The Long Run

On the 10^th we departed St. Thomas for the US sailing the Old Bahama Channel route.  This route in May is famous for its broad reaches and good weather as opposed to the direct route in the Atlantic that may encounter any number of weather systems.  Here are some notes on the journey:

The long run – If you drew an imaginary line from St. Thomas to the north coast of Cuba, that was the wind direction vs. a broad reach more common in May.

Sail configuration – We tried using the main downwind one day with more angle and the pole, but we found an un-poled genoa pretty effective over 15 knots.  The pole does not work well on the genoa because the forward mast shrouds will not allow the pole to square up.  We also incurred big rolling in the ocean waves when sailing off the wind and setting up the pole was difficult in these conditions.  The genoa has an unusually high cut clew so it seemed to handle dead downwind (DDW) pretty well, especially if over 18 knots.  We have never sailed Renegade DDW much and she tracks fairly good.  We could hit 9 knots when the true wind was in the 20’s.  We ran genoa and main going up the Santaren Channel and in part of the Gulf Stream.

Where’s the party? – The weather router suggested delaying departure because of what he termed brisk conditions. Because of this only around 10 of the boats in our group of 30(?) left on Sunday.  We weighed anchor after we saw some flotilla boats take off.  We found the first three days to be outstanding sailing.  By nightfall of day one we seemed to have passed all our fellow flotilla mates and never saw them again.  We thought the single genoa up would keep us back, but this was not the case.  It was nice keeping contact on the radio for a day sharing info.  We were also very surprised we passed four cats utilizing downwind sails or full sail. After that we found ourselves alone on the ocean with no other yachts in sight or on AIS. North of the Santaren Channel we passed a boat that left the week before so we made radio contact only to find they had no English speakers aboard.

So your saying there’s a chance – As we neared the US a tropical low (Arthur) developed just off the coast of south Florida.  The weather router said this can happen in May once every three years or so.  The boats that left a week before us had to get emergency permission and anchor a few days in the south Bahamas.  Our first encounter were some nasty squalls off the coast of Cuba.  We started receiving the flotilla emails from the router that sounded like the calls they tried to make to the Andrea Gale, so we slowed down in the Old Bahama Channel to avoid northern winds churned out by the low in the Gulf Stream.

Old Bahama Channel – What is with that name, is there a new Bahama Channel?  This body of water has the Bahama Banks on the north, Cuba to the south, and two traffic lanes. As mentioned, we were in there a few days slowed down.  It was not a pleasant place at the time with frequent squalls and lighting.  Every time Jim saw a nearby strike, he nervously recorded the current coordinates in the log book in case the electronics were zapped.  We had another scare when a large freighter popped out of a squall line from behind without AIS.  We scrambled outside the lane near to the banks to get out of the way.

On and off the conveyor belt – As we got closer to Florida, we were able to enter the Gulf Stream and pick up another two knots.  As luck would have it the weather router predicted a front with 40 knot winds crossing our path and advised seeking port.  We then jumped off the stream for Port Canaveral and picked up a slip at Ocean Club Marina for a few days until the system passed through.  As we were entering the channel, a 30-knot squall appeared but we were able to get into the dock without any issues.

Civilization! – We were in awe of being back at a dock in the USA and celebrated with and early dinner at a great restaurant with very proactive social distancing (masks, gloves, tables 20 feet apart). We turned on the AC for the first time in months and slept like kittens.

Next up – We are off to Brunswick tomorrow.