End of Day 2 - Caribbean towards Chesapeake

These Blog entries are edited versions of the messages we sent back as we completed the passage. They were sent by radio using a laptop that controls a modem and the HF/SSB radio, using the SailMail system. We sent the messages daily to Charlotte and she then forwarded them on to a list of family members.

2359 (AST, GMT-4) 8 May 2018

Dear All,

Today has mainly been spent getting used to the watch system and adjusting to disrupted sleep patterns. It will probably take me about 3 days to fully adjust but I'm getting there.  I'm the chef today and Nicky is doing navigator duties and so she will have 2 four hour stints on watch overnight but compensated for by a long afternoon snooze.

In the American Virgin Islands shops that we have been to recently we've found that the fruit and vegetables are all over chilled; everything is refrigerated even if it doesn't need to be (eg potatoes and onions, even eggs). The sad thing about that is that the fruit and veg just doesn't last well and you find that things like lettuce go bad from the inside out and so you end up binning the whole thing.  That means that our daily check of fresh food is even more important [Ed: though it's difficult to check the insides of the veg!]

We've passed relatively close to a few ships, within about 10nm, but have not had to adjust course for them and BV is generally sailing along nicely. We've had quite a lot of rain squalls which have got us a little wet at times but, more significantly, they disrupt the wind. That makes BV steer off course because Georgina, our wine vane steering system, needs a consistent wind to steer an accurate course. The waves too are shifting BV off course too, which affects the apparent wind and hence Georgina's steering.  So, we've had to make a lot more frequent adjustments made to the sails and to the position in which the wheel is locked than we would really like in the quest to get everything in balance and BV steering in the straight(ish) line that we want.

We have kept track of Mike and Cate on Kealoha V with a morning SSB radio check-in and we are also reporting our progress on the Ocean Cruising Club SSB net each morning. Tomorrow, however, we may forego the OCC net in favour of a weather forecast station that transmits at the same time.  It will be interesting to see how far out Chris Parker's weather forecast is looking and what, if anything, of significance there is on the horizon for us that the USA's High Seas forecasts are not yet reporting (they only look out about 48hrs).

That's it from us for today except to wish the Channel Islanders amongst our readership a very happy Liberation Day (tomorrow as I write this but today by the time you get it).

Reg and Nicky

Passage statistics:
Position at midday 8 May: N21 13 W65 52
Position at 2359 8 May: N22 37 W66 12
Midday to midday distance: 157 nautical miles
Midnight to Midnight distance: 159 nautical miles
Total miles covered:  263 nautical miles
Approximate distance to go: 1032 nautical miles

End of Day 2 - Caribbean towards Chesapeake