Storm off Cape Hatteras | Sailing Blog - Technical Hints and Tips - Sailing Television

Storm off Cape Hatteras

This time on Distant Shores we look at using radar to avoid the worst winds in a serious storm rounding Cape Hatteras, do a gear review on our electric in-mast furling after 1 year of hard use and sail north to Annapolis in the Chesapeake Bay.

We left Beaufort and headed out the inlet to the ocean, then east to the excellent anchorage at Cape Lookout.

This spacious anchorage is a great stop for a day or two wait for weather, and you can even get ashore to climb the lighthouse mid-May through Mid-September.

We got a good start but after the first night the forecast changed for bad weather to build sooner and come stronger on our second day at sea.

With our mast height of 71 feet, there is no place we can pull in along this coast until we reach Rudee Inlet at Virginia Beach so we reefed down and carried on.

Radar is an excellent tool for plotting storms. On the left we're looking at the coast of Cape Hatteras and then the storm cell passing right in front of us. We've set the radar at the 6 mile range so the heavy rains are about 2 miles ahead.

The radar has helped us dodge the worst of the storm then it's just a few more miles to our planned stop for the night.

Check out the whole video below as we take you along on this journey.

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