Monday, May 29, 2017
Norfolk Virginia to Bermuda Ocean Training Cruise, May 26-June 3, 2017
S/V NAVIGATOR,
our Island packet 40 departed Norfolk Virginia at 1018 on May 28, 2017
after two preparation days. The crew members are: Captain Tom Tursi of
Pennsylvania (Skipper), Captain Jerry Nigro of New York
(First Mate), and
student crew members Jeffrey Crawford (New Jersey), Keith James (Alberta Canada), Manfred Tiedemann (North Carolina)
and Vincent Di Stefano (Virginia). NAVIGATOR will make the passage to Bermuda via a
non-stop ocean route. The cruise has an estimated distance of 670 nautical
miles, and will take approximately 6 days, sailing both day and night.
We will discuss the route, weather and actual progress here on our
blog as it happens, so please join us! To follow the discussion,
see the COMMENTS to this blog post. To follow their actual progress on via SPOT, click HERE.
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12 comments:
Hello all! Be sure to click on the spot link above to follow the progress of NAVIGATOR and her crew. One note on the SPOT transmissions… The SPOT is far from infallible and a loss of signal is quite common. There have been times where we had no position update for more than a day. Reasons can range from a weak satellite signal, a sail bag inadvertently shifted and blocking a clear "view" of the sky, or SPOT batteries getting weak. The crew checks in with me electronically at intervals, and we will address such issues. Also, sailboat tracks are affected by wind direction, current, etc. and rarely result in a straight-line course. I’ll post updates here which will include position reports from the crew. ~ Rita
Bradley Mabe, a Maryland School graduate and weather expert is providing weather guidance to the crew. I'll include his reports to the crew here on the blog, beginning with those relayed just prior to departure:
From: Bradley Mabe
Subject: WX forecast 5/28-29
Date: May 27, 2017 at 9:31:48 AM EDT
To: S/V NAVIGATOR
Sunday Morning - A low pressure area and associated stationary front will be moving E across Pennsylvania bringing a chance of light shower to the lower Chesapeake. The winds will generally be light and variable. 8 - 10 AM local time should be mainly from the N to NW at 5 - 7 for your anticipated departure.
Throughout the day winds continue to be variable, mainly from the Northern quadrant.
Overnight, be mindful of possible wind shifts as winds begin to veer and become SW by Monday morning at 10 - 15.
Continuing SSW to SW at 10 - 15 through the day on Monday.
Western wall of the gulf stream from your anticipated position 36.2N 74W.
No tropical cyclone activity expected.
Bradley
From: Bradley Mabe
Subject: WX Forecast 5/29 - 30
Date: May 28, 2017 at 7:45:23 PM EDT
To: S/V NAVIGATOR
Surface Low moves NE of your anticipated position.
Monday Morning (5/29) Winds WNW to W 10 to 15. Widely scattered showers possible. During the day Winds continue WNW at 15 to 17.
Overnight, High pressure begins to build in W of your anticipated position. Winds continue WNW to W at 10 to 15.
Tuesday (5/30) Winds light and variable. South of a line between Norfolk and Bahama winds backing SSE at 5 to 10. North of that line winds WNW at 10 to 12. Wind direction will depend on position. Afternoon and evening, winds S at 5 to 10.
Bradley
From: S/V Navigator
Date: May 28, 2016 at 3:01:00 PM EDT
To: Rita Hanson
Subject: 5/28/17 Status
All is well aboard NAVIGATOR. We've had a little bit of rainfall. We have light winds from the south. We're heading directly into it. Everyone is doing fine! They are doing their tasks and we're functioning like a well working machine.
During the in port preparation days, the crew assignments were:
Captain: Vince
Mate: Jeff
Navigator: Keith
Weather Communicator: Fred
As of noon today, Saturday May 28, the crew rotated down one spot so that Fred is now Captain, Vince is Mate, Jeff is Navigator and Keith is Weather Communicator.
Captain Tom Tursi
Aboard S/V NAVIGATOR
Tom
From: Bradley Mabe
Subject: WX 5/29 - 31
Date: May 29, 2017 at 4:16:42 PM EDT
To: S/V NAVIGATOR
Monday evening and overnight (5/29) winds mainly S close to the NC coast turning SW to W further East of your position.
Tuesday Morning (5/30) winds light and variable mainly SE to SW at 5 to 10 north of Cape Lookout latitude. Winds W to SW at 10 to 15 South of Cape Lookout lat.
Winds becoming S 10 to 15 through Tuesday evening. Winds turn SW at 10 to 15 overnight.
Wednesday (5/31) winds become SW to WSW at 10 to 12.
Chance of showers and T-storms through the period.
Tropical storm activity remains quiet.
Bradley
From: Bradley Mabe
Subject: WX 5/31 - 6/2
Date: May 30, 2017 at 6:39:51 PM EDT
To: S/V NAVIGATOR
Tuesday 5/30 - Evening winds S 10 - 15 becoming SW overnight.
Wednesday 5/31 Morning winds continue SW 10 - 15 strengthening a bit in the afternoon 15 - 20 and becoming WSW.
Winds diminish in the evening & overnight and come back to SW at 10 - 15.
Thursday 6/1 - Weak high pressure to your South causes some variability. Winds WSW to SW at 15 - 20 becoming 10 - 15 during the afternoon and evening.
A chance of showers and T-storms through the period.
Sea Surface Temperatures 72 - 74 Deg. F. at your position.
From: S/V Navigator
Date: May 30, 2017 at 7:12:00 PM EDT
To: Rita Hanson
Subject: 5/30/17 Status
We left Sunday at about 10:30 AM and got around Cape Henry by about 2:00 in the afternoon. It was cloudy with no wind and we motored for about a day and a half. We had some drizzle at times but not much.
We have had beautiful sailing for the last 24 hours. The winds filled in yesterday about this time and we had a terrific day of sailing today. We are making heading directly for Bermuda at this point. Right now the winds are light and blowing from the south. It's starting to get warm and muggy now, but prior to this it was a beautiful day. We had a very easy crossing of the Gulf Stream with nice flat water and a good wind direction and we made good time in the crossing. We are now about 300 miles out of Norfolk and we have about 420 to go to Bermuda. Right now we're sailing right on the track to Bermuda. By tomorrow morning we should be about half way.
The crew is great and everyone is getting along fine. Tonight we had chicken stew. Last night we had franks and beans. The first night we had the famous Dinty Moore stew. We are washing the dinner dishes in sea water to conserve our fresh water supply, since dishes take a lot of water. Fred and Jerry are honoring us by doing that now.
We did some celestial navigation work yesterday when we had some sun. That went well. We have been doing a lot of training with the weather reception equipment that we have on board.
The crew is rotating responsibilities every day at noon. Everybody moves down the list and that is working well.
We are on 4-hour watches. 12:00 to 4:00 is Keith and Jeff (Midnight to 4:00 AM and Noon to 4:00 PM), 4:00 to 8:00 is myself and Vince, and 8:00 to 12:00 is Jerry and Fred. That is working out very well and everyone is getting along very well.
NAVIGATOR is good. No boat problems.
We have been receiving Brad's e-mails regarding the weather every day and they are very helpful. This next rain storm that is coming your way we were concerned about this morning because we thought it was going to come out and greet us, but it apparently turned northeast, like they usually do, and we were far enough east of it that is didn't touch us. So while we had a beautiful clear sunny day, we could see on the Sirius weather chart that that storm was approaching and going up the coast.
We'll talk to you tomorrow. We hope you get some sun soon!
Tom
From: Bradley Mabe
Subject: WX 6/1 - 3
Date: May 31, 2017 at 6:04:06 PM EDT
To: S/V NAVIGATOR
Wednesday evening - winds continue SW at 8 - 12 overnight becoming WSW and strengthening 10 - 15 before morning.
Thursday (6/1) - winds backing SW at 10 - 15 diminishing a little in the afternoon. High pressure to you SE - showers and t-storms mainly NW of your position. Overnight, winds SW 12 - 18. A greater possibility of showers and T-storms.
Friday (6/2) - Winds SW 15 - 20 with showers likely. all day. evening and overnight, winds SSW 8-10.
Saturday (6/3) - Morning Winds SW 15-20.
From: S/V Navigator
Date: May 31, 2017 at 7:25:00 PM EDT
To: Rita Hanson
Subject: 5/31/17 Status
We had a bright sunny day today with beautiful sailing. We had 15 knot winds from the southwest and have been sailing along at 7 knots. We've had smooth seas and are making great progress. We made 165 miles in the last 24 hours and have maybe 280 miles to go to Bermuda.
We saw the storms coming up the east coast, as I mentioned yesterday. We came out of that very well. We were far enough east and we missed it all. Except for the first day out of Norfolk we haven't had a drop of rain on us yet. It's been perfect really. Plenty of sun. The other day we had some clouds come and go but it's been pretty docile the whole time. It sounds like tomorrow the wind might pick up but it will still be coming from the southwest so we'll we'll continue to make good progress.
After we did the calculations on it, we saw that the Gulf Stream moved us about 75 miles to the north. That's quite a bit. I haven't seen it that much before. But we had compensated for that movement, having gone way south before we made it to the Gulf Stream, so it wasn't a problem for us.
We are keeping a good watch out for ships. We've seen some pretty big container ships out here. Now we are seeing cruise ships which are coming in and out of Bermuda.
We've been doing some celestial work, which has been going well.
Tonight we had pasta and meatballs for dinner. For breakfast we've been having eggs, either cheese omelets or those fancy egg things that Jerry makes with the hole cut in the middle on toast. For lunch it's usually sandwiches.
NAVIGATOR is doing great. Everything is working like it should be working.
Everybody is sleeping very well, and getting along well. I haven't let anyone get a shower yet, so we're all smelly. The crew loves it out here and they are all impressed with how nice the weather is. Since we're not close hauled on the wind, it's been like a magic carpet ride.
We'll talk to you tomorrow.
Tom
From: Bradley Mabe
Subject: WX 6/1 - 3
Date: June 1, 2017 at 5:22:04 PM EDT
To: S/V NAVIGATOR
Thursday evening (6/1) - Winds SW 10 - 15. Overnight, winds strengthen a bit SSW 15 - 20.
Friday (6/2) - Morning - winds SW 15 - 20 Chance of shower & T-storms increase. winds steady throughout the day, evening and overnight
Saturday (6/3) - Winds SW 10 - 15 showers and T-storms likely. Temperatures in the high 70s.
From: S/V Navigator
Date: June 1, 2017 at 7:30:00 PM EDT
To: Rita Hanson
Subject: 6/01/17 Status
(What follows is a transcribed conversation via SAT Phone.)
Tom: We had another beautiful sunny day with light winds of about 10 knots from the southwest and we are sailing along anywhere from 5-6 knots. We have another 140 miles or so to go. There is nothing terribly exciting or unusual to report. But the guys want to say hello...
Fred: Hi Rita, this is Fred. We're having a great time. I'm loving it! I love being at sea. I'm watching the sun go down right now and enjoying every minute of it.
Vince: Hi Rita, this is Vince. We're having a great time. The weather has been absolutely perfect. We've had the wind on the beam almost the whole trip. We've been putting in a lot of miles every day. Everybody is having a lot of fun doing that. We're not getting rained on, we're not getting knocked down. We're doing a lot of fun stuff. We're getting some celestial work in. So, it all going great!
Jerry: Hi It's Jerry! The crew is fine, the weather is fine. Everything is fine! It's been a very docile trip.
Jeff: Rita! We're having a wonderful lifetime opportunity! Thanks for doing all of the behind the scenes work!
Tom: Keith is sleeping, so I don't want to disturb him. As you can see by our SPOT we're pretty much sailing a straight line. Not like last year! Our ETA in Bermuda is late Friday night or early Saturday morning. We'll talk to you tomorrow.
NAVIGATOR arrived in Bermuda at 5:30 PM on Saturday. All is well!
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