End of Day 8 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) Fri 5 Jun 2020

Dear All,

The first night watches of this 24 hrs were lit brightly by an almost full very orange moon…

At 0915EDT we had been at sea for a full 7 days and its been another good sailing day, which is great news. Georgina's been keeping BV on track nicely, which has meant that we've been able to do boat jobs - there's always stuff to do on board!  This morning Nicky emptied out most of the aft cabin and gave the woodwork in there a really good clean with a dilute bleach solution to try to kill off the light mould growth which had started to take hold.  Surface mould is a perennial problem on boats in the tropics - a nice warm, humid environment without a good throughflow of air.  Cabin clean, she rebuilt the storage (boxes of food and kit - think the spare room at home!) and had a bit of a sort through, digging out the spare oilies and the fleece mid-layers for later use in the Western Approaches and the English Channel if it gets wetter and much colder and putting into 'deep' storage snorkelling kit, wetsuits and boat covers that we only use when at anchor.  In the afternoon, I tidied up the fraying ends of a couple of lines that had taken the brunt of some of the seas and also remade the lashings on the anchor which had started to loosen, also under the continued dousing by the waves.  

The wind has gradually reduced all day and started to veer this morning, so much so that by midday we decided that the time had come to alter course to Chris' 100degT (115degM) to make some southing whilst still tracking east.  There are 3 reasons for this:  Firstly, continuing too much further north is more likely to put us in the firing line of the strongest winds along the cold front which is coming off the eastern seaboard over the next day or so and which is likely to catch us up on Wed 10 Jun.  Secondly, as the front approaches, the wind will become more southerly.  Reducing our latitude now means that when the wind backs we will have some space in which we can bear off away from the wind, keeping a more comfortable sailing angle whilst hopefully not going so far north that we get into the region of the strongest winds on the front (see reason (1) above).  And, thirdly, heading a little south of due east puts us on a slightly faster sailing angle to the wind, so we should make faster progress east.  The obvious question, of course, is why go east-northeast to then head east-southeast, rather than just heading east from the get-go?  Well, the other big issue is an area of high pressure that has been building to our east.  Had we headed directly east from the outset we would likely have ended up in a large area of light winds and would not have made anything like the progress east through that high pressure that we have by going around it.  That's the theory, anyway and, so far, it seems to be working.  Long may that continue!  Having said which, the wind is reducing and we seem to be heading into a slight adverse current at the moment.  If the wind drops too light we will need to motor for a bit to keep up the speed in our bid to head east.  Chris' target was to make 45W by Wed 10.  At our current SOG (speed over the ground) that's looking quite tight but if the wind stays as it is and the seas continue to calm down (as they are) we will probably look to hoist the MPS (asymmetric spinnaker) tomorrow, which will do wonders for our speed.  Failing that, we can always deploy the iron topsail (switch on the engine).  I guess we'll see what tomorrow brings...... 

… and, similarly, the last night watches of this 24 hrs were lit brightly by a very full moon, which was, again, very orange in colour

Love to all,

Reg and Nicky

Passage statistics:

Position at midday 05 Jun: N37 46 W55 33

Position at midnight 05 Jun: N37 36 W54 09

Midday to midday distance through water: 174 nautical miles (average 7.2 knots).

Midday to midday GPS distance towards destination: 163.2 nautical miles

Midnight to midnight distance through water: 170 nautical miles (average 7.1 knots)

Midnight to midnight GPS distance towards destination: 157 nautical miles

Total miles covered through water: 1284 nautical miles

Approximate distance to go (GPS route to Guernsey): 2469 nautical miles

End of Day 8 Beaufort, North Carolina, USA towards Guernsey