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Last night we turned the corner!  We are now flying on a reach with the wind coming from our aft starboard quarter at 17 to 19nm.  There is an accompanying current which combined with sail setup has us flying along 8 to 8.5nts over ground.  Occasional gusts set off the speed alarm set for 9nts, if we keep hitting the alarm it’s time to bring in some sail.  Usually we bring in the Genoa since on this particular boat given the way it is setup the genoa is the ‘accelerator”

Our current plan is to make Cape Lookout by Saturday.  Originally we were shooting for Saturday late night, but we might make it earlier now.  We are racing along a north by northwest course of 325 degrees. We hope to cross the Gulf Stream Current   sometime late Friday. We can then sail on a run with the current into Cape lookout and anchor. The last 200 miles into Chesapeake Bay may have to wait a day or so in that it appears we will run out of wind on Saturday and Sunday.  Our plan is still to make landfall to Hampton, VA.

Last night was a rather dramatic sail as the wind came around behind us.  Late night in the dark we hung the pole to put the genoa out on the starboard side while using the preventer on the main sail to port.  This upped our speed to 8 -9nts in 23- 24nts of wind. The 9nts alarm kept going off on my watch, so we did the only sensible thing to do, we reset it to 10nts. At that speed with the roll and the darkness it was quite a night!  We now have another boat, yonder, which is headed to the same anchorage. As a matter of pride we need to beat him there.

We did make it the edge of the storm and rode a broad reach (90 degrees) for the whole day.  The ride was rough with 6’ – 8’ swells. We were able to ride rather fast, all of 7nts. The decision to leave early on Saturday is looking very good from a weather standpoint.  Along with the front for the storm came cooler temperatures! No short sleeves for now!

We have made contact with 2 or 3 other boats regularly that are taking a similar course.  Yonder, a 50 footer from Canada, has been tracking along with us about 6 miles to the west.  We talk with her captain often. Two Canoes, a catamaran is gaining on us, catamarans are inheritantly faster than monohulls with much less wetted surface.  

The rough seas have very fun to experience.  The feeling of power is quite majestic. Our boat, big as it is, feels small and insignificant in the swelling waves.  A big difference between the Atlantic Ocean and Lake Michigan I am experiencing is the difference between waves on both.  When Lake Michigan gets rough, it is a choppy rough with the waves having no decernible pattern. On the Atlantic Ocean, the waves swell and build with space between them.  This can be very soothing especially at night to sleep. That said when you add the current of the ocean to the wave pattern you can get every now and then a really big wave with a corresponding relay big trough to unsettle everything.  Today we ate lunch inside because it was rough, but by dinner time it had settled down enough to eat in th cockpit once again.

A little shout out to Emily, Happy Birthday, Emily! Incidentally, I left my glass on the deck last night, it’s encrusted in salt, perfect for margaritas for your birthday.

I awoke to rain and decreasing wind speed.  We had to motor through a rainstorm, after furling the headsails, we hung a staysail to keep things more stable as the winds increased to 30nm with gust a little higher.  After being below for quite a while, I was not feeling my best so I went up on deck. It was time for my shower anyway!  

Eventually, the storm gave way to very low winds 2-3nm and pretty much swirling, it was very difficult to figure out where the wind was coming from and therefore sail selection was impossible.  Great time to have lunch! BLTs on freshly baked bread, this life is pretty.

After lunch we did some engine maintenance, kelp in the intake filter.  Took down all the sails and motored for awhile. A second line of storms that was tracking toward us graciously went around us.  We did have one contact on the radar, a container ship, Cosmos, bound for Germany. All in all, an interesting first half of the day

It is now evening after having motored most of the afternoon and evening.  We are awaiting a storm to approach at which point we intend to turn toward the Carolinas and ride the edge of the storm on a reach.  I will keep you posted!

I have to mention how normal life can be on board.  We have a dishwasher, clothes washer and the ability to make water and recharge our batteries.  Showers can be an issue for someone my size when the shower stall height is 6’1” and I’m 6’4”in a 3 foot diameter cylinder.  Do the math, it can be confining, especially when you add a 4 foot roll to the waves. Given everything though, life on a boat works pretty well!

We are experiencing dying winds and the direction coming around behind us this caused us to lose speed with our current sail configuration.  During my stint at the helm I asked Ian if there was another configuration we could put up to help our situation? Ian perked up we could fly dual head sails!  With that down came the staysail, down came the Genoa, down came the mainsail. We rummaged trough the laserette(sp?) to find another light weight head sail. Putting it up was quite the ordeal, but we did get it done and we are flying 2 headsails!  It is amazing how adjustable the sailboat is.

The night was truly beautiful and peaceful.  The stars were brilliantly visible and the moon came out from behind clouds as it rose.  I had the midnight to 2am, and we had a nice gentle roll with 16 – 18nm off the starboard aft quarter at 165 degrees (that’s for you Bjork!).  We were flying twin headsails doing about 7nm with bearing of 005.  

It’s all good.

Just after midnight, we encountered a ship in the open water that claimed to see us, but was rather recalcitrant to alter course for us until we had raised him on the radio.  Crisis avert I could go back to sleep. Speaking of sleep, the motion is very soothing allows you to fall into a deep sleep.  

Today was characterized by more sail changing drills to teach how to decide when to change sails and what was the process given a genoa, main and staysail.  When we change watch, we check with the person taking your place, give them wind strength and direction, current boat speed and contacts or sail changes during the preceding shift.  Let him know what you are watching to be ready for the next change. We then log current position, wind speed, wind direction, trip log, any comments at the end of shift.

Now out in the sea proper, the roll of the waves and constant 15 -19 Nm wind speed made for a very pleasant sail.  You certainly do get the feeling on the vastness of the sea, as well as how small our 56 foot boat is in it. The stars were awesome to behold when they came out at night and the moon was brilliant.  

Saturday we awoke to a weather report suggesting leaving soon is better.  This was predicated on the possibility that a storm system could develop about 5-6 days into the trip just off of cape Hatteras.  We fueled up and left immediately.

Sailing for first day was through the islands and straits around Puerto Rico.  We had to maneuver around various obstacles such as shoals, sand bars, and wrecks.  The autopilot, George (we were informed that George was the given name of the autopilot on all proper UK flagged boats) did his duty tirelessly and with aplomb.  The scenery was amazing sailing along seeing uninhibited islands with beautiful beaches as well as the hilly coasts offering occasional glimpses of the only rainforest national park in the US.  

Late afternoon, we got out past the coast and into the “Briney”.  All went well for the afternoon with wind coming off the back on a run for most of the day occasionally shifting to a broad reach.  We set the pole out for putting the Genoa sail on starboard, the main sail on port. When the wind occasionally shifted we would bring the genoa over to port and leave the pole up for later.  With this setup, we were able the chew up miles at a rate 6.5-7nm per hour, not bad for 15.5 – 17 nm wind speed.

We left this morning at 5:30, made all the way to Puerto Del Ray on the east side of Puerto Rico. All in all, a very pleasant downwind sail with the mainsail out to port, the jib out to starboard, and staysail between.

During our 6 hour sail we hung out fishing lines and caught 2 barracudas, not good eating. They did provide some dramatic moments though. We instituted the watch schedule and I had watch from 8am to 10am. The nap afterwards with the rolling of the waves was great! The boat performed beautifully, after all it is an Oyster, darling (inside joke.)

Upon reaching PR, we soon realized that the quarantine requirements were much more strict. The marina’s staff and immigrations officers were very standoffish and masks were worn all around. At 7pm we all received an alert about the quarantine curfew, we were at anchor for the night so it was not an issue. After checking in with the marina and immigration we had to head back out and anchor because the fuel dock was closed and would not open until tomorrow.

Tomorrow we fuel up and depending on the weather leave either Saturday or Sunday!

Today we are doing last minute preparation to leave the USVI. One more trip to the store. Ian kitted up in the diving gear and gave the boat bottom a once over to add to our speed. All the trip paperwork is organized to checkout of the USVI and into Puerto Rico. We are cleared for a cruising permit upon arriving in Hampton, VA. We will be stowing the tender and removing its outboard for the passage. All clothes and personal items need to be stowed because at this point we don’t know what sailing conditions we be like.

There are a total of 200+ boats going back to the states with various start dates. There 55 boats leaving at the same time as we are. The 3 popular routes are south of the Bahamas, north of the Bahamas (but crossing the gulf stream while still in Florida) or further north over open water up to the Chesapeake Bay and further north. We are heading on the third route along with 15 other boats. The flotilla gives us weather forecasts tailored to our route as well as Coast Guard tracking. There is a radio call every morning at 7 and every evening at 8 for all boats to check in and confirm their positions. Traveling by flotilla definitely has advantages if you schedule permits.

We will certainly miss St. Croix! If you wish follow along with our progress, our position will update every 4 hours at www.yantina.com

VESSELS CONTEMPLATING DEPARTURE:
WEEK OF MAY 10th
the WEATHER PATTERN CHANGE we began discussing about a week ago will indeed happen next week, and this passage is now favorable.

We received the above message this morning which means we are out of here on Friday!! Heading to Puerto Rico and on the Hampton, Virginia

We went for our longest sail yet venturing north into the Caribbean Sea. We practiced upwind tacking utilizing the jib, main sail and staysail. We also learned the operation of a running backstay in relation to the staysail. We experienced a front of clouds with rain and chose as a crew to stay the course and sail through the rain. We sailed downwind in a narrow channel and practiced anchoring on coral.

We lunched at anchor and sailed back to harbor only to discover anchor spot “pinched” by a charter catamaran. Finding a new anchoring spot in the harbor proved difficult, but in the end, we prevailed and called it another learning experience.