BVI to Hampton passage

Sorry it’s a bit late getting this post done, however I must blame it on intermittent internet. We are now at Annapolis and have signed up for 1 month with Annapolis Wireless. While it’s inexpensive, it’s coverage is slower than high speed, so I’m hoping that I can get this posted without issue.

Here’s a brief outline of our passage.
May 15th – departure day, however we didn’t depart. We got our mainsail back by 11am, then Paul spent approximately 3-4 hours getting her reinstalled. I took the opportunity to finish deflating our kayak and SUP and stowing them away along with stowing other items that might go flying around the cabin should we experience rough seas. We went to the fuel dock around 5pm, and by 6pm we still had to get the motor off the dinghy for the trip. We were both tired and hungry. We decided that we needed a good meal and a good nights sleep before leaving. We headed over to the Fish’n Lime where we enjoyed a few glasses of wine and a delightful meal. Then back to the boat for one last evening in the BVI.
May 16th – Stowed the dinghy motor and got underway by 7:30am. Nice winds to start our passage. G’s shifts are 8-11 and 2-5, P’s are 11-2 and 5-8. Yes, that’s 3 hours sleep maximum for the next 10 days or so. Highlight was seeing a large ?MahiMahi jump along with many flying fish.
May 17th – Variable winds, looked okay to try our Parasailor. Unfortunately by the time we got it all rigged and ready to go the winds had died and we had to put it away for another day.
May 18th – Tried to use the parasailor again (it’s like a spinnaker, but with a parasail build into it). We kept screwing up the hookup. Decided we are too tired. It was a godsend as we went through a squall on my afternoon shift (G)
May 19th – Lighter winds, sailed mostly 4-5 knots all day. Clear skies at sunset allowed us to see the ‘Green Flash’.
May 20th – Mostly a windless day so we had to motor. Enjoyed some afternoon sun on the foredeck. Late afternoon, while P was asleep, I spotted a pod of False Killer Whales off our bow. I ran in to get the camera, they were gone when I came out. Charlie pointed them out again off our stern(pics to follow). This was also our one year anniversary for moving aboard the boat.
IMG_4405
May 21st – Winds picked up. We are now more than 500 nautical miles into our trip.
May 22nd – South west winds today giving us a nice 8 knot sail. Gotta like that.
May 23rd – Dodged thunderstorms and gale force gusts all night. Neither of us got much rest. The boat looks like a disaster hit. We’ll clean up once the weather calms down and we catch up on our sleep.
May 24th – P spotted 6 dolphins off the bow this morning(pics to follow). Weather is looking favorable for the rest of the passage.

May 25th – entered the gulf stream at dawn. Needed to motor sail as winds were light to non-existent after we passed Cape Hatteras. The water is now more green than blue.
May 26th – 0059 docked at Blue Water Marina in Hampton, Virginia. Total distance 1516.2 non-stop nautical miles.

So when we departed we expected 4-5 days of motoring which turned into only 3 days. We can’t complain at all. We had great daily weather reports from Chris Parker, and chatted twice daily with other Salty Dawgs. We saw only a handful of boat traffic mostly nearer the US.

Glad to be back, but already looking forward to next fall when we head south again.