BVIs towards the Cayman Islands End of Day 2

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 my daughter Charlotte and she then forwarded them on to a list of family members.

2359hrs (AST, GMT-4) 16 Jan 2020

Dear All,

Dawn with BV on Port gybe

The first big event of the day was gybing onto a westerly heading shortly after breakfast.  We'll be heading west for the next couple of hundred miles and will then turn right slightly to follow the southern coastline of Haiti, displaced 10 to 50nm off.  The game plan for us is to steadily tick off the miles heading west whilst we watch the forecast for when we need to turn into the gap between Haiti and Jamaica.  At the moment, our average speeds are reasonable so we are on our timeline, we'll just have to see how the weather develops.

Sail plan after the morning’s ‘big event’ gybe

The wind remained pretty steady at around 20 knots until mid-afternoon, so we maintained the same sail plan (2 reefs in the main and the genoa) until the decreasing wind meant we needed to gradually increase sail.  The second big event of the day came at sunset when, due to the wind backing to the southeast, we needed to gybe back onto port tack to maintain our (approximately) westerly track.

During the morning's sail adjustments I found that 3 flying fish had met their demise on the foredeck overnight. We're disturbing a few live ones every now and then as we sail along but they are just too quick and small to catch a photograph of them; fun to watch though as they skim over the waves, often flying over 100 metres.

A short film showing our very civilised downwind sailing.

The sea has really calmed down during the morning

Nicky made a carrot and cumin soup for lunch to use up some of our less fresh vegetables.   She served it with garlic and rosemary croutons made from one of my less successful loaves.  It was good rich warming soup, not exactly what you would expect to be eating for lunch with the air temperature around 29 degrees Celsius but very tasty nonetheless.

There's not a lot of traffic out here.  We've been passed by a couple of tankers and seen one other sailing yacht which is a bit of a contrast from the BVIs which was crammed with charter sailing yachts, particularly catamarans, which now seem to be the favoured style of yacht in the charter fleets.

And.....that's all the news for today.  Nothing too exciting, which is how we like it.

Love to all,

Reg and Nicky 

Passage statistics:

Position at midday 16 Jan: N17 16 W66 54

Position at midnight 16 Jan: N17 13 W68 08

1335hrs to midday distance: 152 nautical miles (average 6.8 knots)

Midnight to midnight distance: 162 nautical miles (average 6.8knots)

Total miles covered:  240 nautical miles

Approximate distance to go (direct line to Cayman Brac): 685 nautical miles

BVIs towards the Cayman Islands, End of Day 2