Year: 2018

As soon as I finished writing my last blog post (the one about how the wind strength and direction was great and I was making fantastic progress), everything changed. The wind shifted dead astern and fell to less than 10 kts. If I were racing, Id harden up my course to a broad reach to hit my optimal downwind speed. In those conditions, thats something like 4.5-5.0 kts made goodtoo slow! But Im not racing, so I can take advantage of Resolutes engine. Which brings me to the end of the propeller story... Many of you have asked about how the prop issue from my delivery to Antigua was ultimately resolved. Ive forgotten exactly where I left off, so please forgive any overlap. Upon being towed into Falmouth Harbor, my…

I left Antigua as planned Sunday morning just before 8am. It felt a bit rushed, since I had arrived on the island only 18 hours earlier. But I was able to get everything I could think of completed, and I generally like to navigate around islands, shoals, reefs, etc. in the daylight, so off I went. That was almost 48 hours ago. Since then, the winds have generally been idealjust abaft the beam and 12-20 kts. So Resolute has been cruising along in the 8-9 kts range. Sometimes we surf to more than 11 kts; sometimes we slow to the high 6s. About half of the time Ive had a reef in the mainsail to keep the boat relatively flat and comfortable. All told, Ive been averaging 7.8 kts made…

Im back in Antigua, getting ready to sail Resolute back to Maine. So far, the weather looks pretty good, so Im working toward a departure tomorrow morning. I cleared out (customs and immigration) less than an hour after clearing in. Then spent the afternoon swapping anchors, grocery shopping, bending on the jib and installing jack lines (to keep me attached to the boat when I go to the foredeck). Now Im checking systems (charging, watermaker, communications, nav lights) and stowing gear. Unless something unexpected happens tonight, all Ill need to do tomorrow will be to top up water tanks, retrieve a stern anchor and cast off. Well see...

I’ll start blogging about my return trip from Antigua to Maine starting Saturday. The current plan is to depart Falmouth Harbor on Sunday morning.

Ive been trying to slow down,but its hard! All was going according to plan until 3:30 this morning, when I felt the wind die (to les# than 10kts) and come forward. On deck, I could see a huge thunderstorm ahead. Since these can bring very strong winds, I decided to drop my main entirely and sail with jib alone. After a half hour of rain, I decided it was a false alarm and raised the main again (with two reefs) in 18kts of wind. But the wind kept building, and I kept going faster. Typically 8.5kts, but often 9.5-10. By daylight, I had spun out a couple of times and was heeled over 30 degrees when going over waves. So I decided to take the main down again, and thats…