Fort Lauderdale towards Beaufort NC 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 (EDT, GMT -4) 21 May 2020

Dear All,

Taking pictures at night on a moving boat is mostly not terribly successful.  However, I felt that I should at least TRY to get a picture of the lightning illuminating some of the immense build-up of cloud

Last night was dominated by trying to keep clear of 2 very unpleasant looking thunderstorms.  Lightning flashed on the one behind us every 5-10 seconds and it was really difficult to tell if it was catching us up.  We stowed all of our computers in the oven (it's effectively a Farraday cage) and disconnected aerials to try to keep some form of electronic navigation and communication gear available to us in case we were struck by lightning. We reduced sail area and tried to sail the angles to let the storm pass off to our side, which I'm pleased to say that it did.  Nicky had a similar experience on her night watch with an equally aggressive looking storm cell ahead of us on our track.  That was dodged with a heading change.

Sitting near the top of the swell…….

Come dawn the wind had completely dropped off and, sadly, somewhere along the way, we had come out of the Gulf Stream so we were no longer getting that nice push forward.  Between setting off from Fort Lauderdale and midnight the Gulf Stream had advanced us an amazing 48 miles.  So, as we continued under motor power, we debated the time benefits of sailing 20 miles further west to gain the extra speed from the Gulf Stream versus the extra distance we'd need to sail to come back towards Beaufort NC.  In the end we decided that we should continue as we were and not divert northwest.  But we still monitored the sea temperature carefully to see if we were getting back into the edge of the stream; the sea temperature where we were had dropped to 27.9 degrees Celsius whereas it's about 28.5 degrees in the Gulf Stream.  Each 0.1 degree increase in sea temperature through the afternoon brought the possibility that we'd get that speed boost again.

……and sitting rather lower down on the swell.  The height of the swell was around 3m

Coming at us from the northeast is quite a swell which we think is coming from Tropical Storm Arthur.  When we have checked in on our long range SSB radio we have heard reports from some yachts on the edge of Arthur; one reporting a ripped mainsail and needing to do lots of bailing.  We might be needing to motor, and are not quite heading towards Guernsey yet, but we are pretty happy to be where we are and not out being battered by Arthur which, if we had rushed to set off transatlantic, we might well have been.

Love to all,

Reg and Nicky

Passage statistics:

Position at midday 21 May: N29 36 W79 36

Position at midnight 21 May: N30 25 W79 11

Midday to midday distance: 154 nautical miles (average 6.4 knots)

Midnight to midnight distance: 157 nautical miles (average 6.5 knots)

Total miles covered:  244 nautical miles

Approximate distance to go (GPS route to Beaufort NC): 291 nautical miles

End of Day 2 Fort Lauderdale towards Beaufort North Carolina, USA