DAY 3 Chesapeake Bay to BVI.

[Nahbrown]

My wife and I are crewing for friends on their Leopard 45 for this passage to the BVIs. We are currently ~300 NM off shore and about as far south as South Carolina in latitude.

Star Link for rvs was installed prior to departure and has been working at over 100 mbs however the outages have increased in frequency and duration so we expect it to complete stop working soon.

Seas and winds have been larger than forecasted until today when both died almost completely.

Thats all for now but if I have a connection I will check in again.

[wholybee]

As you get closer to PR, it might get better again.

[Nahbrown]

Day 4 begins. We had to motor yesterday with winds at 7 knots until 8 pm the winds have progressively gotten stronger since then. Currently at 20-26 knots out of the N/NE. Double reefed main and full genoa in a pretty confused 6 ft sea state at this point. We are forecasted for the winds to drop to almost nothing later today/tonight and hope to get further east in preparation for the last 4-5 days. The last leg will have trade winds and waves from the East as we approach the BVIs from the north and we would love to have them both at least a little behind the beam.

Star link has been mostly out but when it works we still see 50-100 mbs. I will try to upload a screen shot.

[Nahbrown]

We are officially in shorts, t-shirts and bare feet weather now. The winds have reduced again to 7-9 knots so we have decided to motor sail at 110 to get east for the turn south. The turn is about 290 Nm away which should be on Tuesday if we maintain better than 6 knots.

Starlink, when it works it’s amazing at over 100 mbs however we find it drops frequently now that we are over 600 miles from US land or territory.

Highlight- rigged a flying fish found on the deck to a lure and reeled in a Mahi 20 minutes later.

This post is turning into a “dear diary” post at this point but Im fine with that

[NYSail]

Sounds like an amazing trip….. any pictures?

[Nahbrown]

Originally Posted by NYSail

Sounds like an amazing trip….. any pictures?

There a bunch at this link because we have used instagram for years to share with family and friends.

https://instagram.com/sv_sandy_botto...d=YTY2NzY3YTc=

[jeanathon]

Keep posting your dear diary posts. I for one am enjoying them. Might be because it's 8 degrees out.

[bensolomon]

This is great!

[Grandwagoneer0]

I have a question regarding which rv dish is being used. I’m getting ready to buy one. Is it the in motion ($2500) or the ($600) version. Thx

[Nahbrown]

Originally Posted by Grandwagoneer0

I have a question regarding which rv dish is being used. I’m getting ready to buy one. Is it the in motion ($2500) or the ($600) version. Thx

$600. Manage your expectations if you are going off shore with it. The further from land (at this point in time) you get the more it drops in and out. For US coastal cruising it was is awesome though.

My understanding is that the dish talks to a satellite. That satellite then transmits to the closest base station on the ground. Down he road the satellites will beam the transmissions to each other then to a base station.

Our pings have went from 30 ms to 100ms.

If Im wrong about any of the above feel free to correct me.

[wholybee]

Originally Posted by Nahbrown

$600. Manage your expectations if you are going off shore with it. The further from land (at this point in time) you get the more it drops in and out. For US coastal cruising it was is awesome though.

My understanding is that the dish talks to a satellite. That satellite then transmits to the closest base station on the ground. Down he road the satellites will beam the transmissions to each other then to a base station.

Our pings have went from 30 ms to 100ms.

If Im wrong about any of the above feel free to correct me.

I believe there are a few laser links working. I unfortunately can't find the link now, but there is a real time map that shows the positions of the satellites, the links to the base stations, and the links between satellites. A few links were up, probably just enough for testing at this point, but you could be on one of them.

[Grandwagoneer0]

Thx. Gonna order it��

[Nahbrown]

Day 6 The winds have continued to be lite as we motor sail at 6 kn, If the winds stay at 10 or above a little longer I will shut the engine off. We are 180 nautical miles from our waypoint where we turn south towards the BVIs. Light wind brings calm seas and we’re seeng 3 to 4 foot swells every eight seconds. It’s 4 AM and the moon is the tiniest crescent sliver. Why do passages never line up with the full moons? We saw one other sailboat in the last three days multiple cargo ships and one cruise ship just an hour ago in the middle of the night.

Star link continues to amaze me when it works, which is about half the time now. Still seeing download speeds of over 100 MBS when it works. Our parents and our children are happy to be able to keep in contact with us via texting on WhatsApp or Instagram posts.

Yesterday’s highlight was the dinner of mahi-mahi that we caught the day before. Our wives are amazing! It was top level restaurant quality, olive oil, garlic, boat grown cherry tomatoes , spinach, feta cheese with the mahi-Mahi battered in almond flour and pan fried.

By tonight we expect the seas & winds to start picking up Prior to the turn tomorrow morning.

The 3 to 4 day southerly sail should be 6 to 9 feet waves at eight seconds apart with 16 to 20 kt winds. We’re hoping to keep them behind the beam, Wish us luck!

[Nahbrown]

DAY 7

We had strong 20+ winds from the east last night that forced us more south than we like. We found a fairly calm band this morning and decided to motor 30 miles east before turning south into the big easterly winds and waves. This should allow the last few days straight south to be on or behind the beam and give us a better angle to the BVIs.

Last night consisted of dodging small to large squalls. Fun.

Starlink is still working (obviously) 93mbs up 8 mbs down

If everything goes according to the plan we should be arriving on Friday morning.

Yesterday, last night and todays left turn

[BG305]

Great thread!