susan hood race

so now that i have a crew for the last section of the delivery home...

there will be some rushed work in the few days before the big race to get the mast up.

who's in for the susan hood race?

Start is friday evening May 31st, start is 7:45pm

finish is approximately noon Saturday  June 1st.

we would leave ABYC about 4 or 5pm to get to the start line at PCYC in time.

we ned 5 people min if we are to fly spinnaker.

this is one of two long distances races I will do.

This is the warm up for the Lake Ontario 300 which is in mid July.

new york city

We are here!
we just had a brew at a pub on 9th avenue.
we arrived in New York about 3pm after an exciting night.
At round 2pm the heavens opened up and the rain fell.
For 4 solid hours it fell.
At one point my instruments told me there was a giant freighter passing us 0.6 miles to our right and I could not see it. Visibility in the rain was about 1/8 mile.
Oh yes, there was constant lightning and big ocean swell and we were running late to get to new york.
So i kept up the full main, turned on the engine and motor sailed and surfed waves in the rain and lightening. It was awesome. Made up a few hours and got to new york just before the customs office closed. Thankyou paul for the floater jacket. its the warmest coat around.
pics to come.

morning

giant freighter going by this morning.
snapped a series of good shots.
its fun being alone on watch as the sun rises.

gulf stream

well that was an experience.
we had 3 knots of current against the 18 knot winds and the result was 15 to 20 foot waves
that were maybe 30 to 50 feet apart. There was a prevailing wave direction kinda but it was mostly a washing machine of waves. It was terrible. We were beam to the big waves and they knocked us so far over on every wave that the boom hit the water.
We called our weather router guy and he told us how to change direction to leave the stream within 1 hour.
It was amazing. It was like a line in the water where the crazy waves just stopped.

We are enjoying pleasant winds and normal lumpy atlantic seas right now.
We should arrive in NY city by wed midday sometime.

24 hours, look no hands

so for the past 24 hours we have had 6 foot waves and broad reaching to deep broad reaching conditions
and most of the driving has been done by otto. The new autopilot has proven itself to be well worth the money.
Thanks to the people who installed it, Rob, Ericks, Pierre, Chris and Almir.

we are approaching the gulf stream and possible scary conditions in there.
i hear there are sea monsters of the deep, or maybe just steep crazy waves.

current plan and status

ok so last night was .... interesting.
25 to 30 knots with chaotic seas and also very cold with a north wind.
we took short shifts and made it through with moral mostly intact.
Almir made us a nice pasta late lunch which was most appreciated as everyone was too beat to even think about eating.
The current weather predictions are mostly benign and we should arrive in NY city wed morning to wed afternoon.
We will stay one night in NY and early thursday morning motor up to Haverstraw and leave the boat there for a week or two while i rest and look for crew to do the canal system.

happy birthday

Happy birthday to Chris.
Chris was on board for the delivery down and is also on board for the delivery north.
He just turned 59 on board a boat in the middle of the atlantic.
I just made him a proper brewed coffee (first real coffee of this trip) and he is having it with his birthday muffin. What luxury :-)

this just in.....

we just saw a whale.
About 30 feet long and less than a boat length off our port beam.
It blew some water out its spout and then took a look at us and then submerged.
We have no pictures. I rushed to grab my camera but it was too late.
So, what kind of whale was it?
It was grey/brown, 30 feet long and had a bull head.
I think we came a little too close to hitting it. Made us all nervous. and excited to see it.

and the ansswer is....

first, can anyone tell me if the posts to the facebook group are working?
just send me an email to the hammertimetoronto address.

We have an answer to that most pressing question, "what kind of tuna was that?"
The expert answer came from Patrick,
"It's a Skipjack Tuna
Katsuwonus pelamis
Skipjack can be distinguished from other tunas by the presence of stripes on the
belly. Usually 4-6 prominent, dark longitudinal stripes from the lower belly and
sides toward the tail. The top of the fish is a dark purplish-blue, and the lower
flanks and belly are silvery.
The pectoral and ventral fins are short, and the two dorsal fins are separated at the
base by a small interspace. The teeth are small and conical. No swimbladder is
present. There are 53-63 gill rakers on the first gill arch, more than any other tuna."

big fish

so finally as promised here is the picture of almir's catch.
so far we have had two dinners out of it and probably will get 2 or 3 more.
If anyone can identify what kind of tuna this is please email me at the hammertimetoronto email address. we cannot get our regular gmail emails out here.

nice sailing

last night we had tuna sashimi and rice. full meal. and ate only 1/8th of the tuna.
Tonight we will have the same thing.
We have had nice winds from close reach to broad reach and from 8 to 18 knots for the last 24 hours.
Tomorrow we expect light winds and calm seas. We will BBQ the steaks and some tuna and have surf and turf.
and maybe finally i will upload some pics.
After the light day we expect 20 to 30 knots with 40 knot squals on thursday and friday.
WE expect to cross the gulf stream on sunday and then enjoy easy SE winds as we go up the coast from virginia to newyork.
At least thats the current wind predictions.

fish

So as predicted Almir woke up and let out the fishing line.
Then the wind died and then the heavens opened up and we had a torrential downpour
and we all took showers in the cockpit.
Feels good to be clean again.
Then a fish grabbed the lure.
Almir reeled it in and it is a beautiful 20 lbs blue fin tuna.
There is enough fish here for 4 meals.

winds are up again at 10 to 12 knots and we are making 7 knots on course.
the sea is a little chaotic with an underlying 4 foot swell.

glorious night

Last night was glorious.
The wind shifted to be a broad reach and built to 14 - 22 knots.
We stayed above 7 knots speed for 4 hours. Sometimes hitting 8 knots.
This morning the wind has died a little and we are only going 5.5 and it feels like we are standing still.
Overall light winds are delaying our arrival in New York.
When we get near virginia we will take stock of our food and water and see if we have to stop.
everyone is well now and into the routine.
Almir tried fishing yesterday afternoon but we took the line in for the night. I am sure he will set it up as soon as he wakes up this morning,
I will post a sunrise pic later today.

quick update

we are all doing well.
the two newbies are almost over their sea sickness.
The winds are 8 to 12 knots from 70 degrees.
The boat speed is 6 to 7 knots.
we are heading almost due north still.
There is some storm brewing off the coast of Florida which will dissipate by the time we get near it as we go north and the storm goes north.
here is our spot tracker link which will show you where we are
http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0TM4Z4RBPBRSgXW4v1msepbUdZaqQmjXY
Its sunny, decently calm seas (5 foot swell and no chop).
The solar panels are charging the batteries.
Almir has fashioned a bimini out of a blue tarp.
The auto piot is working like a dream.
We are using the auto pilot all night long and hand steering in the day in order to conserve power.

On our way!

SO we are on our way. We about 10am this morning and we are heading just west of north from the BVIs.
We are heading to a pont on the ocean at 28W 68N.
When we get there in 4 days we wil make a decision on wether to head west or head straight to New York city.
The crew is well, (the two new people have a little sea sickness) and we just BBQd some pork chops and had rice on the side.
The winds are 12 knots from the north east and were doing 7.5 knots with jib and main.
for the night we have dropped the jib and reefed the main just to be cautious.
We are doing 5.5 knots with the reduced sail area.
There is a large swell of about 8 feet but long period so its a smooth ride.
see you all soon :-)

two stages

The boat is almost ready to set sail for home.
just a reminder to everyone.....

The journey home consists of two legs.

BVI to New York (open ocean sail)

and New York to Toronto (rivers, canals, lakes and locks)

In the second part we stop in a different small up state new york town.

Its kind of cool

And.......

I need people. So far I am alone for that part and its impossible to do unless there are 2 or 3 people minimum.

any volunteers?

expected start date is May 5th in New York city and it should take 7 days.

I will update the start date as we near New York City,
Just email me at hammertimetoronto@gmail.com

big update

ok gang.

We have not updated this blog in quite some time.

The boat was hauled out in St Maarten at the end of the trip down in late November.

We then came back down (not exactly the same team) to race in the Heineken regatta in late feb/early march. We came 3rd in the regatta in our division (CSA6). Following that I did 2 weeks of cruising with family and friends in the BVIs. Following that a different set of sailors flew down and we did two regattas back to back. We did the St Thomas Rolex regatta and the BVI spring regatta. Then we came home.

Now we are about to fly back down to sail the boat back up the Atlantic to get it home. We plan to leave Nanny Cay on April 26th. the target date for landfall in New York is May 5th.

Stay tuned for Daily updates starting next week.

Heineken Regatta 2013

An update finally!

The boat is in st maarten and has been prepped for the heineken regatta.
The racing starts tomorrow (friday).
We are at slip B3 at the IGY marina in simpsons bay. come by and say hi if you are down here.

Right now we are entering the myriad course options into the chart plotter so we don't get lost tomorow.

This is racer central here. Most of the cruisers have left the marina and have been replaced with racing boats. Its very exciting. Results will be posted on this site
https://regattaguru.com/heineken/minisite?series_id=12#News