glorious night

Last night was glorious.
The wind shifted to be a broad reach and built to 14 - 22 knots.
We stayed above 7 knots speed for 4 hours. Sometimes hitting 8 knots.
This morning the wind has died a little and we are only going 5.5 and it feels like we are standing still.
Overall light winds are delaying our arrival in New York.
When we get near virginia we will take stock of our food and water and see if we have to stop.
everyone is well now and into the routine.
Almir tried fishing yesterday afternoon but we took the line in for the night. I am sure he will set it up as soon as he wakes up this morning,
I will post a sunrise pic later today.

quick update

we are all doing well.
the two newbies are almost over their sea sickness.
The winds are 8 to 12 knots from 70 degrees.
The boat speed is 6 to 7 knots.
we are heading almost due north still.
There is some storm brewing off the coast of Florida which will dissipate by the time we get near it as we go north and the storm goes north.
here is our spot tracker link which will show you where we are
http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0TM4Z4RBPBRSgXW4v1msepbUdZaqQmjXY
Its sunny, decently calm seas (5 foot swell and no chop).
The solar panels are charging the batteries.
Almir has fashioned a bimini out of a blue tarp.
The auto piot is working like a dream.
We are using the auto pilot all night long and hand steering in the day in order to conserve power.

On our way!

SO we are on our way. We about 10am this morning and we are heading just west of north from the BVIs.
We are heading to a pont on the ocean at 28W 68N.
When we get there in 4 days we wil make a decision on wether to head west or head straight to New York city.
The crew is well, (the two new people have a little sea sickness) and we just BBQd some pork chops and had rice on the side.
The winds are 12 knots from the north east and were doing 7.5 knots with jib and main.
for the night we have dropped the jib and reefed the main just to be cautious.
We are doing 5.5 knots with the reduced sail area.
There is a large swell of about 8 feet but long period so its a smooth ride.
see you all soon :-)

two stages

The boat is almost ready to set sail for home.
just a reminder to everyone.....

The journey home consists of two legs.

BVI to New York (open ocean sail)

and New York to Toronto (rivers, canals, lakes and locks)

In the second part we stop in a different small up state new york town.

Its kind of cool

And.......

I need people. So far I am alone for that part and its impossible to do unless there are 2 or 3 people minimum.

any volunteers?

expected start date is May 5th in New York city and it should take 7 days.

I will update the start date as we near New York City,
Just email me at hammertimetoronto@gmail.com

big update

ok gang.

We have not updated this blog in quite some time.

The boat was hauled out in St Maarten at the end of the trip down in late November.

We then came back down (not exactly the same team) to race in the Heineken regatta in late feb/early march. We came 3rd in the regatta in our division (CSA6). Following that I did 2 weeks of cruising with family and friends in the BVIs. Following that a different set of sailors flew down and we did two regattas back to back. We did the St Thomas Rolex regatta and the BVI spring regatta. Then we came home.

Now we are about to fly back down to sail the boat back up the Atlantic to get it home. We plan to leave Nanny Cay on April 26th. the target date for landfall in New York is May 5th.

Stay tuned for Daily updates starting next week.

Heineken Regatta 2013

An update finally!

The boat is in st maarten and has been prepped for the heineken regatta.
The racing starts tomorrow (friday).
We are at slip B3 at the IGY marina in simpsons bay. come by and say hi if you are down here.

Right now we are entering the myriad course options into the chart plotter so we don't get lost tomorow.

This is racer central here. Most of the cruisers have left the marina and have been replaced with racing boats. Its very exciting. Results will be posted on this site
https://regattaguru.com/heineken/minisite?series_id=12#News

some more pics

here are some more fun pics from our trip.

swimming in the middle of the atlantic. 13,000 feet deep water. 700 miles from any land.

arrival at the bitter end yacht club in Virgin Gorda BVI