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Chapter One

Chapter One

  


   Hello, welcome to my sailing blog. Kismet is my 1988 Passport 40 cruising sailboat. I bought her in June 2025 with the intention of starting a new life afloat. Things started slowly, there was a lot of differed maintenance to catch up on and I just didn't have much free time while working full time. I expected it to take me a year to get her ship shape, but after a quite unexpected death in the family, I decided there is no time like the present. Two months later I quit my job and seven weeks later I began my journey. 

   Some people may remember I set out on Christmas morning with the intention of staging at Rudy Inlet in Virginia Beach and then doing an overnight around Cape Hatteras the next day. There were a string of events that ended that attempt, mostly, I was just feeling too tired to safely do the 32 hour passage. I headed home to Gloucester Point to fix a few things on the boat, look for crew and rest up.

   January third, I was making the final preparations on Kismet; if I didn't find crew for tomorrow's departure I would be forced to take the inter-coastal waterway (ICW) to get around Hatteras. I busied myself filling the propane bottle, installing a new engine temperature sensor and buying last minute supplies. Then there was knock on the boat. A man was standing there with his hand out, he said, hi, I'm Tim, I saw your request for crew and I'm interested in sailing with you. We talked for 45 minutes and agreed to meet up for a noon departure the next day. We would sail for Beaufort NC, around Hatteras!

   I was thrilled to have Tim as a first mate, he had sailed the cape the other direction once already and had been to many of the towns on the ICW which was a big help in negotiating the uncertainties. For the record, the other reason I didn't want to travel the ICW was that it would take twice as long and a lot more diesel. 

   
   And we were off, right on time, noon of four January, 2025. At 3pm on the fifth, we made the turn around the Diamond Shoals marker, you can just make out in the picture, if you squint. This marks the safe water area off of Cape Hatteras, the graveyard of the Atlantic! Not surprising, on a nice day like this there is no indication of the shoals, you can't see any land at all from here, yet, less than a mile west there are shallows with breaking waves. This is why we had to leave on January fourth, to make this weather window. The next morning we arrived at the river mouth that leads to Beaufort, NC. We finally lowered the main sail which had been fully raised the entire 225 mile trip, good weather indeed! As you can tell, it was chilly, but we had good sailing conditions for 60 percent of the trip. First hurtle done. Many thanks to Tim Cote' for making it possible!

 

 


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