End of Day 3 - Great Guana Cay Bahamas to Charleston USA

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/SSBradio, 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) 25 Apr 2019

Dear All,

Nicky was on watch in the early hours and, with a consistent 10kts of wind, switched off the engine at 0200hrs. After nearly 28 hours of running under power it was blissfully quiet.  We spent the next 10hrs or so sailing along at about 5.5 knots, not so very fast but at least we were sailing.  We also started to pick up a little help from the Gulf Stream. Initially, a bit less than a knot but by midday it looked   like we were in the main part of the current flow with a helpful 3-3.5 knots pushing us northeast; a very definite boost, particularly when the chartplotter said that the VMG (velocity made good) towards Charleston was 8.3kts!

By 1800 we had left the Gulf Stream behind and had started to pick up the many AIS paints of commercial shipping routing up and down the US coast.  The wind dropped and went more southerly so, at the start of her watch, Nicky hoisted the spinnaker pole and poled out the genoa to port but we still only made 4.5kts over the ground with 37nm to run to our waypoint off Charleston. At midnight our speed had dropped to just 3.5 knots but we'll continue at that crawl for the next 20 miles because of the tidal flow around Charleston.  The tide is ebbing out of Charleston harbour until about 0900hrs and waiting now will ensure that we aren't fighting against that.  Despite the slow progress now, we should still be in Charleston and tucked up securely before the next front comes through, so, overall, it looks like we should be able to consider this a success.

Other than the excitements of sailing and looking at ships on the chartplotter, today has mostly been about blog writing and dealing with food.  I baked another loaf, though the gas blew out in the oven shortly after it had been put in and reached its max rise, so it collapsed rather and now has something of a muffin top.  We also vacuum packed the dorado to make it last that bit longer.  The swordfish lasted 3 weeks after being vacuum packed but I'm not sure the dorado (being smaller) will have the chance to last that long.  I hope that Ollie and Sheena like fish though, as there are 4 steaks earmarked for our time with them!

Oh! I almost forgot to say, today's big excitement came at 1953 when the log clicked over to read 50,666.8nm, which means that we have sailed a recorded 40,000nm in BV.  I say 'recorded' because we have actually done a bit more than that as, at times, the log impeller has been jammed with weed whilst we've been underway but, give or take, we've sailed 40,000nm in BV.  Something to celebrate when we get ashore.

Love

Reg and Nicky

Passage statistics:
Position at midday 25 April: N31 07 W79 14
Position at 2359 25 April: N32 18 W79 34
Midday to midday distance: 148.4 nautical miles
Midnight to Midnight distance: 128 nautical miles
Total miles covered:  371 nautical miles
Approximate distance to go: 32 nautical miles

End of Day 3 - Great Guana Cay Bahamas to Charleston USA