At least that is what we hope, to be relaxing on Virgin Gorda in the British Virgin Islands. We just have to sail 1500 miles non-stop first.
I don’t think I mentioned it on the blog yet, but for those who don’t know we signed up this summer for the Salty Dawg Rally which is a group of cruising sailboats departing the US east coast to sail offshore direct to some fantastic destinations such as the Virgin Islands, the Bahamas, St Maarten, or other similar sunny destinations. The bulk of the boats are departing from Hampton and headed to the BVI’s and that is our goal too. It has been very interesting checking out some of the other boats here as there are a number of well respected sturdy boats with some very serious equipment lists. I think some of the boat brokers back home should come take a look at what offshore ready really means, because I haven’t seen one here that fits the ‘windlass and GPS – offshore ready’ description that I would see all to often for boats listed on the great lakes.
We have spent that last week and a half in Hampton getting ready. The Rally has put on a few good seminars in the mornings and allowed us time in the afternoons to work on the boat to tackle some regular maintenance and fix a few items that needed addressing following the first legs of our journey from Georgian Bay as well as finish equipping our boat for the offshore leg and figuring out how the heck we were going to store everything.
Not sure if Magnus knows what it means that he is a new Salty Dawg, but he has had fun introducing himself to some of the other 4 legged sailors over the past week or so. Here he is sporting his automatic water activated strobe light in case he goes swimming.
The winds for departing are now favourable although there are some rather large waves in the 17-18′ range left over from the gales that passed through in the past two days. This is expected to moderate in the morning and we will be heading out late morning after we refuel. It even looks like we should be able to mostly use the sails for a few days and hopefully keep the motoring to a minimum.
And seeing as everyone loves stats, here are a few for us:
Distance Travelled From Penetanguishene: 1269 NM
Rhumb line distance to the BVIs: 1320 NM
Expected distance to travel to the BVIs: 1500 NM
Expected Duration: 10-12 days
Longest Passage to date: 317 NM
Altera Range under Power: 470 NM at ~5.8 kn
Extra Range with 80L of Diesel in Jerry Cans: 260 NM
Water On Board: 66 US Gal Tank + 30 Gal in Jugs
Doggy Poop Bags on Board: 720
Dog Food on Board: 3 1/2 month supply (was more, but we found suitable sources in the BVIs)
Canned Food Storage: Enough to cause a list to starboard when the Diesel tank isn’t full
Beer Storage: severely restricted by dog food supply
GPS devices on board: 8
Sails on board: 4 – Triple Reef Main, 130 Genoa, 95% working jib, 50% jib
Combined Length of Rope/line: >2500 feet (sorry had to stop counting)
Coats of Wax on the Hull this year: 3
Sea Salt crystals on the Sails: Enough to be very skeptical of cruisers who claim to catch drinking water in their sails during a rain squall
And for those of you who are interested, you can track us with our Spot GPS device if we remember to periodically push the button:
https://share.findmespot.com/
Great stuff guys … best of luck on your long cruise to the BVI’s!