Better Late then never

Its winter, and oh its a bout 9 months late but, I did make it to Newport that day. And i just thought I'd finish what happened that day, so that when I get surpersticious, next time I go to sea, I don't get bothered by the thought of never finishing my last log. I don't want that stuff lingering in the back of my head, so here we go...
I was enjoying the view of SE light and the bluffs of block island, walking around the deck all proud as to what I've accomplished, anxiously awaiting for an opportunity to share this excitement with another living being, other then whales, sharks, or seagulls. And to my delight, just as the first bar on my cellphone appeard it actually rang!!!! I was soooooo excited at first, but then quickly, very quickly, I was in disbelief. My face turned from excited to blaaaa, to sad, to frustrated, to...do I wanna pick this up? Or should I just pretend that little bar never appeared. Unfortunately it was my divorce lawyer:((((( God his voice sounded so mechanical, lika a recording, no emotion, full of fake enthusiasm that I knew all too well. How wouldn't I, after listening to it for almost a year. Did I mention I hate lawyers? He was calling to let me know the good news... "Petar, we got a hearing and looks like we're gonna be all set, I will meet you at the usual place tomorrow morning at 9am". The usual place being 5th floor of RI family court house outside of that idiots court room, yes idiot i have to say it, I don't even care, his name is Judge O'Brian. God I hate that court room. And as far as this damn lawyer....not even a "glad to hear you made it....". Wtf is wrong with that picture. I just sailed 1400Nm alone, and one wrong puff and I wouldn't even be in that courtroom??? Not to mention a storm, or anything else that could go wrong. And there's not even: "are you back yet?" Wholly crap. these people suck!!!! They do suck the life out of you. I wonder if any of them ever watched storm stories?

Gosh, the first thing I thought to my self....really? Seriously, I just spent two weeks at sea without talking to, or seeing a living soul, and the first thing I hear is this. wtf!!!!! Part of me wanted to just tack and head out to sea. And forget all my land-based nightmares, and worries, and just head to the Azores or something, or somewhere where there's no divorces or psychos or greedy people, or best yet, somewhere where there's no money yeah!!!! That would be best. God I wish it was that easy.
But then the reality set in, I have a 15 month old son, and fighting for your right to be a father is not easy in a state that gives mothers the benefit of any doubt, and a first right of refusal, sort of. Well, I turned back to sea, stared at the horizon, which was slowly disappearing into a chilly New England night, soaking in, for one last time, all of the adrenaline, and excitement of venturing to the other side. One last time, I truly felt what all the great explorers, ocean adventurers, cruisers and offshore racers feel as they look towards the horizon.
Then I turned back to the north and was blinded by flashing lights on Newport Harbor entrance. Unfortunately, my horizon is now quite different, littered with people whom never had a chance to feel what I just felt, people that don't care of my achievements, or whether I made it alive or not, people that care about one thing, and one thing only, and that is money, how much money I'm going to pay. And that includes, the judge, all of the damn lawyers, gosh there's so many of them, the counselor, therapist, private investigator, and even that crazy psychotic ex wife of mine. All of those money hungry, selfish bastards. Yes I'm back, you can now proceed to suck the life out of my vanes.
But that's ok, all that will pass, the one thing I am sure of, is that the psychos will remain psychos and find similar problems elsewhere, the money hungry will remain just that, let them be slaves to their money, the lazy will remain lazy and continue to have nothing to their name but a child support check, the greedy will die in their greed and(hopefully) forget to retire.
As for me, I have a gift, i felt something that none of them will ever feel, and even more then that feeling, I have a son(thank god it was a boy), he might be just 15 months but he's gonna make a fine explorer some day. I know all too well why I'm back here. It's that bond, that might feel weak right now, tarnished by this monster called RI family court, it might feel strange, foreign and that it's too much effort and not worth it, but all those bad feelings will go away and the bond will grow. Growing that bond gives me so much hope, and I'm already dreaming about the day when Vlad and I set sail, and head out to see. My head is clear, no confusion anymore, I'm here to do just that, follow my paternal instinct, and teach Vlad everything I know is right and just, and hope that some day he will continue where I left off. I'll see you all again in a decade or so.

Land Ho

07/16/09, 11:18 AM, I see land. It's Block Island, bearing 25deg M. I could have seen the South East Light much earlier but its a cloudy and hazy and foggy New England Day. And its starting to drizzle. Wind is picking up 20-25kts now. doing 6+kts.
ETA is looking better and better.
I never thought this day would come but yes I am back in RI!!!!

Ship's Log 07/16/09 8:00AM

Its so humid I must be in New England. Starry night yet everything is wet. Only in New England. I went forward last night to take a peak at the foredeck, and it was so slippery, pretty much the way it is when its poring rain. But the stars were out. And as the boat rolls from side to side, caused by the swell, gib would luff violently and I actually got rained on. Literally rain, the dew would fall off the gib and it would feel like its raining.
Busy fishing ground this entire area South of New England. So many of them were out last night that I hardly got any sleep.
Its cloudy this morning and the advertised SW wind is less then expected, but its sufficient to give me an ETA of 5-8PM tonight. I saw a rather large shark circling something just this morning. And then it disappeared.
Overall the swell had piled up of about 4-5 feet but the boat is comfortable. Autopilot is handling it quite well.
Yesterday's attempt to catch a tuna has failed, so today I am trying a different lure. I am down to the last bread bun, last apple, last orange, and last cup of milk. I still have two coke cans, one sprite, and one cooked meal for this afternoon.
And the forecast calls for a stalling cold from from Canada to ruin the weekend with showers and thunderstorms and cause an overall unstable weather for Saturday and sunday. What else is new, its the weekend in New England. I am just glad I already got my tan, and I am a bit tired of the sun.

Ship's Log 07/15/09

Wind is here, I think its here to stay for the last 100NM i have left. Yeahhh! Today was an easy relaxing day. So many people fishing the Hudson Canyon. I barely covered 30 NM, but its ok, I got wind now, I'll be home by Thursday Evening. I'll catch the Afternoon SW breeze and come in like all the other boaters in Newport.
I managed to take some awesome dolphin photos and movies today. Water was flat like a pool and they were playing in the bow wake.
I also end-for-ended the chain. It was so rusty from being anchored in Salinas for 18 months. So every time I anchored it would get the deck so rusty, it made me wanna vomit. So at least now I have about 150' of healthy galvanized chain to work with before the rusty part comes out. But how often am I gonna need more then 150' of chain in New England. So that will be great. I also marked every 25 feet so I know how much I have out.
I made pork chops and prepared a meal for tomorrow. I am running out of everything but its good timing anyway. So next time I write it will be from Newport harbor.

Ship's log 07/15/09 8:00AM

I can feel it, there is a New England chill in the air this morning. Even in July. I am close, but no cigar just yet. Last night went by smooth. No thunderstorms, in fact not even a cloud to complete the picture perfect night full of start and the moon that looked like those from Corona commercials. It came up around midnight, and it was red and big at first. It would definitely not fit in the Corona bottle, but it shrank as the night wore off and got that perfect yellow color and then just white. Before the moon came up, Milky way was so bright, that it was actually illuminating the water. Then a bright star appeared around 11PM out of the east. Probably Venus.
Winds picked up from SW, and flattened the lumpy seas. I was finishing up the in-house projects, like cleaning cabinets etc. Music was blasting. If I could, I would have loved to have a beer or a rum drink. But not out here, at least not yet. My safety, and the safety of the boat is in my own hands out here and nobody else's, and I don't what those hands impaired in any way. Imagine an empty boat sails itself right into Ft. Weatherhill, or the way autopilot is programmed, it would probably enter Narragansett Bay all by itself. And the captain is 150NM south swimming in the gulf stream or probably drowned by then. No thanks, beer will have to wait.
Now that the night is passed, it was lovely, starry, dry and calm night. The kind you wish you had more often. But I had to wear layers, and foulies on top of that.
The winds changed again last night, or the forecast was wrong again, ha ha, I sound like a broken record. But at least it was for the better. They said variable and I got 10-15SW. They guessed it for this morning. I hope it stays that way. Perhaps its because I am entering the "South of New England" forecast zone. If they are correct, I will get SW this afternoon, and they will be here to stay for the duration of the trip. That means fast ride the last 100NM or so. But it also mean humid, salty air, dew, clouds, and yeah thunderstorms....
I think I just crossed the shipping lanes. They are very tight. Because I saw two tankers at once, one traveling from Hudson River and one traveling towards Hudson River. I see the shipping lanes on the chart, they start off tight, but widen out like a cone. Its the Hudson Canyon to Embrose traffic lane. Then I have one more. Hudson Canyon to Nantucket traffic lane and that's it. I am about 60NM form that one. That one runs just south of New England.
Yeah there is another tanker. This is good opportunity to test my guard zone on the radar. I set it at 10NM radius 360deg around me. So I will get an alarm if anything is picked up within 10NM. The problem was that even waves can sometimes trigger it. So I was playing with the settings to make sure I get no false alarms.

Ship's Log 07/14/09 8:00PM

Even the lightest of North winds can make the gulf stream lumpy. I witnessed that today. It was only around 10kts out of the north but I finally found a little patch of the gulf stream flowing NE. That was enough to make the ride just bouncy enough that I cannot do anything in the cabin. Write emails, yes, and print out weather charts, but I wanted to finish cleaning the kitchen. Oh well, I was reading magazines and taking naps. Not a living sole on the horizon, one funny looking float marker with a radar reflector on top of it. Probably a fishing net.
Northern winds brought in some dry air. That means no thunderstorms, and no dew. The day was sunny, and wind was cold from the north. I actually had to wear long sweatshirt during the day! Its July? Also tonight we'll have clear skies and stars.
the forecast changed, what else is new. All I know is that I have another 100NM to get out of this crappy forecast zone(Hudson Canyon to Baltimore Canyon) where the forecast changes twice per day, and get into the "South of New England" zone which I hope will be more reliable. I am so close but so far away. I got 200NM to go. But with northern winds I'll be lucky if I get there in August.
I just started motoring as it helps heal the boat and to break up the lumpy seas. If nothing else, lumpy seas means I am in the gulf stream. Wind is supposed to shift to W and stay W-SW this evening. No signs of it yet. Wednesday and Wednesday night winds should be SW 10-15 and then 15-20kts. Means fast sailing and all I need is another 36 ours of that. But it also has to line up with the "South of New England" forecast. Its so complicated here in mid Atlantic and new England waters.
For every 3-4 forecast zones here, there is only one in the tropics. And the forecast in the tropics is wind E-SE 10-15kts or E 15-20kts. and its been like that ever since the beginning of time.
I have to try and cook something. One of the tuperware containers with prepared dinner has gone moldy. It was because the lid was broken. So I officially ate the last prepared meal. But fortunately, I have 6 more burgers, 6 sausages, lots of mahi, ground beef, and two pork chops. I think I'll make pork chops with mashed potatoes.
The alternator belt is holding up well after 1 hour. We'll see what happens with that.
Just checked again, N winds are officially dead. Now I am hoping that W or SW or something else picks up and flattens these seas.

Update:
forecast changed. There won't be any W-SW winds 10-15kts. Its now variable 5-10kts. Its just not enough to help heel the boat and cut through these lumpy seas. I did find the gulf stream. I am getting 1.5kts push and I am smack in the middle of this tiny patch of stream. Water temp is 75F, a noticeable increase from 72F earlier this morning. So the next opportunity to have winds is tomorrow morning. SW 10-15kts. Decision to make is do I run the engine the entire night, or do I just sit here and bounce in these lumpy seas and conserve gas? Ahhh decisions, decisions....
I just tried to shut the engine and see what happens. I am doing 2kts without the engine but its quite and a bit less lumpy then while motoring. I was doing 6kts under power.

But the sails are just luffing around and jerking the entire boat in every direction. Sundowner has a very tall rig, and the sail plan is large, those things tugging back and forth in these lumpy seas are not very fun. But oh well, I am gonna go with the quiet, as opposed to the sound of the engine. At least the skies are clear and there will not be any thunderstorms tonight.

Ship's Log 07/14/09 8:00AM

No thunderstorms last night! I was able to do power naps and rest very well. But the winds were so light that I barely made any progress. This morning while motoring the alternator belt ripped to shreds. Perhaps that had to do something with the alternator overheating a week ago. Belts usually start slipping. Slippage adds to more heat friction, and that is probably enough added heat to cause it to overheat. It was a 5 minute fix, as I have three spare ones. The only pain is that with a new belt, tension needs to be adjusted often. How often we'll see, it was a long time ago that I changed the belt but as soon as it starts slipping(squeeking noise) it needs to be adjusted. I don't think I'll be doing that in 8-11 foot seas. Hopefully I won't need to.
I finally saw a tanker today, it was only the third one since Beaufort, NC. I must be east of the shipping lanes.
Weather as usual changed again, but I can no longer get the station from Islip Long Island. Now I get the Virginia Beach which is giving me the Cape Hatteras weather. That's not very helpful.
One good thing is happening. The fridge is finally cycling. It actually has a duty cycle. Its been off so frequently that I was afraid it might be broken. I had that happen in Georgetown Bahamas once and its a not a pretty feeling. But no, I think the colder climate and the fact that I've made so much ice since West Palm Beach made it reach its cooling point and I can hear thermostat shutting it off. This is great because it means less power is used. In the tropics, the poor compressor was working 24/7. Now, it might make sense to actually measure the duty cycle and get an idea of the daily AH consumption. Extra juice means more power for music or laptop or HF emails. I can now send them pretty much any time of the day, not just at noontime. I do have to have favorable propagation.
The batteries are great, ever sense I took out the one with 3 dry cells, there isn't as much acid evaporating in the battery compartment, and the voltage is holding at a much higher value overnight. I no longer have to run the engine overnight.

Ship's Log 07/14/09 8:00AM

No thunderstorms last night! I was able to do power naps and rest very well. But the winds were so light that I barely made any progress. This morning while motoring the alternator belt ripped to shreds. Perhaps that had to do something with the alternator overheating a week ago. Belts usually start slipping. Slippage adds to more heat friction, and that is probably enough added heat to cause it to overheat. It was a 5 minute fix, as I have three spare ones. The only pain is that with a new belt, tension needs to be adjusted often. How often we'll see, it was a long time ago that I changed the belt but as soon as it starts slipping(squeeking noise) it needs to be adjusted. I don't think I'll be doing that in 8-11 foot seas. Hopefully I won't need to.
I finally saw a tanker today, it was only the third one since Beaufort, NC. I must be east of the shipping lanes.
Weather as usual changed again, but I can no longer get the station from Islip Long Island. Now I get the Virginia Beach which is giving me the Cape Hatteras weather. That's not very helpful.
One good thing is happening. The fridge is finally cycling. It actually has a duty cycle. Its been off so frequently that I was afraid it might be broken. I had that happen in Georgetown Bahamas once and its a not a pretty feeling. But no, I think the colder climate and the fact that I've made so much ice since West Palm Beach made it reach its cooling point and I can hear thermostat shutting it off. This is great because it means less power is used. In the tropics, the poor compressor was working 24/7. Now, it might make sense to actually measure the duty cycle and get an idea of the daily AH consumption. Extra juice means more power for music or laptop or HF emails. I can now send them pretty much any time of the day, not just at noontime. I do have to have favorable propagation.
The batteries are great, ever sense I took out the one with 3 dry cells, there isn't as much acid evaporating in the battery compartment, and the voltage is holding at a much higher value overnight. I no longer have to run the engine overnight.

Ship's Log 07/13/09 8:00PM

I had a nice relaxing day that started with light SE winds that pushed me pretty good along the "imaginary" gulf stream line which was hard to find. I am beginning to doubt those charts from passageweather.com After all why would they post them free online if similar reports could cost up to 200$ per trip. Anyhow wind died by early PM so I motored for 6 or so hours. At sunset, E wind picked up to 10 kts and I was on a beam reach doing 6kts. Seems that I also found a bit of that imaginary current.
This evening I was able to hear NOAA weather radio for Long Island, Montauk, and south of New England. Home sweet home, here I come. Its been 3 years since I heard those.
Weather report, once again changed twice today. based on this mornings report it was important for me to reach 38N by midnight or so. Now it turned out its meaningless, as these easterlies will persist through the night or at least I hope so.
I had a fun day on a day when seas where flat like a lake. I first raided my onboard liquor cabinet as everything was staring to get moldy. Then I cleaned the kitchen counters drawers and the cabinets. Tomorrow will be the other cabinet, and the spice rack.
The sun is now setting and I am getting the jitters. What will tonight bring. Cape May, NJ station is reporting strong thunderstorms along the Delaware bay drifting east. I am about 100NM east of that. I'll be damned if those catch up with me. On the other hand the NOAA report for Hudson canyon to Baltimore canyon did not mention any thunderstorms, not even scattered?!?! Could that be possible? Looking at the horizon I cannot see the ones coming from Delaware bay, but I can see something SE of me. That should not be moving towards me, at least I hope not. Right around dark is when the lightning starts showing up.
So after tonight, I am about 230NM away from Newport RI, and I can almost say that I should be in by Wednesday night or overnight into Thursday. Just as I am writing this, NOAAs forecast for Wednesday for South of New England changed to winds 10kts out of the North until afternoon and then SW 15-20. If that the case I will have to sail east until the SW takes over. Today is Monday it will probably change 2-3 times by Wednesday.
Another nice thing that happened today I was able to get a really high baud rate on the HF radio for emails. Canadian station out of Montreal was free most of the day, and propagation was excellent I was getting 3200bytes /minute!!! I was even able to send the picture of my Mahi Mahi.

Ship's Log 07/13/09 8:00AM

So much for the storm free night. two nasty lines of thunderstorms passed through. Why is it that it takes about 8 hours for the two lines of thunderstorms to pass through? I could not douse off, not even for few minutes. The first one came few hours after sunset. Impressive lightning all around, and then the wind picked up. Very powerful. I just had enough time to tie off the wind generator blades before they blow a hole in the transom. I also went below and managed to put a sweatshirt on. In a way, I liked the tropical squalls much better. At least you can sit there in your swim shorts and not feel cold. Last night, I was freezing, and I could not let go of the helm. For a brief second I thought a triple reef on the main was too much because the autopilot could not cope with steering. But that was only because the winds were shifting so violently that one second I am headed and the main starts luffing violently, and the next I find myself sailing by the lee. I got soaked and everything else got wet. At least all the salt was washed away. The boat probably appreciated it very much. I was just thinking how I will need to fresh water-rinse everything. If there is one good thing about these thunderstorms, it is that they really wash away all the salt.
So the first line went by and I soon saw the stars, the first constellation I saw was the big dipper, a bit blurred from the high level clouds, but it was there. Frequent lightning made it hard for eyes to adjust but I was able to verify that it was not the hallucinations, and that it was indeed the big dipper. And I thought I was done for the night. Winds went back to light SW, and I was drying off clothes, picking up the water that entered the cabin and finding something warm to wear. I was freezing. It was nice to relax but it was short lived. Soon, form NW, I saw more lightning. And I knew that its moving SE and towards me. This time I was ready, I went below I dug out my old foul weather gear, overalls, and storm jacket. I put on some dry clothes underneath and I was warm and comfortable. But this line of thunderstorms, came even more violently. It gets so dark and its hard to see where the storm is coming from. Steering by the pedestal didn't work out very well due to shifting winds. In the cockpit, bimini and side canvas distorts the wind quite a bit, and its hard to get the feeling of where the wind is coming from, especially when it shifts violently. My only guide for steering is the little wind indicator on top of the mast. So I sat on the side of the cockpit coamming, and kept my eye on the masthead, holding on to the bimini frame with one hand, and the wheel with the other. The only time you can judge the cloud formation and the direction of could movement is when the lightning strikes. And there were plenty of those. Everywhere, on top of me, horizontally across the sky, discharge into water, etc. I was amazed how when a lightning hits water, it sometimes takes almost up to a second for all the energy to discharge. There appear to be 4-5 fast lightning bolts hitting the same spot in that second. God, I would hate to be on the receiving end of that. I put my small backup GPS into the oven. The only place that electronics can survive a lightning strike. I placed a portable VHF there, and I was almost gonna put a laptop in as well. But I didn't get around to it as the winds clocked to W-NW violently. It was now blowing in the 30s. I have not seen high 30s while sailing since 2006. The most anemometer clocked last night was 39kts. But it was only a localized wind so the seas were rather flat. At those few moments I thought my poor little main sail, That little piece of canvas seems to be on life support, It already has more patches then a Cuban automobile. Its gonna just rip to shreds and that will be it. But it didn't. Part of it was that I set the leech very tight, by adjusting the topping lift, and the mainsail shape was excellent.
The problem with the wind again was that it would shift up to 90 degrees from S to SW to W, in a matter of few seconds. And it was not the swell doing it. The SW swell was gone, flattened by the storm winds. And if I didn't react quickly to the shift I could find myself back-winding the main and braking the boom. Even before this trip, the boom bail has already worked an enlarged hole in the boom. Its now clinking, and it has quite a bit of play. That's why I always set the preventer to help ease the violent jerks on that delicate spot on the boom.
So the second line of thunderstorms was much shorter, at least the very violent part and the stinging rain. The autopilot took over after about an hour. I was freezing. The rain found its way into my starboard settee, my favorite spot for power naps while under way. It also found a way down my overalls, and soaked up my shorts.
I went in changed into dry clothes, and wondered how quickly warm tropical squalls and 80deg. water turn into freezing cold fronts and stinging rain. I was no longer in the tropics and I was feeling the effects of it.
One other mishap took place last night. One of those violent jerks and a wave from astern yanked one of the nylon pins form the servo pendulum on the windvane, my mechanical autopilot. I haven't used it since before Beaufort, NC, and the electronic one was coping quite well. But that was my main means of autosteering in heavy conditions. The problem my prove to be serious in the next few days. Electronic autopilot is rather weak. The most it was successfully able to steer was 25-30kts and 8-11 foot seas. While I hope I don't get more then that for the next 300NM or so, I did see one of the forecasts for the South of New England saying something about 30kts SW on Thursday. That pin on the servopendulum part of the windvane seems to be the weak link. I have already replaced that pin in FL. I got hit by one of those weekend power boaters and it yanked the nylon pin out of the servopendulum. Then I realized that in my spare box, I only had one more of those. That was the one that went yesterday. I am gonna try and fabricate something in the next day or two.
One other good thing happened, the weather instruments on the main dashboard are responding again. The main dashboard was not responsive since PR. It was just showing the miles logged. Now it can once again show, wind speed, relative direction, depth, VMG, etc.

07/12/09

Today started with strong winds but as day went on the winds moderated. Now I am comfortably sailing in 10-15kts of SW in a narrow patch of NE flowing current. I have a bout 1.5-2 kts of push from the stream. I am at 36deg 13'N, 74deg23' west and I will follow the stream along for the next 120NM to about 38N 37deg45'W. Hopefully the wind doesn't die down. SW breeze brought in the moisture and haze, as well as thunderstorms. They are well of the the west. Hopefully I'll have a storm-free night.

Ship's Log 07/12/09

Winds picked up. Its blowing 20-25kts SW. I am in the gulfstream doing 8-9kts on the gps. Main is tripple reefed, and gib is partially out. I'm on a broad reach and the autopilot is barely managing to keep the boat on track. Every now and then a larger wave would roll it and try to broach it but it manages to recover. If the winds pick up I'll be rolling in the gib all the way. This is as fast and as comfy as it gets.

Ship's Log 07/11/09

Light winds made today mostly a motoring day. But NOAA forecast was on the money. As predicted I am starting to get SE winds 5-10kts and now its clocking to S-SW, and if the prediction is correct this should intensify to SW 10-15 and then SW 15-25 tomorrow. That would be great since I motored about 12 hours today. Another great thing that happened was a BIG mahi. I mean big, he was probably over 5 feet long. I got the photos and the video. The entire cockpit floor was bloody. I took the time and filet the fish. It took me close to two hours to filet the fist, and clean everything. I had mahi po'boy for dinner! No fries though, but it was so fresh that it didn't need any spices, just butter, bread bun, lettuce, and cheese. I think I'll have some more mahi tomorrow. Unless the waves pick up. It was a great way to break the boring motoring day.
Now, the stars are out, there are no clouds whatsoever, the milky way itself is enough to illuminate the deck. Towards the east, I can see the moon starting to light up few puffy clouds. Moonrise at 11PM. I am in the gulf stream, water is 82F, and I am getting a great push. Today, Coast guard was doing the search for a missing boater. 27' grady white was found beached but its owner 70 year old male was missing, very sad. 2 helicopters, and a big plane along with a Coast guard cutter were all doing the search patterns just east of Cape Lookout shoals. I tried reaching Herb(Southbound II) Canadian forecaster that voluntarily helps out voyaging vessels with weather routing. No reply. But he is usually busy so it takes few tries just to establish contact. I'll try again tomorrow. Ok Back to powernaps and the moonrise.

Ship's Log 07/11/09

Finally on the way. Winds are still out of NE but are light. Forecasted to shift to SE light this afternoon. Then it gets better SW 15-20kts. I am out here a bit early, but its ok, I'll be in position to take full advantage of SW winds. Sky is clear, air is dry, its starting to get chilly at night and in the morning, sure sign I am no longer in the tropics.

Ship's Log 07/10/09

Its time to get on the road again. Seems that NE winds will taper off overnight, and there will be no winds on Saturday, and then back to SW flow by Saturday eve. This is good enough for me to leave. I got gas, and few other supplies, updated the gulf stream coordinates, and I will leave tonight at 12:01 AM just so that I can say I left on a Saturday and not on a Friday.

Ship's Log 07/007/09

So here I am in Beaufort, NC. Sitting again at Taylor's big mug. This place reminds me of good times. Crystal and I spend three weeks here in November 2006. At the Beaufort Nautical Museum, you can ask for a loaner. You're probably wondering what a loaner is? But you have to ask for it like that. Then you give the clerk your drivers license, and she gives you keys to a minivan!!! That was my favorite thing about this town. Its so Sailor friendly. Can't wait to hit the pubs tonight and play some pool or just talk to the locals.
Anyway, I pulled the forecasts today, and that "New" low that I know so well by know as I am the one witnessed it forming.... Is gonna hang east of Cape Hatteras. So N-NE winds from here all the way to cape cod. I am not leaving until Saturday. That's when Bermuda high sets in again!
I talked about this place in the log of Nevember 2006. That's when I remembered that the creek where boats anchor has pretty high currents and everyone usually drops two hooks. I am only gonna be here till Friday so I don't really feel like dropping another hook. We'll see what happens.

Ships Log 07/07/09

Another crappy night!
That low that I thought has stalled off the coast of NC, it actually moved NE, I was a witness to a new Low Pressure system forming right on top of me. It was texbook perfect. Cold front caught up with the warm front, and kicked the crap out of me. At least this time I learned from the night before. I saw it coming all along. It approached from the west. Meanwhile, while I was observing this line of cumulonimbus, and nimbostratus and all those other clouds with with "nimbus" in it, pile up slowly to the west of me, I was already (un)comfortable riding in 20-30kts SW winds that piled up 7-11 foot seas. In that kind of environment, the only heading I could take was NE. Wing-on-wing, with both sails secured in every direction I can think of. This was fine by me, the ride was comfy, and the gulfstream was flowing with me, and it was sort of on the way up the NC coastline.
Just before the cold front hit, I tied the blades of the wind generator and I took off the wisker pole and furled the small working gib all the way in. So I was still doing 6-7kts under triple reefed main. As it hit, the wind at first completely died, there was flashes all around on top of me. And then the rain came. Then the wind slowly picked up from the west, and I decided to let the blades out, and pull out the gib. It was not that bad of a ride accept that the SW swell was colliding with chop from the west and the seas got lumpy. By that time I was exhausted and dosed off for a bit in the cabin. The new ride was ok, the only scary thoughts were the lightning that would do all kinds of squiglly patterns in the sky before hitting water, or dissipating in the clouds.I saw a typical water to clouds discharge that started as one and then branched up into many little ones like a tree branch. Then I also saw two lightning strikes next to each other (like a double barrel) do a loop together in parallel, before dissipating in the water. Or maybe I was hallucinating or seeing double from exhaustion. Don't know, I saw many things last night, and that really caught my eye.
I am just glad I am almost in Beaufort. No more lightning. And I am gonna hang here until the weather in this part of Atlantic stabilizes. And the stable I mean Bermuda High pressure taking over and producing prevailing SW winds all the way to New England. It seems as though that will happen by the weekend. In the meantime, I have few chores to do. Patch up the sail(what else is new), swap back the alternators, .... relax and have few PBRs with the locals. Beaufort is e sailing town. There are always few sailors with funny sea stories in some of those friendly downtown pubs.

Ship's Log 07/06/09

Heading into Beaufort, NC. There's no need for this. That Low Pressure System seems to have stalled, and the winds remained 25-30kts W-SW. In addition, by Wednesday winds will be shifting to N-NE 10-20kts. That sucks!!!
I had a hell of night last night. Winds went from light and variable to slowly increasing to 20-25kts, and then the cold front approached from the West. Winds at first died and then all of sudden 30+kts. Whooped my but! And lightning all around. But the lightning must have been in the clouds. Because it was on top of me but no discharge on the water. Seas got angry in a hurry, I managed to roll in the gib, and all I had left was triple reefed main. Autopilot seemed to like it. It handled the swell from multiple direction as well as the wind gusts. Then by the early hours of the morning, winds eased up, only to turn West 25-30kts. And the seas are 8-11 feet. Evey now and then a wave would break into the cockpit and get the floor wet.

04/05/09 8:00PM

I am approaching Cape Fear. Approaching means about 100NM South of it. Winds are finally picking up and so are the seas. The swell is running 6 feet at the moment but its very slow. There is almost no chop. Gulf stream is still running 2+ kts which further diminishes the apparent swell and wind. Decks are all cleaned out. I put the gas cans in the cabin along the pilot births and tied them to the chainplates. The engine runs smooth and cool. And the alternator is no longer overheating. Because the batteries are so depleted, I have to run the engine once or twice per day for about an hour. It all depends on how much sun and wind I get. So I am running it right now. So far, weather has been great. There has been only the light shows in the distance, and I was far enough to enjoy it and not worry about the storms. Same goes for the this evening. The thunderstorms are along the coast and I am far enough to net be bothered by them. I am still close enough to get NOAA weather. But you can help but get worried when you see a bright flash at night. Some the lightning appears so close, but is harmlessly far away.
So far looks like I'll be near Cape Fear by Monday noon, near 35N75W by Tuesday noon, and near 36N74W by Wednesday noon or AM. But all this can change depending on the weather maps I download tomorrow. Email radio stations have been great. I get the best reception form Panama, and there is a station in Trinidad that I like as well. Today I managed to connect to a station in Virginia Beach. Seems as though ideal station are further then 500-600 miles away.

Ship's Log 07/05/09

Its getting tricky to type and focus on the laptop screen. SW swell has rolled in and the forecast is calling for slowly deteriorating conditions. Low pressure system is moving down the east cost and it will drift off Cape Hatteras. I have decided to alter route to let hte 25-30Knt SW winds blow by ahead of me. I am at 31N 79W. In stead of heading Northeast I have decided to head N-NW towards Charlstown, SC, and then up the coast. The local NOAA forecasts call for 15-20kts instead of 25-30 offshore. Also, making a wider turn, I am sort of taking the scenic route, and letting the bilk of the blow move off to the North East.
Heat exchanger on the engine blew up last night. So this morning I converted the engine to raw water cooling. That one I had served me well since 2003. It is time for a new one. Thank god I was able to rather quickly and painfully convert the hose routing. I tested the engine, and it runs very cool now. Hopefully that will further help prevent the alternator from overheating.
So the plan for today is to stay comfortable, head more inland, and prepare the deck for 5-7 foot seas. Hopefully I only get the tail end of it.