End of Day 10 - Caribbean towards Chesapeake

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 Charlotte and she then forwarded them on to a list of family members.

1300 (AST, GMT-4) 16 May 2018

Dear All,

We are finally here.  Here is Deltaville, billed as the sailing centre for Richmond VA.  It's a small bay tucked miles up in Chesapeake Bay and we picked it because it looked like a beautiful place to spend a few days [Ed: and, on a more prosaic note, these is a large West Marine chandlery, laundry, and food shops close by.]

We managed to get ourselves into Chesapeake without being run down by any of the US Navy aircraft carriers or their support ships who were exercising in the area, nor did we bump into any of the many freighters heading in and out of the 2 entrances into the bay.

Approaching Chesapeake tunnel bridge

It then took what seemed an age to get to Deltaville, but then it was another 30 miles to go after the Chesapeake tunnel bridge. We got an arrival welcome from some dolphins….

Wolf Trap Light (left) and anchored ships awaiting orders

… and passed a multitude of ships riding high and anchored in the shallow water of Chesapeake, awaiting orders. We too needed to take care as there are lots of shoal banks we could have run aground on. Wolf Trap Light was a useful marker to avoid the shallows inshore of it.

Our anchorage was behind Stove Point (R) though a winding channel

As we started to final couple of miles the heavens opened. Reduced visibility from the rain didn’t help in navigating our way through the windy entrance channel. But we could see clearly enough to spot the nice houses on Stove Point.

Entering Fishing Bay where we eventually anchored

We dropped anchor at 1300hrs having arrived in the rain, so not the best showing of the place, plus it is very quiet because it is barely the beginning of the sailing season here. It is going to be interesting exploring ashore but from what we have read we should be able to easily find the essentials very quickly.  Enjoy the backlog of blog posts when we get to a suitably large and fast internet connection.

Reg and Nicky

Passage statistics:
Position at midday 16 May: N37 31 W76 16
Position at 1300 16 May: N37 32 W76 20
Midday to midday distance: 156.3 nautical miles
Total miles covered: 1325 nautical miles
Approximate distance to go: Zero Hurrah!!!

End of Day 10 - Caribbean towards Chesapeake

End of Day 9 - Caribbean towards Chesapeake

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 Charlotte and she then forwarded them on to a list of family members.

2359 (AST, GMT-4) 15 May 2018

Dear All,

The loaf was described as 'small but perfectly formed' and I even got the equivalent of a Paul Hollywood handshake, so I think we can regard yesterday's bread making as a success.

I'm writing this part of the update at 10am. Nicky is off watch asleep, we've got 115 miles to go to the entrance to Chesapeake and BV is sailing along beautifully with 15 knots of wind on the beam. We are going around 7 1/4 knots but we are getting a bit of help from the Gulf Stream, so our GPS has us moving a knot faster. We know that we are in the Gulf Stream because the sea temperature has risen to 27 degrees Celcius. Our autopilot computer has calculated the stream as north easterly at just over 3 knots and, with the angle we are crossing, some of that flow is helping us along.

An hour ago we sailed north of the 35 north line of latitude so we have complied with our insurance company's requirement to be above that by 1 June and Cape Hatteras, the nearest bit of the USA to us, has now shown up on our chart plotter so we are clearly making progress. If we continue as we are ,we should arrive in port tomorrow. The 115 miles to go is to the start of the entrance channel to Chesapeake. At that point we'll need to pilot our way through one of the busiest shipping channels in the USA before sailing on another 30 miles within the Chesapeake Bay before we drop anchor.

The AIS shows a dotted line for predicted track of the large ships and BV, on the end of the pink line, also has a predicted track, which helps considerably in working out how to keep us clear of the commercial shipping

All seems to be going well.  There is a lot more shipping to monitor in this area, mostly huge ones over 1000ft long.  Whilst according to the rules they should keep clear of sailing vessels like us, tens of thousands of tons of ship doesn't stop or manoeuvre very quickly so we tend to work on the premise of us keeping clear of them. The only other concern is the number of very large cumulus clouds with nasty black rain storms underneath them marching along the Gulf Stream.  So far, we seemed to have managed to pass between them but there's one just to the left ahead of us that is starting to affect the wind and I think that will definitely get us.  Rain jacket is to hand!

Well, that wasn't as wet or windy as I had expected it to be and we were just clipped by the back end of the rain cell, however it has messed up our wind direction. Even close hauled we were heading well right of track and the GPS had us at over 10 knots for most of the time as we were going with the Gulf Stream.  We are only just getting back pointing towards the entrance to Chesapeake as it's time to wake Nicky up for her watch.

It's now the first night watch. When I went off watch for an afternoon kip the sea was a deep blue and it was warm enough to just be wearing shorts. I woke up a few hours later and we had passed through the Gulf Stream. The sea has gone grey/green and it is now only 18 degrees Celsius, not quite the 28 degrees seas we've been used to for the last few months. I've also got trousers on for the first time in months and my trusty flip flops have been traded for socks and shoes - Caribbean cruising is officially over for this part of the year!

However, we have been making excellent progress. So much so that we are changing our length of night watches tonight so that we are both up for the entrance into Chesapeake. We should be doing that at around 2am tomorrow and then will get to the anchorage at breakfast time. This should, therefore, be the last on-passage report we send but we will put out a message when we are safely at anchor.

Just a final big thank you to Charlotte to covering the BV communication control but for us, even though she is maniacally busy in the last couple of weeks before her finals.  Good job!

Hope it's been of interest tracking our progress and if it was then look out for lots of blog entries being posted as soon as we can find a bar with internet.

Reg and Nicky

Passage statistics:
Position at midday 15 May: N35 25 W74 34
Position at 2359 15 May: N36 34 W75 34
Midday to midday distance: 159 nautical miles
Midnight to Midnight distance: 164 nautical miles (one of our best 24 hr runs to date)
Total miles covered: 1246 nautical miles
Approximate distance to go: 17 nautical miles (plus about an extra 40 miles o get into Chesapeake and on to our anchorage)

End of Day 9 - Caribbean towards Chesapeake

End of Day 8 - Caribbean towards Chesapeake

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 Charlotte and she then forwarded them on to a list of family members.

2359 (AST, GMT-4) 14 May 2018

Dear All,

Thank you for all your whistling! The wind eventually arrived in the early hours of Monday morning and with great relief we switched off the engine at 0540AST.  The peace and quiet was bliss!

Since around lunchtime we've been stonking along at about 6.5knots through the water, pushed along by a lovely 13knots south-southwesterly breeze. We've also got about a knot of push from a helpful current so, overall we're making about 7.5knots towards our destination. And the sun has been shining all day on a beautiful blue sea - life is good.

I have been chef today and, with our bread supplies running low, I made the first loaf of our passage. Clearly, from my perspective it is a masterpiece that would grace the shop window of any boulangerie in Paris. However, we shall have to see how the self-elected judge of the Great BV Bake-off assesses it at breakfast. Standby for a full report on her response tomorrow.

Hi All, Nicky here now. The chef's asleep leaving me with the update and, as the saying goes, whilst the cat's away the mice will play and I'm getting bored with writing backlog blog entries!

Since Reg started talking about bread, I'll continue the food theme.  Feel free to ignore this and skip to the vital statistics for the day but it is something I'd like to record for the blog and our future reference.  As you can imagine, food is one of the long distance sailor's main topics of interest.  Well, that and the continued correct functioning of the marine heads (toilet) - not topics to mix in the same blog post!

So, what have we been eating on board for the past 8 days or so?  We provisioned in Culebra which probably wasn't the best place to provision but certainly wasn't the worst.  And we already had a lot of good store cupboard stuff on board so that made things quite easy.  One of the supermarkets in the town has an excellent butchery department, so we bought a kilo of minced beef and a whole chicken and we already had some pork loin on board which we had bought in St Croix and vacuum packed. Fresh fruit and veg were my real concern, particularly as the American VIs way is to heavily refrigerate fresh food, but the veggies have all lasted surprisingly well, given that they were virtually frozen when I bought them!

Before we set off, Reg did a mammoth cook-in and conjured up a large bolognaise sauce and pork casserole and a one meal chicken in white wine sauce (we used the brown chicken meat in that dish and vacuum packed the breasts). This meant that we had the makings of at least 7 meals for the passage.  We keep the food going en route by rotating which sauce we cook each day, and by making sure that we cook all of, say, the bolognaise, even if we only eat a small amount of it.

Breakfasts underway are mostly fruit and yoghurt followed by bread and jam/Nutella/marmite.  We started off with a watermelon which lasted us for 4 breakfasts. Now we're onto apples and oranges, supplemented by some tinned fruit for variety.  We also have porridge on board for those cooler mornings at sea (bought in Gibraltar and not used yet!) and I snuck some maple syrup on board to liven up the porridge as well as some bacon and eggs which could be used for 'treat' breakfasts or the makings of lunch (BLT, egg sandwiches...).  As we're only 8 days in and the weather's been good, treat meals aren't really required yet.

Lunches are leftover main meals or sandwiches or wraps. We set off with leftover pasta, broccoli and cheese bake (one lunch) and leftover Spanish omelette (2 lunches with salad on the side). Then we started on the wraps.... I've found these invaluable.  They seem to last forever (let's not ask about the ingredients list!) and with a little mayo and/or mustard sauce smeared on, you can add any combination of cheese, tinned tuna/mackerel, dried sausage and salad/coleslaw and make a tasty lunch which, mostly, won't dissolve if a huge wave drowns the cockpit at an inconvenient time.  I did buy some baked beans in Gibraltar which made for some very easy ‘emergency’ lunches but those are now long gone. I also have plenty of tinned tomatoes on board and white beans so if it gets colder there are options for tomato soup and butternut squash soup too. (Butternut squash, like cabbage is fab as it lasts forever!).

Dinners we've sort of already mentioned but that's not the full picture.

Day 1: I cooked pasta bolognaise. BV was on her ear rather as we rushed along with the wind on the beam and a bit of a sea running.  First day out and not such great cooking conditions, this is exactly what those pre-prepared meals are designed for. My mistake was to trial cooking the pasta in part seawater and part fresh.  I had no need to as we had loads of fresh water on board but other long-distance sailors recommend it to save water so I thought I'd give it a go.  Verdict: thumbs down.  Far too salty for my palette and it rather ruined the meal for me.

Day 2: Reg cooked the pork casserole with pasta and broccoli.  Nothing fancy for all the same reasons as Day 1. A good meal.  Just before he served, we got a small fish on the line. Reg gutted it and popped it in a box in the fridge for....

....Day 3: I turned the fish into fish and chips (and broccoli).  The chips or as we call them 'Áheat's chips' are chunks of potato, fried from raw in a non-stick frying pan. We use a tin foil lid to start with and then finish off browning them without the lid.  And, as a piece de resistance, I made tartar sauce (mayo with chopped cornichons/gherkins and capers).  As you may have guessed, by day 3 sailing conditions were a lot calmer than previously!

Day 4:  Reg caught a Skipjack tuna so, in a break from tradition, we had tuna carpaccio for lunch and then enormous tuna steaks and garlic mash for dinner.  Mmmm-mmm. The remaining 4+kg of tuna fillet we vacuum packed.  Perhaps I'll use some tomorrow.

Day 5:  Needing to do stuff with down some of the pre-prepped food, I heated the pork casserole and the chicken as well as all the bolognaise and used some of the latter to make a lasagne.  Admittedly, a lasagne with layers of pasta twists rather than sheets of lasagne (I had forgotten to buy a replacement pack of lasagne) but it worked well nonetheless. And, yes, it was calm enough to make a béchamel sauce!

Day 6:  Reg reprised the pork casserole.  This time with potatoes and the addition of chilli flakes in the casserole. And he used up the last of the courgette too.

Day 7:  I added some rehydrated dried mushrooms and a little UHT cooking cream to the chicken in white wine sauce and served it with a mixture of basmati and wild rice.  The UHT cream is another thing that has lasted from the Canaries.  I bought half a dozen small pots there (they keep in the store locker) as they had the most amazingly long shelf life. Whatever they've done to it so that it lasts on the shelf, it works even when the pot's open. We actually opened the pot that I used on Sunday a good 2 weeks ago and it's still absolutely fine!

Day 8 (tonight):  Reg reprised the pork casserole (again) this time adding Worcestershire sauce, tomato puree and some herbs to make it taste entirely different. He also added the last of the aubergine and some green peppers and served it with pasta and the end result was absolutely nothing like the enormous pork casserole that sat cooling on deck 9 days ago.  It was just as tasty, just hugely different.

Our 'problem' now is that we have far too much food in the fridge and only (probably) 2 more nights at sea. Tomorrow we may have burritos or maybe I'll do something with the tuna - perhaps in wraps too.  On the plus side, since we have already cleared customs into the USA in Puerto Rico so we don't need to worry about finishing all the fresh fruit, veg and meat before we arrive (or hurling it over the side 25nm out). That would be a total waste of Sammy the Skipjack and if that were a concern, well, maybe we'd have to think about slowing down and staying out here for, ooh, another week or so, so that we could eat it all before we arrive!

There is a lot more that I could say about food and provisioning but that's more than enough for now, if only because otherwise this will take ages to send on our very slow HF radio link. And, as BV's buzzing along nicely under sail, I suppose I should take some interest in things outside.  Long may this breeze continue!

Reg and Nicky

Passage statistics:
Position at midday 14 May: N33 03 W72 51
Position at 2359 14 May: N34 18 W73 46
Midday to midday distance: 130 nautical miles
Midnight to Midnight distance: 144 nautical miles
Total miles covered: 1083 nautical miles
Approximate distance to go: 178 nautical miles

End of Day 8 - Caribbean towards Chesapeake

End of Day 7 - Caribbean towards Chesapeake

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 Charlotte and she then forwarded them on to a list of family members.

2359 (AST, GMT-4) 13 May 2018

Dear All,

Temporary repair with red self-amalgamating tape

So, it has been another day of motoring - we're now up to 52 1/2 hours under engine, virtually non-stop. Happily, the water leak had not got significantly worse, but when we sponged out the sump at every watch change as a means of monitoring it, we realised that it was getting slightly worse. As result, at 1300 we shut down the engine for 25 minutes whilst we made a repair. The rubber connection that is leaking is a difficult shape to patch because it is only 8 cm long and is 5 cm in diameter at one end and half that at the other.

It's not a very elegant repair but the offending connector has now been wrapped in thick self amalgamating tape. We did the best that we could, given that it is butted up close to other bits of the engine, and so far we seem to have stopped the leak completely.

The wind has remained very light and variable (as per the forecast) and reality seems to back up the weather model which shows the windless area to be quite extensive.  Mike and Cate on Kealoha V reported this morning that they too were motoring but that they had been fortunate with the wind yesterday (Sat) and had only needed to start the engine at 2100 that evening. We have enough fuel in the main tanks to be able to motor until about lunchtime on Wednesday and then we also have another 120 litres (about 36 hours worth) in jerry cans on deck. So it's not desperate yet but, for lots of reasons, not least the expense of burning diesel, we'd much prefer it if the wind filled in. The latest grib files show that we might be able to expect some wind by around lunchtime on Monday but we're not holding our breath on that one yet.

Looking further forward, the forecast winds for our arrival close(ish) to the American coast and entry to the Chesapeake are currently looking less extreme than they did on the previous grib forecast and happily, this agrees with the assessment Chris Parker gave on the HF/SSB on Saturday. Unfortunately but not unreasonably, Chris takes Sunday off from forecasting to grotty yachties, so we will have to wait until Monday morning for his updated pearls of wisdom.

One thing Chris did mention to one of his subscribing yachts was a counter current to the Gulf Stream / circular back eddy centred at about N33 W074. We have certainly seen evidence of this swirling us east (not helpful because it was also slowing us down) and now a bit north (helpful). Hopefully we'll continue to get a useful push from it for a couple more days.

The increasing latitude reading of the lat/long display on the GPS is not the only way that we can tell we're moving onwards. The sea temperature had dropped from 28 degrees down to 23 and the air temperature has become noticeably cooler too. Day rig is still swimming costumes but at night a jacket and shorts are definitely required and when you're on deck for any length of time a fleece is needed too.  The days are getting longer as well.  In the tropics daylight lasts about 12 hours summer or winter.  As we move north dawn is arriving ever earlier and sunset ever later.  Twilight is much longer too.  In the tropics there is a very short twilight period but now we're heading north our twilight periods are definitely on the increase. So much so that we nearly left making dinner until too late last night: Reg's off-watch period started almost as soon as we had finished our meal rather than a comfortable 30mins afterwards.  We're going to have to start looking at our watches again!

Hopefully tomorrow we will be able to report that sailing has actually taken place.

Reg and Nicky

Passage statistics:
Position at midday 13 May: N31 07 W71 15
Position at 2359 13 May: N32 02 W71 59
Midday to midday distance: 129 nautical miles
Midnight to Midnight distance: 131 nautical miles
Total miles covered:  939 nautical miles
Approximate distance to go: 340 nautical miles

End of Day 7 - Caribbean towards Chesapeake

End of Day 6 - Caribbean towards Chesapeake

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 Charlotte and she then forwarded them on to a list of family members.

2359 (AST, GMT-4) 12 May 2018

Dear All,

Well, it has been a day of drama, excitement, and disappointment.

The disappointment has been the wind, or more accurately the lack of it. Since 1800 last night it has stayed at less than 10 knots and mostly at under 5 knots which is just not enough to get BV going. We have therefore been motoring along at low revs only making about 5 knots through the water. Sadly the forecast now shows that we will probably be in this area of no wind for at least another 24 hours. However, it's all a bit uncertain. Chris Parker broadcasts a weather service for the Caribbean, Bahamas and Bermuda areas which we listen to on our SSB/HF radio and he has highlighted that it is difficult to predict exactly what is going to happen because of confused weather off Florida and further north.  Our assessment is that we are going to have another 24 hrs of motoring, then some light wind for a couple of days which might be just enough to get us sailing, and then, quite possibly, much more wind than we would really like as we approach Chesapeake Bay.

The drama started at 0530hrs when I went on deck and heard the engine alarm going off. The first point is that we need to find and fit a much louder alarm because I didn't hear it when I was down below. It's really important because a check on the engine panel showed zero oil pressure and the red low oil pressure warning light was illuminated. Ignoring these for even just a short length of time can result in a seized engine, hence the requirement for a new mega loud warning siren. I switched off the engine, removed the covers and began fault diagnosis with Nicky, who had been asleep off-watch but who was now wide awake.

Nicky's first reaction was to look in the sump under the engine - no oil, therefore, most likely no leak. Great relief.  Also the engine did not feel or show any signs of distress but I did spot that we had sprung a small salt water leak. We have been monitoring a rubber connection on the cooling circuit for the last 2 months because it seems to be a bit perished and we want to change it.  Sadly, we have been unable to find a replacement in the Caribbean.  However, a few weeks ago I tracked down a UK supplier who would to ship a replacement to our friends, Phil and Lesley, who we are on our way to see in Washington, and Lesley has kindly agreed to receive the parts on our behalf. That's great because we have a long term solution but for now we have a salt water cooling water leak of about 1/2 a cup an hour.

It looked like the leak had been dripping onto the electrical connection for the oil pressure sensor.  So, I took that connection apart, cleaned it and made up a new lead and terminal.  Once that was fitted, a test run on the engine showed that we had oil pressure indications again and no warning light. Hooray! So we put the covers back on the engine and continued on our way. From switching the engine off, through fault diagnosis to completed repair all took just 45 minutes which was very pleasing. Nicky went back to bed, because she was off watch, but then appeared again 15 minutes later having had a flash of inspiration.

The leak is close to the hot engine exhaust so we couldn't put anything plastic there to catch the drips or it would melt.  However Nicky wondered if our silicon bread making tin would work as a drip tray.  It didn't because it was too large, however, her next suggestion was to make something up from cooking foil.  That was brilliant idea. So we now have an aluminium foil funnel and pipe that catches the drips and feeds them into the sump under the engine. No more drips of salt water onto the oil pressure sensor! All we need to do now is keep an eye on the water level in the sump and mop it dry every now and then.

The excitement came at 1040hrs when the fishing rod sprang into life and the reel started screaming as the line was pulled out.

 

Once I had finally reeled it in and Nicky had gaff hooked the catch to lift it on board, we discovered that we had caught a nice skipjack tuna.

We bled it and filleted it immediately and so lunch was a glass of white wine with super-fresh tuna carpaccio/sushi with ginger, soy sauce and washabi paste.  We now have a bit under 5 kg of tuna fillet vacuum-packed and in the coldest part of the fridge. So I guess the whole fish must have weighed about 8kg and was about 1 metre long.

For a short while we had a hitchhiker on board

The thick seared tuna fillet steaks that we had for dinner were delicious too.

So, that's it for news from BV for today. Keep whistling for the wind for us and hope that it builds soon (but not too much of it); motoring is tedious!

Reg and Nicky

Passage statistics:
Position at midday 12 May: N29 18 W70 06
Position at 2359 12 May: N30 03 W70 41
Midday to midday distance: 121 nautical miles
Midnight to Midnight distance: 122 nautical miles
Total miles covered:  809 nautical miles
Approximate distance to go: 472 nautical miles

End of Day 6 - Caribbean towards Chesapeake

End of Day 5 - Caribbean towards Chesapeake

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 Charlotte and she then forwarded them on to a list of family members.

2359 (AST, GMT-4) 11 May 2018

Dear All,

As you saw from the stats, yesterday was a slow day and that continued for a lot of the night until Nicky came on watch at 0400. That marked the start of a good period with the wind up at 14knots, which is enough to get BV sailing along at 6-7knots and, more importantly, keep enough pressure on the sails to stop them flopping as the waves pass under us. We seemed to be quite fortunate with that wind because Kealoha V, who is 120 miles west of us, has so little wind that they have already started to motor.

During the day wind stayed strong enough for us to keep sailing right up until 1800hrs and we were even able to maintain a direct track towards Chesapeake. However, by 1800hrs the wind had died off to next to nothing and we too had to resort to motoring, if nothing else to stop the sails from slatting as we rolled in the waves.

We are hoping that the wind strengthens more quickly than the forecast predicts; that, unfortunately still has a 1-2 day stretch ahead of us with light and variable winds which we could definitely do without.

So far everything seems to be working okay except for the wind gauge which today has started to show random wind directions. It's irritating but not important enough for a trip up to the top of the mast whilst we are underway. We'll look at that when we get into port and probably have to write a cheque to Mr Raymarine for a new one of his rather overpriced mast-head anemometers. There's a possibility that it is just that the connections at the op of the mast need cleaning and we'll try that first but last time we saw these symptoms it needed a new anemometer.

Work on the backlog of blog entries is going well and we now have 10 ready to post when we arrive in port. It's quite fun looking back at what we have done recently; it's amazing what you can fit into 6 weeks.

That's it for news from BV for today. Keep your fingers crossed for us that the wind builds soon.

Reg and Nicky

Passage statistics:
Position at midday 11 May: N27 37 W69 01
Position at 2359 11 May: N28 31 W69 38
Midday to midday distance: 134 nautical miles
Midnight to Midnight distance: 135 nautical miles
Total miles covered:  687 nautical miles
Approximate distance to go: 585 nautical miles

End of Day 5 - Caribbean towards Chesapeake

End of Day 4 - Caribbean towards Chesapeake

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 Charlotte and she then forwarded them on to a list of family members.

2359 (AST, GMT-4) 10 May 2018

Dear All,

Well, the big news today is that we have turned to head directly for the entrance to Chesapeake Bay. Overnight last night we both had a look at the computer generated wind forecast and agreed that continuing north on our old track would initially be faster but that it would then put us in a position where we would have a much longer track through the light or no wind high pressure area. So at 0300am, with just over 810 nautical miles to go, we put BV on the new direct course.  Almost immediately the wind became lighter and changed slightly to make the direct course exactly downwind.  Doh! This was by no means ideal as it's a slower point of sail than being a little off the wind and, because there were still sizeable waves as well as relatively little wind, the sails slatted noisily and, potentially, hard enough to damage them.  At breakfast we gybed to put the wind on our port quarter and to head a little more west of the perfect northwest course but the wind was still light, the waves still surprisingly large and progress frustratingly slow. Even so, we have still managed 129 miles since midnight last night so it's not all bad, and certainly faster than quite a lot of boats.  It's just that it feels slow to us and wasn't quite in the direction we had hoped!

Still, with Georgina now happily steering BV, it has given us the opportunity to start to make inroads into the backlog of blog entries.  Clearly, none of them will be posted until we reach dry land again but at least when we do get ashore there should be a reasonable number to post.  I can't believe that the backlog goes back as far as our visit to Dominica in early March.  Clearly we have been having far too much fun in the interim!

Popcorn and Gin & Tonics as a moral boost at sunset

And I'm afraid that's it for news from BV for today.  Hopefully tomorrow we'll be able to pass on exciting tales of fast downwind sailing and huge fish on the line.  Or, more likely, they will be just that - tales!

Reg and Nicky 

Passage statistics:
Position at midday 10 May: N26 03 W067 27
Position at 2359 10 May: N26 38 W068 14
Midday to midday distance: 144 nautical miles
Midnight to Midnight distance: 129 nautical miles
Total miles covered:  552 nautical miles
Approximate distance to go: 721 nautical miles

End of Day 4 - Caribbean towards Chesapeake

End of Day 3 - Caribbean towards Chesapeake

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 Charlotte and she then forwarded them on to a list of family members.

2359 (AST, GMT-4) 9 May 2018

Dear All,

After a wet night (during Nicky's watches) the showers seem to have stopped. Instead of looking at the horizon and seeing rain cells coming our way, we now have blue skis dotted with the odd fluffy white cumulus cloud.  It's perfect conditions with around 18 knots of wind and 1.5-2 metre waves.  Even the sea is an intense deep blue colour.

The wind is matching the forecast and gradually becoming more southerly. So, at midday we did our first significant change to the sail plan by poling out the genoa on the starboard side. We still have about 300 miles to go before we turn to head directly towards the entrance to the Chesapeake Bay and for that time we hope that the wind will keep pushing us along. There is still an area of very light winds forecast in the area of the turn but we think that it is too early to make a course change. The best way to route should become clearer in a day or so.

The BV spa has been running again today to replace the water used for showers and cooking so we have full tanks once more.  BV has a very good watermaker and with the high sea temperature at the moment (26 degrees C) we can make 90 litres of fresh water every hour it is running.

We are also well placed on power. After sailing through huge clumps of sargasso weed at the beginning of the passage there now seems to be very little of it about which s good news for us because our towed water-powered generator is now mostly working properly and not clogging up with weed.  I say 'mostly' as Nicky had to spend an hour unravelling and unjamming a plastic bag from the DuoGen propeller and shaft bearings.  It was a fiddly job easing the bag free but it came clear in the end so the Duogen is back in action once more. We also spotted that there was a lot of sargasso weed stuck around Georgina's rudder (our hydrovane self steering system has its own rudder fitted below the transom). So we stopped the boat and cleared the offending weed which has had a marked improvement on Georgina holding our heading.  We should have thought of and looked for that earlier but now know to do so.

We had some good news on the weather this morning.  Nicky listened in to Chris Parker as he provided his daily forecast for the eastern seaboard, both the general forecast and his specific weather advice for subscribing yachts.  There are several planning to head north from the Bahamas and Florida over the next couple of days, reaching Cape Hatteras at about the same time as we expect to get there. Chris advised them of a frontal system coming south out of the NE USA, reaching the Cape Hatteras area on Sunday or Monday.  At the moment the picture with regards the front is not too clear but the good news is that it is unlikely to be too bad a system so, whilst it will bring some rain, the winds are likely to be no more than 15-20 knots and he was not advising yachts to delay their departure to let the system pass. That's good news for us as delaying would either mean diverting to Bermuda (approx 200nm from our intended track) or slowing down significantly, which would be tedious.

And our final bit of news is that dinner included a small fish we caught yesterday evening.  It was perfectly sized; just enough for 2 and, being the chef for the day, Nicky filleted it and produced an excellent fish and chips supper with home made tartar sauce. Perhaps tomorrow something larger may be tempted by our lure. At least we have a chance now, previously all that we were catching was sargasso weed!

Reg and Nicky 

Passage statistics:

Position at midday 9 May: N23 38 W66 33
Position at 2359 9 May: N25 11 W66 55
Midday to midday distance: 166 nautical miles
Midnight to Midnight distance: 161 nautical miles
Total miles covered:  425 nautical miles
Approximate distance to go: 876 nautical miles

End of Day 3 - Caribbean towards Chesapeake

End of Day 2 - Caribbean towards Chesapeake

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 Charlotte and she then forwarded them on to a list of family members.

2359 (AST, GMT-4) 8 May 2018

Dear All,

Today has mainly been spent getting used to the watch system and adjusting to disrupted sleep patterns. It will probably take me about 3 days to fully adjust but I'm getting there.  I'm the chef today and Nicky is doing navigator duties and so she will have 2 four hour stints on watch overnight but compensated for by a long afternoon snooze.

In the American Virgin Islands shops that we have been to recently we've found that the fruit and vegetables are all over chilled; everything is refrigerated even if it doesn't need to be (eg potatoes and onions, even eggs). The sad thing about that is that the fruit and veg just doesn't last well and you find that things like lettuce go bad from the inside out and so you end up binning the whole thing.  That means that our daily check of fresh food is even more important [Ed: though it's difficult to check the insides of the veg!]

We've passed relatively close to a few ships, within about 10nm, but have not had to adjust course for them and BV is generally sailing along nicely. We've had quite a lot of rain squalls which have got us a little wet at times but, more significantly, they disrupt the wind. That makes BV steer off course because Georgina, our wine vane steering system, needs a consistent wind to steer an accurate course. The waves too are shifting BV off course too, which affects the apparent wind and hence Georgina's steering.  So, we've had to make a lot more frequent adjustments made to the sails and to the position in which the wheel is locked than we would really like in the quest to get everything in balance and BV steering in the straight(ish) line that we want.

We have kept track of Mike and Cate on Kealoha V with a morning SSB radio check-in and we are also reporting our progress on the Ocean Cruising Club SSB net each morning. Tomorrow, however, we may forego the OCC net in favour of a weather forecast station that transmits at the same time.  It will be interesting to see how far out Chris Parker's weather forecast is looking and what, if anything, of significance there is on the horizon for us that the USA's High Seas forecasts are not yet reporting (they only look out about 48hrs).

That's it from us for today except to wish the Channel Islanders amongst our readership a very happy Liberation Day (tomorrow as I write this but today by the time you get it).

Reg and Nicky

Passage statistics:
Position at midday 8 May: N21 13 W65 52
Position at 2359 8 May: N22 37 W66 12
Midday to midday distance: 157 nautical miles
Midnight to Midnight distance: 159 nautical miles
Total miles covered:  263 nautical miles
Approximate distance to go: 1032 nautical miles

End of Day 2 - Caribbean towards Chesapeake

End of Day 1 - Caribbean towards Chesapeake

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 Charlotte and she then forwarded them on to a list of family members.

2359 (AST, GMT-4) 7 May 2018

Dear All,

First task of the day was to wave goodbye
to Mark and Lisa on Wild Iriswho left an hour
 before us to head south
towards Bonaire or perhaps Curacao

Well we are off again on another long passage.  This one should take us somewhere between 8 and 12 days (depending on the wind which is looking rather variable) and we will cover something in the region of 1300 nautical miles.  Four months to the day since we arrived in the Caribbean at Barbados, this morning we raised our anchor in Culebra (part of the Spanish Virgin islands) and have set course north towards Chesapeake Bay.  We are on our way to see our good friends Phil and Lesley who live just west of Washington DC, and we've timed that visit to fit in with our insurance company's requirement that we are above the 35 degree north latitude by 1 June to keep us out of the hurricane belt.

We spent the last few days in Culebra making preparations, so BV has been checked and we also have lots of meals already prepared and ready to reheat to make the first part of the passage as easy as possible. We do have a slight problem with the weather forecast which prompted a last-minute job on the engine first thing this morning, delaying our departure slightly, but we're now bowling along nicely.

And the it was our turn to set off from Culebra 

Heading out of Ensenda Honda, Culebra

Once underway, our first priority was to make water so that we had full tanks again (our last anchorage, whilst nice, didn't have water that looked great for watermaking).  Happily, the watermaker worked perfectly so we didn't have to divert to San Juan or Fajardo to fill our tanks from a hosepipe. We'll make a little water every day from now on during the passage to make sure the tanks stay topped up.

A couple of short videos to show you what it’s like:

And one in a rain shower:

The issue with the weather is that the wind is fine for about 5 days but then we will hit a part where it dies off to nothing or comes from the wrong direction for us.  We may well end up motoring through that patch, hence we decided to change the impeller on the engine slightly early, first thing this morning. To keep us going under sail for as long as possible we have elected to head out almost towards Bermuda and will then make an abrupt turn left to head towards the entrance to Chesapeake Bay. Our friends Mike and Cate on Kealoha Vset off from Puerto Rico a day ahead of us to sail towards Charleston. They have elected to sail much closer to the American Eastern Seaboard and so it will be interesting to see which routing works better. Our last weather forecast also predicted that a low pressure system was going to build just south of Chesapeake at about the time we'll be approaching that area; we'll have to see how that works out.  But we are also conscious that an 8 day out weather forecast isn't very accurate, and a lot can change.

We'll aim to send in a daily report on where we are and how the passage is going.  We use our HF/SSB radio to send that to Charlotte and she will then send that out to you.  That's all subject to it not getting in the way of her university studies, and so if you don't get a report one day then don't worry, she'll send it out when she has more time.

Reg and Nicky

Passage statistics:
Position at midday 7 May: N18 36 W65 26
Position at 2359 7 May: N19 59 W65 41
Midnight to Midnight distance: n/a nautical miles
Total miles covered:  104 nautical miles
Approximate distance to go: 1194 nautical miles

End of Day 1 - Caribbean towards Chesapeake