The reason we pushed so hard yesterday to make it to Mobjock Bay was that a big storm system was on its way and while the bay was a great place to spend the night, we needed to get to Norfolk ASAP in the morning so that we arrived before the wind shifted. Jason and I slept awesome and unfortunately had to wake up at 5:30 in the morning so we could get going. Jason got the motor warmed up while I went forward to get the anchor pulled up and tied away. It usually takes me a bit to deal with the anchor so Jason put the boat in reverse… where it immediately stalled out. Which is… never a good sign. The cause of the issue was immediately apparent at the stern of the boat: a giant hill net had been placed behind our boat sometime after we had gone to bed for the night and since it wasn’t there when we got in, we didn’t think to check on our way out and ran right over it. Not a good start to the morning. Since we’re just moving this boat and haven’t moved onboard we don’t have any of our usual gear. We don’t have a dinghy, scuba gear…not even a mask! We can poke the net with the boat hook but it’s wrapped around the prop and there is no freeing it. Jason is on the phone with the boat towing place and the best they could do is that afternoon because of where we’re located. That won’t work with what the wind is supposed to do. We would be sitting ducks with winds and waves completely open to the East. We finally figured that our best option is to cut the boat free of the net and just sail her into Norfolk, so that’s what we did!
I didn’t take many pictures of the net fiasco or our sail north. Nothing like an immobilized engine and an incoming storm to really learn to sail your new boat! We got extremely lucky with the winds all morning and only had the last part into Norfolk as upwind. Eventually we made it into the harbor with the cargo ships and traffic to dodge… while still not having a motor. That was stressful and not a good time.
The tow boat arrived just in time as we entered the crowded harbor and the winds kicked up! We had a long tow to the marina and the boat had to put us into the slip in a strong crosswind but eventually we were safely tied up at the marina a mere 7 hours later than we had planned!
Jason arranged for a diver to come out the next morning to cut the net off the propeller and look for any damage. He arrived at 9 in the morning and it took him less than a half hour to jump in and remove the net. No damage at all except his $200 fee. (Which I will happily pay to not have to get in the cold murky water!)
