End of Day 7 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 (EDT, GMT -4) Thu 4 Jun 2020

Dear All,

That’ll explain why the DuoGen suddenly stopped
 charging the batteries at 1am!  Fortunately,
 the rope, which had been floating in the sea,
was easy to clear and did no damage

The sea state has changed markedly overnight.  The swell was coming from behind us but it was quite short, add in the waves and it made for a slightly rolly ride with the odd rogue wave coming in from our beam.  Now the swell has a much longer wavelength so BV is still moving about but it's a much gentler motion.

Georgina, our indefatigable 3^rd crewmember is hard at work, but out of sight in this picture

Rather than surfing down short steep waves, BV's now surfing down a shallower angled slope.  It all feels much more relaxed and the motion is more predictable which makes moving about the boat much easier.

Whether or not it would pass muster on the Great British Bake-Off (it certainly wouldn’t in terms of the time it takes), I was rather pleased with the way my first loaf of this passage turned out
 [Ed: and rightly so; it was delicious!]

That easier motion also makes more complex things in the galley possible, so homemade bread production has started [Ed: Just as well as we finished our last shop-bought loaf this morning].  We also produced a nice chicken chow mein for dinner which we wouldn't have attempted in the previous lumpy sea conditions.

Fabulous sailing conditions

We have had grand sailing conditions today, pretty perfect downwind ocean sailing with blue skies and very little cloud.  The wind will die off at some stage soon but in the meantime we have been trying to make as much progress as we can on Chris Parker's suggested routing.  We are 115 miles short of his N38 W055 waypoint at midnight and will turn to track east when we get there or earlier if the wind veers.  After the turn we will keep going on an easterly track, perhaps slightly south of east (to keep clear of the strong frontal winds), over the weekend and then refining the plan to try to pick the right time for turning more northerly to track towards the Azores.  Whether or not we actually stop in the Azores we don't yet know.  Most yachts stop there to get more food and fuel; we haven't planned to stop and Nicky seems to have provisioned the boat to continue ever eastwards ... maybe to Turkey or to Scandinavia or perhaps just to do an anticlockwise circuit of Britain and Ireland as a final hurrah before making home port!  That might just use up all the food we have on board.  More seriously, if there's no need to stop in the Azores then we will probably just keep going, particularly as, at present, we would not be permitted ashore or to cruise the islands (though things may change in the coming days).  However, if the weather is not looking favourable to continue northeast as we approach the archipelago, or if we think we need to pick up additional diesel, or if we're just fed up with sailing ever onwards, then we reserve the right to change our minds and make a stop, probably in Horta.

Portuguese Man o' War

We had a brief visit from a pod of dolphins just before lunch but they were camera shy and disappeared as soon as I had dug out my camera.  We have also passed a lot of Portuguese Man o' War, which is a bit different.  And on the subject of good news, the air temperature has increased markedly.  So we're back to wearing shorts and T-shirts by day which is lovely and much more as we had hoped would be the case on this part of the passage.

All in all, it's going very well aboard BV at the moment.

Love to all,

Reg and Nicky

Passage statistics:

Position at midday 04 Jun: N36 43 W058 43

Position at midnight 04 Jun: N37 16 W057 14

Midday to midday distance through water: 178 nautical miles (average 7.4 knots).

Midday to midday GPS distance towards destination: 190.5 nautical miles

Midnight to midnight distance through water: 171.9 nautical miles (average 7.2 knots)

Midnight to midnight GPS distance towards destination: 178.5 nautical miles

Total miles covered through water: 1114.8 nautical miles

Approximate distance to go (GPS route to Guernsey): 2611 nautical miles

End of Day 7 Beaufort, North Carolina, USA towards Guernsey