Dad's BVI to SC voyage

[Ron Burgundy]

Dad is a little more than half way through his trip from the British Virgin Islands to Hilton Head, SC tonight. He and two other guys are sailing in a 41 Moody sailboat. It needed to be moved for hurricane season because apparently insurance rates are outrageous in the BVI during hurricane season. Go figure.

This is their planned route right through the middle of the Bermuda Triangle.







An excerpt from one of the more intense days...

24:38.1N 71:15.1W

An interesting night of lightening storms all around us - no rain, calm seas and even lighter winds shifting constantly - decisions between, sail, motor, sail or motor throughout the night kept us all awake! Dawn was greeted with heavy rain but as the morning progressed the winds freshened to a westerly F4 giving us some good progress parallel to our rumb line (the shortest track over the 1200nm passage). Fishing attempts throughout the day unfortunately proved fruitless - so it is back to our menu plan. The afternoon tunred out to be an event to remember - a dark storm caused wind shifts to the north west reaching F6 and gusting to F7 accompanied with heavy seas and wave heights over 20ft. Fully reefed genoa and main on 3rd reef we were still logging 5+knots boat speed. Ultimately, we were forced to veer slightly off our course (north east) and will have to sail a few extra miles to reach Hilton Head. Not a problem, all is calm now, Mike G has taken on the galley for a quick dinner and rest for us all! Phil, Mike and Mike.

[curtiscapk]

Holy crap 9 days middle of Atlantic.

Godspeed to your pops Brett!!!

[gramps]

What most people would give to do that, Awsome.

[blackberg]

must be an awesome experience
-bb

[playcat]

5 knots is good for that Moody, max hull speed is only a little over 6.
1200nm, I would have considered a great circle route to reduce distance, but with GPS a rhumb line would be simpler. Plus it would have taken them farther away from the Bahamas, so would have lost any visual nav stuff sooner, just to confirm GPS magic box.

Sounds like a good trip so far!

[Ron Burgundy]

DAY 8


28:53.1N 76:57.4W


A perfect night's sailing under innumerable stars followed by clear blue skies and consistent winds from the north east throughout - F4 strengthening to 5 as the morning wore on enabling us to follow our rhumb line with ease at 8-9 knots. Noon-to-noon day run topped 153nm - our best yet as Hilton Head is in our sights (although not literally as yet - we still have 300nm to go). An arrival sometime Thurs (possible early morning) is now likely if these winds hold.

As we progress through the Bermuda Triangle - one has to wonder at a few incidences we have experienced so far : Mike A's watch re-sets itself to a January 1st (Sunday) date (year unknown) and has been unexplainably loosing time ever since, the forward deck navigation lights are not functioning (not an issue as we use a masthead tri-colour light), the ship's log (recording boat speed) temporarily cut off (probably seaweed), the instrument measuring sea temp has been constantly increasing - reaching 50C (!) and then the anchor self-deployment yesterday - all just coincidences (of course)!

Finally, the afternoon of stainless steel cleaning proved too much for the crew (see below) - well, there is always tomorrow!. At least dinner of de-frosted perch (“caught” in the local supermarket not on Mike A's guaranteed lure) and cooked by our fish master-chef (Mike G) will round off a great day’s blue water sailing.

Phil, Mike and Mike.

[curtiscapk]

Crazy trip!!!

Glad he has fair seas@!@

[cwag911]

That all sounds just AWSOME!!

[Ron Burgundy]

So far it has been a pretty great trip for them. I was concerned in the weeks leading up to the trip about a hurricane popping up, but it looks like they should make it to port without any serious tropical weather.