You can’t get there from here…

Well, the title might be an exaggeration but I have to admit that I have been wondering if perhaps “you can’t get there from here” might be true for our run to Antigua.

The last few days of weather briefings by Chris Parker here in Hampton with the other 70+ boats in the Salty Dawg Rally have made me wonder if the 180 gallons or fuel will be enough to get us the 1,500 miles to Antigua given that the short and long term forecast suggests that we will be in for a very light wind trip.

Chris suggests that for boats that can sail well in very light wind, like Pandora, we may perhaps be able to sail, or at least motorsail, much of the way.  However, his overall assessment is that we will be in conditions in the 5-10kt range for much of the trip which is a LOT of motoring.

Pandora, when motorsailing in light wind, burns less than .7 gph so that gives us a range of nearly 10 days of full time motoring, perhaps 1,300 to as much as 1,500 miles.  However, that assumes that we have access to nearly all of the fuel in the tanks, which is not likely as there is surely going to be a little left below the fuel pickup tube when the engine finally dies.  I have never run the engine on a tank until it died so I don’t really know how much of her three 50 gallon tanks I can actually use.  I also carry 30 gallons of reserve jugs and I know I can use all of that.

If we wanted more wind, Chris did say that it might be better if we delay our departure until Sunday, four days from now, but I am not prepared to stick around and hope that the long range forecast is as predicted so off we go.

I guess that’s all that I can say for now so if you’re curious, follow along at “where in the world is Pandora” or on the shared rally page.   Be sure that you put in SDR as the group on the shared page to see where everyone is.  Of course, on my own page you can get an update every two hours and only twice a day on the shared page.

So, if more is better, check out my own page.  However it’s alot fun to see how we are doing relative to the others in the rally.

Do note that some, perhaps a lot, of the boats are likely to stick in Hampton for a few days with the hope that conditions will improve or stop in Bermuda to wait for stronger winds.  One way or the other, there will be plenty of tracks to follow so enjoy.

I plan on putting up posts most days to let you know how things are going so visit regularly.

Well, wish us luck and hope that indeed, you can get there from here with 180 gallons of fuel.  Fingers, or perhaps fuel lines crossed.

It least I know that it’s views like this that await when we make landfall in Antigua.   If that’s not enough, there’s a full moon in a few days.   And let me tell you, there is nothing like a full moon at sea.

Here’s to a great trip.

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