Monthly Archives: April 2017
The Final leg to Florida – day 3
Our position at 10.00 Saturday 29th April
25 48.1N
077 14.4W
Our 24 hour run from 10.00 yesterday to 10.00 today was 170 miles giving an average of 7kts, that includes at least 1kt of current with us
We have 160 miles to go to West Palm beach, Florida
As you can see from our 24 hour run we are traveling much faster now. The wind has increased and the current outside the islands is good. We have a full main and genny out with the wind a nice steady F4 just aft of the beam. Couldn’t ask for better. The sea is up a bit from yesterday but quite manageable.
Having had a bad night the night before with the rolly sea my afternoon nap turned into a 4 hour sleep. I must have needed it although it’s unusual for me to sleep like that on passage. I’m still quite tense something is going to go wrong but as we get closer to America I’m feeling a bit better. When I woke up Bill informed me I had missed a thunder storm and he had all the computers, etc. in the Faraday’s cage he’s made. Fortunately it passed us by without incident.
The new moon put in an appearance last night but only briefly, it was gone by 10pm.
During the night we sailed up the coast of Eleuthera island but at 3.00 this morning I had to get up to help Bill jibe the sails as we turned west to travel along the south side of Great Abaco Island which will take us towards West Palm Beach, Florida.
Our plan is to make landfall at West Palm beach which, according to the CBP (customs and border protection) website is a check in port. Not sure what to expect but we’ll call port control as we enter American waters and take it from there. Should be lunchtime tomorrow hopefully so one more night at sea.
Even though we are 25 degrees north now the days are still pleasantly warm and I only have to add a fleece to my shorts and tee shirt for my night watch. We are still on the same latitude as North Africa.
For dinner I used our last portion of chicken and added an onion, the last half of a green pepper, some frozen vegetables, an egg, some cooked rice and some sweet chili sauce. In our family it’s called a ‘heap’ although there are various variations of it.
All well on board.
The blog goes through to facebook but we can’t see facebook or your comments. I look forward to catching up with them all when we get to the US. If you wish to email us please use mdqf6 @ sailmail.com (take out the gaps)
The final leg to Florida – day 2
Our position at 10.00 Friday 28th April
24 16.2N
074 55.6W
Our 24 hour run from 10.00 yesterday to 10.00 today was 127 miles giving an average of 5.2kts
We have 331 miles to go to West Palm beach, Florida
The forecast had been for light winds so we were pleased to be able to sail quite a bit of yesterday although the sails were up and down and the engine on and off with our average speed reflecting that.
During the night we passed 23 north which is the Tropic of Cancer so that means we are out of the tropics for the rest of the year now.
We are sailing along the outside of the Bahamas and have started picking up some current which is helping our speed.
During the night we sailed in between San Salvador and Rum cay, which meant going over a sea mount and the depth of the water went from 4600 to 1107 over the space of a few miles. Obviously not a problem with the depth but it gave us a lumpy old sea making sleep difficult. We could have gone around the outside of San Salvador but didn’t want to put in the extra miles. A bit of info for those coming along behind us.
For dinner I used our last portion of stir fry beef from SA and made a stir fry with onion, peppers and carrots with sweet chilli and soy sauce over it on a bed of noodles.
All well on board.
The blog goes through to facebook but we can’t see facebook or your comments. I look forward to catching up with them all when we get to the US. If you wish to email us please use mdqf6 @ sailmail.com (take out the gaps)
The final leg to Florida
Our position at 10.00 Thursday 27th April
22 52.2N
073 04.6W
Our 24 hour run from 10.00 yesterday to 10.00 today was 138 miles giving an average of 5.75kts
We have 452 miles to go to West Palm beach, Florida
On a course of 303 degrees with 8-12kts of apparent wind straight up our behind; perfect twizzle weather. Bill nearly put the second foresail up before we left but changed his mind, it’s too difficult to do at sea. We have a full main out on a preventer on the port side and a poled out genny on the starboard side. Every now and again the wind gets behind the sail and flicks it causing it to slam.
We had a good day yesterday sailing all day which was unexpected. The forecast was for light winds and we were expecting to motor sail but we’ve kept up a good speed since leaving the anchorage. During the night the wind strengthened a bit and the sails didn’t slam but this morning the wind has dropped a bit and we’re back to the occasional flicking.
A bit of excitement during the night, it’s always in the middle of the night. I went off watch at 01.00 and had just got into bed when I heard an unusual bang followed by Bill calling me. I came back on deck to see the pole down with the sail flapping. I put the deck lights on so Bill could go and investigate. The pole is attached to a slider on the mast. The sail had flipped up with the roll and a gust of wind at the same time that had allowed the pole to drop down the slider, knocking off the retaining block and shattered the pulley at the bottom, there were plastic bits all over the deck. We rolled the genny away and fortunately Bill was able to lift the pole back into place and re-secure it, job done. While the genny was away Bill decided we needed a reef in the main so we put that in then brought out the genny again. Finally I got to bed. Bill kindly let me have an extra half hour this morning.
The food situation is limited again on Camomile. I did some shopping in the Caribbean but didn’t buy too much because I won’t be allowed to take meat, dairy, fruit or veg into the States. According to the CBP website they inspect the boat and take away any fresh food you have on board like they did in Australia and New Zealand so I’ve run the freezer right down. I just have enough for this passage. As we are going home in 2 weeks time there’s no point in having a load of stuff on board that will go off any way. I’ll restock when we come back. So last night I fried a bit of bacon, cooked some ribbon pasta, drained it and added some cream, an egg yolk, parmesan and black pepper and it became a pasta carbonara.
There’s a small crisis on Camomile at the moment because I’ve run out of my Cappucino sachets. I do like my coffee at 11.00 and always manage to have supplies on board but I’ve only got one left which I’m saving for my birthday in case something happens and we’re still out here. It’s kind of an insurance, if I don’t drink it we’ll get there and I didn’t need to save it, if I drink it…..
All well on board.
The blog goes through to facebook but we can’t see facebook or your comments. I look forward to catching up with them all when we get to the US. If you wish to email us please use mdqf6 @ sailmail.com (take out the gaps)
The final leg to Florida
Our position at 10.00 Wednesday 26th April
21 29.47N
071 32310W
Anchored in C ockburn harbour, South Caicos
573 miles to West Palm beach, Florida.
Just lifting the anchor to leave South Caicos. We’ve been here less than 24 hours but decided to come here yesterday from Grand Turk.
Grand Turk was interesting for a stop off and check in but the island revolves around the Carnival Cruise liner jetty that Carnival built for their cruise liners to stop at on their way to and from America and the Caribbean islands. A lot of the beautiful colonial homes on the sea front have been allowed to full into disrepair. One row back and the ‘new’ part of the island just looks like the States with brand new homes built with cruise liner money but of no interest to the tourist. Along the waterfront there are some nice hotels that have a few guests but many of them appeared empty. The anchorage was beautiful with the most stunning clear aquamarine water but not much snorkeling. Every day the local boats brought cruise liner passengers to snorkel the same spot behind us but all that was there were a few rocks that were deep and some fish. There is a ‘wall’ which would make for an interesting dive but that was all. We had 3 days there mainly to sit out a front that looked pretty nasty on the grib files but didn’t turn out so bad, although wouldn’t have wanted to be at sea in it. By Monday afternoon it had gone – taking all the good wind with it but leaving a beautiful blue sky.
Yesterday we decided to come across to South Caicos to check out and have a look at it. Amazingly we had a really good sail when there wasn’t supposed to be any wind. Cockburn harbour was very calm. We didn’t arrive until 4pm and decided it was too late to check out so went for a swim instead. The harbour is very shallow and we were anchored with a metre below the keel in superb clear water. Amusingly Bill stood on the sea bed holding onto the rudder but I didn’t have my camera with me. Lots of Conch shells here and one or two of them moving. Unfortunately as it’s a local delicacy most of them were empty.
We took the dinghy exploring and motored over to Long Cay that only inhabitants are Iguana. On the beach there were more Conch shells, 100s of them actually, some of them were forming part of the beach, all of them have a slit just below the third twirl which is how they must kill them. Sad but there seemed plenty around. I managed to find one nice looking one that I sneaked into the dinghy. There were so many they wouldn’t miss one.
This morning we went ashore to the wonderful old colonial customs building that used to be the commissioners office many years ago. The customs lady said the building had been there all of hers and her mothers life. The Check out took about 5 minutes, very easy, and we didn’t need to go back to Immigration but just hand her our departure cards. There wasn’t a lot of time but we took a little walk. The streets were deserted and completely different without the cruise liner trade. It was a very friendly place and worth a return trip next year.
So this is the final push to Florida. All being well it should take about 4 or 5 days. We are due to arrive on the 1st but if we get some wind it might be the 30th. I don’t mind as long as we get there safely. This time in 2 weeks time we’ll be landing at Heathrow but I have a birthday in between, hopefully not spent at sea.
Please pray for us or keep your fingers crossed whichever you believe in.
All well on board.
The blog goes through to facebook but we can’t see facebook or your comments. I look forward to catching up with them all when we get to the US. If you wish to email us please use mdqf6 @ sailmail.com (take out the gaps)
Happy Easter
Happy Easter to everyone. No church or Easter eggs here 😦
Last day in the BVI’s today. It’s beautiful here but very expensive. Most of the bays have got buoys in them at $30 a night with no facilities so it takes a while to find a spot to anchor. Eating out is way beyond our budget, even a burger and chips is about $15 and I don’t even like burger and chips!
Moving onto Grand Turk in Turks and Caicos tomorrow, if the wind plays the game, so no internet or facebook for a few days. Only a 3 day passage and it puts us nearer to Florida. Still on schedule.
Have a great day everyone.
Bill and Sue x
The blog goes through to facebook but we can’t see facebook or your comments. I’ll catch up with them all in America. If you wish to email us please use mdqf6 @ sailmail.com (take out the gaps) Stay safe everyone.
Antigua to St Martin
Our position at 10.00 Wednesday 5th April
17 35.8N
062 34.7W
40 miles to St Martin
Had a great few days in Antigua. Met up with 3 lots of friends. Gabby and Jonathan on Aqualuna, thanks for a fantastic evening and delicious meal you two, hope to see you further north. Tom and Susie, thought you had got rid of us… we found you again. Good to see you for the last time or is it….. Then we took Camomile around to Jolly harbour to check out and there sitting in the restaurant were Bob and Elaine of Pipistrelle what were the odds of that?!!
English harbour was very pretty as always but we were amazed at how the prices of everything have changed in 7/8 years. We were getting 4EC$ to the pound when we were here before now it’s down to 3EC$ to the pound. The restaurants were way over our budget but the hot spot cafe on the dockside in English harbour was good value and had good coffee and light meals with free internet AND a book swap! I had a good shuffle around of my read books with theirs and now have some good ones to read.
We spent a day in Falmouth harbour. Probably a better anchorage with more room although not so pretty. Met up with our friends then round to Jolly harbour yesterday to check out. They have a great supermarket there selling Waitrose foods. The customs/immigration were very helpful.
Jolly harbour was quite significant for us because we arrived there to check into Antigua exactly 7 years and 4 months ago with the Blue Water rally. We’ve only been south from there, so from now on it’s all new territory that we haven’t visited before.
We left Jolly harbour at 03.30 this morning for the sail to St Martin to meet up with more friends, Ian and Glenda on Lucy Alice. So far it’s been a great day, we have a nice gentle F4 on the beam with full sails on a calm sea. We are sailing passed St Barts but we’ll visit these islands again in the next year or two. We need to start heading north now.
I’ll post more photos when I get back on line, just relying on free wifi at the moment until we get to America.
Take care everyone. x