Aboard Lady

Jenny and Charlie headed to Jay Sea Dee

Nanny Cay, Tortola, BVI

Wednesday November 30th, 2011

Last Spring, we accepted John Dinsmore's invitation for us to crew for him aboard Jay Sea Dee when he moved her from the Mediterranean to the Caribbean.  It is a great opportunity to cross an ocean on a sailing yacht, and get some great experience so that we might do it with Lady in the future.

We are packed, and leave tomorrow, flying via Beef Island, San Juan, Miami and Madrid (where we will stop for a couple of nights) to Tenerife, where we'll meet Jay Sea Dee at the San Miguel Marina.  I don't know if we'll be able to post to this blog during the voyage (we aren't taking our laptops), but John will be posting to his blog http://www.jayseadee.blogspot.com/

Today John is en route to the Canary Islands from Gibraltar.

 

Here are some pictures from our trip down and the fun we've been having since we got there.

 

 

Caribbean 1500 follow-up

Lady had been in radio communication with Karina, so we knew that they were a couple of hours ahead of us when we crossed the Caribbean 1500 finish line off Scrub Island at 0040.38 on Sunday November 20th. We motored down the Sir Francis Drake Channel, watching out for late partiers returning home. All was quiet when we entered Nanny Cay at about 0230, and tied up in space on a T-head as the fuel dock was full. What a treat the showers were at 4 AM! After sleep, next morning the roosters crowing reminded us as we woke that we were here in Tortola! After breakfast ashore (another treat) with other crews, we moved Lady from the T-head to our slip. Steve was ordered to go play, as he only had a single day to enjoy being ashore. I did laundry (took all day - winter clothes and everyone's bed linens, seven people working with four washers and two dryers), Charlie checked us in to customs and immigration, took care of 1500 formalities, and washed down the deck and cockpit. There was a fun beach cook-out that evening.
Monday, Steve was able to share a cab to the ferry terminal with crew from Destiny, and Charlie and I worked on sorting everything that had been re-stowed for the passage. We did manage to stop work long enough to go for a swim at the Nanny Cay pool. The awards party that evening was on the deck next to the pool, and was a lot of fun. Awards for the best blog (Scilia), prettiest yacht (Blackbird), the net controllers each got a T-shirt, and each participating yacht received a plaque with the C1500 logo and the boat's name.
We knew that in Class B, only two yachts had finished in the time limit. Dancing Lizard, a Moody 46, finished just a few hours behind us, but with our handicap, they corrected ahead of us. BUT, that was without applying the penalty for engine use. We knew that we had motored just under 60 hours, but had heard no report of Dancing Lizard's engine hours, - they did not have a SSB radio aboard, so had not reported in twice a day their position and engine hours at roll call. André told us that he couldn't remember his hours. He and his wife, Marie Claude, have become good friends since we met them first at Hampton. When Rick Palm announced that Dancing Lizard was second, we were joyous for them! Coincidently, that meant that Lady was first! Two Caribbean 1500's, two first places, not bad Lady.
A delicious buffet dinner at Peg Legs followed the awards, and we had fun with crews from Dancing Lizard, Beaudacious, Meander, Nyctea, and 1500 Somewhere.
Another day of boat maintenance and swimming, then our three free nights at Nanny Cay were up. After a trip to Bobby's market for provisions, we left Nanny Cay and headed over to Norman Island's Benures Bay where we dropped anchor and spent the next three days relaxing and recovering. Reading, snorkeling, a little bit of maintenance. The bay is not popular with charter boats - no restaurant ashore and no moorings, so we shared the anchorage with three or four other private yachts. Trillium, another 1500 participant, came and anchored near one day, so we invited them over for drinks and had a good time visiting with Sherry and Dennis from Michigan.
Yesterday, we moved over to The Bight at Norman Island, and after lunch ashore at Pirates, had Danielle and Michel on Nyctea, also from Quebec, over for drinks.
We are headed back to Nanny Cay today. We'll work on cleaning Lady, and get her ready to be parked there for a month while we go to Europe and crew for Jay Sea Dee from Tenerife to Grenada.

Passage to Tortola - Day 8

Friday November 18th to Saturday November 19th, 2011

At Sea

Another tough day of sailing - just kidding.
We've had really great winds for the past day, and Lady has raced through the swells. Winds in the 15 knot range keeps her moving at around 7 knots. We've had reefs in and out as the wind speed has changed.
Heeling at this angle make moving about quite difficult. You have to climb up to the galley, slide down to the chart table. Leeward drawers are hard to pull our, and the contents of windward cupboards may spill to the floor when the door is opened. Whenever anyone moves, they need to always be holding on to a fixed part of the boat. Steve had a difficult time getting into his berth last night. Charlie and I cannot sleep together in our berth unless we sleep across the bed.
These little challenges will be over soon. Our 1220 position (we forgot to write down the noon position) was 19 44N 065.23W.
We expect to be crossing the finish line early tomorrow morning (between 0200 and 0300) and will be at Nanny Cay about a hour and a half after that. We are really looking forward to shore showers, level beds, rum punches and meeting up again with the other participants.
Jenny

Passage to Tortola - Day 7

Thursday November 17th to Friday November 18th, 2011

At Sea

Another fabulous 24 hours of sailing. The wind has picked up since yesterday, and come around more from the east and east north-east. We had a slower couple of hours during the night, when we were reefed, but since then we have been sliding along at between 6 1/2 and 8 knots.
"Sail ho!" I called after breakfast.
Behind us off our port quarter was another sail. Radar indicated that the yacht was about 4 miles away, so I called them on VHF radio, and soon was talking to Seven Sisters. Loren and crew are also headed to Nanny Cay, Tortola; they departed from Morehead City, North Carolina, and like us, had to motor for about three days to get through the high pressure weather system. They have stayed behind us all day, sometimes a little closer, sometimes further away, It will be fun to meet them at the dock.
Our noon position was 22 21N 066 53W. 153 miles from our last noon position and about 270 miles to the finish line.
After lunch we decided to start a pot for the date and time of our finish. $1 per entry, limit one per person. All three of us have our date and times picked. Any Lady fans who are reading this and want to participate should send an email to Lady's at sea email (WDE9568 at sailmail.com) with the day and time you think we'll finish and your name and address where you want other participants to send your winning dollars no later than 0700 AST tomorrow, Saturday November 19th. The finish is from the north to a line from Scrub Island at 18 28N. If anybody sends a time that someone else already has, we'll add one minute to it. We are planning on crossing the finish line before the race time-limit expires at 1200 AST on Sunday, November 20th, 2011.
A rain squall this afternoon washed off the isinglass curtains, but passed quickly. We are back to slicing through the blue sea with sparkling wave crests at 7.4 knots in brilliant late-afternoon sunshine.
Jenny

Passage to Tortola - Day 6

Wednesday November 16th to Thursday November 17th, 2011

At sea

Another great day of sailing, even though nothing much has happened. Sailing close-hauled, we had a deep reef in the main yesterday afternoon and overnight, but took it out this morning. Our present wind speed is about 10-12 knots, enough to keep Lady moving at about 7 knots Steve reported that Lady had a nice wash from a squall overnight - Charlie and I slept through it.
Although we have no Internet at sea, we can send and receive emails, through the SSB, using our Sailmail account. We receive emails from rally control giving us weather and other information, we also have current subscriptions to a couple of saildocs, which send us the NOAA text forecast for the area and also a grib file showing wind direction in a pictorial format. Bob Crawford has been paying close attention to weather and our position, and emails us frequently about what he sees. We even get an occasional email from a family member and one of the other boats in the rally sent us an email. We try to connect twice a day to see if anybody still knows that we exist. We are anxious for the wind to turn more to the north-east. If it continues in the present south-easterly direction that we have had since we got through the high pressure system, we'll make landfall in Puerto Rico. Charlie calculates that we do have enough fuel left that if the wind dies completely, we should still be able to motor to Tortola.
Our noon position today was 24 52N 067 60W. We made about 165 nautical miles since noon yesterday, and have 430 nautical miles to the finish.
The ocean is a gorgeous shade of ultramarine blue, and the sound of Lady breaking through the waves is a delightful never-ending song.

Jenny

Passage to Tortola - Day 5

Tuesday November 15th to Wednesday November 16th, 2011

At Sea

We had a lovely afternoon yesterday, with enough wind to keep Lady moving at 6 to 6 1/2 knots on in to the night on a close-hauled course to Tortola at about 150 degrees. After midnight, the wind headed us, and for the remainder of the night our course was more due south. This morning the wind picked up to about 10-15, and Lady was making over 7 knots. A big excitement late in the morning when the bell on the fishing line rang, and Charlie and Steve hauled in a little dorado. We decided that he was not quite big enough to eat yet, so Charlie unhooked it and returned it to the ocean after photos.
Our noon position was 27 37N 068 50W - almost 150 miles since noon yesterday, and just under 600 miles to go.
The fishing line bell rang again as I was about to fix lunch. This time I managed to get a movie of the dorado coming aboard. He died happily thanks to rum in his gills, but as the wind has us heeling over so much, it's not safe to be cooking at this angle, so he's now in the freezer, awaiting a time when Lady is upright.
While Charlie was napping this afternoon, the bell rang again. It was a small fish, can't tell you what kind, and Steve returned him to the sea after removing the hook. We decided that the green lure we had on the line today works much better than the pink one we had on yesterday.
We are sailing along, still close-hauled, doing 7-8 knots, lots of big swells and waves, waiting for the wind to turn to the forecast north-east to give us a more relaxed reach in to Tortola. We'll probably reef some more tonight so that we can stay in our beds!

Jenny

Passage to Tortola - Day 4

Monday November 14th to Tuesday November 15th, 2011

At Sea

The light winds continued Monday evening and on in to the night. Our reliable Yanmar diesel kept chugging along.
After dinner (beef stew with red wine made a couple of weeks ago and frozen), we turned on the SSB for the evening roll call. The rally was using a new frequency for the first time, and it was soon apparent that there was a LOT of static. Miles on Karina and myself on Lady were able to contact each other, and found a better frequency, but Sherry on Trillium, who was scheduled to be net controller had a locked SSB, and was not able to change to the other frequency. She was not able to hear very much over her radio, so, since I was listed as stand-by net control, I conducted my first roll call. It was challenging to have to hold the radio microphone with my left hand and write with the other, then repeat all the information to be certain not only that I had it recorded correctly, but so the any others who hadn't heard the position from the yacht calling had a second chance to hear it from me. Because of the static, I could not hear many of the yachts, but others who could helped by relaying positions and other information. It took almost an hour before we were done, and I was dripping...the fan above the nav station had fallen off during the day, so I didn't have much air moving around me. This morning the net controllers decided that we'll go back to using the old frequency for evening roll call.
Finally, on my evening watch, some wind came up from the east. It was so good to turn off the engine, and we were able to keep heading south-east along the rhumb-line to Tortola. It was lovely to watch the stars and the phosphorescence in the wake in the quiet with the rest of the crew asleep.
An hour later, however, when Charlie was on watch, the wind died again. Motor back on and we continued on the same heading as our weather reports indicated that there would be wind to our south.
This morning, after roll call and breakfast dishes were done, the wind came up from the east south-east and we have had about 10 knots of air, and have been able to sail close-hauled at 6 to 7 knots all day. We are all in very good spirits to have Lady moving as well as possible and not be listening to the noise all the time. Charlie estimates that we have just over half of the fuel we started with remaining.
Our noon position was 30 02N 069.40W.
Steve has finished a book that he can not contribute to the ship's exchange library as it's on his Kindle. However, his wife, Sue, was kind enough to send another paper-back book with him for the boat. Charlie has napped a lot. The ocean is gorgeous, and there's not another vessel in sight.
Jenny

Passage to Tortola - Day 3

Sunday November 12th to Monday November 13th, 2011

At Sea.

Another uneventful day with very little wind, and what little there is is mostly from the south-east - exactly the course to our destination. We have been motoring quite a lot, with the engine at about 1800 rpm, enough to keep Lady moving, and if we motor-sail in the 5-8 knot winds, sometimes we can move at 5 knots. Normally, it's rare for us to motor so slowly, but we need to do this in order to conserve the fuel. The big project yesterday for Charlie and Steve was to get fuel from three of the five-gallon jerry cans on the deck into Lady's tanks. Steve put on life-jacket and tether and went forward to untie the cans and moved them one by one back to the cockpit. Charlie had a special clear plastic short (about two feet) hose that he hose-clamped one end to the jerry can and Steve held the other in the fuel opening on the deck outside the cockpit. Then, Charlie raised the can and tipped it so that fuel flowed from the can into the tank. By the time they were finished with all three of the cans and had them stowed back on deck almost an hour had passed.
We had enough wind to sail for a few hours, but it died again, so we are presently motoring once more.
Our noon position was 31 57N 070 56W. About 889 nautical miles to the finish.
This afternoon I spied a sail on the horizon. We were crossing tacks with another yacht! Soon it appeared on our AIS, and we were able to identify them as Sea Smile, another of the yachts in the rally.
I called them on the VHF radio, and commiserated with each other about the lack of wind. I learned that they did not have an SSB (single side band radio), which explains why they had not been able to check in with the rest of the fleet at the twice-daily roll call. I was able to provide them with high-lights of the weather report that we had received from rally control in this morning's email.
The only fish we have caught is a flying fish who landed on Lady's deck. Only Sargasso weed on the fishing lines.
The weather has warmed up, and we are all in short-sleeved shirts this afternoon. I'm wearing shorts and I've stowed the comforter on my bed. All the crew are barefoot.
It has been great to receive emails from Bob Crawford. Although he had to leave us because of the delay in starting, he is monitoring our progress and looking at Internet weather sites and letting us have his opinion on where we will find wind. Thanks Bob!

Jenny

Passage to Tortola - Day 2

Saturday November 12th to Sunday November 13th, 2011

At Sea.

The light wind continued yesterday afternoon on through the night.
At evening roll-call, three of the boats announced their fishing catches, Wahoo from catamaran Southern Cross, Mahi from Archangel and Bonita from Rum Runner. We had our newly-created fishing gear in the water, but the only thing we've been able to catch so far is Sargasso weed. Part of the problem may have been that the lure still had it's protective plastic cover on it. Our fishing seminar leader, musician Davis Murray (www.BarefootDavis.com), is riding on Archangel, so that may be why they are catching. We are trying again today, but in case we don't catch anything, I have a beef stew defrosting.
With such light wind, sometimes right on our nose, we have done a lot of motoring. Our noon position today was 33.32N 071 53W - another 978 nautical miles to go to the finish.
After lunch, the wind came up, and we were able to turn off the engine - it had been going for over 24 hours, with a couple of breaks. Unfortunately, the wind is on our nose, coming directly from the Virgin Islands, so we are sailing close hauled, which may explain for some of our readers why Lady is heading south, instead of south-east this afternoon.
I have finished one book, my knitting progresses, and the trip continues to go well. Charlie and Steve are both doing well also.

Jenny

Passage to Tortola - Day 1

Remembrance Day - 11/11/2011 to 11/12/2011

At sea

Everybody aboard Lady was awake before the 0700 alarm went off. All the crew were disappointed when Bob Crawford announced his decision that with the delay, the time was getting too tight for his schedule. He soon had his bags packed and on the dock, and remained to take farewell pictures and assist with casting off the lines at 0830.
We slowly motored out the Hampton River, other yachts joining the parade to the Fort Monroe start.
We had a great start at 1200 EST, wind from behind out of the north west. We had to gybe a couple of times in order to make it through the gap of the tunnel that crosses the Chesapeake entrance. Our noon (EST) position placed us at 36 57N 075 59W.
We had good winds all afternoon, cruising along under full main and jib with the wind bearing about 125 off to starboard, with speeds varying from 6.5 to 10 knots. We changed all clocks and watches to Atlantic Standard Time (UTC -4).
It was wonderful to hear from all the other boats at the 1900 SSB roll call. We seemed to be doing well - we kind of knew that we were keeping up with some quite large and fast boats from the ones we could see around us - Karina passed behind us before the sun set, and we could see others near-by on the AIS.
The wind became lighter as the night wore on, and at 0500 after we had entered the Gulf Stream, Charlie started the engine. With three of us on board, we have been doing night watches of two hours on and four off, which seemed to work quite well. We saw the lights of four other members of the 1500 fleet.
The 0730 roll call revealed that a number of the boats had, like us, sailed into light air. Our engine kept chugging.
Our noon position of 34 58N 073 52.56 revealed that we have 1109 nautical miles to go to the finish.
By 1400 the wind had picked up, so the engine was turned off for a while, and we agreed that Lady was through the Gulf Stream when the auto-helm course and the navigation COG (course over ground) read the same at 150.
One other yacht is still in sight - AIS indicates that this is Wind Dancer. Everybody is well. No sea-sickness, no complaints so far. We are having a good time.
Jenny