Caribbean 1500

Track Freds progress at http://www.carib1500.com/

Update Nov 8th.
Just to let you know, it is that time of the year again! We are currently in Hampton, VA waiting for the start of our passage. The fleet was scheduled to leave Hampton, VA for Tortola, BVI on November 1,but due to a late season Hurricane named Tomas and a low coming off the coast of Hatteras heading toward Bermuda, we are currently on a weather delay. Just like in the past, I will be sending out daily emails from aboard Sapphire on the leg to Tortola.

This year we have Jim Ross crewing with us for the first time. Jim is an accomplished sailor and will be a great addition to the crew. We are lucky to have him with us. We also have Fred Finlayson joining us for the first time. Fred is also an accomplished sailor and will be a great addition to the crew. Fred has made the passage many, many times on SV Nana Maria. He also brings with him expert fishing skills! We look forward to a great sail down this year.

We are just departing Blue Water Marina on our way to the start of the Caribbean 1500. This will be my last email from our AOL email account. I will send an email out later today from SkyMate!! Let's hope it is working. Don't forget to follow our progress on the Caribbean 1500 website.

It is currently 48 degrees and the wind is out of the NNW at 12 kts. We are expecting large choppy seas to begin with. Will let you know later!!

Wish us a safe voyage,

The Crew of Sapphire
Bill, Linda, Brie, Fred and Jim

Well the big day is just about here. And Sunsets and her crew are ready. After all the preparations and then a week weather delay here in Hampton, we are ready to get this show on the road. Monday should be the day. Just in time-- it is BITTER cold around here. We need to go where it's warm.

Most of you have already been getting updates from us but for the few of you who are new to the "Sailing Sunsets" list, Howard and Kelly are part of the Carib1500 sailboat rally from Virginia to Tortola. This is a fun race amongst almost 70 sailboats of varying sizes and styles. There are catamarans and monohauls, cruisers and racers, sloops and yawls. Sunsets is a 65' MacGregor cutter-rigged sailboat. She is only 11' wide and 6' deep, which is unusual for a boat of that size. Everyone says she is a "fast" boat so I expect that we will be in Tortola within 7 days.

Like most of the ralliers, we feel a great relief knowing that there are 70 other boats out there not too far away experiencing the same sea conditions and weather that we will. The organizers provide the participants with daily weather briefings, on land and during the crossing. Most of the boats will spend anywhere from 7-10 days at sea. Needless to say Hurricane Tomas has garnered a lot of attention from the fleet. We were supposed to leave on Monday 11/1, but the weather folks advised against sailing south into a storm of 80knot winds. NO THANK YOU. I can't see going out there and taking the chance that the storm will go a different direction than everyone is anticipating. Right now, they are anticipating that the Lo Pressure System that recently moved out to see will give us strong Northerly winds and pretty significant waves. Recommendations are to go south along the coast and then turn left. We haven't had a chance to really look at our routing-- we've been so busy with everything else. Like with most things, the more time you have, the more things you'll find to fill that time. We've filled it with repairs and provisioning and what have you. Time to actually start sailing!

Everybody in this rally has a passion for sailing and for learning. The Carib1500 sponsors seminars as well as safety inspections to ensure that we are fully prepared for our trip to the Virgin Islands. There are seminars on overcoming seasickness, on provisioning, on clearing customs, and even on what to do while you're stuck in Hampton. During the extra time here, we've had lots of chances to get to know folks and learn from each other. I learned that you can soak your lines in Downy and water to soften them up and make them easier to work with. I learned that putting a bayleaf in your baking flour will keep the weebles out. (Not that I would have baking flour since I don't know how to bake.) And I learned to keep reading glasses in your lifeboat bag so you can read the instructions if you have to set off the flares. (That is one bit of information I hope we never have to use.)

So tomorrow we put it all to use. I will write more tomorrow. It's late and tomorrow will be a long day. Take care and keep us in your thoughts and we'll be thinking of all of you-- especially those of you in the colder climates. We're off on our great adventure, very soon.

Kelly & Howard (and Crew) aboard Sunsets.

Nov 8th.

Well after a week of fixing things, planning things and waiting on things, we are finally out here in the Channel waiting for the official start at 11am. We've gotten out here about an hour early (not sure why, but this is what everyone does). We will run lazy circles until the start and then we will head out to sea. The penalty for crossing the start line early is buying a round of drinks for the entire fleet once you get to Tortola. The few minutes you gain by crossing early is definitely not worth it with about 70 boats in the fleet.

As we sit hear bobbing along, there are all sorts of container ships passing in and out of this channel. This is one of the busiest ports on the Eastern seaboard, with vessels bringing everything from cars to gravel to containers filled with dishwashers into the Chesapeake Bay to be unloaded in Baltimore and other areas. The big ships are boarded by pilots down here in the Norfolk area and they escort the boats up near Baltimore where they are boarded by a Northern Bay pilot to escort them into the harbour. The big boats stay in the main channel since they can be more than be more than 50+ feet deep. We will stay outside of that channel so we stay out of their way. You will frequently hear them on the VHF radio reminding smaller boats that they are coming into the channel. They won't demand that the small boats to get out of the channel, but they will remind them that they are 500' long and travelling at 25knots. The 30' yacht travelling at 6knots ususally gets the hint.

In addition to the container ships, there are all sorts of Navy Warships coming in and out. They annouce their intentions and then insist that we stay out of their way-- not hinting around there. We are to stay at least 500 feet from them. Right now, there is a submarine coming into the channel so there's a lot of reminders coming over the VHF to telling the fleet to stand clear. I haven't seen the submarine, but I guess I'm not supposed to see it, am I. I always find this the most unnverving part. Putting up the sails in 25knot winds, maneuvering around all the other boats, avoiding the shallows and speeding along a 7kts with just the main up. I'll be much better once we get out of this traffic area and once we are settled into a rhythm.

As soon as we cross out of the bay, we will set our clocks ahead and hour to be on Atlantic Standard time. So when we have our 8am and 7pm chats on the SSB radio, it will be 7am and 6pm back home. (Uncle Jack, if you want to listen, we will be on Channel 4042.0 USB.)

The winds are supposed to be fairly strong and out of the North and Northwest for the first part of the trip. There is a big swell building on the east side of the Gulfstream. So once we exit the bay, we are going to head south and travel down towards North Carolina. From there, we will head east and cross the Gulfstream so that once we get out there, we'll be a bit more comfortable. While heading south, the winds may be pretty far behind us. Our boat does not do as well with a following wind. (In fact, with 20-30knots of wind at 150degrees to our starboard, we are only travelling at 6.5 knots; when we had a beam reach, we were going almost 9 knots). So while the wind is behind us, the "boys" are setting up a rigging called a "preventer." This keeps the boom from swinging around to the other side of the boat by accident.

Despite all the congestion, it's really beautiful out here. I hope I can send you a few pictures. There are all sorts of boats flying all sorts of sails. There's a big beautiful green and white spinnaker WAAAAY up ahead. Might that be Madrugada???

Gotta go get the sausage bake frittata out of the oven. There's a hungry crew to feed. More later.