1285 Nautical Miles, 9.5 days and Little Wind!

1285 Nautical Miles, 9.5 days and Little Wind! 

Apologies for the delay getting our first post-passage blog out. To be honest, I have been exhausted and it's taken a couple of days to re-establish some equilibrium. We also have Gloria and Jo aboard and we have been preparing for a week of local cruising in the USVI. I will try and post some blogs and photos over the coming days. I'll post 2 or 3 related to the passage and then start catching up on what we are doing now.

As you probably already know, we made it to the US Virgin Islands. It was bit of a struggle! We left Morehead City, NC with a weather window to get across the Gulf Stream. That worked out well, although residual northerly winds and some squalls made for a bumpy few hours. Once through, we headed south with the intention of staying within the 250 mile offshore mark, as required by our insurance. It soon became apparent that we had some serious challenges ahead. If we kept going as planned, the weather forecasts suggested we would run into 6-8 foot seas directly on the nose. One option was to cut south to Turks and Caicos and wait for an opportunity to island hop the rest of the way. Chris Parker, who provided our weather info, suggested that with the current weather patterns we might wait 4-6 weeks for decent conditions. More seriously, the Turks and Caicos could be in the path of a tropical system that appeared to be developing off Panama. Given these concerns, and putting the safety of the boat and crew first, we opted to bypass our insurance limitation and follow a more traditional route to the south east until we met favorable trade winds. Taking this route involved a lot of light air and motoring. We desperately chased the trade winds, but they always seemed a little ahead of us. At one point we felt we had finally reached favorable winds, only to hit a series of squalls a couple of hours later, that slowed us down. We worked really hard to sail as much as we could and to conserve fuel by motoring slowly when necessary. It wasn’t until the last 24 hours that we finally had some fast beam-reach sailing in solid trade winds. We arrived in the USVI after sunset and sailed around to Christmas Cove, about 5 miles north of Charlotte Amalie, St Thomas. We dropped anchor, had a celebratory beer before catching up on some much needed sleep. We motored into the harbor the following morning, exhausted but happy. Our timing worked out well. Jo (Pete’s wife) had arrived by plane two days earlier and we met up immediately. Gloria flew in later that afternoon, and that connection also went well. Dave made a quick departure because his wife Kathy had been experiencing some medical issues and he was keen to get home. However, he did previously write a blog whilst sailing! Dave's blog is posted below and I I will try and add more details and photos of our passage over the coming days. 

 Ghosted by the trade winds (Dave Anderson) 

 We threw a party for the trade winds but they never showed up on the Morehead City- St Thomas passage. Armed with Chris Parker forecasts and Predict Wind models and the knowledge of where the rascals live (in the tropics!, we motored high and low across the southern edge of the Bermuda High, trying to get west to the magical longitude (65) where one can turn to reach south, driven by the trade winds. We had good food and friends but were ghosted by the guest of honor. The rest of the passage looked like it did in 2017- cold along the Atlantic coast with plenty of fish and dolphins and birds (I am having a Great Year!), a grit-your-teeth plunge across the Gulf Stream, endless motoring across the warm and hot low-wind subtropical high with flying fish and rains squalls and the occasional tropic bird. Right now it’s 11/14/2023 14:41 GMT and we are 30 hours out of St. Thomas still looking for the E-ticket ride, and still hopeful that we will find some good 15 knot winds out of the east. Cotinga’s diesel is humming along like a beast and her sails seem to like the forward apparent wind, boosting our speed by a knot as we bear 164M toward St. Thomas. Mike is measuring fuel consumption with a stick and noting consumption per hour and fuel remaining in the log book. We just backed off the RPM’s to 1500 to conserve fuel. (Note: back in the 1960’s Disneyland provided visitors with a coupon book with ride passes A-E, and the booklet usually contained two tickets to the biggest, baddest rides (requiring an E ticket). These were cherished by the younger visitors. Dave

Sunrise as we depart Beaufort inlet

Fast sailing towards the Gulf Stream

Rough conditions in the Gulf Stream, partly caused by squalls

The sun peaks through squall clouds 

Metallic seas as we forge our way through the Gulf Stream

Some seasickness, some trepidation ... Pete, late afternoon on Day 1

Sunset at the end of Day 1

Sunrise on Day 2 as we continue to make our way south

A white tailed tropic bird visits us on Day 2

Heading towards the sunrise on Day 3

Traveling south-eastwards as we commit to a more traditional route

T minus 36 hours

T - 36 hours

Wednesday 1st - Saturday 4th Nov 2023

Pete, Simon and Dave arrived safely at Raleigh Durham International Airport on Wednesday evening. After a quick stop at a local pub, we drove back the boat and were settled aboard shortly after midnight.

The last couple of days we’ve been mixing up boat preparations and a little exploring. We had an excellent dinner out at the Tight Lines Brew Pub and met up with some of the friends that I have made since being here. The following morning we hit the local breakfast place and then took the dinghy over the intracoastal waterway to Atlantic Beach and visited Fort Macon and the State Park. This was the second visit for me, but it was a beautiful day and I enjoyed visiting again. Today we finished provisioning, refilled a propane tank and topped up our fuel and water tanks. Dave went out for 6 mile run later this afternoon whilst the rest of us hung around the boat. Neither Simon or I are feeling very well, having picked up some sort of cold like bug. Hopefully that passes soon.

We have a firm departure time of early Monday morning. We have toyed with the idea of leaving the marina tomorrow in the morning and motoring over to Beaufort, anchoring there and visiting town, before we head off the next day. An alternative would be to stay here until we leave offshore, and take an Uber over to Beaufort. Not sure which way we’ll go on that!

Anyway, it looks like we have a good mild weather window to cross the Gulf Stream, with very light winds (much motoring!), then an upwind beat for the second half of the trip. We’ll see!I think this will be our last post before departure, but you can follow along on our tracking page.

https://forecast.predictwind.com/tracking/display/Cotinga/

Mike

Dave, Simon, Pete near the waterfront in Morehead City

Pete hanging out in the main cabin

Pete up on deck

Crew training was too much for Simon!

White Ibis - as we walk through Fort Macon State Park

Fort Macon

Uncertainty and Anxiety

Uncertainty and Anxiety

Monday 30 Oct 2023

It’s only two days until Dave, Pete and Simon arrive and I am ready to move on. I am actively trying to absorb weather forecasts and figure out if and when we might be able to set out for our passage to the USVI. We have reached the point in the project where I am almost overwhelmed with uncertainties about the weather and if it will even be possible to complete this voyage as planned. As I think about the situation, there are two main obstacles that we need to overcome: firstly, having conditions that will allow us to cross the Gulf Stream safely and without being too uncomfortable, and secondly, avoiding any tropical storms / hurricanes that may still be brewing. Yesterday I was quite disheartened by the forecast, so I spent some time considering various alternatives in case we can’t get across the Gulf Stream or the threat of tropical weather is too severe. I found going through that process to be helpful and somewhat comforting. Today the forecasts seem a little more promising. The threat of tropical storms has diminished and there may be a weather window opening up that will allow us to get out across the Gulf Stream at the weekend. Specifically, we are looking to avoid winds of >10 knots with a northerly component as this would likely create large and steep waves due to wind against current effects in the Gulf Stream. The truth is that weather forecasts a week in advance are not very reliable and should be taken with a pinch of salt. The reality is that I can’t seem to avoid the rollercoaster of emotions that come with a good or bad forecast, when both should probably be ignored at this point. For example, yesterday morning I saw a forecast for hurricane conditions with 75 knot winds off North Carolina later next week; today that prediction has completely vanished! I have numerous sources of weather information and when their predictions start to coalesce, that’s when I think you can have a little more faith in them. That tends to happen as they get closer in time, and that is why Morehead City is viewed as a good departure point, because we can be in the Gulf Stream in ~ 8 hours and across it in another ~ 8 hours, all within a timeframe that we should have confidence in the forecasts.

The boat jobs are all but complete; we just need to do final provisioning, top up the water and diesel, stow the dinghy on the foredeck and set up the wind-pilot steering. Tim and Deb, the friends that I met last week, came round for dinner this evening and it was great to spend some time with them.

I hope to post one final blog from Morehead City before heading out.

Mike

Looking out across the Intra Coastal Waterway from Morehead City

This charter fishing vessel focuses more on ground fishing, rather than game fishing

One of the many charter fishing vessels available

From the Sublime to the Disgusting

From the Sublime to the Disgusting

Wed 25 - Thur 26 October 2023

Whilst sitting at a bar on Sunday, watching the Patriots game, I met a lovely local couple called Tim and Deb. We exchanged phone numbers and they very kindly invited me round for dinner last night. I had the greatest time! After picking me up at the marina, we first went to “The Club at the Webb” for a couple of drinks. This bar, or “speakeasy” as Deb described it, has only been open for three days, but it was charming. It is located in a former children’s library and has several rooms with wood paneling, armchairs, sofas and artwork on the walls. It appears to be attracting quite a few customers, and mostly they seemed to know each other already. Everyone was extremely friendly and it was a great atmosphere. We then headed round to Deb and Tim’s house, located about 3 miles southwest of the marina, situated on the banks of a small creek. I got to chat with their friends and neighbors, who had also been invited round, and ate a wonderful Eastern Carolina barbecue, with pork butt, potato salad, coleslaw and the best baked beans I’ve ever eaten! The whole crowd were so welcoming and it was a fabulous evening.

So that was the “sublime” … now onto the “disgusting”. This morning I set to replacing the main sanitary hose from the aft head (toilet). Frankly, the locker through which it runs was smelling pretty grim and I realized that the hose itself was stinking. It was good quality, but probably ten years old, and they don’t stay impervious to odor for ever. It wasn’t a pleasant job, but by flushing plenty of fresh water through at the outset, I was able to minimize the mess. Getting the old hose off the back of the toilet was the hardest part and the rest of the refit went fine. I have one more hose that I want to replace in the lazarette (where the septic tank is mounted), but I have to wait for the new one to come in from Defender. (Note. Defender charges $11 / foot for this particular hose, with free shipping for orders over $100, whereas WestMarine charge $21 / foot for the same item. Now that’s what I call disgusting. I hate WestMarine !).

That’s it for now

Mike

Overlooking the creek from Deb and Tim's back yard (iPhone photo)

The crowd gathered in Deb and Tim's kitchen - wonderful people, great food! (Deb and Tim on far right with Archie the dog)

Three big outboards and underwater lighting

The same motors from across the marina - photo cropped and vignetted

A long row of $2m + powerboats

Checking out the Nail Salon

Checking out the Nail Salon

Mon-Tues 23-4 Oct 2023

Yesterday I became the first member of our family to set foot inside a nail salon. Well, they say life is about exploring new opportunities and pushing boundaries. To be honest, this wasn’t a premeditated visit … it just sort of happened … as it does, when you are trying to get a propane tank refilled. I hired the marina courtesy car for 2 hours (a good deal for $20 including gas) and set out to do a number of jobs. First stop was the Hicks Propane Bottle filling Station, where a sign out back, by the large propane tank, said use the side door. When I entered, as instructed, I found myself in a nail salon. “I must be in the wrong place” I said, “Oh no sir, this is correct” said an oriental gentleman, working on a customers fine set of nails, “but we are very busy at the minute, so please leave the tank and come back in a hour”. If I gave you a hundred choices of complementary businesses to run in conjunction with a propane filling station, I don’t think anyone would come up with nail salon.

I also got my latest Covid booster … yes that would be the vaccine that has conservatively saved a million lives in the USA alone … for any anti-vaxxers out there! I didn’t feel brilliant last night and it wasn’t until the early hours that I figured it was probably the response to the vaccine. I took a couple of ibuprofen and that helped.

I continue to make progress on my boat job list and was very excited to complete some work on our engine control panel. A couple of the panel lights have been blown out for several years, and the engine-stop button has lost it’s rubber waterproof coating. However, I could never figure out how to get access to the panel and feared it would involve removing the autopilot and approaching from the backside, leading to extreme bodily contortions and much bad language. After several years of procrastination, I found that individual sections of the panel are easily unscrewed from the front, and replacing the broken bulbs and engine-stop switch turned out to be trivial.

This evening a fellow sailor dropped by for a drink and then we grabbed dinner at “Floyds”, a local restaurant nearby. Ben is 74 years old and solo sailing his 37 ft Pacific Seacraft “Loon”. Tomorrow morning he is heading south off the coast to Charleston, SC, which is probably a ~30 hour passage. He will then wait for a good weather window and sail across the Gulf Stream directly to the Abacos region of the Bahamas. He has done this a number of times before and estimates it will take about 72 hours. He cat-naps 20 minutes at a time during the day, then stays awake all night. I know I couldn’t function with that little sleep.

Mike

... still at Morehead City Yacht Basin

C-Dock, Morehead City Yacht Basin. Even in dead calm conditions there is still some motion on the water, which is picked up in these 1 minute exposures

Both panoramas are stitched together from a sequence of individual shots, taken with a 70 mm lens. another evening I'll try and get out with a wider angle lens as well

Weather watching

Weather watching

Friday - Saturday 20-21 October 2023

I continue to make slow and steady progress on the boat jobs. I decided the varnishing is complete with 3 coats and took off the masking tape this morning. I’ve made some progress on polishing the stainless steel and cleaning windows. I’m also trying to get more proficient in using the Predict Wind weather routing tools and so I watched a couple of videos that they provided, specifically aimed at managing weather information and routing on long passages. They recommend spending as much time as possible trying to get a handle on the weather patterns before making a big passage, so I’ve started running models on a daily basis. It’s been good practice, but it’s also a little off-putting as the weather in the Caribbean, Bahamas and east coast USA has been so poor and continues to look awful as far out as early November. We would be okay leaving this morning, as long as you don’t mind 12 foot seas resulting from hurricane Tammy, as she makes her way north next week. I need to remind myself that long range forecasts, good or bad, should be taken with a pinch of salt. 

Yesterday evening we had a strong front come through that brought scattered thunderstorms and winds gusting to 30 knots. In fact there was a local warning for storms off the coast generating 55 knot winds and waterspouts. Anyway the passing clouds created a spectacular sunset over the marina last night. Earlier in the afternoon I did launch the dinghy and went for a ride, but chickened out of crossing the open water of the estuary, to Beaufort. It probably would have been fine getting there, but directly into the building wind and chop on the way back.

The highlight today was watching the England - South African rugby World Cup semifinal over on the sailing vessel Pyxus. I met Jen and Barry when they first arrived yesterday and they said they planned to watch the game on the TV in the club house and I should join them. As it transpired, the game wasn’t available on that TV, so we went and watched on their boat, joined by their friends Sharlene and Gill from sailing vessel First Love. They all seem like lovely people and it was great fun. They all have strong connections to South Africa, and although England dominated for most of the game, South Africa won in the end. They certainly seemed more vested in the outcome than I was.

Mike

The newly varnished teak cap rail after the rain

Two powerboats in adjacent slips - shot from the dinghy

Sunset reflected in the windows of a powerboat 

Panorama of the sunset at MCYB

Ditto using a wide angle lens

Ticking off the boat jobs

Ticking off the boat jobs

Thursday 19th October 2023

I had hoped to do more varnishing today but the weather forecast showed a high probability of rain, so I gave up on that plan. I did manage to switch out the davit lines and this has made a huge difference. The original lines that came with the davits seemed oversized and very stiff, making it difficult to lower the dinghy. The new lines (5/16” compared to 7/16”) seem to work much better. I also did some stainless steel polishing and cleaned the windows, a pointless job as they just get salted up again as soon as we go sailing, but for now they look much better!

There is a “King Mackerel” tournament taking place today and tomorrow, with much activity in the marina. I asked one fisherman if the King Mackerel tasted good … “not really” was his reply … so why not fish for something that tastes better?

On the cooking front I have had some success and some failure. Yesterday I cooked some Carne Asada (courtesy of Trader Joe) and ate this with salad, which turned out to be awesome. I also made bread and butter pudding, one of my favorites. Unfortunately, I put the pan on the lower shelf of the oven, right above the burner, and whilst the pudding was fine, the bottom of the pan got so burnt that I had to throw it away. I won't make that mistake again. This evening I made chicken piccata, which was excellent, if I say so myself.

Not much else to report. Overall it’s pretty quiet. I did meet an English guy outside the showers yesterday. He had come into the marina the night before and was just off for a quick shower before heading out again. He was single handed on a sailboat, an impressive feat in itself; the fact that he does this having apparently lost both legs seems amazing. How did he lose his legs and how did he manage? I would loved to have talked to him some more, but sadly never got the chance.

Mike

Fisherman with King Mackerel

My version of chicken picatta ... with chicken, asparagus, garlic, capers and lemon juice ... it was yummy!

A damp day in Morhead city yacht Basin ... you can see the masking tape below the rail, and also above and below the teak pin-strip on the side of the cabin. The dinghy now hangs from those fabulous new davit lines!