Category: 2023

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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.

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Hello Bermuda

823nm later we are in St. George’s, Bermuda! The crew has all showered and we are ready for shore leave!

The plan is to meet up with the boats that we have been communicating with for the last few days over food and beverages at the White Horse.

Tomorrow will knock out a couple of minor repairs, top off the water tank, take care of laundry, souvenirs, and another sit down meal before we refuel and cast off the lines for our next leg of the journey.

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00:00-03:00 Gli’er Blanket

Glitter Blanket, you have to say it with an Australian accent!

Started off the graveyard watch with a beautiful bright meteorite and lightning on the horizon. The waning crescent moon rose shortly after starting my watch, there’s now a wonderful glitter blanket enveloping the eastern seas!

With the recent wind shift, our ETA in Bermuda is getting earlier and earlier. If this keeps up we could be in Bermuda by 2 :00 p.m. The good part of this is that would allow us to make Bermuda a touch and go – we pop in, clear customs, refuel/top off tanks, and leave. If we arrive later in the day we could be forced to spend the evening in Bermuda which would provide some pleasant R&R and an actual sit down meal. With what I’m seeing now that’s not going to happen.

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Rain and light winds

Lots of light winds or wind directly on the bow resulted in a day of Motor Sailing. We had a few periods of rainfall. No storms, just water dropping from the heavens. Late in the evening we finally got the wind shift that we’ve been waiting for and were able to make use of the sales, our ETA in Bermuda is now something like 3:00 tomorrow afternoon.

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Bermuda Bound

With the previously forecast storm dissipating we are now potentially looking at rather large area (300nm) of the doldrums between us and the BVI.

As a result of this it looks like we are diverted to Bermuda for refueling. We want to make certain that we have enough fuel to make it all the way to the BVI if we have little snow wind between here and the BVI.

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Bad Weather Forecast

We are woken early in the morning to a forecast of a potential storm ahead of us with 60 mph winds. We spent some time prepping the boat and securing everything so we would be ready if the storm formed. We turned the boat around and headed north to give us some breathing room and hopefully let the storm slide by south of us. Luckily it faded away and the forecast looks quite calm now.

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1400-17:30 Warmer Weather

The Gulfstream not only brought us further south but also brought warmer temps along with it. With the water from the gulfstream coming straight up from the Gulf of Mexico. It’s much warmer now than it was yesterday. I’m actually wearing shorts today!

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00:00-04:30 Boat Speed

We finally caught the Gulf Stream and with the assistance of that current I actually saw 17 and 1/2 knot speeds from the boat! At this location there’s a bend in the current and we rode that wave a considerable distance southbound towards our goal!

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10:00-14:00 Calm Seas

It’s a sunny calm day today, we’re still making about 5.5 knots with about a 7 to 8 knot wind.  The sun is warming us up nicely and we’ve even had some visitors drop by to say hello to us on the boat.

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21:00-24:00

It was a chilly night sail, with beautiful moon rise right as my first watch began. I had to continually change our course as the catamaran I’m on doesn’t like sailing more than 120° off of the wind. As soon as my shift ended we did a 270° tack to get us closer to the heading we were looking for.

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