2359 (AST, GMT-4) 9 May 2018
Dear All,
After a wet night (during Nicky's watches) the showers seem to have stopped. Instead of looking at the horizon and seeing rain cells coming our way, we now have blue skis dotted with the odd fluffy white cumulus cloud. It's perfect conditions with around 18 knots of wind and 1.5-2 metre waves. Even the sea is an intense deep blue colour.
The wind is matching the forecast and gradually becoming more southerly. So, at midday we did our first significant change to the sail plan by poling out the genoa on the starboard side. We still have about 300 miles to go before we turn to head directly towards the entrance to the Chesapeake Bay and for that time we hope that the wind will keep pushing us along. There is still an area of very light winds forecast in the area of the turn but we think that it is too early to make a course change. The best way to route should become clearer in a day or so.
The BV spa has been running again today to replace the water used for showers and cooking so we have full tanks once more. BV has a very good watermaker and with the high sea temperature at the moment (26 degrees C) we can make 90 litres of fresh water every hour it is running.
We are also well placed on power. After sailing through huge clumps of sargasso weed at the beginning of the passage there now seems to be very little of it about which s good news for us because our towed water-powered generator is now mostly working properly and not clogging up with weed. I say 'mostly' as Nicky had to spend an hour unravelling and unjamming a plastic bag from the DuoGen propeller and shaft bearings. It was a fiddly job easing the bag free but it came clear in the end so the Duogen is back in action once more. We also spotted that there was a lot of sargasso weed stuck around Georgina's rudder (our hydrovane self steering system has its own rudder fitted below the transom). So we stopped the boat and cleared the offending weed which has had a marked improvement on Georgina holding our heading. We should have thought of and looked for that earlier but now know to do so.
We had some good news on the weather this morning. Nicky listened in to Chris Parker as he provided his daily forecast for the eastern seaboard, both the general forecast and his specific weather advice for subscribing yachts. There are several planning to head north from the Bahamas and Florida over the next couple of days, reaching Cape Hatteras at about the same time as we expect to get there. Chris advised them of a frontal system coming south out of the NE USA, reaching the Cape Hatteras area on Sunday or Monday. At the moment the picture with regards the front is not too clear but the good news is that it is unlikely to be too bad a system so, whilst it will bring some rain, the winds are likely to be no more than 15-20 knots and he was not advising yachts to delay their departure to let the system pass. That's good news for us as delaying would either mean diverting to Bermuda (approx 200nm from our intended track) or slowing down significantly, which would be tedious.
And our final bit of news is that dinner included a small fish we caught yesterday evening. It was perfectly sized; just enough for 2 and, being the chef for the day, Nicky filleted it and produced an excellent fish and chips supper with home made tartar sauce. Perhaps tomorrow something larger may be tempted by our lure. At least we have a chance now, previously all that we were catching was sargasso weed!
Reg and Nicky
Passage statistics:
Position at midday 9 May: N23 38 W66 33
Position at 2359 9 May: N25 11 W66 55
Midday to midday distance: 166 nautical miles
Midnight to Midnight distance: 161 nautical miles
Total miles covered: 425 nautical miles
Approximate distance to go: 876 nautical miles
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| End of Day 3 - Caribbean towards Chesapeake |
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