We are having a good sail so far with 15-20 knot winds on the beam all night. The seas are a bit lumpy but the current is favorable at about a knot. We did shorten sail last night to 1st reef and stays’l for an easier motion but were still making nine knots thru…

After some motoring last night thru rain (boat wash) we are now hard on the wind heading southwest in moderate south winds. A small bird (canary?) landed aboard yesterday but did not survive the night. We passed thru the gulf stream and even though conditions were calm it still created a small bouncy chop.…

We are having a very smooth sail with only the mildest nighttime squalls getting the wind up from 11 to 15 kn and just a few flashes of lightning in the distance. We started receiving Bermuda Radio on VHF 16 120 nm away (!) and they have a notice to mariners about the Kings…

Fish On! Landed a nice little one eyed Dorado after having the line in the water only fifteen minutes. Our first fish since some throw-back barracuda in the Bahamas in May. Of course we hooked right after setting the whisker pole (now going wing & wing) and after setting all that sail the captain…

We caught two more Dorado yesterday and so will have some in the freezer. The wind has been picking up all night, the waves are getting bigger and there is now convective activity (rain) all around us (no more fishing). We are still wing & wing making good progress along the rumb line to…

After two straight days of sailing we are now under power in light and variable conditions. There has been some rain and shifty wind all night and we may have to motor for a few hours until what is left of the tradewinds fills in. Unfortunately the wind will be from the southeast and…

We have been motoring for nearly 24 hours in light headwinds. Looks like we may not be able to lay our course sailing for the rest of the passage. In an optimistic moment we rigged the Code Zero (our biggest headsail) yesterday just to have it ready in case sailing conditions improve (and to…

We arrived at Great Harbor, Jost Van Dyke at around midnight dropping the hook well outside the mooring field before moonrise in pitch blackness (18d26.36’N, 64d45.08’W, 50 ft). We had been there before many times and so knew the area well (the GPS chart plotter, RADAR and previous tracks also helped quite a bit).…

We had a nice family reuinion afloat with Kurt’s brother, nephew and the rest of the crew on their chartered 56 ft motor yacht. We hit many of the usual haunts here in the BVI but with it being early in the season many restaurants and bars were closed (opening next week). Tropical storm Rafael…

Last night the center of tropical storm Rafael passed 20 miles to the east of us (heading north to Bermuda). Most of the wind and rain was on the eastern side (40 kn) and we only saw 5-15 kn all night. The wind has backed from E yesterday to NW last night to W…