End of Day 4 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) 22 Nov 2019

Dear All,

Well the good news is that the daytime temperature is up at 27 degrees Celsius, so it's definitely shorts, T-shirts and flip-flops weather. The bad news is that the weather is a mess for our intended route.

Motoring gently to maintain progress away from the high pressure no wind area

We lost the wind completely at 0400hrs and started motoring gently to try to get on the eastern side of the high pressure which is developing just south of us. On yesterday's forecast that would have worked out nicely but the new forecast shows that the high pressure just seems to be following the route that we want to take; if that happens then there could be an awful lot of motoring on this passage!

The picture of Tropical Storm Sebastian on Tuesday when we left.  The latest news has it following the curve up to the ENE and accelerating towards Europe

Tropical Storm Sebastian is about 900 miles to our southeast and the latest prediction has that moving ENE at 13 knots and accelerating so there is more chance of the UK feeling the effects of Sebastian than us.

Pork stew production

Taking advantage of the morning's benign conditions, I cooked up a big stew in anticipation of our sailing again from this evening though, with the latest forecast, having 'ready meals' in the fridge seems to be much less of a requirement.  However, the portions of stew will fill the fridge and I only ever seem to catch fish when the fridge is full, so I'm trailing a fishing line in anticipation of a big catch.

In the end we motored for 9 hours and 20 mins
before we could start sailing again

More mundane morning activities included showers (because standing up in the shower is easier when the boat isn't being thrown around) and then running the watermaker to fill up the tanks.  We've used about 80 litres of water so far on this passage and running the watermaker for an hour replenished all of that.

At 1300hrs there was just enough wind to start sailing again. Initially there was only enough to creep along at 3-4 knots, but from 1700hrs we've been able to make 5-6 knots; long may that continue!

We didn't catch any fish today but we may have caught something on the outside of the boat.  We can hear a tapping and a bit of a rattle from around the area ahead of the propeller.  I guess that at some time tomorrow we'll have to stop BV, dive over the side and see if we have caught some fishing gear.  We don't want to run the engine again until we have checked because fishing line can quickly wrap itself around the prop shaft, damage the cutlass bearing and melt into a really difficult to remove blob of plastic.

In the run up to midnight we were able to keep sailing on our new southeasterly course.  The speed varied from 4-7 knots but more often around 5knots so we kept moving, which is good, plus it stopped the sails from slatting and shaking the rig which they had being doing all morning.  Either turning the propshaft backwards by hand or perhaps the faster periods of sailing seems to have released whatever was caught under the hull because the tapping has gone.  We'll keep monitoring that but try to do a proper underwater check when we next lose the wind.

Love to all,

Reg and Nicky

Passage statistics:

Position at midday 22 Nov: N31 56 W70 37

Position at midnight 22 Nov: N31 25 W69 39

Midday to midday distance: 146 nautical miles

Midnight to midnight distance: 134 nautical miles

Total miles covered:  471 nautical miles

Approximate distance to go (direct line): 966 nautical miles

End of Day 4 - Beaufort North Carolina to Antigua