Full moon just before dawn on Friday, December 5
Sunrise
On Friday morning, while Christi and Keith did school, Eric cleaned the watermaker sea strainer, the DC carbon filter, and the AC carbon pre-filter and filters. In the early afternoon, Eric and Keith tried to go to shore to explore the hurricane ruins, but that dock was still inaccessible. Given how shallow it was around that dock, it was probably only usable at high tide.
Continue readingSunday, November 16 – By midnight, the seas had begun to deteriorate. It was still a nice ride, but the storm up north was affecting sea conditions down here. If all went according to plan, we’d be arriving to Abacos before the seas got bad. Since the wind direction had changed a little bit, Eric change our course a little bit for a smoother ride.
As the day went on, the conditions continued to worsen, which surprised us. When Eric checked the weather, he saw we were in the convergence zone of three weather systems, making the seas seriously confused. Swells were 3 – 4 feet at rapid intervals coming from three different directions, and once in a while we’d get a 5- 6 footer that would slam into us hard. There was 2 – 3 feet of wind chop, too.
Friday November 14 — By midnight, we were nearly across the Gulf Stream. Eric was able to put the autopilot back onto auto navigation mode. Our speeds improved, and Eric moved the RPM down to 1600, where we were averaging about 6-knots. The winds had calmed down and were now coming from the aft, so the ride improved. Keith’s seasickness subsided, and he didn’t seem to be catching Christi’s cold. Eric was still fighting the cold. Christi’s cold had turned into a sinus infection. It was a dark night. The moon didn’t rise until 0200, and when it did, it was only a crescent, so it only helped a little with illumination. Here was dawn:
Friday was a much better day at sea than Wednesday and Thursday had been. The seas were calmer — 3 – 4 feet at 5 – 6 seconds with wind chop waves of about 1-foot, all coming from the starboard beam. It was significantly warmer than the Chesapeake had been, and the temperatures were pleasant at 75-degrees. We were averaging high 5s/low 6s at 1600 RPM all day, although at one point, when the current was with us, we sped all the way up to 7-knots for a short while and at another point, when the current was against us, we slowed down to the low 5s for a short time.
Continue readingOn Saturday we left Dennis Point and anchored at Deltaville for the night. On Sunday we went from Deltaville to Norfolk. We went to dinner at Lola’s with mom’s friends. On Monday, we decided to go the Bahamas instead of Bermuda. If we wanted to go to the Bahamas, we needed to get in gear quick because the next weather window was Wednesday. Dad did a bunch of repairs.
Samedi, nous sommes partis de point Dennis et nous avons ancré le bateau à Deltaville pour la soirée. Dimanche nous sommes allés jusqu’à Norfolk. Nous avons mangé le diner à Lola’s avec les amis de maman. Lundi nous avons décidé d’aller aux Bahamas, pas aux Bermudes. Si on voulait aller au Bahamas, on devait faire beaucoup de choses très vite parce que le prochaine fois que le météo allait être en faveur était Mercredi. Papa a fait beaucoup de réparations.
Wednesday, November 12, 2025 — Christi woke up feeling like she was fighting a cold. It was warmer today than it was yesterday, but it was still too cold for our comfort. In the morning, we drove to Cova for lattes. Christi also stocked up on coffee since she knew finding good coffee in The Bahamas was not easy. Then Eric returned car while Christi and Keith did school.
We spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon getting things ready to go. Since it was a major passage, we had to make sure that everything was put away and securely packed in the cabinets and drawers. Eric rinsed the boat down and cleaned the exterior windows. Even though we’d run water over the lazarette and it seemed water tight, we decided to be extra cautious and put tape around the seals of the lazarette.
We untied at 1500. At first, the ride was not bad. We ran at 1625 RPM and averaged in the high 5s for speed. The sunset and twilight were… striped.
