The Caribbean 1500

I am now due to head to Hampton on Wednesday.  Amtrak has announced the cancellation of service for tomorrow.  The marina in Hampton is at the indicated location and have the second highest level of impact.
With a target departure date of Sunday (conditions premitting) I need to be there to ensure that the boat is ready.  If Amtrak is cancelled again on Wed. I will need to drive down and return later to pick up the car.

Updates from Yachts en-route to Hampton

29 October

Thanks to those yachts not yet in Hampton who emailed in with their progress reports! We heard from the following, in addition to the news we posted yesterday about a few boats in Annapolis and on the Chesapeake... FROM JIM ON KIA ORANA: "Hi- Kia Orana in 30-40k presently, but safe and sound at the dock in Smith Creek at the mouth of the Potomac. Plan to resume on Weds., make it there by late Thurs., 1 Nov. Jim Burdick" FROM THE CLUB CARP CREW: "Report from Club Carp. We plan to leave Annapolis Wednesday PM and arrive in Hampton Thursday PM. We will be staying at my cousin’s (Charlie Huffman) dock next to Chris Hall's place at Bluewater Yachting Center. We will have a car to get to the events. Club Carp Crew, Jeff Woody Hansmann Larry Roland Glenn Haberbush" FROM BILL ON ALTHEA "Thanks for the updates.  Althea is still in the C & D.  I expect to head south Wed, hopefully we will arrive Thurs or Friday. Again, the updates have been very helpful in keeping us informed. Bill Ewing Althea" FROM NEIL & SHAUN ON ESCAPADE "We sailed all night Frdayi night and arrived at Blue Water in the wee hours Sat morning in order to be ahead of the weather. We are on the floating dock just outside of Surf Rider restaurant at Blue Water.    We drove back to our hometown Saturday afternoon to deal with hurricane issues here and plan to return to Blue Water mid day Wednesday.   We look forward to seeing everyone. Neil and Shaun s/v ESCAPADE"

HMS Bounty was abandoned 90 miles SE of Hatteras.  14 of the 16 crew members have been rescued.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2224706/HMS-Bounty-Hurricane-Sandy-path-2-missing-16-strong-crew-replica-forced-abandon-ship.html

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2012/10/29/hurricane-sandy-ship-abandoned-ship-coast-guard/1665339/

Here are photos of the ship from when I was in Belfast Maine in August.  One interesting thing about that stop for the boat is that they performed a Man Overboard Drill that was monitored by a Coast Guard team.

Sandy Update

Today's forecast is for sustained winds of 35 to 45 mph and gusts to 60 with over 5 inches of rain.  Tonight the wind gusts are predicted to be 65 until they begin to diminish after 0900 tomorrow.  Many power outages are expected due to the combination of wind and rain and the fact that  there are still a lot of leaves on the trees.  Delaware, Pennsylvania and New Jersey have announced a state of emergency.  Septa, Patco, DART and Amtrak have all suspended Service and all flights in and out of Philadelphia have been cancelled.  Delaware has even implemented a driving ban on all roads unless you are an emergency worker or officially designated as essential personnel for specific industries such as food, fuel or health care.

The track appears to be further south than in previous projections.

I had been scheduled to leave today for Hampton and the Caribbean 1500, which is targeted to depart on 11/4, but that is now pushed to Wed.

Hourly sustained Wind Forcast for Wallingford, PA - This is NOT THE Coast

This storm is different from hurricanes we usually see, in that they usually track parallel to the coast and push the water more to the north.  This one will aim directly at the Jersey coast and water will be pushed onto the coastline.  Together with a Full Moon tonight and High tide at 2030 hrs tonight, flooding is expected to exceed any past record. 

I will continue to post through the storm.

The Calm Before the Storm

Eau de Vie came out of the water yesterday and all canvas and sails are off and stowed. Winterization will be completed tomorrow.   Saudade arrived in Hampton this morning and is secure.  It will be good to get down there and get familiar with the boat.

Sandy looks like it will make a direct hit on our area Monday night into Tuesday.  The spiral below is the expected position at Monday 11:00.  This is when I will leave for Hampton to join the boat.

Weather Watch

Saudade is leaving for Hampton today from Newport.  Today and tomorrow the weather forecast is fine, but Saturday's forecast is bad and getting worse.  I am not planning to join the boat until next week (depending on how Sandy will impact the Chesapeake) but I did ask Larry to consider transiting the Delaware and C&D Canal if conditions dictate.

The Current National Weather Service Forecast is below
 ANZ089-251500-  500 AM EDT THU OCT 25 2012      .SYNOPSIS FOR MID ATLC WATERS...A WEAK COLD FRONT WILL DRIFT S  ACROSS THE CENTRAL WATERS TODAY AND DISSIPATE TONIGHT. A HIGH  PRES RIDGE WILL BUILD IN FROM THE N LATE TODAY AND  TONIGHT...THEN WEAKEN FRI INTO SAT.    HURRICANE SANDY NOW WELL S OF THE AREA IS EXPECTED TO TRACK N TO  NEAR 28.1N 76.3W BY 2 AM SAT...NEAR 31.2N 73.7W BY 2 AM SUN...  NEAR 34.5N 70.5W BY 2 AM MON...THEN BECOME A STRONG  POST-TROPICAL LOW NEAR 37.5N 70.5W BY 2 AM TUE. SEE THE LATEST  NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER ADVISORY FOR HURRICANE SANDY.  $$  SEAS GIVEN AS SIGNIFICANT WAVE HEIGHT...WHICH IS THE AVERAGE  HEIGHT OF THE HIGHEST 1/3 OF THE WAVES. INDIVIDUAL WAVES MAY BE  MORE THAN TWICE THE SIGNIFICANT WAVE HEIGHT.     ANZ085-251500-  BALTIMORE CANYON TO HATTERAS CANYON OUT TO 36N 70W TO 34N 71W  500 AM EDT THU OCT 25 2012    TROPICAL STORM CONDITIONS EXPECTED SAT  HURRICANE CONDITIONS EXPECTED SUN AND MON    TODAY  VARIABLE WINDS 10 KT OR LESS...EXCEPT OVER N PORTION NE  10 TO 15 KT EARLY. WINDS BECOMING NE 10 TO 20 KT THROUGHOUT  LATE. SEAS 2 TO 4 FT.  TONIGHT  E TO NE WINDS BECOMING 15 TO 20 KT. SEAS BECOMING 3  TO 5 FT.  FRI  E TO NE WINDS 15 TO 20 KT...EXCEPT OVER S PORTION  INCREASING TO 20 TO 25 KT. SEAS BUILDING TO 4 TO 7 FT...EXCEPT  OVER S PORTION TO 7 TO 11 FT LATE WITH S SWELL...HIGHEST SE.  FRI NIGHT  E TO NE WINDS INCREASING 20 TO 30 KT. SEAS BUILDING  TO 7 TO 12 FT...EXCEPT OVER SE PORTION 12 TO 17 FT LATE. HIGHEST  WINDS AND SEAS S. SCATTERED SHOWERS AND TSTMS DEVELOPING MAINLY  S.  SAT  N PORTION...NE WINDS INCREASING TO 25 TO 35 KT. SEAS  BUILDING TO 9 TO 16 FT. HIGHEST WINDS AND SEAS SE. S PORTION...  E TO NE WINDS INCREASING TO 35 TO 45 KT. SEAS BUILDING TO 16 TO  26 FT. HIGHEST WINDS AND SEAS SE.  SUN  TROPICAL STORM CONDITIONS EXPECTED THROUGHOUT...EXCEPT  OVER SE PORTION HURRICANE CONDITIONS EXPECTED TO DEVELOP.  MON  TROPICAL STORM CONDITIONS EXPECTED...EXCEPT OVER E  PORTION HURRICANE CONDITIONS EXPECTED.  $$

Getting ready

I am slated to leave on Monday for Hampton to meet the boat which is also expected to arrive on that date. The big question is the weather.  Hurricane Sandy is expected to track out to Bermuda around that time according to the American Model but the European Model has it tracking up the East Coast, possibly making landfall over Long Island.  This could affect both the boat's arrival date as well as mine.  If the hurricane tracks up the coast, I would be at the boat to ensure that Eau de Vie was secure.  I am scheduled to move Eau de Vie to Worton Creek on Friday.

Professional weather routing is part of both the Caribbean 1500 and the Salty Dawg Rally.  Last year the Salty Dawg used Chris Parker who has a reputation of being more conservative than many other forecasters.    We had a window that we selected that enabled us to leave on November 6th, after a low had passed through Hampton.  Most of the other boats in the Rally waited for a more conservative window 4 days later. As it turned out that low remained over the Atlantic and developed into Hurricane Sean, but Chis's direction kept us well west of the bad weather and we did not have more than 30 kts of wind at any time

This time of year is very turbulent and the most important decision you make is when to leave.

More to follow...

Caribbean 1500

I am crewing again on the Caribbean 1500.  http://www.worldcruising.com/carib1500/route.aspx
This year I am aboard Saudade, a Tayana 48DS.





At this point there will be 5 of us on the boat, including Larry Cohen who was a crew member with me on my first 1500 in 2009.  I am in the process of packing and making sure that I have not forgotten anything, especially my passport as that is not something that I usually take sailing.  The key is to limit the amount of gear that I take while having enough for leaving in November and being hot by day 3.

More to follow from Hampton...

To update you all that may not have heard, I have decided not to sail to Europe next year with Eau de Vie, but I still want to do the voyage as a crew member on another boat.  There are several reasons for this decision including the lack of capacity for water, fuel and energy generation, which all can be overcome at a cost, and most importantly, once I get there and the crew leaves, I would be alone.  The time spent sailing back from Maine alone was lonely once the day was done and I had cleaned up after dinner.

That being said there is still Bermuda, the Bahamas, and the Caribbean to consider.  Stay tuned as the plans evolve.

OK, its been far too long since I have posted on the blog and a friend pointed that out last weekend.  I will therefore be posting more often.  

Jim Elliott

Ron and Maryann - S/V Cavu

Al and Ann

Last weekend was the Annapolis Boat Show and I attended Thursday and Friday.  The highlight for me was seeing friends. David and Patty; Kurt and Monica, Jim and Norm, Corky and Deb; Al and Ann; Ron and Maryann; John and Linda; Denise and finally Jim.

The good thing about the boat show is that you can get good deals on a lot of equipment.  The bad thing is you can see so many good deals that you blow your budget.  Do I need the new Kiwi Prop or the Air Breeze wind generator?  No, not need but highly tempting....  My biggest purchase was new fowl weather gear from Helly Hansen at almost half off.  Yea, I know its Yellow and White but my existing Bibs and boots are also yellow.

The other good thing about the boat show was the party's.  There was a good get together with the Salty Dog Rally from last year and a get together with the Caribbean 1500, including Davis and his band performing at the Ram's Head,

I will be on the 1500 again this year for my 4th trip to the Caribbean.  This year I will be on a 48' Tayana and we will leave on 11/4, weather permitting.  More to follow...