s/v Honey Ryder's Salty Dawg Rally Passage South Fall 2013

Quick morning shower just stopped as we headed out - pic by dock neighbor Galen

11-6-13 We departed the fuel dock Morehead City NC at 11:45 AST.  This is the first time s/v Honey Ryder has been fully loaded fuel, water, crew, stuff.....wow, she handles a bit differently fully loaded!  Previously voyages we didn't have fully loaded fuel tanks.  We exited the Beaufort NC inlet behind 4 our boats -one is Caliber 40 Continuum, another is Island Packet Charbonneau however soon the boat disperse, sailing in slightly different directions. We head S SE.  This seems strange but based on weather (winds) and Gulf Stream position, we hope to catch the Gulf Stream and ride it slightly north and east as there is a strong eddie that we must get around.  Better to ride it up and over vs fight it and lose.  Still it seems weird to be going south then north again.  Sky becomes overcast and then cloudy.  We keep hearing IP Charbonneau hailing Caliber Continuum.  Soon they are following us.  Finally we call them on the VHF to let them know we are Caliber s/v Honey Ryder.  They thought we were Continuum.  Oooops.  They tag along with us - d-oh ( I don't know that I would have done that if I was in their boat shoes)! 

 

Tom double checking the paper chart

11-7-13  We start getting into the Gulf Stream.  Squalls and wind make for very lumpy seas.  Waves are building.  Sometime overnight we lost our bow light lens to waves.  John is feeling mal de mar but never tossed his cookies.  He is still able to function and pull his watch.  How is that for awesome crew!  Tom and I are not seasick but not feeling much like food.  Conditions below make galley duty tough.   Tom had to go out on foredeck to untangle jib lines and his glasses flew off his face in the wind and waves.  Luckily he has a backup pair.  IP Charbonneau checks in and chats with us a couple of times throughout the day and night via VHF.

John digging our enclosure - foulies optional!

11-08-13.  Gulf Stream is not playing nice.  Very confusing waves 12-15+ ft range with white caps.  We are getting tossed about quite a bit.  Off duty sleeping in the cockpit is tough as it doesn't matter if you are on windward or leeward side - waves tossing us all around.  Finally Tom takes the cushions and builds a nest on the cockpit floor.  This works nicely and we all take turns napping there.   We have ridden the north corner of a Gulf Stream eddie and are now headed east.  Highest wind we see is 25 knots but the seas are a washing machine.  Others are reporting 40+.  Morning radio checkin is going ok.  Seems our SSB is working.  Good thing I didn't make it a dinghy anchor after all!  ha!  Satellite phone connection is.....ok.  It takes some doing but I have been able to connect to sailmail and update our position report via the sat phone.   Heading generally east - 110.  Try hailing IP Charbonneau but we can't reach them.  Later, in the BVI's we discover they torn their head sail, had a crew member with seasickness and diverted to The Bahamas.

Hard to capture wave height

11-09-13  Wind dropped off towards evening.  We finally had to fire up the motor.  Freddie the Freeloader showed up today.  More later on him.  Finally heading E SE - 140. 

Beautiful sunset shot by John

11-10-13  Overnight we spot s/v Music on AIS.  We try for over an hour to raise them on VHF.  Finally get them and make them aware that we don't have a bow light.  They change course and motor around us.  SSB seems to have good signal as I was asked to relay for morning check in as well as call for a vessel whose EPRIB had been activated but who has not responded to calls for them on evening Doo-Dah net.  No luck in reaching them.  We hope they are ok.  During the day we charged a cheap solar yard light, colored the lens red and green and taped it to bow as a temporary replacement for our missing bow light.  Worked great that night.  We motored most of the day as there was little wind.  Fishing report from the fleet is that some are catching 20-40 lbs fish.  We think about putting a line out.  More later on this.  Course heading ESE 150

temp bow light

11-11-13 Wind returned during the day.  8 knots sailing on 15 knots wind - woo hoo.  Winds shifting, we are following heading 150 then 200.  Late afternoon cargo ship Maersk Kentucky showed up on AIS.  We hailed them.  The helmsman or guy that answered the radio was American - rare ( I think) these days on cargo ships.  They were interested in where we were sailing from and to.  Seems they had a bet going on the bridge about the little sailboat on the horizon.  They are headed to Spain.  Captain assured me there was plenty of room for them to pass right in front of us.  It was closer then I like but felt ok since we had been chatting.  Discovered a small leak in our forward head cabin liner.  Despite duct taping the solar vent in shower, it seems water got in.  We did take some big waves over the bow while in the stream.  Stuff towels in there to slow/prevent any additional water from getting in.  Course heading 150-180-200.

Maersk Kentucky too close for my comfort - nice helmsman

11-12-13 We had squalls overnight which brought variable winds from all directions.  Strange engine noise for short period overnight as well.  Tom checked belt - ok, coolant -ok, added 1 quart oil.  We couldn't find the source.  We will monitor.  Reefed sails in prep of overnight forecast of squalls.  We are trying to get below 30N because of bad weather approaching.  We furl headsail but leave the staysail and main up.  Temp bow light working but with clouds during the day, it doesn't last through the night.  Course heading 160-145.

All the sails are a flying!

Staysail and main only

11-13-13 Sabrina has somehow developed a cold of all things.  Totally sucks.  However, it's like a summer cold vs fully blow nasty "I am going to die" type cold.  They guys take my day watches.  I DID stand my night watch.  We heard the weird engine noise again.  Drive train?  Shaft out of alignment?  Propeller?  Auto?  It stops we were back off the rpms.  Hum?  We discover staysail deck attachment is not locked but staysail pendant is wrapped around it so it's not going anywhere.  Heading 150-170.  Cheap solar light we are using for bow light gives up the ghost.  We are now officially without a bow light.  Course heading 150-170

Nicely making way

11-14-13 Staysail splice blows apart at 1:30am - block gone. Tom has to go forward and get the sail down and back into the bag on the foredeck.  Winds are swirling.  We sail on main only until it gets light.    Overnight AIS alarm s/v Ruffian.  We chat.  They lost their engine a couple of days ago.  Wind generator is doing a good job of keeping up with energy needs overnight.  Course heading 180

Again, tough to capture wave heights my timing is always off

11-15-13 Morning and afternoon squalls.  s/v Music pops up on AIS again. No response to our VHF hails.  Started engine to charge batteries.  Sail with reefed headsail and main - conservative.  Too many reports from the fleet on torn sails and broken gear.  Many of the Salty Dawgs have arrived in the BVI's- we hear them on the radio check ins.  Andrew on s/v Eye Candy has done such a fabulous job with the morning check ins.  Even though he has arrived in the BVI's, he continues net control - an encouraging voice when you are in the middle of a lot of ocean.  The same is true for Dick s/v St Jude (currently in North Carolina) on the Doo-Dah net as well as all those that relay.  Thank you to all of you!!!  I am finally rid of my "summer" cold.  Course heading 180-185

Tom early in the trip -no 5 O'clock shadow or stubble

11-16-13 AIS target overnight.  Cargo ship MSC Eriminia.  I hail them to be sure they see our small vessel. We are receive only on AIS so other vessels don't see us.  *At the time we purchased AIS, it was still somewhat pricy so we went with received only thinking at the very least that would allow us to hail them.  These ships must be bored to death as this one wanted to chat like the Maersk Kentucky.  They were interested in where we were going and such.  They even offered to get an updated weather forecast specifically for our route.  How nice is that!  I felt fairly safe in this part of the ocean sharing that info on VHF.  In other parts of the ocean...not so much.  The seas built back up during the night and we had some romping conditions today.  So much so that I dumped my one bowl lunch all over the galley floor and 1/2 up my legs before I could even have a bite.  They guys seemed to gobble their lunches faster when they heard what all the commotion was.  John said they were worried they would have to share - HA!  Luckily I made a pressure cooker full.  After smashing my finger in the fridge lid (stupid spring hinge), I declared my galley duties for the day over.  Tom fixed dinner and ended up dumping his bowl before he could eat it.  However it dumped on the galley counter so he was able to scoop most of it up.  Course headings 185-250

Galley challenges

11-17-13 s/v Music is still on a parallel course but a tad behind us.  Morning and afternoon squalls seem to suck the wind away from us.  We finally start the engine.  Tom continues to do fuel calcs and we are doing really good on fuel.  Yay for Caliber tankage!  We keep the rmp's low because we still haven't figured out what the previous strange engine noise was. We don't want to push it.  We finally switch over to tank #2 on water.  Our consumption level has been really low on water.  But then again...we all stink pretty badly!!  Course heading 180 

11-17-13 11:35 LAND HO!!!!  I was the first one to spot land - Tortola.  SO amazing to see land after 12 days at sea with NO land.  Thank you Garmin!

Can you see it on the horizon?

How about now?

First to spot land!  We did it!!

11-17-13  We take a mooring ball at Bitter End Yacht Club at 17:05.  Customs is closed so we are restricted to our vessel for the evening.  This is ok.  We have a little celebration - can of ginger beer for John and a beer for Tom and I as well as chips I hid away.  Then showers aboard, dinner and 12 hrs of sleep!  John was such a watch machine during our passage that of course he woke up at 2:30am for his 3am watch but said he easily rolled over and went right back to sleep.

John working to free the dinghy

Very important to fly the Wildcat Nation flag in addition to BVI and Salty Dawg Rally flags

I wore my sparky K-State tank top for our landfall!  EMAW!!

11-18-13  It's SO beautiful here.  We take our time getting around in the morning.  Tom puts on his best shore clothes, takes all the proper paperwork and dinghies into Gun Creek to check in with customs. 

Cap10 Tom heading in to check us in

Gun Creek parking lot

Customs office at Gun Creek

Check in went smoothly and soon he is back at the yacht lowering our yellow quarantine flag and raising the blue British Islands Flag.  *Tom specifically asked the customs officials which BVI flag to put up because we have seen the blue and the red flying from yachts. They shrugged and said "doesn't matter."  One is for land and the other is for water but we can't seem to get a straight answer from anyone on which is the official flag to fly from our vessel.  Oh well - you have to love the laid back feeling. 

Path at Bitter End Yacht Club

Once Tom returned we all jumped in the dinghy and headed ashore to the Bitter End Yacht Club and lunch. The guys had big, juicy hamburgers and I had a West Indies Roti - more later on this.  YUM!  John bought some t-shirts and such for back home.  We popped by the head Salty Dawg's yacht and picked up our Salty Dawg swag.  Since we departed from a different location than the cord group, we didn't get our official packet until we reached the BVIs.  We had dinner aboard and went to bed early as John was leaving early the next morn.

 

Tom ready for his first shore burger

Sabrina waits for her Roti

Scruffy looking crew

11-19-13 Tom took John ashore at 6:15 am so he could make the 6:30 am ferry.  His trip home is somewhat of a planes, trains and automobiles type adventure but with ferries, taxis, and such.  We can't thank John enough for joining us on this passage.  He was AWESOME crew!  Together, the Fucarewe Tribe had a good voyage!!  More to come on that.  Thanks so much John!!!

Super crew - John