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Newly Updated October 8th, 2005
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Our Adventure Began on September 12th, 2005 as we left Georgian Bay heading South for the Caribbean!
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October 29th, 2005

Position:
37* 01.04'N
76* 20.50'W
Blue Water Marina
Hampton, Virginia, USA

Cumulative Miles:
318nm (366miles) from New York Harbour
1660nm (1909miles) from our dock in Penetanguishene, Ontario

He Said:

Well, as you all know, we made it safely to Virginia last week. We squeaked in just in time to enjoy a couple of really nice sunny days with temperatures in the 80's just before hurricane Wilma scampered up the coast after ravaging Florida. We were very sheltered in here... as Wilma raced up the coast at over 50mph with gusts over 100mph, we never saw anything over 55-60mph in our slip. We doubled up some of our lines and hunkered down for a couple days while the temperatures dropped and the rain came down. The sun eventually came back out, but the cold front from Canada that held Wilma offshore has settled in and taken away our warm days. The forecast calls for temps in the 70's again after this weekend so we're all looking forward to that!

Our time here in Hampton has been wonderful... it is a very pretty town, filled with older style Victorian homes, and tons of the friendliest people around. Terri has been in her glory, wandering around town meeting people and marveling over all the beautiful homes... it really is such a nice place, you'd never know it was just a few miles across the bay from a huge Naval base full of warships! If it wasn't for hearing them on the VHF radio all the time as they head out for practice maneuvers, you'd never know they were here. We heard one sailboat on the radio last week calling "to the submarine behind me... where would you like me to go!" That was pretty funny, but glad we weren't there! We still haven't been over to Norfolk yet, but do plan a visit sometime before we leave.

I can't believe we've been here for 10 days already! We had all these plans of traveling up the Chesapeake for a while, but this place has been so great, we love the marina and Terri has been happy as she's making some new friends with other ladies in the Rally, so we just stayed! It has given me a great opportunity to catch up on all the boat projects that have piled up over the last few months that we've been too busy to do them. The project list on a boat never really gets finished, it's kind of an evolving list, but we have certainly managed to put a major dent in it! Things are coming along really nicely, and it will be nice to have most of our stuff done by the time the rest of the boats show up this week and the real panic sets in!

It has been great meeting all the fellow Rally'ers that got here early as we did. A bunch more showed up yesterday, and it's expected to be pretty much a constant flow of new arrivals this weekend. With over 50 sailboats booked for the event, this is going to become a very busy place... it's been nice that we've pretty much had it to ourselves for so long, but I suspect that will come to an end shortly! Of course I'm in my glory here... as most of you know, the Caribbean 1500 Rally has been a dream of mine for almost 10 years so to actually be here as a Rally member and not just a fly on the wall is a dream come true... where else could I possibly find this many other people that are as crazy as I am!

It was great to meet Steve Black, the founder of the Rally, after only having seen him in videos and online for so many years. Trudy, the rally organizer, has been absolutely wonderful, she literally takes all the newcomers by the hand and walks them around to introduce everyone, and has been driving us all over town on several of our 'West Marine' runs that have become a part of daily life here. I couldn't imagine a more hospitable place! Thanks Trudy! The same is true all over around here... we've had so many people say "you need to go somewhere? Here... just take my car!" If a stranger said that to me in Toronto, I think I'd fall over!

We had a great night over at the local yacht club last night, they have a social hour every Friday night and we were invited so we hitched a ride with Trudy (thanks again!) and spent a couple hours meeting all the new Rally'ers that had showed up yesterday. There are some beautiful boats here, I can't wait to get a look at some of them... I'll be like a kid in a candy store I'm sure! One of our crew and friends, Kory, is scheduled to show up sometime tomorrow (Sunday) so that will be cool. His wife Susan is joining us next week to accompany us on the rally as well... Terri couldn't be more excited to have a friend along for the trip! Our other friend and crew, Charles, is also scheduled to come down hopefully next weekend and then we should be good to go!

There are still lots of projects to be done, but that will never change! Not many majors are left, 'Sophisticated Lady' is just about ready for inspections, everything else can be done later or while we’re underway... we will after all have about 10 days at sea to fill! Terri and her new friend Michele from 'Blueprint Match' have been busily working out the provisioning for the trip... their main focus was for the first 3 days... lots of pre-prepared foods in case everyone is feeling sea-sick and nobody wants to cook! lol

Only 9 more days to departure date! We'll keep you posted periodically on our progress, then we'll be sending out daily logs again during the trip so you'll be able to follow our progress and updated positions, so get your charts out!

Look out Virgin Islands, here we come!

PS... all our previous log reports with their accompanying slide shows are now on our website at www.WindInMySails.com/ShipsLog/index.htm

PSS… thanks again everyone for all the great emails, we love hearing from you and while we’ve been trying to return as many as possible… we’ve been busy! If we’ve missed you, we apologize, but we’ll get around to everyone eventually!

Cheers,
Rick

She Said:

It’s been a bit since I have written anything. I have been putting off finally sitting down to do it because it seemed so daunting to try and look back at all that’s happened since I last wrote and to put it down in words. After being stuck in New York for a week we finally got a break in the weather and eagerly prepped to head back on our journey. New York had been exciting, interesting and overwhelming for the first couple of days but then it just got down right ugly with the bad weather. Our anchorage behind the Statue of Liberty had been very rough – the boat was just rolling from side to side at times so much that things were falling off the counters and we were frantically grabbing anything in site to hold it in place. When we did venture into Manhattan or New Jersey in our trusty dingy the NY Harbour was a nightmare of huge churning waves, giant wakes from all the ferries and tankers and nasty wind and rain. We dressed in full fowl weather gear for our entire visit! Luckily we had our friend and fellow sailor anchored out with us to hang with and share the fun!

The security here in NY is something else. There are markers out about a hundred feet all around the Statue and Ellis Island that you are not allowed to cross in a boat. We heard this loud voice yelling one morning and popped our heads out to see what was up. One of the NY coast guard boats was bearing down on this little 16 ft sail boat demanding they drop their sails immediately. These coast guard boats are very serious and scary looking with machine guns mounted on bow and stern. The little day sail boat had two young men on it and they apparently had sailed on the inside of one of the markers accidentally. Facing the end of a loaded machine gun and being yelled at on a loud speaker by very irate uniformed guards probably ruined their day! We were very glad it wasn’t us. Marco later told us they pulled him over in his dinghy because we had all been inadvertently crossing one of the restricted zones over the last three stormy days on our way in and out. They said they had been watching us but the weather had been too bad to venture out and yell at us!!

As we prepared to pull up our anchor the sun came out and it was looking to be a great day. I put on all my rain gear and rubber gloves anyway because I knew the anchor and hundreds of feet of chain would be covered in toxic mud. When we pulled the anchor up before to move closer to Marco’s boat I didn’t wear gloves and the muddy clay burned my skin! Yikes. Anyway this time I was prepared. Of course our windlass decided to only work fitfully and pulling up the anchor took forever. By the end I looked like I had been mud wrestling with wild pigs for hours!! Rick had to hose me off, which I’m sure he thoroughly enjoyed. We had been getting cabin fever over the last couple of days and snipping at each other. Drenching me with the hose probably did wonders for him! We were finally on our way after what seemed years in New York’s turbulent harbor. And what a day – brilliant sunshine and perfect wind. We felt like free birds soaring over the water. We spend a great afternoon basking in the hot sun and stripping off layers in our sunny and very warm cockpit. We raced along side “Elixir of Life” and I thought “hey, this ocean stuff is a breeze”. We had a great day and a lovely dinner watching the sunset as we sailed along.

I went to bed and Rick took the first watch. When I woke up there were a few short and scary minutes, which seemed like an eternity, when I thought Rick had fallen overboard. Turned out the boat was ‘hove-to’ (basically means stopped and parked in the wind) and Rick was having a nap below. In the darkness I didn’t see him because I just assumed he would either be in the cockpit, or in a washroom. When he still didn’t turn up after searching all those, it was only natural to assume he must have fallen overboard! I immediately ran into the cockpit and threw the man-overboard-buoy overboard to mark our position, then pressed the man overboard button on the gps to help guide the boat back. I went back downstairs to try and call a mayday on the radio when I noticed something in the moonlight in the cabin… it was Rick!! It was a false alarm and he was safe and sound much to my relief. Needless to say it shook me up for the rest of the night and poor Rick had to sleep on the bench in the cockpit within my sight. My scare had shaken me up and I felt sick to my stomach and unnerved on my watch. It had been fairly calm seas and good wind so far but alas it was not to last.

Almost as soon as Rick fell asleep the wind changed to on our nose and we began pounding into huge waves and it was very rough and uncomfortable. I kept thinking ‘we are on the ocean and these are big and scary waves and it’s THE OCEAN!! . I soon felt very nauseas and rushed downstairs to throw up. I didn’t want to open the side doors to the cockpit as the salt water was spraying all over. Water was already coming in through the openings that ran on deck and I had towels piled around to trap the salty water. The whole time Rick was sleeping I stared out into the dark night and tried not to be sick. We checked in with Marco and Paul via the radio and they too were pounding into the waves and uncomfortable. Marco said he had definitely had better passages. We were going to stop in at Ocean City to have a tour and take a much needed break from the waves but when Rick looked at the forecast for upcoming winds it didn’t look good. If we stopped even for a few hours we would either get trapped there for days waiting on good weather or be pounding into even worse seas. As much as I wanted a break from the pounding I sure as heck didn’t want to come back out into worse! We decided to just press on and go right to Virginia. I longingly watched Ocean City from afar as it slid past. So close and yet so far…

That afternoon saw a relief from the worst waves, it was much calmer and we both felt tons better. I began to enjoy myself again and to eat something. A bagel never tasted so good! Rick had been keeping us fairly close to the shoreline because it was much rougher further out. He later told me he did this for me and would have toughed it out if he had been with guys. I’m glad he was thinking of me and altering for my needs. Thanks honey! We keep hearing naval war ships giving their location and warnings to stay away as they are testing arsenal and flares. It’s very strange. They are huge, eerie and very impressive ships that move very fast and silently. You feel very puny and fragile next to them.

Rick said he saw a few flying fish! I missed them, that sucks. Its just approaching dawn and we are heading into the Chesapeake Bay. The sunrise is beautiful and I am happy to see all the sights ahead. There are big naval war ships all around and tankers and other sailboats coming from all different directions. It’s a busy entrance! We dodge all the traffic under the full moon and fantastic sunrise. We discover there are lots of other sailboats out there as it gets lighter – all heading south like us!

The Chesapeake entrance was very cool. There is a bridge tunnel which runs all along in front of us for miles then seems to disappear underwater in some sections. We watch the cars suddenly drive down into the water and vanish! The narrow bridge runs from the North shore to the South shore and tunnels underwater so the ships can pass by. It’s very impressive and cool to see. The day is turning out to be warm and sunny and we eagerly head into the bay. We find our way through all the markers and war ships and end up at Blue Water Yacht club. Everyone is so friendly and welcoming and we are happy to find our reserved slip and grab some much needed sleep.

I can’t believe we have been in Hampton for 10 days already. It has flown by! The people of this city are just remarkable. Everyone says hi and how are you and are very friendly. We have even been given the warmest welcome by all the employees here – one super nice guy named Red even loaned us his car to run errands! Almost as soon as we got here a wonderful whirlwind of sunny cheer and kindness named Trudy bounced over to introduce herself as the local volunteer for the rally. She has been the best source of friendship, help and information and she is the kind of person you just instantly fall in love with. We have had great conversations and she has opened her home and heart to us. She never tires of driving us to run errands and arranging ‘ladies days out’ and group get-togethers. Hampton is a beautiful city with enormous stunning Victorian homes, scenic views of the bay and a beach community that feels like stepping back into the innocent and simple time of the 1950’s. The people here are friendly, happy and the sense of a close knit and caring community is overwhelming.

I had been feeling very sad about leaving my family, friends and Madi behind and meeting Trudy, Debbie and Michele( two of the other early birds) allowed me to put my sadness in its place and enjoy myself. I also had encouraging emails from family and friends which helped me a lot. Trudy took me, Debbie and Michele to a quaint and wonderful tea room with delicious authentic southern yummies. All of us girls had a grand day hanging out, eating, shopping and realizing we had the same fears, troubles and issues. Learning this has made us all feel less alone and very understood and supported. Women really need other women to be with and to talk with – Rick has tried to be there and help me but I am finding women can instantly understand how I feel and why I feel that way and offer support just by that understanding. Debbie and Jeff are on our dock and are such a wonderful and adventuresome couple who are lovely to be with. They have done the rally before and are a great source of experience and cruising tips. We have been enjoying our time with the other 2 early boats before the marina fills up. Rick has been in his glory going with the guys almost daily to West Marine to get boat stuff, boat stuff and more boat stuff!

Michele is a fellow cruiser who is traveling with her husband Paul and two young children, Merric and Seanna. As soon as we met we instantly bonded and have one of those friendships that feels like we have been friends forever. We have been doing everything together including Pilates on the bow of Michele’s catamaran! Just today we were both saying how we feel it is going to be hard to be without each other and are dreading having to part ways eventually. I think we will be talking on our radios a lot! I can’t wait to talk to her and Debbie each day and hear each others adventures and to hang out at the other end and celebrate our crossings.

Being with Trudy, Debbie and Michele has made being away from my friends and family bearable and less painful. They are amazing women and it has been so wonderful to talk about what we are undertaking, how it is great and scary and difficult all at the same time. It has been inspiring hearing their adventures and journeys in life and how they have changed and grown from them.

More and more of the other 50 boats are arriving each day and our quiet marina is about to explode with activities and new faces. We met a bunch of the new boats last night at a get together at the local yacht club. Everyone is interesting, fun loving and great to hang out with. We all went to a local little Italian place Trudy recommended and had good food and lots of laughs together. This is going to be so much fun for the next week, things are just getting started!

PS.. I just got the best new ever the day before last. My friend Susan is coming with us on the crossing! I couldn’t be more excited! Her and her husband Kory have done passages with us on the Great Lakes and were our neighbors at Hawkestone Yacht Club- we always have so much fun and great adventures together. I am over the moon to have another girl finally, finally come on one of our passages! The fact that it’s Susan makes it even better. Now we can be scared and excited together and conquer our fears one wave at a time. We are going to have such adventures on the turquoise waters ahead. I can’t wait till we see our first dolphin swimming alongside the boat. Thanks for coming Susan – we are going to have an amazing journey!

Cheers,
Terri

He Said:

It’s just about time to say good-bye to Virginia and begin our 1500 mile voyage across the Atlantic Ocean! The amount of work we’ve done over the last 2 weeks is definitely bordering on overwhelming. To put into perspective the task we’ve been faced with, imagine if you could pick your house up, turn it upside down, and shake it around for a while… now imagine what it would be like to try and walk around between all the ‘stuff’ that’s been scattered everywhere… then try and imagine doing that while it’s still rockin’ and rollin around under you!

This is a very far-fetched possibility, but the reality of having your boat knocked over by a big wave in the middle of the ocean always exists. With today’s modern communications equipment, satellite radios, satellite telephones, high frequency weather broadcasts, etc, it has made it a very remote possibility given our ability to determine where the bad weather is while under way, and do our best to maneuver around or away from it instead of getting caught in it. Nevertheless, preparedness for the worst that can happen is what we’re dealing with. It pays to spend as much time as you can afford surveying your boat and taking note of anything that could possibly come loose or break or become a projectile if the boat does get hit by an unexpected wave.

Our biggest problem was our floorboards. We have several huge floorboards under which we have all of our main storage compartments. This is where we store all our spare parts, tools, food, water bottles, canned goods, etc… literally hundreds of objects that if the boat gets knocked on its side, even for 5 seconds, would all end up dancing around on our ceiling and landing wherever. I solved this problem with Kory’s help, it took a while, but we figured out a way to lock the floorboards in place but still allow them to be easily opened by us when we need something from a locker below. That was probably our biggest project so far, but we’ve been working on a hundred other ‘little’ things at the same time.

We had our safety inspection earlier this week, and while the boat came through with flying colors, we still had numerous little details show up that needed attention so we’ve been very busy remedying all the problem areas. It looks like we’re just about done all the major things that needed to be dealt with before we leave, and the smaller things can be dealt with while underway since it looks like we’ll be heading offshore on Monday in fairly calm conditions. Once we have everything completed to satisfy the safety inspections, it looks like we may even qualify to receive a US Coast Guard Safety Certification which would be a HUGE added bonus!

Joining the Caribbean 1500 Rally is definitely the best thing we could have done. The people are phenomenal, the seminars are very informative, and the amount of excitement in the air as the departure date looms closer grows steadily each day. The Rally is not organized to teach us to cruise offshore, everyone here knows there stuff very well but the fact is, you can never know everything and by getting us all together and having these major discussions gives everyone an opportunity to share their ideas and little ‘secrets’ that help spell success on their boats. The fact that there are now 51 boats prepared to head out together on Monday and travel together as a pack is a VERY big bonus!

I can tell that Terri has become much more relaxed about our trip, just yesterday she was saying how exciting it’s getting that departure date is almost here and she can’t wait to get off the dock again! That’s a big change from when we got here, but she’s been busily having fun hanging out with the ladies from the other boats, finding out their secrets and working together working out everyone’s provisioning and food stores. They have a Ladies Round Table meeting everyday that Terri said were excellent and she really enjoys getting together with everyone and discussing anything that any of them want to talk about. I’m happy she’s found so much compassion amongst the Rally’ers, it has made a significant difference in alleviating her fears about traveling offshore. Kory seems to be having a great time, he’s met lots of new people, and has been enjoying attending the seminars learning new things about being prepared for offshore. I can tell there’s a serious cruiser in Kory and he has been a tremendous help to me in getting the boat ready… his dedication is truly appreciated, thanks Kory!

It really says a lot for the Rally when out of the 51 boats in the pack, half of them have participated in the Rally at least once before, some of them even 3-5 times! That’s amazing considering these people all have the ability to do it alone, but choose to join the Rally and travel in the company of others.

Well that’s it for now… time to get back to projects! We may never be done, but we will be ready!

We’re at the dock now, and half the boats have already left… the engine is running, the water tanks are full, we have as much diesel as we can possibly carry… we’re good to go! The excitement on the dock today has been very intense… everyone hustling around doing last minute things getting ready to head to sea. There’s nothing else to do except say good-bye and cast off, so… Good-Bye!!

Well it has been an insane time of running around. I had no idea how much time and energy it was going to take to get us and the boat ready to be off shore for up to two weeks. It has been nonstop seminars, discussions, trips to stores and thinking, thinking and more thinking about what we need to stock up on or get before we leave the dock! We literally have not stopped for 3 weeks. We had visions of touring around Hampton seeing the sites and maybe going out for little day cruises! Ha ha – that is so funny now to think of. We have not moved off the dock and all we have really seen of Hampton has been West Marine, Walmart and Food Lion !!! It really has been a whirlwind. Each day began with a plan of what had to be done before we leave, who was doing it and how. Car pooling and finding a ride to your destination was often fun and challenging. Susan and I think we have all the food we could possibly need – hopefully enough!

Meeting all the other boats and crews has been fantastic, really amazing people all hyped and excited about going on this incredible journey across the ocean to The Caribbean!! Every night we had sip and socials under the big top tent. We all hang out after our busy days of shopping, cleaning , stocking, stowing, fixing , rebuilding, installing ……… its so nice at the end of the day to just chat and hang with other people doing exactly what we are and who understand exactly what you are going through and feeling. It really has been life altering. It is indescribable to be in the same place preparing for this adventure with hundreds of other cruisers at the same time. The energy around this place could power a rocket to the moon!!

Even though we have been here for so long in a way it has flown by. We have been too busy to notice the time. Kory and Susan came and were quickly sucked into the whirlwind of preparation! Every so often you stop and look around at all the sailboats and all the sailors and you just break into a huge smile and feel part of a special group of people. We all cant wait for the time on the other side when we can just drop our hooks and grab a rum punch and just lean back, sigh and watch the sun set. And just simply relaxxxxxxx!

Athough it has been so crazy we are still having a blast. Everyone is friendly and happy to meet each other and talk about their boat , their adventures. The stories and experience in this one place could fill a library. It is very inspiring and more then a little exciting to be around day after day.

Yesterday, Susan and I spent the day shopping once again, will it ever end????? We got all our fresh produce and last minute things which we managed to stow in our already packed boat! Then we cooked like crazy – we wanted to make enough food for the first 3 days because it usually takes that long for your body to get used to the motion of the boat and you don’t want to be cooking or down in the galley too long. We made lots of simple easy meals that you can just grab and heat up quickly. Everything is very plain and bland so as not to upset sensitive tummies!

Every night at around 7pm you start to feel so tired you could just lay your head down and fall asleep where you stand. I talked to lots of people and everyone felt this way. By 8pm you are ready for bed!! I guess its because we are so “on” all day thinking constantly and moving nonstop that you burn out by sundown. We cant wait to just be off the dock to stop spending money and to just stop and do nothing for a change – it will be so good.

We are leaving today!! Finally after everything we have done we are ready to go. Not everything we wanted to do is done, but it never is and you just have to go! All the boats are doing last minute checks and prepping and saying their farewells and safe journeys to all. I am so excited and nervous too. I cant seem to sit still. And my stomach is in twirly dancing mode – we are leaving!!!!!!!

I can't believe we will be out on the ocean in a less then an hour and on our own. Unbelievable!! We are off. Wish us well.

We are in the racing class so we will be trying to sail as much as possible and as fast as possible!! You get docked for every engine hour you use and the winds are light right now so it should be interesting. We are on our way to cross the Gulf stream and begin the adventure.

To all our fellow sailors – safe passage and good winds. We look forward to sharing drinks and stories at the other end.

Cumulative miles since Virginia: 242nm (278 statute miles) in first 34 hours

We’re already in our second day at sea… it’s amazing how hours turn into days so quickly out here… it feels like we just left! The days have been unusually easy out here on the open water… even the coordinator of the Rally said before we left, “I think someone is pulling our leg because in 16 years we’ve never had such a great forecast to leave under”… well, he was right, the weather has been absolutely beautiful! It has been clear and sunny each day, and perfectly clear at night with the moon hanging overhead. Last night we still had the glow of civilization on the horizon over the North Carolina coastline while Cape Hatteras was abeam… tonight there is nothing, just the moon, the stars, and us. There’s only one problem with this whole picture… there’s no wind!!

We’ve had to motorsail most of the time because we have literally sailed into a vacuum! The last time I checked the Atlantic forecast it showed about 3 isobars between us and the Caribbean, that means there probably won’t be any wind of substance any time soon either. There was talk of a warm front moving over our area tomorrow sometime (Wednesday) and we saw the telltale cirrus clouds hovering over the horizon, so we’re heading straight for them at top speed in the hopes there will be some wind under them! Lol

Hopefully we find some wind out here soon, it won’t be much fun bobbing around the Atlantic Ocean with no diesel fuel! Lol We brought along a good size reserve just in case, but it certainly doesn’t mean we can (or want to) motor all the way there. We’re pretty much heading Southeast right now, trying to put ourselves in a position to pick up some of the Easterly tradewinds that typically hover around the mid-Atlantic… if we can get into those we’ll have a great ride there!

It was amazing how fast the boats all spread apart… we had a beautiful start to the rally with everyone sailing in a pack as we left Chesapeake Bay together, all 51 boats, then different groups of boats started to split up and head out to sea in different directions trying to take advantage of their own interpretations of the weather forecast, and then they all just disappeared in all directions over the horizon. We had several boats still close to us last night, one we passed by in the dark only about a quarter mile away! By morning there were none to be seen anywhere and we haven’t seen another sailboat since! We have come across some big tankers, one even looked like it had missile launchers on it! These tankers are nothing like the Great Lakes freighters we became accustomed to, these guys are HUGE!

About 10am this morning we entered the Gulf Stream as we came out on the open water past Cape Hatteras… this is the stream of warm water that comes up the East coast from the Gulf of Mexico and then takes a turn to the right after Hatteras and heads over towards England to help keep them from freezing. When we started to get near the edge of the current the ocean swell picked up coming off the stream… there were big rolling waves about 8-10 feet for about an hour or so until we got further into it. They were awesome! I grabbed the video camera and went up on deck for a while just to enjoy the nice gentle motion of them… nothing like the 10 footers we had become accustomed to smashing through on the Great Lakes, that’s for sure! The water almost immediately turned clear, and a sparkling blue, and within a couple hours the air got so warm all the windows were opened and layers of clothing started coming off. We’ve all been in shorts and T-shirts ever since! Not far into the stream we saw a pod of dolphins… they gracefully swam past the boat and off our stern… now how cool is that! We tried to get the video camera out in time to get a picture, but they were like the fish that got away. Lol

It was so nice out here today, we actually fired up the barbecue for dinner… Kory made up a big feast of BBQ’d chicken while Terri & Susan cooked up potatoes and a stir-fry down in the galley… did it ever smell good down there! We sat in the cockpit and had dinner by candles with the sun going down on the starboard side, and the moon coming up on the bow… you can only imagine the colors!

The long range radio has definitely become our best friend out here… with it we stay in touch with all the other boats twice a day at designated times. Everyone checks-in in a roll call format and we all write down each others position and winds. Before we left the dock, Terri handed out a bunch sheets with radio frequencies to her friends so they could have their own ‘chats’ on the radio every evening… she’s in her glory with that, but I’m sure you’ll hear more about that from her!

Life aboard has been pretty easy so far, no signs of seasickness with the crew, the meals have been great, the weather has been fantastic… but we’re just motoring!! It’s almost midnight and I just popped my head up to check for any boats on the horizon and saw the moon had just dropped behind a bit of a haze, hopefully that means we’re coming into some weather so come on everyone, help us pray for some wind! (not too much… 15-20knots on the beam will be fine) (thanks in advance!!) ;o)

PS… anyone that wants to keep updated on the positions of all the boats in the fleet, I think they’re posting updates daily on the Caribbean 1500 website, you can look for them at www.carib1500.com , you might even see us!

PSS… I just went up to take another look around… the moon is now hanging at the horizon with an orange glow perfectly reflected off the water which is like glass right now… Stunning!!

So far “the ocean!!” has been amazing. A little more wind would be nice but I really can’t complain. The morning we left was so exciting, I think we could have all walked on water we were so pumped up to be actually leaving the docks and starting the rally. It was such a spectacular site to see 50 sailboats all out in the harbour under full sail. I have never seen anything like it. Scattered in amongst all the sailboats were Navy war ships silently gliding by and dwarfing us all. Every time a warship came by there would be two or three coast guard boats zipping around it like tiny yapping dogs and 2 or 3 helicopters buzzing around in the air above like mosquitoes. I think the helicopters were nervous about the 50 sailboats all around their ships! They kept flying low over our fleet making sure we weren’t a threat to national safety.

A huge air craft carrier passed that was the size of multiple football fields and about 8 stories high. At one point I looked off our stern and saw a strange site. It took me a minute to figure out what it was and then I realized there was a submarine just at the surface passing us!!! It was so cool. Only the front fin, a small back one and the telescope part were sticking out as it cruised past us going out to sea pretty fast. It really felt surreal to see all these ships and to be weaving in and out of them. We gracefully sailed in and out amongst all the boats we had come to know and joyfully waved at all our fellow sailors and friends one last time as we hit the starting line. Soon we would all fan out and lose site of each other. Sad but inevitable. I somehow thought you could sail fairly close to another boat but as soon as two or more boats hit the open water they all show their different characters. Each sails, motors and reacts so differently to the captains skill, the winds, the current, the waves that no two boats sail in the same way. I tried to look around at all the gorgeous sail boats on all sides of us and memorize how peaceful and beautiful they all looked. I want to be able to call up that image when we are so very alone on the big water. It will make me feel less alone to remember and know our friends are all out there too.

It has been really great to have the radio check-ins. To hear everyone’s voices and to plot where they are in relation to us has been very reassuring and also really exciting. Just to have that touch stone everyone morning and night is important. To hear the familiar voices and boat names and to know everyone is safe and having fun is wonderful. I think Rick and I both look forward to those check-ins every day.

It has been so great having Susan and Kory on board. They are such good friends to us and we all get along so well. Very essential when you are to be on a boat in the vast Atlantic for days on end!! Everyone is settling in to our watch routines and just really relaxing and taking in the vastness of the ocean and what we are setting out to accomplish. It really hits you when you look out and all you see is blue, blue water on all sides. The ocean is not like the lakes in lots of unexplainable ways. It just feels very different. The waves are bigger but smooth and round swells that we just glide up one side and over. There is none of the smashing nose first into wave after wave that happens on the lakes. We passed through the Gulf Stream yesterday and the water was such an amazing blue color almost like an electric glowy blue. Like nothing I have ever seen. It also got really hot!! We were expecting it to get warmer but not that hot. We were soon in tee shirts and shorts with all the windows and doors open in the cockpit. It has been hot, beautiful and sunny this whole trip. How amazing! We were looking out yesterday and Rick yelled “look over there” and there were 4 or 5 dolphins swimming right on the surface!! They must have been feeding or something because we could see their entire sleek and shiny bodies and fins as they skimmed the surface. It was so exciting and something I have looked forward to for some time. I saw wild and free dolphins swimming right along side my boat in the ocean!! It doesn’t get much better then that.

Last night Rick and I stayed up on watch together staring out at the millions of stars over head. I have never seen so many stars, not even camping way up North. They were endless. We also saw something that is almost impossible to describe. It is called bio luminescence or something close to that. As we move through the water we disturb tiny plankton and they get agitated and light up and glow. So as the boat moves through the water the water and wake all along the hull glows and sparkles like white neon waves. It is unbelievable to look at all the dark water and see this glowing wave against the boat. It really is magical and mesmerizing to see. We didn’t want to leave the deck and go inside. The water was so calm last night that the stars were reflecting in the ocean all around us like fire flies in the water. The sky was so bright we could see smudges of clouds scattered across the sky that looked like alien ships hovering low over us. We sat up on deck gazing out at all that and we just held hands and were amazed. Next thing we know there are shooting stars falling all around us! We must have been under a meteor shower because we saw about ten or more shooting stars. We laughed and looked at each other and wondered how we got so lucky and could it possibly be any more beautiful out there. I wish you all could have been up on that deck with us. We couldn’t even capture it on film – it was just a magical mystical night we will never forget.

Life on the ocean so far has been good. I am still nervous here and there if I think about it too much but I try not to and I think of all the amazing things we are seeing instead. It is an odd feeling to be this tiny bubble of self contained life out on this vast ocean. We have this strange floating existence of doing the everyday things like preparing food, eating, reading, washing, dishes, sleeping etc but all in this self contained bubble far far from anything. It feels normal and surreal all at the same time.

The day has just started here and it is already 79 out so I think it will be another hot one! It is sunny and clear out and we are hoping for some wind today. I never thought I would be wishing for wind on the ocean. I don’t want too much mind you, just enough to sail and turn off our engine. Our only real stress now is running out of fuel. We have reserves but we really need to be able to start sailing this sail boat!! There is supposed to be some wind out there this afternoon and all of the captains and crews on the other 50 boats are wishing the same thing so hopefully it will come. I am hoping to see whales and more dolphins today and Rick is fishing as I write so we may have an exciting fishing tale to tell!

Ask and you shall receive… Be careful what you wish for, you just may get it…

All these catch-fraises have particular significance tonight… we asked you guys to help us wish for wind… and we got it! Good Job Guys!

A cold front was predicted to go through the mid-Atlantic yesterday and boy did it go through! On the good side of that, we’ve been sailing without the motor for over 24 hours now, and man are we movin!! We had 15-20 knots of wind on the beam all day (exactly what we asked for) then by late afternoon it picked up to 20-25 and then over 30 by midnight.

Don’t have to worry about us being bored anymore… now we have lots to do! We went from lounging around on deck in the sun to working the boat constantly trying to make up lost miles. We were pushing ‘Sophisticated Lady’ a bit hard and ended up blowing the tack on our mainsail again. Funny thing though, the hand-stitching job Terri and I did to fix it in New York held up, it was the nylon webbing we used that split. Guess it must have been old or broken down by the sun, but I managed to get up on deck and rig up something to hold the tack in place and we kept on plowing along under full sail.

Later this afternoon one of the big fittings on the boom that controls our mainsail came loose and the knots on one of our reefing lines had somehow come undone so I accidentally pulled it out of the sail when I was tidying up the lines on deck and making sure they were all tight and where they were supposed to be. Now we have a project on our hands! It was blowing about 25 knots so we turned off the wind a bit and dropped the boom on deck so we could get at the loose fitting and re-thread the reefing line. Kory and I put on our tether cords (keeps us attached to the boat in case we get bounced off) and set to work. We drilled out the old holes where the rivets were and put in some proper bolts that will be much stronger and I’m happy to say we should never see that problem happen again! We put the reefing line back in then re-hoisted the mainsail and we were back under way in no time!

We still had full sail up at dusk and we were howling along at 9-10 knots constant. The waves started to pick up so at dusk we put a reef in the mainsail and slowed ‘Sophisticated Lady’ down a bit so we could have a ‘civilized’ dinner with the girls. We slowed her down alright… to about 8.5-9 knots… this lady likes to move! She stood up nicely though when we turned away from the wind by about 20 degrees so it was time to have dinner. Our ‘civilized’ dinner was served up to us in some new dishware Terri had picked up back in Hampton… plastic dog bowls with rubber feet on them so they won’t slide on the table while we’re eating! It was too funny… I still can’t believe Terri thinks of this stuff, but then again, I guess she knows how I like to sail!! After dinner we started seeing scattered lightning on the horizon as the cold front was passing through, it was quite spectacular actually, and we all sat on the edge of the cockpit looking out in wonder… then I started looking around to pick out which electronics I wanted to save! lol

Lot’s of the boats in the fleet have been reporting dolphin and whale sightings, some even catching fish! I’ve been trying my hand at fishing but once our boatspeed picked up it was hard to keep the lure in the water so I pulled the line back in and got back to sailing. As I’m writing this at about 2am we are currently about 600 miles East of the Florida coastline, and on the other side we’re about 300 miles from Bermuda. The Bahamas island chain is coming up on our starboard side and we’ll be riding about 500 miles off them all the way down to the Caribbean islands. By 1pm yesterday (Thursday) we had completed 510 nautical miles (585 miles) which averages out to 170nm per day. Not bad considering we’ve only been averaging 6-7 knots under motor to conserve fuel… can’t wait to see how we do averaging over 8 knots under sail! We should actually be passed the halfway point to the British Virgin Islands later today (Friday) if this wind holds up. The winds may be a little heavy, but at least they’re steady… they were driving us crazy earlier, shifting all over the place… you’d get tired of trying to track them under sail only to do 2 knots or less so we’d start the motor again and continue on.

Things are good, we finally have some wind in our sails, everyone is in good spirits, no reports of seasickness at all, and we’re all eating well and holding up strong. Thanks for all the great emails, it really makes a difference hearing from everyone while we’re out here! Take care till next time, and oh, by the way… Thanks for the wind!!

Well we got wind – in spades!!! Thanks everyone for wishing for wind for us – it worked and we have tons. Right now we are flying along at about 9-12k with ginormous waves coming up our transom!! They are something to see but alas cannot be captured on film. They never look as huge and impressive as they truly are. We have had a great couple of days. After our lazy sun drenched days this is a welcome change. It is still hot but there is a strong and steady wind to cool us down.

It was such a relief to finally be able to turn off the ceaseless motoring noise and to just sail. And sail we have. We have been going for broke and grabbing as many miles as we can pushing ‘the lady’ just a bit but I think she was up for the challenge. We are all loving the wind and speed.

Night before last I was up on watch alone and the moon was so bright its beams carved a path in the ocean. I sat with the doors wide open feeling the ocean breeze on my face. I had put my walkman on with some inspiring tunes and I simply stared out into the moonlit waterscape and thought of all the creatures below us and all the life around us we can’t see. I thought of a dear and much loved friend of mine who lost his life to this ocean and I felt a real connection to him out here. Like part of him remained out here dancing in the waves and playing with the dolphins. I wondered at my fate and how I ended up sitting on the edge of a sailboat staring at the never ending blue water. I felt very lucky and privileged to be one of the few people on earth to ever do this. It really is soul inspiring to be out here tossing around on a tiny boat in this vast ocean. It makes you realize you never know what life has in store for you and it is often inconceivable but when you are at certain moments and you stop and be – it just feels so absolutely right.

We had a “dog bowl” night last night! For you who are wondering what the heck that means its a sailing trick a friend told me about to use dog bowls with rubber bottoms to eat out of when it is too rough for plates. I know it sounds gross but they are new clean bowls and they work fantastic. No sliding plates and your food stays neatly in the bowl till you can eat it! Yesterday the guys did some repairs out in the waves and wind which were difficult in the conditions. They did a excellent job and came in beaming with pride. I don’t know how they did it without dropping a tool over the heaving side or losing their tenuous balance. The boat is under constant rolling motion now which makes doing anything an event. Even just sitting on the cockpit bench without sliding off takes effort and skill!! It keeps us from getting bored anyway.

We saw some lighting in the sky last night that was spectacular. As we looked behind us towards the horizon we saw what looked liked a sunset explosion. It was lighting but each time it lit up the sky like a mini red and orange sunset – just for about 1-2 seconds. Very cool. Then we started to see the lighting near us and we had to think of what to protect if we got hit! Never a dull moment in sailing!

The waves are huge today but we just seem to roll right along with them. Its still tricky to move around and do stuff but kind of an adventure in itself. Every so often a really huge wave hits and something goes flying or makes a big crash and we jump up to figure out what it was. Its exciting. We lost Ashley’s pee pad over board last night and she is quite lost today without it. I hope I can get her to go without it! And she was doing so well!

Rick is fishing every day but still no fish yet. We don’t have the special pink squid lure that everyone seems to be catching them with and are trying to think what we can use to improvise. Rick wants to chop up one of my pretty pink tops and I said no way! Only if we are starving!! LOL

Everyone is doing excellent with no real seasickness, which is very good. We are almost half way or should be today which is awesome news. And I think we are doing well in our standing in the race too which makes Rick very happy! We have been talking to the other boats in the rally daily and I am able to chat on the radio with my friends but its kind of funny. We really don’t have too much to talk about – more waves, more wind. It like ground hog day out here, every day is the same! But we are happy to be here and living the dream.

Yes, we finally caught a fish today (Saturday)! We had a pretty mellow day, mostly spent just sitting around in the cockpit reading, chatting and taking naps between watches. We were just in the process of deciding what to have for dinner, as we always get together in the cockpit for dinner before we shift to night watches. We had just started talking about it when the bungee cord we had fastened to the fishing line went tight and started to pull on the winch that we had it wrapped around. We looked at it in disbelief as we hadn’t heard anything out of it in days, so I grabbed the line with my hand to see if it was just a wave or something… sure enough, it was pulling back! We couldn’t believe it as we had all but given up on fishing, our fancy store bought lures weren’t attracting any interest and the one we had been using most of the time had come apart earlier in the day. It was one of those 6 or 7 inch long rubber fish with a couple big hooks in it… we had been going so fast that the rubber fish came off in the waves and left nothing but a big lead weight and the hooks behind, lol. We decided to improvise and try and make something that looked like the squids that everyone else was catching fish with so Terri went below and found some multi-colored gift-wrap ribbon. I picked out the brightest colored ribbons and fastened them around the lonely hooks and threw the whole mess back in the water… sure enough when it trailed behind the boat all the ribbons fluttered and it kind of looked like a long, weird, pink and gold squid!

We never dreamed we’d actually catch anything with our home-made lure, but low-and-behold we landed a 10lb, 24 inch long Dorado (also known as Mahi-Mahi)! We brought it aboard by hand and within in hour we had it filleted, barbequed, and sitting on our dinner plates where we all sat ready to try our ‘fresh catch of the day’. We barbequed the filets with lemon slices on top and some nice seasoning the girls added, served with seasoned rice and steamed broccoli. We sat in the cockpit laughing to ourselves at how amazing it was that we were sailing on the Atlantic Ocean doing 9 knots in 30 knot winds and 15-20 foot seas and we had just finished barbecuing a fish we had just caught that we were now going to eat sitting under a brilliant starry and moonlit night. You’d think we were making it up, but this is the life that we’re living at sea!

We finished our dinner and were then faced with deciding what to do next… I know… let’s have a movie night! So that’s what we did, we picked out a movie, fired up the big screen, and settled in for some entertainment. What movie do you pick to watch on a night like this?... well… Captain Ron of course!! Every sailor I’ve ever met loved Captain Ron and we hadn’t seen it in quite a while so it was the perfect choice. Captain Ron has always been a favorite of mine, it was even part of my inspiration for wanting to live on a sailboat… how fitting was it to be out on the Ocean in the middle of a major passage and watching it in our salon as if we were sitting at the dock!

Terri had brought out one of our timers and programmed it to go off every 10 minutes and then one of us would go up in the cockpit to look around for any ships around us. I was up checking on my turn when I noticed there was a strange fluttering noise. I checked the wind gauge and yes, the wind had come forward a little, but nothing that should be causing the sails to luff… hmmm… I tried tightening in the jib sheet but it didn’t make any difference, in fact it sounded a little worse. I broke out a flashlight to check the sails a little closer but still couldn’t see anything out of the ordinary. I called everyone upstairs… something is wrong and we’re going to have to go on deck so suit up! With our harnesses and tethers on, Kory and I headed forward with the flashlight… sure enough, looking up the jib you could see that the head of the sail was detached and riding low in the track… we had lost our halyard! This was not good, especially in the dark when it’s blowing 40 knots pretty regular now. We were just deciding to move back to the cockpit and try furling it in so we could deal with it tomorrow when with one big ‘swoooosh’ the sail came down the track and straight into the ocean… while we were still sailing at 9 knots… can you say, ‘Houston, we have a problem’!

The girls got their gear on and Terri came up to help hold the sail while Susan kept an eye on all of us from the cockpit. We started trying to pull the sail in but now it was full of water and with the boat pitching and rolling we had our hands full! I went back to the wheel and turned us upwind, just enough to almost stall the mainsail, but keep us pointed into the wind and waves. Now we could use the momentum of the bow pitching up and down to lift a little more of the sail out of the water each time the bow rose. Kory was up on the bow trying to drag the body of the sail out of the water getting soaked every time the bow plunged into a wave… he was having to sit on the big forward hatches on deck which don’t offer much resistance and with everything covered in salt water he was literally sliding around like a fish on deck. I could hear him thinking, “Hey, what happened to that Caribbean cruise I signed up for?” lol We had a tough job of it, but everyone worked together like a well oiled machine and before you know it we had the sail back on deck and lashed down so it couldn’t go anywhere.

So now we’re cruising under mainsail alone, but at least the wind is on the beam so it’s still pretty effective. We don’t want to push the mainsail too much since we just made a repair on it yesterday, but we’re going to run with it up fully unless the wind picks up too much in which case we’ll put in a reef. We’ve slowed down without the power of our jib so it’s hard to say how we’ll make out in the Rally, but everything is fine and we’re still moving along in the right direction at about 6.5knots. Might delay our arrival slightly, but we still hope to get in late Tuesday sometime, and I’m sure there will still be rums waiting for us in Tortola…at least there better be! The good news is that we’ve still got some fresh Mahi-Mahi in our freezer! ;o)

PS… I want to take an opportunity to say thank you to all of you that have sent us emails… we have received so many encouraging and supportive emails it’s been just fantastic! I’ll also say thank you because everyone has been very good about deleting our original message in your replies… you can type as much as you want in your letters to us, just delete the original message. Our letters tend to be long-winded and you can imagine how long it takes to download when they come back attached to 30 replies. I hope you all realize that we wouldn’t be here were it not for you… every person that we’ve come in contact with in recent years has in some way had an effect on us that led us to this point in time… and now, here we are! The very least we can do is to share it with you! Take care everyone and we’ll look forward to hearing from you all soon!

Cheers,
Rick (& Terri… sleeeeping) & Kory, Susan, Lucky and Ashley
Team ‘Sophisticated Lady’ ;o)

Just a quick note to let you know that we arrived in the British Virgin Islands last night about 10pm AST and today we are all checked in with customs and immigration… even Ashley and Lucky!! We crossed the finish line at 8:20pm last night and entered the Sir Francis Drake Channel just after 9pm. It took us a little while to get the mainsail down as we blew out our stackpack along the way too… but that’s another story.

Sorry it’s been a few days since last contact but we entered a storm front that really put us to the test… needless to say, our tolerance levels of what’s livable at sea have been raised by a few bars, lol. We had to go through a large cold front that brought us huge wind and waves… flooding the cockpit numerous times and even ripping the windows out of our cockpit enclosure… Kory even got swept right out of his seat slamming his ribs against the table… but again, that’s another story! For now just know that we arrived safely, we’re all intact, ‘Sophisticated Lady’ guided us through everything we encountered and we are so excited to have successfully completed our journey to the Caribbean!! It was like a dream this morning waking up and looking outside and seeing the lush green hills and palm trees everywhere gently swaying in the trade winds… we can’t wait to get out and see all the beautiful anchorages that surround us here in the Virgin Islands!

We apologize to anyone who sent us an email that has been waiting for a reply… that big storm also wiped out our laptop so we haven’t had any email capability for a few days now. If you haven’t heard back from an email you sent us, please resend the email and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can. We’ll catch up on our logs shortly and fill you in our ‘most excellent adventure’…lol It was quite a ride, that’s for sure! Take care everyone and we’ll talk to you soon!