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Passage to the BVIs – Ocean Sailing

by Matthew

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The Caribbean 1500 left harbour a day early, why?  This was due to the passing of a cold front.  This gives favourable conditions to cross the gulf stream.  If we did not leave on Saturday, we would have to wait for the next front to pass 4-6 days later.  

From Portsmouth, the gulf stream is close to the coast and we headed south to cross the stream east of Cape Hatteras.  This path gave us about 48 hours to reach and cross the stream.  With the cold front we had north winds to speed our passage south, or at least we should have had, we ended up motoring shortly after the start as the wind dropped to 2-5 knots.  Eventually the winds filled in and we were able to sail across the stream.  The next 3 days we had downwind sailing in quite big seas and winds in the 20-30 knots range.  There were a couple of gales in the area of Bermuda that sent large swells south during most of the passage.

The first 2-3 days on the passage were all about finding a rhythm, sleep and watch hours become the major focus.  With the boat moving about on the large seas and plenty of wind, it took time for us all to settle in.  With Kathleen the only one of us happy to work below deck, at least for the first few days, she took on the lions share of the galley and SSB work, providing us with great food to keep hunger and sea sickness at bay and giving us information about the fleet from the SSB nets.  Although she was out of the watch rotation  she also took an early morning relieve watch that enabled Paul, Lisa and I to get an extra few hours of sleep every 3 days.  This worked really well with the 3 on, 6 off watch pattern.

From day 3 on we had mixed conditions, never over 25 knots, but often low enough to have us motor.  On a passage the hours pass slowly, but the days pass quickly, by day 4 we had a good rhythm and the boat ran smoothly with no issues.  We had a couple of calm days where personal hygiene was the focus and we all felt better for a shower and some clean clothes.  The visit from the Whale and the flying fish mystery kept us entertained and the days really did pass quickly. 

We arrived at the finish with another boat, Yarona and ended up motoring with them just ahead to the finish line.

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 Here we are celebrating the finish with the traditional ginger ale.  

For the record we came DFL on handicap, but I am fine with that, we had a much smoother ride and an easier passage than the boats that stayed east of the rhumb line.

We arrived close to sunset and we had a great run down Tortola to Nanny Cay with the full moon raising behind us.

We arrived at about 7:30pm, greeted by the Caribbean 1500 staff with rum punch all round.

c1500-dock I don’t remember feeling as tired as we all look, but the camera does not lie!

The next few days we spent relaxing at Nanny Cay, catching up with crews on the other boats, a bit of swimming, a bit of happy hour and a few boat jobs.  The marina is very well sheltered, but that meant it was tough to work on the boat due to the temperatures, so more happy hours, less jobs was the order of the day.

After a few days, we bid our crew, Paul and Lisa farewell as they headed out to look for a catamaran to buy, they are spending a week or two in the Caribbean as they get serious about buying a boat.  We could not have done this trip without them, thanks Paul and Lisa!

img_20161117_100243 Kathleen’s efforts were rewarded at the prize giving, Andy and the team felt that she was the “Best  Galley Slave of the Rally” She got a great gift certificate from one of the local supermarkets that came on board as a sponsor.

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After the prize giving we had a dinner with all the crews. The Canadian boats were all at the same table, here are the crews of Kinship, RC Wings from Ontario and Caffe Latte and Ambition from Quebec. 

c1500-tableWe are looking forward to meeting up with the all of the Caribbean 1500 boats over the winter, but especially the Canadian boats.

The “Fictitious Flying Fish” incident

by Kathleen

You’ve heard of the Newfoundland tradition of “Kissing the Cod”? Well, passage shenanigans aboard Kinship had Lisa “Kissing the Fictitious Flying Fish” instead!

As experienced Caribbean sailors, Paul and Lisa informed us that we were bound to see lots of flying fish on our passage. Paul reportedly saw the first flying fish, entering the sighting in our log book on Day 4. Then he and Lisa continued to spot lots more of them, where Matthew and I could not spot a single one. We would sit staring at the sea for hours on our watches without ever seeing a single fish. We started accusing the Landry’s of hallucinating (ask Lisa about the jellyfish in the toilet bowl sometime :-), and referring to the beasts as the “Fictitious Flying Fish”.

We had to eat our words (but not the fish) when Lisa picked one up off our deck the next morning! Her reputation was saved, and she was grateful – but despite the kiss, poor Mr. Fictitious Flying Fish did not come back to life, turn into a handsome prince, or grant her three wishes. 

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Whale sighting!

by Kathleen

On day 7 of our passage to the BVI’s we had a very special visitor, a minke whale! It was a bright sunny day, with winds from behind, both sails up, reasonable waves, and it just happened we were all sitting in the cockpit together (which doesn’t happen that all that often on passages), when I spotted something dark in the water…then it came up and spouted! It could only be a whale!

We all jumped out of our seats in excitement, quickly buckled on our safety harnesses, and watched as a very friendly minke whale proceeded to check us out. He clearly was curious about what he was seeing, as he came alongside and rolled onto his side to take a good look at us. Then he rolled right over and showed us his bright white belly. Was so close I could have tickled his tummy with a boat hook! He was about half our boat’s length, so about 20 feet long, plus or minus a few feet. He played around, diving under the boat and coming up on the other side repeatedly, passing right under Matthew and Paul’s feet as they stood on the bowsprit. He hung around for a good 15 minutes and gave us the show of a lifetime – it was so amazing, the photos don’t do it justice, but here they are anyway. It was definitely the highlight of the passage!

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Here is a bit of info on the minke whale (from Wikipedia) 

Minke whale (Balaenoptera acutorostrata).
The minke whales are the second smallest baleen whale; only the pygmy right whale is smaller. Upon reaching sexual maturity (6–8 years of age), males measure an average of 6.9 m (23 ft) and females 8 m (26 ft) in length, respectively. Both sexes typically weigh 4–5 t (3.9–4.9 long tons; 4.4–5.5 short tons) at sexual maturity, and the maximum weight may be as much as 10 t (9.8 long tons; 11 short tons).

The minke whale is a black/gray/purple color. Common minke whales (Northern Hemisphere variety) are distinguished from other whales by a white band on each flipper. The body is usually black or dark-gray above and white underneath. Minke whales have between 240 and 360 baleen plates on each side of their mouths. Most of the length of the back, including dorsal fin and blowholes, appears at once when the whale surfaces to breathe.

Minke whales typically live for 30–50 years; in some cases they may live for up to 60 years.

The brains of minke whales have around 12.8 billion neocortical neurons and 98.2 billion neocortical glia.[11]

The whale breathes three to five times at short intervals before ‘deep-diving’ for two to 20 minutes. Deep dives are preceded by a pronounced arching of the back. The maximum swimming speed of minkes has been estimated at 38 km/h (24 mph).