It’s an even rarer few, however, who eschew the lures of the inland route entirely and make the passage offshore with occasional stops at seaports along the coast. Typical of this sort are Linda and Michael O’Rourke of the sailing vessel Escapade of Southampton, NY. I met them a couple of days ago as I was refinishing a piece of Wilma Lee’s rigging on the porch of the Black Schooner. When they paddled up to the dock on surf boards, I sort of assumed without considering it that they were day visitors exploring the harbor on rentals from Ride the Wind.
But then they explained that they were off the 44” Lagoon catamaran anchored off the end of the dock and asked me if I thought it was possible to sail “inside” to Beaufort with their 70’ masthead clearance. The short, simple answer is NO. They’d be fine all the way down to the Core Creek bridge (Highway 101) just a few miles north of the inlet which has a vertical clearance of 65’. But then it occurred to me that, if they could manage not to run aground in the shallow, shifty channel, they could possibly run down Core Sound and reach Beaufort that way – something I’ve often been tempted to try with my own boat but never have.
With a mast that tall, Michael and Linda are obviously no strangers to offshore passage-making. Michael did some yacht deliveries 30 years ago and Linda had done seasonal sailing for 13 years in a monohull. Michael bought the boat last May in St. Maarten in the Caribbean and with his two sons, both in their twenties, sailed it back home to Long Island by way of several Caribbean Islands and Bermuda.
Personally, I couldn’t imagine owning a boat too tall for the Intracoastal Waterway’s bridges. O.K. so maybe parts of the “ditch” get a bit boring after a few dozen trips, but there’s always weather safety to consider. Many’s the time I’ve made a good day’s run up or down the ICW in conditions that would have made offshore travel challenging if not downright impossible. I said as much to Michael but he was well aware of the trade-off when he bought the catamaran. He considers himself an off-shore performance sort of sailor and the extra five feet of Dacron up where the winds are freshest is well worth the sacrifice.
Michael and Linda are clearly the kind of folks who thrive on the challenges of the ragged edge. In addition to sailing, they’re into surfing, SCUBA diving, kayaking and bicycling, all of which they hope to do along their way down the islands. Ironic that I should make their acquaintance on my 70th birthday. They’re both the very picture of youthful fitness. In fact Michael was a free agent for the Denver Broncos in 1980.
Having both retired – Linda as a special ed teacher and high school principal and Michael as a building contractor – they are off on an extended adventure with no time constraints.
They departed Montauk Point, NY on October 4 sailing offshore to Portsmouth, VA. From there they made the short hop to Virginia Beach, thence down the North Carolina coast, around Cape Hatteras and through Ocracoke inlet. Linda enthusiastically described sailing with dolphins under the bows all night long while Michael cheerfully told me about having to repair both diesel engines which quit within minutes of each other at two in the morning on the passage around the cape.
Their planned stopover in Beaufort is in order to have Omar’s Sail Loft repair a small rip in a sail that occurred on the way down. I neglected to warn them that after meeting Craig (the sail maker) and other locals in that friendly waterfront community, they may find it hard to tear themselves away. They could end up part of the ever-growing community of sailors who have “swallowed the anchor” along our shores!