After an extremely rough trip from La Spezia to Gibraltar, during which we experienced winds to 65 knots in the Gulf du Lion's usual Mistral and while under only three sails achieving 24.8 knots, the balance of our passage across the Atlantic was delightful.
The weather routing took us South through the Canaries and we had sufficient wind to sail among these islands, we didn't stop, but effectively departed from their shelter on November 15th. We had steady, if light, winds across the Atlantic to our landfall in beautiful St. Barth's, everyone's favorite island. We arrived yesterday November 28th. We were able to sail-sail 60% of the time and motor sail another 20%, the balance, of course, was wiht our motors. Typically the wind would drop away to a whisper on the 4-8 AM watch, and the engines would be fired up. We called those watch keepers the "motor heads". Usually by 9:00 AM with the sun rising the wind would rediscover its self and we would kill the power.
But during the passage through the mid-Atlantic we had steady wind in the 20 knot range and we made two days of 100% sailing, exceeding 300nm for a best of 312. That's not too far short of Cutty Sark's record of 363 nm. Given twenty four hours of 30 knots, or more, we are confident of breaking the 400nm figure.
We arrived in great shape. No damage what so ever to sails or systems, with everything else looking like we had just been for a day sail. We sailed to our anchor in light breeze, showing off to the end, for an audience in small boats which came out to meet us.
We will try to up-date this log more frequently in the future.
The weather routing took us South through the Canaries and we had sufficient wind to sail among these islands, we didn't stop, but effectively departed from their shelter on November 15th. We had steady, if light, winds across the Atlantic to our landfall in beautiful St. Barth's, everyone's favorite island. We arrived yesterday November 28th. We were able to sail-sail 60% of the time and motor sail another 20%, the balance, of course, was wiht our motors. Typically the wind would drop away to a whisper on the 4-8 AM watch, and the engines would be fired up. We called those watch keepers the "motor heads". Usually by 9:00 AM with the sun rising the wind would rediscover its self and we would kill the power.
But during the passage through the mid-Atlantic we had steady wind in the 20 knot range and we made two days of 100% sailing, exceeding 300nm for a best of 312. That's not too far short of Cutty Sark's record of 363 nm. Given twenty four hours of 30 knots, or more, we are confident of breaking the 400nm figure.
We arrived in great shape. No damage what so ever to sails or systems, with everything else looking like we had just been for a day sail. We sailed to our anchor in light breeze, showing off to the end, for an audience in small boats which came out to meet us.
We will try to up-date this log more frequently in the future.