New England weather
6 June 2008 09:45UTC 40’16N 069’12W Shipping lanes, fishing grounds, thick fog. One of my least favourite combinations. I don’t know if we have a magnetic boat (or maybe it’s just my personality) but every lump of floating steel we see on the radar seems to be drawn right towards us. The big ships are […]
Less wind, less comfortable!
5 June 2008 19:40UTC 39’19N 069’01W As the wind eased, we finally hoisted more sail, and more, and more until we had a fabulous three or four hours at top speed in decreasing seas. Eventually, a bank of cloud appears ahead of us. This is the cold front – the boundary between warm and cold […]
All well and good
05 June 08 10:40UTC 38’33N 069’11W It seems that our near gale at midnight was the worst of it, touch wood. Now, at daybreak, we’ve got twenty to twenty-five and are nearing the northern edge of the gulf stream. We’ve been ultra conservative all night, tootling along under a reefed jib at about five knots, […]
Midnight
05 June 2008 04:30UTC (00:30 local) 38’04N 069’20W The wind’s rising, as forecast, now a fairly steady thirty knots, near gale force. That’s about thirty five miles per hour. We’ve just dropped the main completely and are running under reefed jib alone. We sacrificed a little speed for a lot of comfort and security. Murphey’s […]
Riding the Gulf Steam
04 June 2008 23:00UTC 37’34N 069’01W Our log says ’15:30, entered the Gulf Stream’. In fact, what we came into first was a north flowing eddy, and the speed jumped from seven and a half knots to nearly ten. The wind has built nicely, now twenty knots from behind us, so we are reaching fast […]
Wiggling around the atlantic
03 June 2008 21:15UTC 35’30N 067’34W It’s been a very varied twenty four hours, with winds from all around the compass and from almost nothing to a good 15-18 knots. We’ve taken a turn westwards, and I’ll tell you why but first I have to tell you about Herb. Herb is a legend among the […]
A quiet and beautiful night
02 June 2008 19:45UTC 34’04N 065’23W We had a very peaceful night in flat seas, gently plodding along at three and a half knots. It was a nice start to the voyage. The day dawned beautifully, I came on watch just after four a.m., and the sky was already getting light. By four thirty I […]
We’ve left Bermuda, next stop Boston
01 June 2008 21:00UTC 32’29N 064’35W After a pleasant couple of days in Bermuda, we’re on our way north again. Our new crew member, Yan, had the trip from hell getting here, when his short flight to Toronto was canceled yesterday, he’d missed the connection to Bermuda, so was rerouted via New York which would […]
Arrived
Here we are, tied up to the customs dock in Bermuda. The pub has now closed so we’ve been forced back to the boat to sleep it off. Alzs verry well. Hic. N.
Land Ho!
30 May 08 21:00UTC 32’05N 054’38W We can see an island. All the indications are that it is Bermuda, so we are looking forward to arriving within the next four hours. The crew, and I too, have been in a sort of impatient, time-killing, staring at the horizon sort of mood for the last few […]