Category: Caribbean 2017-18

Theres an old adage among sailors that, if youre beginning to think about reefing your sails, its time to do so. This was illustrated sometime between 9-10pm last night. It was a beautiful night sail: smooth seas, consistent wind, great visibility with an almost-full moon. I noticed a few clouds off to windward, but didnt think much of them (there are clouds around all the time). Then I saw a couple of flashes of lightening. Remembering the adage, I decided to put in two reefs in the main (this reduces its sail area by something like 60%). Now, I have a pretty good setup forefinger, and can do it in less than 5 minutes. When I started, the winds were 12-15 kts. When I finished, they were 18-22kts. Ten minutes…

Im now some 60nm south of Bermuda and due east of Darien, GA. A few showers ahead of me this morning has turned into a steady rain this afternoon. Its all goodsea salt had been building up on everything on deck: instrument displays, rigging, the lower part of the jib and the overall deck itself. This rain is washing away (at least diluting) the salt, which reduces corrosion. Unfortunately, this mornings modest winds on the port beam also shifted with the front now its well abaft the starboard beam and less than 6kts TWS. That means its difficult to keep the sails full on anything close to my desired course, and the sails are slatting (no matter what the course) due to wave action. Couple that with a nifty autopilot…

At 4am EST (5am Atlantic Time) today, I had a nice chat with Bermuda Radio. It was just after their regular weather broadcast. They hailed Resolute on VHF 16, confirmed that I did not plan to stop in Bermuda (a good thing, since Im west of the islands, where there are no safe passages through the surrounding reef), then asked for my voyage details (port of departure, number of persons on board, next port of call and expected arrival date). All very cheerful and professional. Then, noticing that Resolute was already in a database they maintain, they asked me to confirm my safety equipment details. After updating my sat phone number, they wished me a happy Christmas in Antigua and encouraged me to stop in to Bermuda in the future.…

Its been a beautiful day on the water. The wind has been consistent at 10-15kts, abaft the beam, so the boats been running flat(tish) and fast. After lagging my optimized performance projections, Im now ahead of the projected positions from yesterday and the day before. So Ive been working away on board: * took a hot shower (well, more like a sponge bath) * sorted out three duffels of clothing, so I now have one duffel packed with my winter gear (Cabelas GuideWear snowsuit, gloves, mittens, wool socks, etc.), ready to come back to Maine with me. * stowed a bunch of other stuff (food, spare parts, etc.) where they belong. (Everything was secure from the start, just not in sensible placesso the frequently used stuff is ready to hand…

[TL;DR version (if youre bored of this mechanism-technical stuff): Alls wellexcept mechanical propulsionand the winds are still favorable. Now you can skip below and wait for the next post.] Thank you for all your efforts to point me toward solving this mystery. Unfortunately, it remains unsolved. What I Did First thing I checked: oil level in the transmission (full). Second thing: the shifter cable. Sounds like a lot of you got this far. In my case, the cables running from the shift lever to the transmission are fairly exposed in an area where I store emergency water, etc. I thought it quite possible that, despite my efforts to keep the gear away from the cables, maybe something had shifted and damaged a cable. But the cables seemed OKwhen the shift…

So there I was, yesterday evening, watching a huge tanker pass ahead of me (roughly 1nm away). Id noticed the tanker on AIS about an hour ago, and had been watching closely because we were on crossing pathscalculated to come within three hundred feet of each other at our closest point of approach. But Resolute was slowing as the wind died down, so there was no problem. Thats not the mystery. With the wind dying, I rechecked the forecastvery little wind for the next 12 hours. This is a great time for motoring. Im not racing, so no restrictions there. And I have oodles of diesel fuel for this purpose. So I decided to motor over night until noon today (or whenever the wind picked up). Start the engine. No…

As I had hoped, I hit the edges of the Gulf Stream 48 hours after I left Blue Hill. Now, two hours later, Im in the Stream with 79F water temperature. Winds are still quite gusty, ranging from 8kts to 18 kts. Im rigged for 20kts+ with the storm jib still in use and one reef in the mainsail. I could easily change tp my full cruising jib, but am not eager to go to the foredeck any more than I have to (see next paragraph). Overall, my routing software says I could get to Antigua 12/6 at 3pm, but Im still thinking late on 12/7 or early on 12/8. The winds over the last two days were pretty much as forecast. I saw 35 kts for a few hours,…

Despite a pretty lousy day (weather wise) in Blue Hill today, I’ve left my mooring and am headed out. It took a bit of doing to figure out how to get to the boat without leaving a dinghy on the mooring—I ultimately ran a line from my pier to Resolute’s mooring so my wonderful wife Ruth could haul in a kayak when I was on board. It was even more challenging in the conditions—winds of 18kts gusting to 25. But I got it done. It’s 37F on deck and 57F below—feels balmy down there! The wind is quite gusty—sometimes 12kts, sometimes 22. So I’m starting out with a reef and my storm job just to be sure it’s all working properly. This afternoon, the wind is forecast to build to…

Having spent the early spring sailing the Atlantic, I didn’t do much “big boat” sailing this summer (I did spend some time learning 1000 ways to capsize a Laser!). So I decided I’d like to do more sailing over the winter months—in the Caribbean. The first step is getting Resolute from Blue Hill, Maine down to Caribbean waters. I couldn’t leave earlier this month (the “hurricane season” ended for insurance purposes at the end of October) due to conflicting obligations. But I’m good to go now, at least as soon as I can get Resolute fully provisioned with food, safety gear and personal stuff. And when there’s a good weather window. This coming week looks reasonably benign, so I might leave as early as tomorrow if I can complete my…