End of Day 2 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 (EST, GMT-5) 20 Nov 2019

Dear All,

From midnight we had 20-30 knot winds.  BV took it all in her stride like the champ that she is.  We therefore made good progress and got to the middle of the Gulf Stream at around 9am where we had breakfast and then gybed onto our new track of 125 degrees magnetic.

Gybing BV onto our new track…

… which inevitably means that there are ropes everywhere!

An hour before that Nicky had had a chat with Innamorata II, Scoot and Zwailer on the SSB.  Even Grace of Longstone checked in from back at Beaufort.  All was going well but Zwailer was having an uncomfortable time crossing the Gulf Stream much further north.  Looks like our plan to sail 90 miles south to get a smoother Gulf Stream crossing was a good one because our seas are very slight.

Single reefed main and poled out genoa – our favourite downwind rig

Our new track should stay the same for several days. We've decided to take a traditional course to Antigua from the US E coast, aiming for a point a few hundred miles southeast of Bermuda and then turning south towards Antigua.  That will put a lot onto the passage mileage, but we hope that it will mean that we can actually make our intended destination.  If we go on too much of a direct routing, we think that when the easterly trade winds re-establish themselves next week it is likely to be too much of a battle into wind to get as far east as Antigua and we'd have to divert to the BVIs. However, the weather systems coming up make it hard to work out exactly how southeasterly or easterly a track we should take to that area south of Bermuda.  There's a high pressure building out from the coast of the US on Friday.  On our current track (approx 126degM) the forecasts have this high enveloping us, bringing 2 days of little wind (and lots of motoring?).  We could stay above it which would mean just one day of light winds but at the end of the weekend we would be at about 30N67W, wanting to turn south to Antigua and facing 15+kt directly on the nose.  However, on our current track at the end of the weekend (assuming that we motored through the light airs) we would be in an area where the winds would be much more favourable for heading on to Antigua.  The questions are: is it cheating to motor through the high pressure area; and how accurate do we think the weekend forecast is?  Nothing is very clear and the forecast winds are changing on every prediction.  We'll probably just end up playing it out as it comes.

Despite being at sea, Nicky rustled up a fabulous garlic shrimp supper

These huge shrimp were a leaving present from Dianne Tetreault, the
Beaufort OCC Port Officer, because she knew that, to our
disappointment, the shrimp boats hadn’t gone out because
of the bad weather whilst we were in Beaufort

During the day and early evening we had anything from 15-25 knots of wind from the port quarter which made for comfortable sailing at 7-8knots.  Shortly before midnight the wind became more northerly and increased a bit, so we had to reduce the genoa but continued to hurtle along somewhat faster than is entirely consistent with comfort.  Still, we're making good progress it will be interesting to see how we have got on compared with the others when we radio in our positions at 8am.

Love to all,

Reg and Nicky

Passage statistics:

Position at midday 20 Nov: N33 00 W076 07

Position at midnight 20 Nov: N32 21 W074 41

1740hrs to midday distance: 118 nautical miles

Midnight to midnight distance: 164 nautical miles

Total miles covered:  201 nautical miles

Approximate distance to go (direct line to English Harbour Antigua): 1157 nautical miles

End of Day 2 - Beaufort North Carolina to Antigua