| Date | Length | Distance | From | To | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| November 7, 2005 | 5 days | Portland, Maine | Royal Bermudian Yacht Club, Bermuda | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| November 16, 2005 | 6 days | Royal Bermudian Yacht Club, Bermuda | Falmouth Harbor, Antigua | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Crew Onboard to Bermuda: | Abbott Sprague, Phin Sprague Jr., Dave, (3 more?) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Crew Onboard to Antigua: | Abbott Sprague, Eric Sprague, Joanna Sprague, Phin Sprague Jr. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Notes and Remarks | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Nov 10, 2005
Enroute to Bermuda RE: Re: Fair Winds! David, Wish you were with us! Sure we motor boated! Hove to for 12 hours 45 Knot winds 12-16 foot. Wind and seas right from Bermuda. The boat behaved herself impeccably. A well balanced lady. Good thing I tried the storm sails because they were all worked out before we used them. Basically we got caught by faster moving more intense weather than predicted with nothing to do but wait till the front blew through. When we couldn't reasonably sail to windward any more we put up the storm jib and trysail hove to and twiddled our thumbs. We went down below and read and slept. At one point I thought that the wind had quit it was so comfortable down below. On deck it was breezy and choppy. Nice breakers! Hobby horsing but very little crashing around or water on deck. The autopilot didn't like going sideways at 2.4 knots so a helms man was necessary... although I think that we could have tied the wheel or perhaps go into the Dodge Mode and leave the helm slightly over. We thought that we saw some thing like a life preserver so we jibed around and wow did the boat take off like a rocket! It just leaped ahead! It was a good sobering exercise because in spite of running back we never saw the item again. Someone overboard would have had a hard time reconnecting to the boat. A single hander on "Wet Sox" had some problem and set off his epirb. In short order the Coast Guard located him and a Commercial Ship diverted and took him off. He was about 60 miles north of us and I never actually heard what his problem was. Definitely his engine was out. I heard fuel?? Possibly blown out sail, or broken equipment. Tough place for a single hander. The Coast Guard was very anxious to get him off of the boat. They kept telling him that the weather was going to get significantly worse. He was bout 6 hours away from frontal passage and after that a log would have surfed to Bermuda on the 25-30 kt NW wind. He lost his boat so sad. Maybe it has been recovered. The trip from Bermuda South started with a bit too much wind and ended up with none. We powered for 39 hours at the end. We left with 9-12 foot seas and a gale blowing out of the east. Put my now favorite orange sail up and booked it South no one else was budging so I had some reservations. It turned out great and we did three 190+ days with no strain on the boat. Close reaching Trysail and Forestaysail or Fore Staysail staysail and jib. The Storm jib balances the boat better than the forestaysail but we were running off enough to be able to let the autopilot deal with a little lee helm. We kept under 9.5 knots so we wouldn't launch the boat off of the waves and damage the humans inside.. We are flying back Nov. 24th Abbott is Big Talking about Straights of Bell Isle 2006... Back by first weekend in August???? Is this possible? You have a bunk IF IT CAN BE PUT TOGETHER.. We have to start figuring it out. Cheers! Phin
RE: Under way from Bermuda Greetings, 30 08 N 64 03 W 8.65 knots Trysail, Fore staysail and jib. Wind 25 kts ExESE. W left Bermuda last night at 11pm your time. Just as we left the dock, the port running light deck fitting turned to electrical mush and shorted out all the running lights. I stole the cockpit speaker plug to replace it while Abbott hove to in Gt. George's Hbr. Entrada came in just as we left. Outside the harbor we had atrocious currents and great big square waves 4 knots in 25 knots of wind and I was wondering if this was an opportune time to leave. Things settled down however and we have been making about 7 knots in steady 25 knot winds with squalls. The seas are 8-12 feet I am hoping to carry these winds as far south as possible. The trysail is a great sail! We will be using it a lot. We are cranking along now at 8.82 knots right on our lines. An occasional wave will sweep down the leeward scuppers. WE are not over powered and even in the bigger seas it is tolerable for sleeping down below. One concern we have is that the E-clips On the Broad water stove Gimbals are definitely the wrong part. The work themselves off. We bought the stove through PYS can we get the right part? FEDexed to our coordinates or Cat Marina. We removed the spacer, and it sounds more like it did right after we launched to me. We don't need to power much until this weekend. Cheers Phin
DATE: Sat, 19 Nov 2005 20:17:15 -0000 RE: Christmas Cruise Proposal Greetings We are powering about 290 miles North of Antigua and I am putting a first swing at our itinerary during X-MAS I know it is all wrong but I have to start. Last year we did too much sailing and not enough anchoring and exploring. Anguilla may be one island too far. They also have a Per diem charge for yachts and diving but this might result in a better experience. For Lori's sake there are great flights from Charlotte to St Martin. If some one can do some research, maybe St Barts is the place to be for Xmas or New years. We could hang out and hang out and then push back to Antigua from the 3rd to 5th. Depart Saturday 17th from Portland GO to Boston Mak & Corrie |
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