I did it!

[mrtwiddlecups]

I've been prepping for a trip to Ocracoke ever since I bought my new to me "wind dancer" compac 16. I had a one week vacation to the Outerbanks island Ocracoke planned and reserved room on the ferry for the trailer and the car.
      The day before the planned voyage came, my brother and I headed for swan quarter. There were some pretty fierce thunderstorms that night and we slept at the dock. The next morning, the planned day for the passage, we chickened out with a chance of thunderstorms in the forecast. We sailed around swan quarter bay until my wife and her cousin came for the ferry. We packed up the compac and I kicked myself on the ferry all the way to Ocracoke, the weather was fantastic! I used the time on the ferry to look at what the forecasted 1 to 2 foot waves worked out to in reality. The waves picked up as the ferry made it's way further into the Pamlico Sound and built to a crescendo at the mouth of the big foot slough channel. The waves looked to be 3 to 4 feet and were even rocking the ferry a touch.
      After a week of beautiful Ocracoke vacation I checked the weather and decided it was time to set sail! My brother, whom I could barely scrape off the couch and who would sleep through half the trip, and I headed to the ramp on the bay side and were under way at 6:03. I took the shortcut straight over the shoal to the channel bumping the sand once or twice. We got into the unprotected part of the sound at the end of the channel about an hour later and the wind and the waves picked up. The forecast called for 10-15 knots, 1 foot increasing to 2 in the afternoon with scattered showers and thunderstorms. The waves were, as expected from the ferry trip, bigger here. I would say they were 2-3 foot with the occasional 4 footer. This all seemed well within the capability of the boat, as far as I could tell. We were making great time 4.5 to 5 knots on a reach! About 3 hours into the trip I decided to lay down for a moment and gaze at the clouds. A very light rain had started and I had moved my cell phone to my pocket. When I lay down my phone slid out of my pocked and into the sound. R.I.P. I really thought this would be the first cell phone in a while to make it more than 2 years. I kept the bow north north west as I didn't want to have to tack with the east north east winds, just to be safe. I'd say we were about four and a half hours in when the "great island's" southern tip was in sight. The waves had really died off by then and were about 1 foot. The wind died off with the waves and we slowed to 3- 2.5 or so knots and started to run west around the island. It took quite a time to round the Island then we tightened up the sheets and headed northwest towards the "swanquarter boat landing" next to the ferry terminal. I had expected the trip to take 8 hours and gave myself two extra hours because it always takes longer right? We had budgeted 10 hours and ended up anchored up and waiting on my wife and the trailer on the ferry, the trip only took 7.5 hours!

[Bramble]

Congratulations! 
Not only for making the passage, but for the patience & judgement to do it wisely.
Yes.
YOU DID IT.
mike

[geeman]

Congratulations!  I very much enjoyed reading your account of the trip.

[AirborneJarhead]

Awesome report and congrats on making the trip. Hate that about your phone! If there was one major aspect that stood out about the trip, what would you say it was? Also, what's the one thing you would have changed about the boat setup?

[mrtwiddlecups]

The thing that stood out was that I had way more navigation points than I thought I would. There were shoal lights, water towers, a distinctive bluff, the great island... From Ocracoke to swan quarter I'd feel comfortable doing the trip without navigation aid. Only with decent viability of course.
     As far as preparing the boat differently, I had these rigid tupperware to store stuff down at the foot of the bunks. The thing is when you have two adults sleeping/ hiding from mosquito in the boat you have to do a bunch of shuffling when you want to get something from the bottom of the bunks and then most of the crap you brought with you ends up in the bow while down there. Having big rigid boxes complicated this maneuvering. I'm replacing them with 20 litre dry bags. Smaller containers and more of them. Also If you leave something out of the dry bag/ box it will get wet.