End of Day 9 - 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) 15 May 2018

Dear All,

The loaf was described as 'small but perfectly formed' and I even got the equivalent of a Paul Hollywood handshake, so I think we can regard yesterday's bread making as a success.

I'm writing this part of the update at 10am. Nicky is off watch asleep, we've got 115 miles to go to the entrance to Chesapeake and BV is sailing along beautifully with 15 knots of wind on the beam. We are going around 7 1/4 knots but we are getting a bit of help from the Gulf Stream, so our GPS has us moving a knot faster. We know that we are in the Gulf Stream because the sea temperature has risen to 27 degrees Celcius. Our autopilot computer has calculated the stream as north easterly at just over 3 knots and, with the angle we are crossing, some of that flow is helping us along.

An hour ago we sailed north of the 35 north line of latitude so we have complied with our insurance company's requirement to be above that by 1 June and Cape Hatteras, the nearest bit of the USA to us, has now shown up on our chart plotter so we are clearly making progress. If we continue as we are ,we should arrive in port tomorrow. The 115 miles to go is to the start of the entrance channel to Chesapeake. At that point we'll need to pilot our way through one of the busiest shipping channels in the USA before sailing on another 30 miles within the Chesapeake Bay before we drop anchor.

The AIS shows a dotted line for predicted track of the large ships and BV, on the end of the pink line, also has a predicted track, which helps considerably in working out how to keep us clear of the commercial shipping

All seems to be going well.  There is a lot more shipping to monitor in this area, mostly huge ones over 1000ft long.  Whilst according to the rules they should keep clear of sailing vessels like us, tens of thousands of tons of ship doesn't stop or manoeuvre very quickly so we tend to work on the premise of us keeping clear of them. The only other concern is the number of very large cumulus clouds with nasty black rain storms underneath them marching along the Gulf Stream.  So far, we seemed to have managed to pass between them but there's one just to the left ahead of us that is starting to affect the wind and I think that will definitely get us.  Rain jacket is to hand!

Well, that wasn't as wet or windy as I had expected it to be and we were just clipped by the back end of the rain cell, however it has messed up our wind direction. Even close hauled we were heading well right of track and the GPS had us at over 10 knots for most of the time as we were going with the Gulf Stream.  We are only just getting back pointing towards the entrance to Chesapeake as it's time to wake Nicky up for her watch.

It's now the first night watch. When I went off watch for an afternoon kip the sea was a deep blue and it was warm enough to just be wearing shorts. I woke up a few hours later and we had passed through the Gulf Stream. The sea has gone grey/green and it is now only 18 degrees Celsius, not quite the 28 degrees seas we've been used to for the last few months. I've also got trousers on for the first time in months and my trusty flip flops have been traded for socks and shoes - Caribbean cruising is officially over for this part of the year!

However, we have been making excellent progress. So much so that we are changing our length of night watches tonight so that we are both up for the entrance into Chesapeake. We should be doing that at around 2am tomorrow and then will get to the anchorage at breakfast time. This should, therefore, be the last on-passage report we send but we will put out a message when we are safely at anchor.

Just a final big thank you to Charlotte to covering the BV communication control but for us, even though she is maniacally busy in the last couple of weeks before her finals.  Good job!

Hope it's been of interest tracking our progress and if it was then look out for lots of blog entries being posted as soon as we can find a bar with internet.

Reg and Nicky

Passage statistics:
Position at midday 15 May: N35 25 W74 34
Position at 2359 15 May: N36 34 W75 34
Midday to midday distance: 159 nautical miles
Midnight to Midnight distance: 164 nautical miles (one of our best 24 hr runs to date)
Total miles covered: 1246 nautical miles
Approximate distance to go: 17 nautical miles (plus about an extra 40 miles o get into Chesapeake and on to our anchorage)

End of Day 9 - Caribbean towards Chesapeake