End of Day 11 Beaufort NC to Antigua

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.

2359hrs (AST, GMT-4) 29 Nov 2019

Dear All,

It's safe to say that this has mostly been a very dull day.  The sea has been glassy with a slight swell from 2 directions, the sky generally clear with a few puffy cumulus clouds and virtually nothing of interest has happened.  Every couple of hours we have sponged under the engine - we have a weeping seal on the water pump which is leaking increasing amounts of salt water - but it's not drastic (yet?) so we have no plans to shut down the engine and rebuild the pump at this point; something for when we are at anchor.

At the morning check in Innamorata II was 20nm out from Marigot Bay in French St Martin and Miles was 6hrs out of Cat Island in the Bahamas.  Scoot was waiting for wind and expecting to make the USVIs on Sunday or Monday, Zwailer expects to arrive in Antigua about 12hrs behind us and Grace estimates arrival in Beaufort SC early tomorrow morning, probably at about the time we get into Antigua.  Sea Wind was still several days out from St Martin and had spent the previous 24hrs having a hammering from the storm that they left Bermuda to avoid.  However, all is well on board and the forecast is for better winds to come.  Hopefully the rest of their passage south will be more pleasant.

Our only drama of the day was trying to work out how much fuel we have used and how much is left.  We hadn't been taking fuel contents readings because we had left with full fuel and should easily have enough from when we started motoring.  Also, when the tanks are full, they are at their widest and so the readings tend to be quite inaccurate.  However, Nicky took a reading at 1300 and it seemed to show that we had a lot less fuel than we would have expected.  It suggested that we had been burning fuel at double our normal calculations rate which seemed to be very odd.  It's complicated by the fact that we have 2 fuel tanks with the slightly higher, forward tank feeding into the main tank aft.  As the forward one gets towards being empty our fuel graph gets to be a bit vague and it's not helped by the roll from the swell.  A few inches of fuel in the wide forward tank is quite a lot of fuel.  We are monitoring to check that that fuel does make its way into the main tank and my guess is that we will have the same contents reading for several hours.  If we don't then we've either burnt a lot more fuel than expected or there is a blockage between the 2 fuel tanks.  Neither is a show stopper because if we've burnt more fuel than expected then we have extra fuel in jerry cans on deck that will get us to Antigua, and if there is trapped fuel in the forward tanks there is a separate hand pump that we can empty the tank with and transfer the fuel to the main tank by hand (or jug).  What we should probably always have been doing, and will most likely do from now on, is close off the cross-feed between the 2 tanks once we have completed a refuel.  That way we would burn fuel from the aft (main) tank alone until we reached a suitable level, say about 30litres (about 8.5hrs motoring).  At this level the tank is narrow and steeply sided and the gauge readings are at their most accurate.  We could then open the cross-feed to add the withheld 140litres from the forward tank.  That way we would have more accurate fuel level readings over a greater volume of fuel usage and if the engine did start burning fuel at an accelerated rate we'd know about it early and have more fuel set aside to deal with the problem.

But, to be honest, there are far worse problems to have to deal with than a potentially misreading fuel gauge on a sailing yacht.  If the worst comes to the worst we can always bob here for 2 days waiting for the wind to fill in and then sail onto our anchor at Antigua.  It could be quite pleasant to just stop - the sky's blue, the sea's a fabulous near violet and crystal clear and the air and sea temperature are pretty much matched at 30degC.  What's not to love?

Love to all,

Reg and Nicky 

Passage statistics:

Position at midday 29 Nov: N18 53 W62 15

Position at midnight 29 Nov: N17 54 W62 05

Midday to midday distance: 146 nautical miles

Midnight to midnight distance: 140 nautical miles

Total miles covered:  1529 nautical miles

Approximate distance to go (direct line to English Harbour): 58 nautical miles

End of Day 11 - Beaufort North Carolina to Antigua