Sitting Block Island, RI. I mentioned the building winds last evening and it continued as forecast. Nice this old full keel boat does well with winds astern as we had a rocket ride through the night, lying Block Island easily this morning. A scrap of the main with the working jib had us running 7+ kts pretty comfortably in 20-25 …
Celebration
Never tempt the gods of the sea. This has been a true sailing trip for us aboard Celebration. Just the other day we were joking around on the morning Salty Dawg Chat net. Wondering what customs might have to say about us importing all this expensive Caribbean diesel fuel to the U.S.. Probably not a good thing. Last night we …
Jammin
We made it! The morning of May 17th we left St John, U.S. Virgin Islands and in the afternoon of May 29th we dropped our anchor in Mobjack Bay on Chesapeake Bay. After 7 years of being away we had Jammin’ in the continental states at last–with credit cards and the check book out ready to start refitting the old …
Celebration
It’s getting a little lonely out here as most the bigger, newer, faster boats in the rally continue to make port. Several made it this morning, a few more will reach port tonight. We on the other hand expect to be in sometime Sunday so we’ll be the last on the Salty Dawg net for this Spring Rally Meanwhile it …
Caris
Position 37′ 01″ N 076′ 20″ W Hello All Caris has arrived safely at Hampton Roads VA. We had a great sail yesterday afternoon and overnight directly into the Chesapeake and Norfolk VA. Yesterday morning was a lot less fun as we were stuck for several hours in the Gulf Stream. We had inaccurate information about the location of the …
Celebration
Another day at sea and all is well. We have decided not to go around the Cape this trip but to go inside. On going around the cape. We are going inside. Wind is forecast to be pretty strong from the west and WSW (25-35) while we would be outside…then followed by another cold front on Monday eve/Tuesday. Right now …
Caris
Position 36′ 24 N 072′ 58″ W Hello all, Well we are through the Gulf Stream, sort of. We thought we would exit about 4 AM this morning but here at 9 AM, it still has us in it’s evil clutches. So we are going much slower than we hoped toward Norfolk. We are making about 7 knots through the …
La Creole
Hello all. La Creole is safe and sound in Vero Beach. Great crossing although lots of BIG swells. We are chilling out. Not sure why we are not showing up on the map. Thinking of all those still out there and wish everyone safe journeys.
Celebration
A very calm and uneventful day. I got up to overcast skys and a bit of rain, but that cleared by afternoon and now it’s sunny and almost warm. The sea is nicely flat, which I really like since we’re running downwind. I hate the wallowing of a big following sea. The boat maintenance of the day has consisted of …
Caris
Position: 34′ 56″ N, 070′ 16″ W Hello All, It’s another beautiful clear morning on the Atlantic. We are almost directly under a high pressure area which is giving us balmy weather, clear skies and low winds. We are sailing in calm seas and light winds, hoping for higher winds as we approach the US coast tonight and tomorrow. We …
Celebration
Stuck in Bermuda. Not right now but we certainly were. We went there because of a weather front and had a great time. Definitely on our list of places we must return to again. Next time for a month or so. We spent Monday touring the islands with a day transportation pass. First a trip to the Royal Dockyard for …
Caris
Position: 33′ 33″ N 067′ 09″W Hello All, We are motoring this morning in almost flat seas and this will probably be the case until late tonight or early tomorrow morning. Yesterday we found some wind and high waves left over from the recent storm but the wind and waves died a few hours after leaving Bermuda yesterday morning. It’s …
Caris
Position: 32′ 23″ N 064′ 41″ W (St. Georges Harbor, Bermuda) Hello All We left Bermuda at 9:00 AM today and are heading for Norfolk. It’s about 650 nm and we expect to arrive sometime late Thursday May 30 or Friday morning. The wild weather is moving NE away from us and the US coast and we are expecting a …
Ruffian
In the golden age of Formula 1 when the greats of the sport such as Nigel Mansell and Michael Schumacher took to the track there would always be a race within a race. It was almost a forgone conclusion that one of these guys would get the chequered flag and so while the rest of the field raced for the …
Jammin
Jammin’ is enjoying good sea conditions, clear skies, and motoring around 3.4 knt towards Cape Hatteras. Life is good! The Salty Dawg Rally has been great and the support superb. The daily nets and the encouragement from other participants have made this long journey a wonderful event. We would like to also send out a great big thank you to …
Jammin
Day 9 After the Storm Saturday May 25 We made it through the ugly trough with squalls and 40+winds, the chilly cold front with winds 20-25 knts. out of the north, and threats from the low in Chesapeake of gale force winds above us. The convergence of all three made us question sitting out here. Most of the Salty Dawgs …
Ruffian
Sailing a raceboat all your focus is on boatspeed. Sailing a cruising boat everything is about boat preservation. Ruffian is a pretty good cruising boat and we were happily preserving her as we headed north from the BVI’s. An email then came through from our weather router that suddenly turned Ruffian from a cruising boat into a race boat. Our …
Ruffian
It’s time for a sing song, so put on your best dancing diva 1970’s clobber and get that hairbrush out to use as a microphone. Should I stay or should I go now. Should I stay or should I go now. If I stay there will be trouble (as our BVI’s visa’s run out). If I go there will be …
La Creole
We have a go for tomorrow. We will leave the Turks and Caicos and head out Northeast of the Bahamas till we can make our cut over between Bimini and Grand Bahamas and make a beeline for Fort Pierce. At that point we will re-group and decide if we are going to continue on the Virginia. We said goodbye to …
Celebration
Sitting St Georges Harbor, Bermuda. We resigned ourselves to a couple things two days ago. First that we would have to stop in Bermuda or be subjected to forecasted 35kt winds with squalls up to 50kts as we crossed the gulf stream. Second that we couldn’t reach Bermuda by tonight so would have to wait off shore to enter. After …
Caris
Hello All, We arrived safely at St Georges Harbor Bermuda this afternoon after some great sails. It was a long circuitous route but a really fun experience. All the bad weather is North and West of us and will probably dissipate in the next few days. All is well here and we are having a great stir-fry dinner here tonight …
La Creole
All is well on La Creole. A trip down to a hardware store and we scored a large wrench that would fit in the small area that contains the large frozen nut containing the packing gland that keeps the water out. After several attempts to get it to move, we brought out the heat gun and finally got it loose. …
Jammin
We are just meandering our way today through the lumpy waters west of Bermuda with no need for speed or sails. With the news about the adverse wind and sea conditions around the Gulf Stream and waters North of 32 latitude from Thursday through Sunday, we decided to cut cookies down here in the lower lats and wait out the …
Celebration
Day 6 of smooth sailing. We’ve been on a beam reach now for 6 days and have begun a long smooth curve to the east, to Bermuda. It seems the weather coming off the US east coast will make crossing the gulf stream very hazardous if boats can’t cross by Fri, so a few more of the Salty Dawgs have …
La Creole
First let me say that we started out with a bang! Making 139 NM in the first 24 hours. La Creole is sailing beautifully! Unfortunately the bilge pump was going off with regularity. After close inspection, we found that our rudder post stuffing box was leaking. It started out at about 9 drops per minute and the bilge was able to …