It’s Tuesday afternoon, and we are all up after sleeping off our overnight watches. We had as many layers of thermal clothing that we could fit under our jackets, wooly hats and gloves, and it was chilly. We entered the Gulf Stream around 5am, with the wind blowing 20-25 kts, nicely on a beam-broad reach, and immediately noticed a warm breeze. The water temperature rose to over 80F, and the.. Read More
Goodbye land
We’ll be slipping our lines at 09:30 to head out of Ocean Marina in Portsmouth towards the start line in the James River. There are 41 boats taking part, and although this is more of a rally cruise than a race, with four lifelong yacht racers on board, of course we are competing! The boats range in size and stature, from an ex Americas cup boat, Falcon, through a racing.. Read More
Delayed Start
Having listened to the wind howling all night, we were very relieved to hear Andy’s decision in the 9AM broadcast to delay the start until Monday at noon. By then we should still have wind in a favorable direction with less punch and seas that are diminishing. We are even provided with suggested entry and exit coordinates for the Gulf Stream to have the shortest point to cross it and.. Read More
Customs and immigration
Entering and leaving countries by private yacht is interesting. In fact we Europeans are not allowed to enter the USA as a normal tourist, and had to get visas to fly in. When arriving by boat, the boat’s home country flag must be flown at the stern of the boat, the new country flag flown high up in the rigging, and the yellow ‘Q’ flag for quarantine flown below it… Read More
Jitters
There was a definite air of something around the marina on Friday. It was hard to identify, but could probably be diagnosed as the jitters. We’d all spent the morning listening to a presentation by a swimmer for the US Coastguard on disasters at sea, complete with statistics, much from his personal experience of rescuing distressed yachtsmen. His underlying message was that mostly it could have been prevented before the.. Read More