Glad to see you were properly provisioned. It's always good to spend more on alcohol than food.
Welcome back to winter.
Welcome back to winter.
Stay Tuned! You will have to wait for those installments, Gunni! ;-)What did you find in Tortola? Road Town, West End, Nanny Cay, Beef Island? Did you have a chance to get over to North Sound on VG? Heard Jost got hammered. How are the Callwood clan doing over there. I may fly down just to spread a few dollars around and offer moral support. But ma will want a hot shower and a square meal.
Day 1 and 2 we were motor sailing a lot. Winds were better than forecast at the outset but tapered off. First 48 hours we covered about 330 nm but the motor was doing a lot of that work. We were fuel rich at that point and burning it like there was no limit. GS crossing was not dramatic other than the occasional squalls. Despite the north/northeast winds and the dire tales we had heard about not wanting to cross with ANY north wind component it was somewhat oversold as a bitch to cross with the north wind. But, keep in mind that the winds were relatively light while we were crossing so I'm sure the dire predictions probably come true with a higher north wind speed. We chose to not alter course to the south to compensate for the 3 knot northward current and just let it set us north. Thinking was that holding course and not trying to compensate for the offset would have us in the current the least amount of time.Nice trip! Looks like a good crew! Hard to imagine that you would be running low on fuel budget after just a few days and all those extra jugs! What is that about? Did weather change significantly after you crossed the GS? What was that like? How dramatic is the crossing?
IIRC, 110 or 115 hp turbo diesel. Boats prop was repitched a few weeks before we left and we did not have good estimates on fuel consumption with the changed configuration of the prop until we were underway and topped off the tank from the deck supply. Ended up burning a gallon an hour at ~ 3K RPM. Yeah, we had a ton of water aboard.Good decision to avoid the T&C, that place gives me the reef willies. Like many modern cruisers we only carry 40 gallons in the fuel tank, a trade off between big tanks full of fouled, unused fuel and motor range. But this boat likely has a 75 hp turbo diesel and will easily burn 2 gpm. Keep that in mind if you are looking at a re-power, your boat may have been designed for a fuel efficient motor sailing configuration, not a motorboat. Big benefits in staying small, and using those sails
We take a bit of a different approach. No fuel on deck, 150gals of fresh water in the tanks, no deadlines for landfall, we get there when we get there. Cancel the board meeting, kiss your honey goodbye, Chill mon! I’m looking at a portable water maker that allows us to stay out until...whenever.
There were 6 of us. Two brothers that were owners, one of the brothers two sons (27 + 30), me and another friend of one of the owners. All experienced sailors.Great write up, how many crew was required for this trip?
Exactly, it was. We were all dressed for the cold on the west side of the stream and started to shed layers after we crossed.I'm imagining that you go from winter gear on the west side of the stream to bare skin in the sun, mahi-mahi & swimming off the stern on the east side. Is it that way? It must be a nice transition when you cross!
Yes, it was OEM. But they had a sailmaker go through the sails and attend to any issues prior to the trip. Issue was the attachment to the cars on the sail track. One came untied and the other dropped a pin out of it. We were able to use the pin from the one that still had a pin on it to reattach tha to the batten but with no pin for the other one we could not retie the sail to the second car. Amazingly, we found the missing pin on the deck when we got into port. Don't know how it managed to stay on the boat. Yes, the sail(s) held up for the duration of the trip. Keep in mind that the boat was very lightly used by the PO. Had only something like 300 hours on the engine so I believe the sails, while one dog year old, were not well worn.Was that main sail OEM? What 7 years old? Did it make it to port?