End of Day 12 Beaufort NC USA towards Guernsey

This Blog entry is an edited version of the message we sent back whilst we were on the passage.  The original, without pictures, was sent by radio with a laptop that controls a modem connected to the HF/SSB radio.  With that set up we can contact one of the SailMail stations to send the daily text message to my daughter Charlotte in Guernsey who then forwards it on to a list of family members.

2359hrs (O, GMT -2) Tue 09 Jun 2020

Dear All,

Dawn……

I took over the watch at 0400hrs and it felt cold, the seas were grey [Ed: it was dawn so what else would you expect?!], the cockpit was all wet, a cold wave hit the side of the boat and spray and salt water flew down the companionway hatch.... this is not the Caribbean!  

…..cold, grey and wet

But on a brighter note, when I completed the 0400hrs entry in the log, the distance to go to Guernsey read 1855 nautical miles which puts us at the half way point of the passage.

A small Portuguese Man o' War jellyfish washed onto the deck by a wave during the night and unceremoniously dumped back overboard

The arrival of daylight prompted a check that all was well on deck.  Previously that has involved throwing overboard any flying fish that have flown onto the deck during the night.  Today, however, was a first as I had to throw a small Portuguese Man o' War jellyfish overboard that had been washed onto the deck during the night. 

A much improved outlook – great sailing conditions again

It would appear that the weather complaints service in this bit of the Atlantic is very efficient; when Nicky woke me up at midday for Kafe und Kuchen (coffee and Jamaican ginger cake) the sky was clear and blue and the air was warm (in the mid 20s Celsius) - fabulous!  The seas were still lumpy though, so we ate our Kuchen and drank our Kafe in the shelter of the sprayhood which deflected the spray (and the odd lump of salt water) into the rear of the cockpit, away from us.  As we enjoyed our coffee, we received a message from Johann and Maria on SY Samantha telling us that they had left Beaufort NC this morning heading towards the Azores or possibly, like us, directly towards the English Channel.  We met them in St Martin in December last year and celebrated Christmas with them and Lars and Suzanne (SY Sea Wind).  It'll be interesting to see how their passage compares with ours and hopefully we'll see them in Guernsey as they pass by on their way home to Sweden.

Fast sailing during the afternoon

We have decided to jump a time zone east today.  It's about 300 miles early but, like Governments around the world, we have decided that we would prefer to benefit at the end of the day from the extra daylight we are gaining by moving both east and north.  Dawn's lovely but one of us is asleep in the bunk whereas in the evening we are both up and able to benefit from the added daylight.  So, instead of sunrise at 0400 and sunset at 1930, we'll have both an hour later.  In the longer term, it will also mean that we don't adjust our clocks to Z/UTC/GMT and then, almost immediately to A/BST (though it'd have been worse had our destination been France when the jump would have been from Z/UTC/GMT to B/CEST).

Sunsights on a rolling deck

Nicky spent some more time taking sun sights this morning and will, at some stage, do the sums bit and work out how accurately she can take a fix on a rocking and rolling yacht.

A nice afternoon’s sailing.  Even the lumpy sea calmed down later in the day

The weather charts show that there is about to be a period of strong northerly winds in the sea area between the Azores and western Europe, so our routing is about to get interesting as we try to work a path to bypass that [Ed: for which read 'work our way through', which is probably a more accurate term!].  Horta is still an option for us but it doesn't really make sense for us now to sail ~700nm to the east south east from here to stop there.  But we'll be talking daily on the OCC Atlantic West to East HF/SSB radio net to yachts that are currently stuck in Horta so it will be interesting to see how they deal with their routing back to Europe.  We suspect that they will be stuck in the Azores for quite a few more days to come.

No green flash tonight either due to cloud obscuring the sunset

Love to all,

Reg and Nicky

Passage statistics:

Position at midday 09 Jun: N40 40 W43 37

Position at midnight 09 Jun: N41 21 W42 10

Midday to midday distance through water: 174 nautical miles (average 7.25 knots).

Midday to midday GPS distance towards destination: 157 nautical miles

Midnight to midnight distance through water (23 hrs due hour change): 168 nautical miles (average 7.3 knots)

Midnight to midnight GPS distance towards destination (23 hrs due hour change): 159 nautical miles

Total miles covered through water: 1942 nautical miles

Approximate distance to go (GPS route to Guernsey): 1728 nautical miles

End of Day 12 Beaufort, North Carolina, USA towards Guernsey