Hey Larry,

I've been dealing with this weather for the last few days, running a Hunter 41 north... Hell, this trip has been colder than most of the ones I've done in January... (grin)

Left Morehead City Saturday AM, hoping go make it up and across Albemarle Sound before the wind came hard from the NE... Extremely fortunate, had a very pleasant ride up the Alligator River and across the Sound in a moderate SE breeze, and a surprisingly brilliant moon given the weather to come... The bridgetender at the Alligator Bridge was even awake, and the hook went down behind Buck Island south of Coinjock about 0130 Sunday... A few hours later, it was already cranking up out of the NE...

Sleet and freezing rain by the time I reached Great Bridge yesterday afternoon made stopping there a no-brainer, and ran thru the rest of the gauntlet of bridges in Norfolk this morning... Hopefully the slight lull forecast for tomorrow will happen to allow getting up into the Potomac, for it's forecast to blow pretty good from the NW (naturally) for the remainder of the week...

Had an interesting experience earlier in this trip... Have been extremely fortunate with the timing of the tides, riding ebbs and floods in and out of virtually every inlet, and up every river... Nailed it on the Cape Fear River, which puts you into Snow's Cut at Carolina Beach at around the top of the tide...

Unfortunately, arrived there to find they are doing sandblasting and re-painting on the 65' fixed bridge, and had scaffolding in place which reduced the clearance by a good 2 - 2.5 feet... And, this rig is 63.5, about 64.5 to the tricolor and windex, and 65+' to the tip of the Metz VHF antenna... Have I ever mentioned how much I HATE running such "ICW-capable" rigs on the Waterway? (grin)

Well, we weren't even CLOSE to making it... Eased up to the fender system, and walked her forward, and the wait began... Anyone who's been thru Snow's Cut knows how the current can rip through there, within 30 minutes she was lying stern-to into about a 3 - 3.5 knot current...

Seemed the tide was NEVER gonna start dropping, and it sure didn't drop as much as one would think given the tidal range thru there... Finally, 5 hours later, we literally scraped through, the whip antenna bent back alarmingly, I doubt we had more than 2-3 inches over the tricolor... This boat is pretty bare, nothing of substance aboard to hang from the boom to attempt to heel her a bit, so I was within inches of having to retreat all the way back out the Cape Fear River, and out around Frying Pan, which would have pissed me off, bigtime...

NOAA has been referring to this system as a "complex low", and this one is a textbook example of why I believe this to be the absolute worst time of the year to be anywhere in the vicinity of Hatteras:

Gale Warning
Storm force winds expected Mon into Mon night

Baltimore Canyon To Hatteras Canyon Out To 36n 70w To 34n 71w-

Tonight
Winds becoming E to se 20 to 30 kt...then S of 36n increasing to SW 25 to 35 kt late. Seas building to 6 to 10 ft... highest SW. Rain with isolated tstms.

Mon
Winds shifting to W to NW throughout and increasing to 35 to 50 kt...highest NE late. Seas building to 9 to 16 ft...except E of 1000 FM to 16 to 23 ft. Isolated showers and tstms.

Mon Night
W of 1000 FM...NW winds 30 to 40 kt diminishing to 15 to 25 kt late. Seas 9 to 17 ft subsiding to 6 to 12 ft late... highest E. E of 1000 FM...W to NW winds 40 to 55 kt diminishing to 25 to 35 kt late...highest E. Seas 16 to 28 ft subsiding to 12 to 20 ft late...highest E. Isolated showers throughout.

Very reminiscent of a system I encountered about 8 years ago, returning N with my own boat... Just sneaked across Albemarle Sound in a building NE blow, and opted to fall off to Elizabeth City, and up through the Dismal Swamp... Hunkered down for a couple of days around Deep Creek, while a major storm raged offshore... Turned out to be the one where the Hardin 45 ALMESIAN was abandoned on a passage to Bermuda, with the loss of her skipper, and a truly miraculous recovery of the remaining crew...

best regards,

Jon