea to extend the party into the early hours of the next day.

Our second preference has been anchoring. We don’t always sleep well at anchor, knowing that we are connected to the bottom with a piece of metal that is a tenth the weight (or less) of a mooring and may or may not be firmly attached to the bottom of the harbor. Anchors are also subject to becoming dislodged when the the wind or tide changes, yet, we have done this many times with only a few unfortunate incidents.

Our third choice, and plan of last resort, has been to tie up in a slip at a marina. In forty years, we have spent exactly two nights at a marina, when our engine died in Nantucket and it needed to be repaired, by an itinerant mechanic, at the dock. This trip has reversed these preferences.

Marinas offer powerboaters a good nights sleep. While moored, sailboats will dutifully face into the wind and waves, moored powerboats tend to dance around because they have a higher ratio of what’s above the water, when compared to what’s below. In a marina, we are secured with lines on at least 2 sides, and usually 3 or 4 sides. Additionally, the marinas are generally located behind breakwaters that keep the large waves from bashing the sides of the boat. Nice quiet nights are common and welcome.

While marinas are more expensive ($60 – $120 per night compared to $50 for a mooring) they also provide an invaluable resource…local knowledge. We have found dockhands and marina managers to be a chatty bunch (more so as we get farther south) and happy to discuss our upcoming navigational challenges, while the front desk staff will guide us for our onshore excursions. We have enjoyed discovering the best of the local restaurants and being directed towards walking trails and historical sites. Marinas are also good places to be in bad weather because we can get off the boat and stretch our legs together or independently.

By far the best part of marina hospitality has been the connections made with fellow voyagers. We have met people at marinas that we would probably not have run into, if we had been at a mooring or anchored. These folks have provided advice from how to filter water while filling our tanks, to the names of dockmasters, that we are days away from meeting. Since we are all going in the same direction, at more or less the same speed, we tend to run into the same people more than once. We keep the line of communication open, with those we have outpaced, via phone or text, and continue to tap into their reservoir of resources.

The last advantage of marina hopping, is knowing where you are staying at the end of the day. Since all these harbors are new to us, we don’t know what we’ll find. However, resources like The Waterway Guide, Bob423, Active Captain and the knowledge picked up along the way, means that we can secure our overnight venue before we leave, and concentrate on “getting there” without a lot of concern about what we will find when we arrive.