West End to Beaufort

1 AM Monday April 8, 2019 N 33-10.5 W 77-14.9  – Top Shelf is 54 nautical miles southeast of Frying Pan Shoal on the east coast of the USA.  Ryan and Sam are sleeping having completed their watch at midnight.

505 NM Route: West End to Beaufort NC

We have 12 hours and 110 nautical miles to clearing US customs in Beaufort NC.  This has been the furthest off-shore and the longest passage I have taken as a Captain.  When you have crew on board, a voyage like this can weigh heavy on you as it is 100 percent my responsibility to make the right choices to keep them safe.

Capt Eric's Rig on Troll

I contemplated this passage back in January while I was in Puerto Rico.  To make this work, we would have to have a perfect weather window for 3 days in April.  It was a low probability this would ever happen.  The bail out was to Stuart in Florida, or perhaps Hilton Head in SC if the weather window didn’t appear in April.

Ryan and Sam knew of the plan, and we all agreed it would need to be a perfect window, or we would continue to spearfish until around the 12th, then we would head to Florida.

Windy.com is a great weather tool.  If you have never used it, I would suggest you check it out.  Especially if you have any type of adventure outdoors.  Windy forecasts weather out 10 days, so starting around March 20th, I was looking for our weather window.

Chris Parker Weather Services

I subscribe to a weather service by Chris Parker.  Chris has done a great job for me and hundreds of yachties this winter running around the North Atlantic and Caribbean Oceans.  I emailed Chris about a week before our departure and asked him to watch this weather window with me.

He reported back on Wednesday that the window looked good and he would prepare a detailed 3 day forecast for Saturday April 6th to Monday the 8th.  His forecast met my maximum requirements.  No winds over 15 knots with all winds from the south for the 3 day period.  This would keep most swell in the Atlantic below 6 feet.

Stabilizer Leaking Sea Water

Top Shelf was in pretty good shape mechanically.  The alternator on the generator was fixed and reliable, but the starboard stabilizer had been leaking oil and sea water.  I got behind the starboard engine on Thursday afternoon and torqued the seating bolts as hard as I could.  I was able to move them more than three quarters of a turn.  I know the torque settings on these ¾’ bolts is higher that I could put on them, but I gave it everything I had.  The leaking stopped on our 9 hour passage to West End.  The long passage was still a go.

I didn’t sleep well on Friday night after our big meal with Mike and Isa.  I’m sure it was nerves about this trip.  I got up at 5:45 AM and we were out of the harbor at 6:24 AM.  Six minutes before our planned start time.

Atlantic Sunrise 

The seas and wind were as forecast and Ryan pulled out one of Eric’s custom rods that he had left on the boat.  We trolled daisy chains that he had made 3 years earlier.  We caught and released a Barracuda within the hour.  We trolled since then for over 200 miles without a bite.

Sam continued her great cooking on the voyage.  Saturday afternoon she made a conch salad from conch she had gotten from a Bahamian at West End.  She followed that with the best rice and beans to date.  I know rice and beans sounds boring, but before you rush to that conclusion, you haven’t had Sam’s cooking.

Ryan and I are taking 6 hour shifts during the night, then Sam fills in for much of the 12 hours of day light.  We are into our second night now and the rotation seems to be working.  On passages before, Greg, Rob, Eric and I have used 3 and 4 hour watches.  This 6 hour shift seems to work well.

Atlantic Sunset

When I got the forecast from Chris Parker, he recommended that we sail west from the Bahamas to pick up the Gulf Stream and ride the 3 knot current all the way to North Carolina.  I plotted a direct route and one that followed the Gulf Stream.  The Gulf Stream route was 91 nm longer, but ended at the same time in Beaufort.  Had we been a slower sailboat, say averaging 6 knots rather that 9.3, this routing would have made sense.

I decided to stay with our original great circle (straight) routing.  This routing had kept us well east of the Gulf Stream until 8 pm Sunday night.  The wind was out of the north east at 11-13 knots when we noticed the side current effecting our bearing.  The autopilot had adjusted 20 degrees to the left to keep us on our track across the Gulf Stream.  At the same time the waves started crashing the bow.  Ryan ran to the galley and saved the spaghetti and meatballs as they were sliding off the stove!  The seas were only 6 feet, but there were no backs to the waves, so for the next four hours we had quite a ride until we got to the other side of the stream.  I can’t imagine what that ride would have been like if the wind was blowing 25 knots.

I’m finally writing in real time in the pilot house of Top Shelf.  It is almost 2 am and we are 90 nautical miles from Beaufort.  We’ve picked up a nice tail wind and current after leaving the Gulf Stream so Top Shelf is ripping along at 10.9 knots. If this keeps up, we will be clearing customs at 9:30 Monday morning.

For me, this passage was the most challenging.  Everything had to come together and luckily it did.  Like the last 6 months, I had to plan to safely maneuver Top Shelf and her passengers around the North Atlantic in the middle of winter (and early spring).  I’m looking forward to living back on land where weather and safety will not be the daily top priority any more.