We picked up a mooring ball in Soper’s Hole, BVI. Once we shower and clear customs we’ll head over to Pusser’s for the obligatory painkiller.
Lots of turtles in the morning field here!
10:15 Landfall
06:00-10:00
20nm to go.
Beautiful last sunrise for the journey, dodging morning popcorn storms and preparing for our arrival. We should easily make the customs office by 10:00.
07:00 Land ho, we can see the mountains of Tortola and Jost Van Dyke on the horizon, they are about 20nm South of us.
18:00-22:30
129nm to Soper’s Hole, ETA 0900 Monday morning.
One last spectacular sunset before we make landfall,
03:00-07:00
256nm to Soper’s Hole, ETA Noon Monday, 231113
Two more watches until we make landfall!
14:00-19:30
350nm to go, ETA Tortola is now 10:15 Monday morning, 231113
The wind has died down a little bit so we shook out the reefs and are now flying full sails again.
A little rain shower passed by just south of us, we saw it coming and reefed the sails, it’s a good thing, the wind’s picked up to 22 knots.
The reef one line is now solidly compromised, the sheath has split in two and a delicate core is now completely exposed. We may have to abandon reef 1 for the rest of the trip.
After the storm passed it took all of the wind with it. So Chuck and I took advantage of the cull to repair the sail bag.
00:00-03:00
462nm to go, 392nm travel since our departure from Bermuda.
ETA 11:00 Sopers Hole, Tortola
We finally caught the trade winds, and with the study easterly wind of 15 to 18 knots, we’re moving along quite nicely at 8-8.5 knots
10:00-14:00
599 nm to go. ETA Tuesday morning, 231114.
This is all we see 360° around, nothing but light blue skies, puffy clouds and the deep blue ocean. The Atlantic is about 16,500 ft deep here
Looks like we still have about 40 miles of doldrums before we catch the trade winds, that should take us about 6 or 7 hours hopefully.
Just before my shift started, Eric saw several whales exhaling through their blowholes, I’ll keep a sharp eye out for them this afternoon.
The wind has picked up to about 8 to 10 knots, but it is still on the bow. We need it to fall off another 15 to 20° before we start sailing this brick.
Today we refilled the fuel tank from nine of our jerry cans, and rinsed the deck of the patio and navigation station with a fresh coating of saltwater.
2100-0000
I woke up a little early for my shift and finally caught my first green flash as the sun set below mirror calm seas! I finally get to check that dream off of my bucket list!
As my shift started, we’re still seeing 3-5kt winds and mirror calm seas, this would be great water skiing weather.
We’re headed due south with about 650 miles to go. Hopefully we’ll break out of the doldrums and catch the trade winds in another 70-00 miles.
Is currently 22:00 and I’m watching Kool Blizzard, a tanker, cut across our bow, they should pass within 2.5 mi of us out here on the open sea.
23:00 The wind has shifted and strengthened, if I can get another 20° shift will be able to set our sails.
06:00-10:00
We have teamed up with two other boats from our group and are heading almost due south together. Shortly before this shift started, we hit the doldrums and progress has slowed tremendously.
It’s a beautiful, clear day, there’s just not enough wind for sailboats.
So Long Bermuda
Since we knew there would be a rush for fuel first thing in the morning, we decided to wait until afternoon to top off our tanks! We took on about 110 gallons of diesel at over $8.00/gallon, which should be plenty to get us all the way to Tortola. The good news is that we’ve got some wonderful wind right now, and after going through a short cull, we should be flying through the trade winds and on the port tack all the way to Tortola.
And as if life couldn’t get any better, our night in Bermuda was very pleasant and relatively uneventful, when leaving port we saw not one but two cruise ships approaching, I am so glad that we’re back at sea and not having to deal with the thousands of people from the cruise ships.