End of Day 5 - 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) 11 May 2018

Dear All,

As you saw from the stats, yesterday was a slow day and that continued for a lot of the night until Nicky came on watch at 0400. That marked the start of a good period with the wind up at 14knots, which is enough to get BV sailing along at 6-7knots and, more importantly, keep enough pressure on the sails to stop them flopping as the waves pass under us. We seemed to be quite fortunate with that wind because Kealoha V, who is 120 miles west of us, has so little wind that they have already started to motor.

During the day wind stayed strong enough for us to keep sailing right up until 1800hrs and we were even able to maintain a direct track towards Chesapeake. However, by 1800hrs the wind had died off to next to nothing and we too had to resort to motoring, if nothing else to stop the sails from slatting as we rolled in the waves.

We are hoping that the wind strengthens more quickly than the forecast predicts; that, unfortunately still has a 1-2 day stretch ahead of us with light and variable winds which we could definitely do without.

So far everything seems to be working okay except for the wind gauge which today has started to show random wind directions. It's irritating but not important enough for a trip up to the top of the mast whilst we are underway. We'll look at that when we get into port and probably have to write a cheque to Mr Raymarine for a new one of his rather overpriced mast-head anemometers. There's a possibility that it is just that the connections at the op of the mast need cleaning and we'll try that first but last time we saw these symptoms it needed a new anemometer.

Work on the backlog of blog entries is going well and we now have 10 ready to post when we arrive in port. It's quite fun looking back at what we have done recently; it's amazing what you can fit into 6 weeks.

That's it for news from BV for today. Keep your fingers crossed for us that the wind builds soon.

Reg and Nicky

Passage statistics:
Position at midday 11 May: N27 37 W69 01
Position at 2359 11 May: N28 31 W69 38
Midday to midday distance: 134 nautical miles
Midnight to Midnight distance: 135 nautical miles
Total miles covered:  687 nautical miles
Approximate distance to go: 585 nautical miles

End of Day 5 - Caribbean towards Chesapeake