Tuesday, September 28, 2010
MV Gazette Article
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
For Sale
Monday, March 29, 2010
Nassau to West Palm
Location: West Palm Beach, FL
Weather: Winds W 15-20 overcast and raining. Temp 75 degrees
Update: We are currently anchored in West Palm Beach, FL, making plans for the delivery North and trying to stay dry. They promise good weather for the rest of the week. fingers crossed. We had a great delivery from Nassau. 3 days sail, just Seychelle and I. Hers the log from the trip.
3/25/10:
Position: 25.48.86N 77.53.65W
We are currently anchored in Great Harbor on the Northern end of the Berry Islands. It is a large and fairly deep anchorage with good protection and should suit us well for the night. We left Nassau at 0600 this morning and made a pit stop at Lyford Cay for water and ice before leaving New Providence entirely. The winds started light this morning, but soon increased to a nice 10-15 off the beam. We had a perfect sail with all of our beautiful, new sails set. Let’s see, it’s now 1800, so the entire trip took us 12 hours. That’s a long day of sailing and I am sun burnt, but it was worth it.
3/26/10
Position: 26.31.36N 78.46.15W Freeport Harbor, Grand Bahama
Weather: SW winds 15-20. nice beam-reaching weather, but it rained ALL day.
We are docked at Bradford Yacht and Ship in Freeport Inner Harbor. Not exactly the nicest place for a yacht to be, but as we realized on the way here, there is no other harbor in Grand Bahama deep enough for a 9ft draft. Surprise surprise. Freeport Harbor has recently been upgraded with a multimillion dollar deal that is going to turn it in to the commercial shipping hub of the Western Hemisphere. So, as you can imagine, there are many ships. But, it is deep and we are protected. Now we will wait for the winds to clock back to east. And it has stopped raining!
3/28 Crossing the Gulf Stream
Weather: E 15-20
Sailing DDW (dead down wind) Wing and Wing. Absolutely beautiful! Even in the best conditions, The Gulf Stream has a way of making you feel like a cork, tossed and bobbing in the vast expanse of Ocean. Luckily for us, we have When And If, who rides ocean swells like a surf competition. Should be to West Palm by 4 pm. :)
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
News from Nassau
Monday, March 22, 2010
Bahamas Passages
Monday, February 1, 2010
Key West to Bahamas passage
01/30/10 0400
Position: 24.33.74N
81.32.20W
Conditions: Clear Skies, Full Moon. Winds SE 10-15, seas 3-5ft.
Update: Close reaching up Hawks Channel. A bit of shoal dodging. We left Key West just after 12 midnight. We were waiting for the wind to make a shift to the South East as to not be beating our way up the Keys. It is a lovely morning. Just a few stars and a big, bright, full moon over the shoulder. Now, to get some sleep.
01/30/10 1200
Position: 24.57.17N
80.23.58W
Conditions: Winds SSE 15kts seas 2-4ft.
Update: Riding the Gulf stream like a champ! We are making 11 kts steady, beam-reaching and just having a fantastic sail. Perfect Schooner conditions. When And If is loving it! Our heading is just North of NE on a course for North Bimini Rocks. We plan to bi-pass Bimini and head straight for New Providence (Nassua) as the winds will be shifting North tomorrow offering us no protection to anchor in Bimini ,and a nice ride down Northeast Providence Channel. And here starts the saga of a boat with 9ft draft tooling around the Bahamas... some of the island most well-known for being shallow, but they sure are beautiful!
01/31/10 0800
Position: 25.30.23N
77.36.93W
Conditions: Winds SW 10kts seas short and steep 2-4 ft. S swell.
Update: Almost there. Caught a glimpse of Bimini just as the sun was going down. Spent the night time hours sailing around Bimini and the morning hours skirting the Berry Islands chain. We thought about pulling in to Great Harbor Cay, Berry Islands for some rest this morning as the winds had increased to 20 kts and had not veered SW as they were forecast to. (go figure) Instead we decided to put 2 reefs in the main at 3 am and by 5, the wind had died. Of course. We set the D-sail (engine) and have been motor sailing since. About 4 hours to go to Nassau. Can’t complain. It has been a fantastic sail. (a very wet, salty, tiring, fantastic sail.) The sunrise this morning was one of the best yet, mostly due to the fact that the full moon was setting at the same time and the color contrast was intense.