2016-17 Trip

The Caribbean 1500 left harbour a day early, why? This was due to the passing of a cold front. This gives favourable conditions to cross the gulf stream. If we did not leave on Saturday, we would have to wait for the next front to pass 4-6 days later.

From Portsmouth, the gulf stream is close to the coast and we headed south to cross the stream east of Cape Hatteras. This path gave us about 48 hours to reach and cross the stream. With the cold front we had north winds to speed our passage south, or at least we should have had, we ended up motoring shortly after the start as the wind dropped to 2-5 knots. Eventually the winds filled in and we were able to sail across the stream. The next 3 days we had downwind sailing in quite big seas and winds in the 20-30 knots range. There were a couple of gales in the area of Bermuda that sent large swells south during most of the passage.

The first 2-3 days on the passage were all about finding a rhythm, sleep and watch hours become the major focus. With the boat moving about on the large seas and plenty of wind, it took time for us all to settle in. With Kathleen the only one of us happy to work below deck, at least for the first few days, she took on the lions share of the galley and SSB work, providing us with great food to keep hunger and sea sickness at bay and giving us information about the fleet from the SSB nets. Although she was out of the watch rotation she also took an early morning relieve watch that enabled Paul, Lisa and I to get an extra few hours of sleep every 3 days. This worked really well with the 3 on, 6 off watch pattern.

From day 3 on we had mixed conditions, never over 25 knots, but often low enough to have us motor. On a passage the hours pass slowly, but the days pass quickly, by day 4 we had a good rhythm and the boat ran smoothly with no issues. We had a couple of calm days where personal hygiene was the focus and we all felt better for a shower and some clean clothes. The visit from the Whale and the flying fish mystery kept us entertained and the days really did pass quickly.

We arrived at the finish with another boat, Yarona and ended up motoring with them just ahead to the finish line.

Here we are celebrating the finish with the traditional ginger ale.

For the record we came DFL on handicap, but I am fine with that, we had a much smoother ride and an easier passage than the boats that stayed east of the rhumb line.

We arrived close to sunset and we had a great run down Tortola to Nanny Cay with the full moon raising behind us.

We arrived at about 7:30pm, greeted by the Caribbean 1500 staff with rum punch all round.

I don’t remember feeling as tired as we all look, but the camera does not lie!

The next few days we spent relaxing at Nanny Cay, catching up with crews on the other boats, a bit of swimming, a bit of happy hour and a few boat jobs. The marina is very well sheltered, but that meant it was tough to work on the boat due to the temperatures, so more happy hours, less jobs was the order of the day.

After a few days, we bid our crew, Paul and Lisa farewell as they headed out to look for a catamaran to buy, they are spending a week or two in the Caribbean as they get serious about buying a boat. We could not have done this trip without them, thanks Paul and Lisa!

Kathleen’s efforts were rewarded at the prize giving, Andy and the team felt that she was the “Best Galley Slave of the Rally” She got a great gift certificate from one of the local supermarkets that came on board as a sponsor.

After the prize giving we had a dinner with all the crews. The Canadian boats were all at the same table, here are the crews of Kinship, RC Wings from Ontario and Caffe Latte and Ambition from Quebec.

We are looking forward to meeting up with the all of the Caribbean 1500 boats over the winter, but especially the Canadian boats.

As Matthew pointed out in his July post A Different Family Car, a dinghy is an important link to the shore and to other boats. We will use it for shopping, social calls and sightseeing ashore. Much as you use your family car on land, the dinghy has a very similar function when out cruising. And, just like home, reliability is really important as this might be your only way to get back to the big boat. So to protect it, our dinghy really should have some chaps. Dinghy Chaps, you say? What the heck are those ? They are a fabric cover to protect the inflatable tubes from harmful UV rays and chafe from lines and docks. OK, well I do love a good sewing project, so I offered to make them. But I really had no idea what I was taking on! In fact, I am beginning to wonder if it actually even qualifies as a sewing project, since I am three days into it, and haven’t taken the sewing machine out of its case yet.

Kinship is in the yard at Zahniser’s Marina for a bottom paint job and a pre-departure checkup and I am slaving away in a heat wave, on my biggest project ever. I decided it needs to be recorded here for posterity (and to remind myself never to try this again 🙂

Day 1 Patterning: It took me about 5 hours to make and fit the pattern. I used sheets of clear plastic, laid it over the dinghy in sections, then marked where the seams, hems, and cut-outs should go. This was hard work, on hands and knees, crawling about inside and out of the dinghy, on a hot patio. But I was glad for all the space, and the ability to have the dinghy up on dry land while working on it. This would have been twice as hard to do on board.

Day 2 Cutting: I needed to lay out 8 metres of light grey sunbrella fabric, so I needed a big flat clean surface.The marina let me use their upstairs balcony with a canopy over it. I just had to move a few patio tables and chairs and voila! Instant cutting board. Again, on my hands and knees, using the hot-knife to cut the fabric so the edges would not fray, I spent 4 or 5 hours on this hot, smelly job. Fortunately my patterning was good, so very few adjustments were required when I fit the pieces back on the dinghy.

Day 3 Making the vinyl anti-chafing patches: This was the biggest part of the job yet! 8 full hours measuring, marking, cutting out, fitting, starting over…but at least I could work in the comfort of the air-conditioned laundry room, on a good size table. I had 19 cut-outs to do, and was almost done when I ran out of masking tape (essential for holding the patches in place once they are cut and fitted), and my kitchen scissors had gone so dull from cutting the vinyl that they needed to be replaced in order to cut the remaining patches. A trip to the hardware store is required.

Day 4 more patches: 2 more hours of cutting and fitting patches. I must be getting tired, because the starboard side needed more fitting than the port side had. I had to take a break from the project for the boat launching, but tomorrow I will finally get to start sewing, in my cockpit sewing-room! Can’t wait!

Day 5 Sewing (finally): Like with house-painting, the longest part is the prep work. In 5 hours I had 90% of the patches sewn into place. I started out working in my cockpit, but soon found that the wind and weather, along with the bulkiness of the fabric made it much more difficult to work aboard, so I went back to the laundry room. Fortunately most people using the room for its intended purpose were curious enough about what I was doing not to object too much at my apparent hostile take-over of the facility!

Day 6: Sewing and fitting: Once the patches were all on, I sewed the pieces together and conducted the final fitting. Only one small adjustment to the first two patches I had done, and all was well. After a total of 30 hours, I really felt like I had something to show for my efforts.

The project is not finished yet. I estimate another 10 hours or so to finish it – add a rub-rail, a few more anti-chafe patches, hems, casings and snaps to hold the whole thing onto the boat – but for now it’s put away. Time to get out on the water. Kinship passed her pre-departure check-up, and we are heading for Portsmouth VA to meet up with the Rally next week!

Two Bikes and a Boat

Passage to the BVIs – Ocean Sailing

Dinghy Chaps, part 1