Late Coffee…Early Cocktails

A faithful Late Coffee follower emailed us asking what we meant by the “clam conditions” reported on our position update upon our return to Hampton. OK, I confess that reader is my Dad who is always watching to keep us on the straight and narrow, and usually the deep!

Capt Claw created that position report and [...]

It is a blister-popping 103 degrees outside. The key word is “outside”. After 4 weeks enduring temperatures in the mid to upper 90s with frequent forays above 100, we whimpered back to a dock in Urbanna, Virginia and fetched our drop-in Cruise-Air air conditioner from storage. These units are often considered marginal performers. Today’s statistics [...]

My least favorite role on board Yoohoo is that of night helmsman. I’ve always loved the sensory rush of nocturnal sailing and I enjoy solo time at the helm. But my skills at sorting out all those fixed and moving objects at night rank clearly in the dark-deficient zone. Peering through a wall of black [...]

Every cruising sailor knows the lure of the marina dock.  Once your docklines are firmly affixed to those pilings, the likelihood of extracting yourself diminishes as quickly as barnacles latch onto your hull.  This year we committed absolutely, we’re not kidding now, to staying exactly one month before continuing our cruising northward.  One month later [...]

Our outside passages from the Dry Tortugas to Beaufort, NC provided one huge advantage over the ICW route — we cut our bridge transits from 140 to 13.  This was so enjoyable that after transiting the Alligator River Bridge in NC we felt obligated to call several cruising friends waiting at bridges in the [...]