As of today we have reached, sort of, the part of the trip where we are just about the farthest from land that we will be for the entire run. Not to put too fine a point on it but here goes…
Bermuda: 300nm
Bahamas: 500nm
Puerto Rico: 620nm
Hampton: 660nm
Antigua: 780nm
I’ll admit that writing nearly 800 miles as the distance to Antigua is a bit disconcerting but any least it’s not 1,500, a step in the right direction.
As of now we have motored 51 hours and I expect that soon the first of our three fuel tanks will run dry. As a rule, I run each tank until the engine begins to stumble when the tank is fully depleted. I can’t say that I am fully confident in how many gallons of fuel each tank holds as I rarely run them dry. In most cases, as I get low, I switch to another tank to avoid running out at a critical time, like going up to a dock or perhaps in an area where I have little time to avoid an obstacle. Not a lot to run into out here, hundreds of miles from anything and an ideal time to run a tank until the motor quits.
When will I run out of fuel, on this tank? Hard to say but it could be most any time. As there are only 3 Aerodyn 47s out there, I really don’t have anyone to asm for advice. Besides, my boat was built in Finland and the other two, hulls 1&2, in South Africa. Who knows if the tanks were even made to the same specs. The literature, such as there is, suggests that each of the three tanks is 50 gallons, which I doubt. For the purposes of planning, I assume about 35 gallons of usable fuel in each tank. I also carry 30 gallons in 5 gallon cans.
So, when will this tank run out? I’ll let you know as soon as I know.
So, for now, as predicted, the wind is very light so we continue to motor south toward a waypoint that Chris Parker provided. We are still about 36 hours from that goal but by getting there by Saturday should keep us south of the worse adverse winds associated with the nasty gale that is lashing the US East Coast.
Sadly, it doesn’t look like we will be seeing the easterly trades winds until we are about 3 days from Antigua. In the meantime, we are anticipating stronger winds on the nose that will force us to head more to the east, perpendicular to our desired course, perhaps for a few days.
However, if all goes according to plan, and that’s a big if, being farther east should position us to take advantage of the trades when they finally fill in.
We are waiting to hear from Chris today with his recommendation on how to position ourselves best for the adverse winds, to head east or perhaps even to the southwest.
One more thing. Yesterday we trolled a line and caught a small pompano but tossed it back. We heard that another boat caught a 33lb tuna, a huge fish. I plan on fishing again today but hope that whatever we catch is q LOT smaller than that tuna.
I guess I had better ring off for now and get fishing. As my grandfather used to say “you can’t catch fish if your lure is not in the water”.
Will we catch something today? Are there fish nearby?
Hard to say but one thing for sure is that we are a long way from just about anything.