End of Day 25 Beaufort NC USA towards Guernsey

This Blog entry is an edited version of the message we intended to send back whilst we were on the passage.  Unfortunately the laptop we use to work with the modem connected to the HF/SSB radio failed on 13 June so we had no way of sending it at the time it was written.

2359hrs (A, BST, GMT+1) Mon 22 Jun 2020

Dear All,

The morning dawned bright and clear and again the day remained that way.  Blue skies, bright sunshine, a good 15 knots of wind from the southwest and BV bustling along at 7-8 knots doing her best to get us to Ushant before the wind dies.  It doesn’t get much better than that!

Dolphins visiting us in the morning… honest… lots of them

And we had visits from dolphins.  Lots of them….. both lots of visits and lots of dolphins.  In fact, it seemed as if we had dolphins with us all day.  However, my camera is colloquially known as ‘the dolphin scarer’.  Every time I bring it out to try to take some pictures of dolphins, they vanish.  So these are the best shots that we got in the morning.  You’ll just have to take our word for it that the dolphins were there and were a pretty active bunch.

The sea has suddenly got busy…

Not the best photo but it does show Nicky’s ship
dodging antics [Ed: which makes it look as if I totally
 irresponsibly cut just in front of the ship.  In fact, I cross the
 ship’s projected track probably 10nm in front of her bow]

We’ve spent the day working our way northeast towards the southern end of the inshore traffic zone, just to the east of the Off Ushant Traffic Separation scheme.  For much of the day, this track was essentially the reciprocal of the obvious routing for freighters coming the other way aiming for the west of Spain and Portugal.  Needless to say, the AIS display has been alive with traffic all day and we’ve had to spend our watches monitoring things closely and dodging ships far more than we have had to previously during the passage [Ed: or, indeed, for most of the past 3 years since leaving European waters].

… and busier still as we got closer to Ushant

At midday we put the clocks forward for a final time and are now on A or BST (British Summer Time).  Guernsey is starting to feel very close now.  However, as I write, the wind is dying and we have had to switch the engine on to maintain a decent course and speed amongst the heavy shipping.  Nicky spoke to Chris Parker for the final time this evening and he confirmed that the wind would be very light tonight and until tomorrow afternoon and then he expects the wind to pick up to 10-15 knots from the east-northeast, directly on the nose for our final leg between Ushant and Guernsey.  Suddenly Guernsey feels quite a long way away!

Our dolphin escorts.  They stayed with us all afternoon and evening

We’ve known since before we left Beaufort NC that Guernsey was the first part of the British Isles to become free of Covid-19.  But without email comms it’s difficult for us to get a definitive answer on the self-isolation policy which will be in force when we arrive [Ed: that’s to say, in general there is a requirement for arrivals on island to undergo a 14-day self-isolation period after arrival.  But we have been self-isolating on board for the past 25 days so we’re hoping that our time at sea will count as our arrival self-isolation complete.  At the moment though we have no confirmation one way or the other.]  Though we may not have email comms, we were able to use the HF/SSB radio to speak to Hagen on SY Salmon, currently on a mooring at St Pierre, a small French island off the south coast of Newfoundland.  Hagen has been told by a work colleague with a good contact in Guernsey’s Department of Public Health that time on passage will count towards the 2-week self-isolation period.  Clearly, we’ll need confirmation of this when we arrive but looks like logic will prevail and we may be able to put BV in a marina and go straight back into normal life on island, which would be fabulous.  Weather from Florida, Guernsey self-isolation policy updates from Newfoundland; it’s a small world when you’ve got a good SSB radio on board!

The sunset was looking so promising….

… but again, cloud on the horizon scuppered the chance of us seeing a green flash as the last of the sun dipped below the horizon

Love to all,

Reg and Nicky

Passage statistics:

Position at midday 22 Jun: N47 15 W007 45

Position at midnight 22 Jun: N47 49 W006 23

Midday to midday distance through water: 144 nautical miles (average 6.0 knots).

Midday to midday GPS distance towards destination: 147 nautical miles

Midnight to midnight distance through water (23 hours due clock change): 152 nautical miles (average 6.6 knots)

Midnight to midnight GPS distance towards destination (23 hours due clock change): 151 nautical miles

Total miles covered through water: 3860 nautical miles

Approximate distance to go (GPS route to Guernsey): 183 nautical miles

End of Day 25 Beaufort, North Carolina, USA towards Guernsey