Aboard Lady

Lady arrived in Hampton

Hampton, VA

Wednesday, May 30th, 2012

We (Charlie, Jenny, Nina, Bob) arrived safely in Hampton, VA at 1000 this morning.
Two and a half days of no wind, where we had to motor, then another two and a half days of great wind.
We will stay tucked up here until Tropical Storm Beryl has passed.
Will post pictures once we have the bodies and the boat cleaned up, fed and rested.

Lady has left Bermuda

Sunday, May 27th, 2012

At sea

After a wonderful few days in Bermuda, we spent Friday getting ready for our next passage. While Jenny and Nina did laundry and provisioning, Charlie and Bob mailed cards and took Lady to the fuel dock for diesel and water.

The dinghy returned ashore to clear us out of Bermuda customs, as we were planning on departing before they opened on Saturday.

Saturday we got the anchor up about 0800, and after securing the anchor locker for the passage, Charlie hailed Bermuda Harbour Radio for permission to exit the harbour. Permission was granted, and off we went.

As expected from our wonderful weather reports from Chris Parker, the ocean was flat and there was no wind. We motored all day, heading east. We decided to change the watch schedule around. Our noon position was 32 31N 064 57W.

Nina fixed us a delicious dinner of yellow rice with chicken and a salad.

Jenny used the SSB to talk to the Doo Dah Net at 1700 (8152 USB). Very light copy on Bellamy, but we were able to pick up Sapphire's position and relay it and our own position to Saint Jude in New Bern NC. We also reported that Windward had left Bermuda and was in front of us somewhere, also heading to Hampton.

The only traffic we have seen was a tanker early Sunday morning on Nina's watch.

Charlie talked to Russ on Windward this morning, and Jenny relayed their position to Saint Jude during the 0830 Cruzheimers Net.

We have tried to unfurl the jib a couple of times, but the light airs are from dead astern, so the sail gets furled back up and we continue chugging along with the reliable Yanmar doing its job.

Our noon position toady was 32 46N 067 43W.

The big activity this afternoon was transferring diesel from the jerry cans on deck to the main engine tanks. Bob donned life-jacket and tether, clipped himself to the port jack-line and went forward to untie the four cans, one by one, and slide them back to the cockpit. After they were all in the cockpit, Charlie attached a hose to one of them, lifted the can up as Bob directed the hose into the open fuel deck fitting. Even though there is no wind, there are some swells, so we are moving from side to side quite a bit. As you might imagine, it was quite a chore.

Wildlife report: Yesterday we saw a number of Portuguese Man-O-War jelly fish sails. At dusk four Greater Shearwater birds were patrolling our wake. Today we have seen a lone Greater Shearwater a few times, and also a pair of White-tailed Tropidbirds. We plan on reporting our bird sightings to the Sea Bird Count.

Arrival in Bermuda

Lady arrived in Bermuda this morning after a 5 day passage from the BVI's. All well. Will wait for weather window before continuing on the Chesapeake Bay.

Lady's passage back to USA - Day 3

Friday May 18th, 2012

At sea

The wind had died a bit, presently we are coasting along at 5.7 knots in 10-12 knots of air.

The big excitement at 0245 last night was a crossing situation with a freighter. Nina was on watch and saw her light before she showed up on AIS and woke the captain. We altered course 20 degrees so we would be sure to take her stern. Foreign captains whose first language is not English DO understand "port to port sir?".

Fishing report: The pink lure did not work any better than the green lure.

Two of the vessels in our little rally, Sapphire and Jot For All have had to return to Tortola because of steering issues. Another, Windward, also has reported some steering problems, but they think they will make it to Bermuda OK.

Although the weather reports have bee modified, it still looks like a low pressure system over the Bahamas has the possibility of developing into a tropical storm, so we are continuing to head for Bermuda, where we will wait until it looks good to head back to the USA and cross the Gulf Stream near Hatteras.

Our noon position today was 27 25N 065 11W. 175 miles in the past 24 hours.

We think we will arrive in Bermuda on Sunday.

The crew welcomes messages to our sailmail account! Thanks to all those who have already sent us encouraging notes.

Lady's passage - Tortola to USA - Day 2 - weather may change our destination

Thursday May 17th, 2012

At sea

Another pretty uneventful day. Winds out of the east at 15-20, Lady rolling along at around 8 knots. Wind on the beam. Course 012M. Autohelm (Bob has renamed Otto to Brenda) performing well.
Fishing report: no bites on the green lure yesterday, we are using the pink lure today.
Chatted with Salty Dog group at 1700 and 2000 and again at 0800 this morning on SSB.
Our weather expert, Chris Parker, has strongly advised that vessels bound for Hatteras (that includes us, as the Gulf Stream is narrowest there) should divert to Turks and Caicos, Southern Bahamas or Bermuda as a large low pressure system is forming off the Carolina coasts and will bring nasty weather to the areas offshore USA in that area. We are heading generally towards Bermuda, and will stop over there this week-end (may arrive Sunday) unless/until we get a better forecast.
Nina has advanced her diet from ginger snap cookies to ginger snaps with peanut butter.
Bob fought off a rather big whale - he won.
Charlie our captain is his usual cheerful self.
Jenny is enjoying the ride.
Our noon position today was 24 33.29N 065 11.05W. that's 198 miles since noon yesterday a new Lady record!

Totrola to USA passage - Day 1

Wednesday May 16th, 2012
Nina and Bob Huether joined us last week. We've been busy preparing Lady for the passage home: showing them the boat systems and getting them comfortable aboard, provisioning, filling tanks with fuel and water, making friends on the dock. We decided to participate in the Salty Dog Rally, a very informal group of a dozen or more cruisers returning to various ports in the USA from various ports in the islands, mostly Tortola to Hampton, VA, but some will be stopping in Bermuda on the way.
After a lovely farewell dinner - a Caribbean Beach barbecue - thanks Nanny Cay, RiteWay grocery, Bamboushay pottery, Mount Gay rum, BVI tourism and s/v Sapphire for organizing it all - we dropped the dock-lines at 1015 yesterday and headed out of the harbor. The winds were light from the east in Sir Francis Drake Channel, so we motored around the West End of Tortola and left Jost Van Dyke to starboard.
The wind filled in and soon we were moving along under full sails.
Everyone was feeling good. Lots of rest in the afternoon, ready for our first night.
After dinner of beef stroganoff, while Charlie stood watch, Jenny chatted on the single-side-band radio with the rest of the fleet, recording positions and winds before heading to sleep. Nina took the 2100-midnight watch, relieved by Bob at midnight. They encountered three items of traffic, and woke the captain to negotiate crossing situations with a tanker, a couple of freighters and a sailing yacht. By the time Jenny took the 0300 watch all was quiet, and the only item of note was the rising of the moon.
We have been moving quite well. Our noon position today was 21 16.8N 065 06.9W. Our speeds have been mostly over 7 knots. Charlie calculates that we were 172 miles from Jost Van Dyke at noon.