Breeze On

We are so happy to be in the Bahamas!! We transited Whale Cay Cut in the Bahamas just before sunrise this morning. The cut is notorious for “raging” (breaking waves all the way across) when there is a NE swell. This morning it was, as our weather guy, Chris Parker, would say, benign. As I mentioned before, we timed our arrival this morning to coincide with the exit of an area of low pressure that was causing higher seas. We were sailing fast enough that we could have arrived before sunset yesterday if it hadn’t been for the poor conditions yesterday. It was quite a challenge to find the right sail plan to keep us from moving too fast (not a problem we often have). We tried jib and mainsail with one reef, jib and mainsail with two reefs, mainsail only with one reef and, finally, jib only. Even with jib only we were sailing too fast. Last evening the wind moved further behind us making it difficult to keep the jib filled when the waves pushed us to and fro. The jib would  start to gy...

I tend to get queasy when I spend much time in the galley while we are underway. For that reason I like to have our main meals prepared in advance before we depart. I will prepare casseroles or pasta dishes and place enough for two servings in an aluminum loaf pan. The meal can then be popped in the oven about an hour before we plan to eat it on paper plates, allowing for minimal time in the galley.  Because we hadn’t originally planned to go to the Bahamas when we left Beaufort I had just two meals prepared in advance.  We did have some soups, though, that I had prepared at home and frozen. I have always avoided soups for passage meals because there are so many opportunities to spill hot soup when the boat is moving every which way. Our experience with yesterday’s meal of soup proved my point. Although I had my hands on my soup bowl, when Breeze On heeled over after being hit by a wave on the beam, some of the soup spilled out onto the table and the floor. Lesson learned....

This morning we passed the halfway point between Beaufort, NC and our destination, Abaco, Bahamas. At about the same time the wind picked up enough that we could finally sail without the engine. Yay! We have actually put a reef in the mainsail to slow our speed. We would like to get to Abaco mid-morning on Tuesday to arrive in daylight, have the most favorable waves when entering the cut, be closer to high tide (for entering the shallow harbor at Green Turtle Cay), as well as to avoid potential squalls in the area.  We entered the Gulf Stream yesterday afternoon and exited it last evening. The waves in the Gulf Stream were ten feet high at times, making the ride a rather gnarly one. I am glad to have that part of the trip behind us. There is very little traffic in this part of the Atlantic, we only occasionally spot a ship crossing our path.  The full moon has been a blessing. Not only is it beautiful but it provides visibility at night. Speaking of the moon, we have been know...

We used to be delighted by birds hitching a ride on our boat. Then, after one persistent bird found its way into the cabin and wouldn’t leave, we have become downright curmudgeonly. We shout things such as, “we don’t want any!” and “get offa my boat!” (Sorry Grace D)  We are currently 50 miles off of the coast of South Carolina. I imagine this bird hitched a ride on a ship and we have become its next ride. 

As we motored out of Beaufort this morning we listened to Stormy on Chris Parker’s forecast. Stormy suggested that the weather models were coming into closer agreement and the conditions in the Bahamas would be better than we had expected. There should be some wind for sailing during part of the trip and the seas would not be as high as we thought. So we decided to reconsider going to Brunswick and to maybe head to the Bahamas instead.  We wanted to talk to Chris during his evening broadcast before finalizing our decision. He confirmed the conditions Stormy had mentioned in the morning and also gave us a route. The trip should take four days and the last part should have enough wind for sailing. Fingers crossed! As the sun was setting this evening we watched our first green flash of the season. It was a spectacular one!

This morning I mentioned to George that, after a few days at sea, I often feel like kissing the dock when I arrive at Homer Smith Docks and Marina. Yesterday was no exception when we arrived at about 1 pm after our rolly passage from home. After settling in and eating our mid-afternoon meal, we took a leisurely walk into town for ice cream. We didn’t have much energy for anything else the rest of the day. We slept well in the quiet, calm marina with Breeze On tied up in her slip.  The first item on today’s agenda was completing a few chores this morning while we still had some energy. Then we started planning our next steps. After much back and forth, studying of wind and wave forecasts, and a consultation with Stormy on Chris Parker’s weather broadcast, we decided to leave tomorrow morning and head to Brunswick, GA. We did consider going all the way to the Bahamas but concerns about the amount of fuel needed for a trip that might require motoring the entire distance, as well as th...

Our first day and night traveling down the bay were relatively quiet. There was not a lot of ship traffic and the waves were small. We crossed the bridge tunnel on George’s watch just before exiting the bay. In that area we often encounter ships as they converge to cross the tunnel. Fortunately, there weren’t many and those that did pass were not terribly close. I woke up at about 4:30 am, probably because the seas in the Atlantic were rollier than those in the bay.  By 11 am the next day we finally had enough wind to sail again as we passed by the outer banks of North Carolina. We were able to continue sailing for the next 17 hours. A nice treat! George offered to get up to help me gybe—turn the boat through the wind while going downwind,  causing the boom to move from one side to the other—as we turned to go around Cape Hatteras. Although I can gybe the boat by myself it often isn’t pretty, so I took him up on his offer and woke him up at around 10:30. A few hours after Geor...

We left our slip just before 9 am this morning. Before leaving, we ate our breakfast on board Breeze On while listening to Chris Parker’s weather forecast, using the Starlink for our internet connection. George had mailed the internet router we use in the condo back to Comcast for the winter. We found out last year that our T-Mobile cell service does not enable us to stream the forecast from the condo. The Starlink on Breeze On worked quite well. After pulling out of the slip I circled around the creek for about a 1/2 hour while George secured the dinghy. It was only the second time he had done it using this plan and it took a while. Now the dinghy is snug and ready to go offshore.  We have a good weather window to go out into the Atlantic, around Cape Hatteras, and into Beaufort. The trip should take us just over two days. We would have preferred to take three days traveling down the Chesapeake but the forecast for the end of the week is questionable, so we are taking advantage of...

Yesterday, as we sat peacefully anchored in Trappe Creek, George worked on the plan to secure the dinghy on the arch for offshore sailing. The goal was to lift the dinghy up high to reduce the chances that a wave would fill the dinghy with water, and secure it with extra straps to keep it from moving in the heavier seas we find offshore. He also added safety lines that would hold the dinghy if the other lines/straps failed. It is a belt and suspenders plan with extra suspenders. We are both confident the plan will keep the dinghy secure and will be much easier than lashing the dinghy to the foredeck.  We did identify a few issues while on our little shake down cruise. Yesterday afternoon the router for the Starlink stopped working after George attempted to update the firmware. This is a router we used to use in the condo that George installed when he converted the system to 12 volts. Fortunately, he had brought the Startink router and had asked the electricians to install a small i...

George and I have been busy these past few weeks buying provisions for our trip to the Bahamas and checking off chores on our to-do lists. For those reasons we generally do not choose to spend a few days at anchor this time of year. However, George wanted to go out for a brief shake down cruise to try out our new lithium ion battery as well as our new Startink (which will provide our internet service.) Last week Josh, Joe and Tyler from Evolution Marine Electronics installed our new Dakota 560 amp hour lithium ion battery. It is a relief to have the new battery and know that we won’t spend the winter worrying whether the old batteries would last. As a bonus, the new battery has 160 more amp hours (ah) than our last batteries. The Startink does draw a small amount of power so the extra amp hours are a welcome plus. The new battery just fit in the space we had, with a few modifications. The seat had to be raised about an inch and a switch panel has to be moved out about an inch and a hal...