After days of near perfect, if wet, sailing in brisk winds, we are now settling in for a few days of motoring close hauled in 10kts or less.

We knew that we’d have this “transition zone” with very light winds to contend with but it looks like it’s going to be a larger zone than we had anticipated.

As of last evening at 1700 we cranked up the engine and here we are, at nearly noon the next day, still motorsailing along.  Based on the most current weather files, it looks like we will be doing just that until perhaps late Friday or early Saturday.

At that point, we hope to be able to sail again as the trade winds fill in from the east.  They are expected to be brisk and will build as we head farther south so it is quite possible that we will end up in winds in the upper 20s on a close reach which will make for fast if wet and bumpy sailing.

If things play out according to the “plan of the moment,” then we should arrive somewhere between Tuesday and Wednesday of next week.

That’s good as conditions several hundred miles north of Antigua will begin to deteriorate for the boats that left after us or are slower.

At this point we are slowly creeping up through the fleet so that now most of the boats are behind us.  Well, at least a lot of them.   Most of those ahead of us left earlier in the day or the day before.

Part of our growing lead has to do with the speed of Pandora but some of it stems from my willingness to turn on the engine in marginal conditions to keep moving.  Others are not able to do so as they just don’t carry enough fuel and nobody wants to run out.

With regards to running out of fuel, never say never, but I have 180 gallons on board and probably burn around .65 to .70 GPH which gives me a range under power of more than a week of running.

Sadly, our early speeding along has turned into clawing our way in light winds so I am afraid that a record passage, for Pandora at least, isn’t all that likely.

However, after all the hand wringing about getting to Antigua by Thanksgiving is no longer a huge risk, ten days at sea is still a pretty big deal.

Now I have to sort though my desire to head home after arrival against the need to be supportive of the fleet and not bolt the moment I arrive.

Nope, not likely to be our fastest trip but faster than some other boats and that’s something.

It’s Tuesday mid morning and we have not used the engine since  0400 early on Sunday morning.   As the wind has been pretty strong in the upper teens and low 20s, the wind generator has done a pretty good job of keeping the batteries up.  While the load from the fridge uses more than the wind and solar together produce, I am getting substantially more power from the solar than prior to the upgrade and after nearly three days, the batteries are still at 93%.

Prior to upgrading the solar and adding the wind generator, I would have been fighting a loosing battle with power and would have had to run the engine for at least an hour in the morning and at night just to try and keep up.

It was my hope that the wind generator would have at least provided enough power to keep all the instruments going.  It is doing that and more.

And, as an added benefit, the cabin is a lot cooler than when I run the engine.

Solid wind and a reasonably favorable angle has allowed us to make great time and our distance covered with in the last 24 hours is upwards of 200 miles, a remarkable showing for most any cruising yacht.  We had left the harbor about 3 hours behind most of the other boat that left when we did and over the last few days we have passed many of them

Conditions have been pretty sporty with Pandora on a close reach with apparent wind over 20kts much of the time.  This means that we are taking water on deck almost constantly.

Ever since I purchased Pandora I have been chasing annoying leaks and while most all have been corrected, there is still a pretty meaningful leak around the deck joint for the mast.  This isn’t a problem on a port tack as the dribble ends up on the floor.  Fortunately we will spend much of the run on a starboard tack so I will be fighting salt water getting on our bunk.
I had a new mast boot installed right before heading out and I don’t know why there is still a leak.  I hope to better understand this but won’t be able to address until things settle down a bit.

The good news is that other leaks, coming from some of the big deck hatches, are resolved, at least as of now, which is good news.

The GRIBS, weather forecast, call for good sailing in brisk conditions, for at least the next day or so and then we will be motoring for a day or two, perhaps longer, before picking up the trades as we head due south to Antigua.

Unfortunately, they are expected to be quite strong and now may have a slight southerly direction which may make for some close wind sailing and wet conditions.  This is a departure from more a more reasonable forecast only a few days ago.  Hopefully, this trend will reverse before we get to that point later in the week.

So, here we are, bouncing along in pretty stiff winds and seas but at least we are making good progress.

Additionally, the improvements that were made to the reefing system, new lines and some other upgrades, are making all that a bit smoother.

Wet and sporty aside, covering 200 miles in a day is not too shabby.

Dare I say it?  Could this be our fastest run yet?  I am hesitant to declare victory though lest I jinx it.

Early in the trip, we were very focused on getting across the Gulf Stream and ran the engine for hours to be sure that we got far enough south and east to be ahead of a strong front.

We did well but caught the end of that front which gave us high 20s with gusts to the low 30s on a very deep reach overnight.  Yes, we were going pretty fast, sometimes breaking 10kts briefly but it was pretty bumpy.  We put away the jib and sailed under a double reefed main.

As of now, 10:00 Sunday, we have been sailing for nearly 30 hours without the engine.

To that point, this is the first run that I have done since having the new lithium batteries, new and larger solar panels and a wind generator installed and It’s great to see that things are working out.

After running for all that time with no engine to recharge the batteries, they are still charged to 88%.   The new solar did some of that but a big boost was from the wind generator that mostly kept up with the instruments overnight.  Having said that, we were mostly off the wind so the apparent wind was not all that high so it could not keep up with the refrigeration as well.

I do expect that by this afternoon most of the power will be back in the batteries as it’s a fairly sunny day.

having the batteries well supported by wind as well as solar is a huge difference from having to run the engine twice a day to keep the batteries up with the load of running the instruments 24 hours a day.

I’ll be keeping track of how the system works in the “real world” and will try to summarize things down the road.  One thing for sure is that solar and wind work well together but the biggest output for the dollar is surely solar at about $1/watt.

I’ll stop there for now except to say that the trip is going well and we are hoping, expecting perhaps, that the rest of the trip will bring reasonable conditions.

Dare I say that we might actually do the run in 9-10 days?  That would be great.

While we are still in the early days of this passage, it is beginning to look like this is shaping up to be a great run.

I hope so.

It’s mid day Sunday and we are south of the Gulf Stream and moving along at a good clip, generally at about 7-9kts.

Over the last few hours, we have been hit by a few squalls to near 30kts but with just a single reef in the main and on a broad reach, Pandora is handling it well.

Our first 24 hours was about 185 miles, a respectable showing and while we did run the engine a fair amount, it was not because we had no wind, but to keep up our speed and keep in front of a nasty front exiting the coast later today.

As of now, I think that we will be ahead of the worst of it.

The weather files we have been downloading and the information from Chris Parker continues to suggest that this should be a fairly fast run, perhaps as little as nine or ten days, on the outside, and involve a good amount of sailing.

The biggest issue will be how far south and east we get when the easterly trades kick in.   If we are able to get far enough east before they fill in, we will have really fast sailing for the second half of the trip.  With a little luck, I will be able to sail in trade winds for longer than any prior run.

Tonite should get pretty sporty with wind in the mid 20s, but from a favorable angle.

So, I guess it’s safe to say that we are doing well and I am cautiously optimistic.

Fingers crossed but so far, so good.

I can’t believe it.  Finally, two weeks later than we had hoped, we are on our way to Antigua.  Ironically, November 12th, today was the day that we were scheduled to begin the planned series of more than a dozen events upon arrival in Antigua.

The last few days have been just a whirlwind of emotion as we were getting daily weather briefings and the fleet was getting more and more itchy to head out.

I won’t go through all the conflicting weather we were facing but I thought that Chris Parker, our weather router was a champ, finally sorting through the daily changes as we faced hurricanes and many cold fronts that complicated our plans over the last few weeks.

I had headed back to CT when the delays began at the end of October, but finally, two days ago, the coast was clear, mostly, to head back to Hampton.

My crew George, circumnavigator and fellow Salty Dawg board member booked a train from Newport and Bob, another experienced offshore sailor also arrived at the BWI Amtrak station yesterday afternoon.   I picked them up and we hightailed it to Pandora.

Our final pre-departure weather briefing was scheduled for 7:00 last night and we only arrived back at Pandora about 15 minutes before it began.

The good news is that Chris gave us a green light to head out this morning with the hope that we will be able to get across the Gulf Stream before things become too sporty on Monday.

Anyway, it’s good to be on our way, finally.  Hopefully, we will have a fast run and perhaps we will be in Antigua in about 10 days.

Thanks to fellow Dawg Brian, here’s a photo of Pandora leaving the dock this morning. All I can say is FINALLY.  Destination Antigua.