Is it finally time to head to Antigua?

The last two days of weather briefings have pointed toward a Saturday morning departure from Hampton, bound for Antigua.

With the bulk of the fleet still in Hampton hoping that a window would open up, this was good news.   The expectation that Saturday would be the day became clearer in the last few days.

That’s good  news after a delay of nearly two weeks.  It’s been very tough with many boats having to scramble to find crew to replace those who were not willing to possibly miss Thanksgiving at home with family.

The “hard stop” of crew needing to be home by Thanksgiving has been been in the back of everyone’s mind each year but this is the first rally in recent memory that brought that concern to the forefront.

It has also upended the nearly two weeks of arrival events planned in Antigua and while I am certain that we will be able to put most of them on, I expect that some will end up being held weeks after the fleet arrives.

I for one, need to be back in the US for Christmas and time leading up to that as we too want to be with family.  In past years Brenda has flown down to meet me when we arrived but with the long weather delay this year she won’t be coming down.

We both had flights scheduled and paid for months ago that would have us returning home on November 22nd and as I write this I am not sure that I will even have arrived by then.

Even if we have a fast trip and get there by the 22nd, I am torn if I should just fly out and leave the the rest of the fleet to fend for themselves and let someone else handle the the events as they unfold.

It’s a complex issue but I am certainly pleased that I have crew and while it’s going to be a rush to get ready to leave tomorrow, we should be able to get off of the dock by late morning, I hope.

My crew, George and Bob arrive at BWI via Amtrak early afternoon today and I will be picking up a car mid morning to meet them.  As I write this Brenda and I are in MD visiting family so I am only about an hour from BWI.

I wish that I could say more about what we will expect on the run but the key issue for us will be to get out between several bouts with nasty weather and a need to focus on getting as far south and east as possible before some really nasty weather pushes down from the north and strong easterly trade winds kick in later in the week.

Leaving tomorrow will be a bit like “threading the needle” as we will be heading out just as a low begins to move to the north.   See the arrow of where we will depart from mid morning tomorrow, I hope. A few days later, by Wednesday I hope, we will have to be far enough south and east to avoid strong winds from the south and on the nose.  I doubt that we will be able to avoid this entirely but time will tell and points to the importance of getting going in the morning.  If all goes well we should be able to sail a good amount of the trip and pick up the trades farther north than I have had in recent years.  All of this suggests a relatively fast trip.

Wish us luck.

If you’re interested in following along go to this link and you will see all of the boats in the fleet with their tracks as we head south.  Notice that most of the boats that were heading to the Bahamas are already there.

You can also follow Pandora alone, without the rest of the fleet by following this link as well. 

After we settle into our run I hope to put up a post most days by sending the text to Brenda who will put it up on the site.

I’ll admit that it is a bit anxiety producing to finally be about ready to head out after so many delays and a very tough summer of trying to put Pandora into the best shape for the run.

If dollars spent is any indication of how well things will progress, it should be a “perfect” trip.  We’ll see about that.   Fingers crossed.

Here’s to getting ready and to a good and fast trip.