Spent morning at DSC checking cruisers (battery 2 on Akimbo not registering? but it does have charge.) , retying after gale winds, and took mainsail off Sun.
Century Club: Rebekah Bromwell
Wednesday, December 3, 2025 to Sunday, December 21, 2025
Number of days:
19 days
Longest delivery yet (1902.31nm according to my Garmin), dodged the biggest storm, got caught by a smaller one. Dealt with snowstorms and ice on the ICW, then squalls and big seas for days south of Bermuda. Had to manage night watches and approaching land with no radar, and flakey AIS, foul water tanks, groundings, and more. It was...an experience. There were dolphins and my first encounter with bioluminescence though.
Wednesday, November 19, 2025 to Wednesday, November 26, 2025
Number of days:
8 days
SO close to 1000nm! Aghh. We even thought about overshooting just a teensy bit and stopping in Guadeloupe first to get our ocean cruising club requirement in. So sad. Just didn't have time to make it happen though and had to get to Antigua right away. Will add a bunch of pics and more detail later.
St. George's Bermuda to first Falmouth harbor to test out our anchor set up, and then English Harbor Antigua. Nelson's Dockyard wasn't ready when we got there, so anchored in the back harbor, got the dinghy ready, then Nelson's radioed (eye roll) and we headed over to do a med mooring.
Hardly saw any other boats out there during the passage, but the first one we did see was a container ship out of Baltimore headed for Indonesia. When we were a few miles apart, suddenly a couple of birds came over to check us out, and then they flew off. I'm sure they must have been hanging out in the cargo ship because of how far out we were.
Sunday, November 9, 2025
Number of days:
1 day
Winterize the engine on Akimbo. Turned battery to #2 to start engine, closed seacock and started sucking up the antifreeze, but when Sandy saw it coming out the back, the fuel shutoff button didn't work! I started to freak out a bit, opened the seacock, still no water, quickly had Sandy clear out the lazarette to access the side of the engine and jumped down there to cover the air intake and it worked! Then we tried starting again and then the dc panel on, and then the shut off worked normally.
on SD we were able to start the engine with some percussive maintenance on the starter, and took it over to rusty scupper to pump out. Drained the fresh water tank, added anti feeeze everywhere including engine, and took both sails off. I had never taken a furling main off before so that was interesting. The outhaul was badly chafed at the clew, btw. Really glad we got that off when we did.
Saturday, November 1, 2025 to Friday, November 7, 2025
Number of days:
6 days
Slept over in NJ and set out at 5am southward.
Friday, October 31, 2025
Number of days:
1 day
Conditions: chilly, though the rain stoped last night, but wind was 20-40kt SW and we felt it. Departed Norwalk 5am, immediately Spencer asked if we were dragging something in the water because boat was sluggish. Couldn't find anything visible though. There was a lot of wind and spray making visibility iffy through the dodger until the sun came out near manhattan. Got some wind break along the buildings, but it really picked up as we got towards the lower end. I was driving at that point and saw 38 true at least, but was pretty focused on the speed ferries (WTH are those things even?! They hardly leave a wake from planing I guess, but Jesus...) and then the massive Staten Island ferry showed up just as our speed dropped into the 3s. Skipper said that was when I started to look a little nervous, haha. We had room to bear away a little and got by before he got too close, but eeesh. My new profile pic for a while will be my selfie with that thing behind me. Wind picked up to 40 at that point and I didn't know where we wanted to duck into, so gratefully I handed off to the skipper. What a day. The diver just came up and said he pulled a balloon string off that was wrapped around the prop and shaft, as well as a bunch of barnacles. I can't wait to see the pics. Staying the night here in Jersey and will start again at daybreak.
Friday, October 24, 2025
Number of days:
1 day
Steve, Richard and I made it out to the bridge quickly, (gusting over 20) but had to beat back pretty hard. We did get a couple good long port tacks, but the other way was almost backwards. Wind was 14-22 WSW, low 60s, sunny. A little over 3 hrs
Thursday, October 23, 2025
Number of days:
1 day
Richard, Robert & I made a bridge run this morning on a J, and got there in 50 minutes! Beam reach pretty much the whole way after dominoes and our SOG topped out at 8.7 kts. Wind was 14-23 W. Very sunny but chilly out there in all the breeze. Did the whole thing in about 3 hrs. Also stopped by Akimbo before leaving to swap the speedo for the plug so I can clean the wheel later and have James do some tech trouble shooting. Bleh. Was very smooth at swooping though, minimal water spouting. :-)
Wednesday, October 22, 2025
Number of days:
1 day
Sailed w/Harish and Shawn for Arabella's BC OTW day. We took out the Beneteau 33 at J-world. I did get to back into the slip for practice too. There was absolutely great weather but the wind was fairly light. Maybe 5-10SW. Sunny, in the 60s. ≈7hrs
Sunday, October 19, 2025
Number of days:
1 day
Beautiful morning in Baltimore with gentle wind. Took everyone on a little tour down through the inner harbor before setting out. Wind from the south was blowing a bit more continuously, but sailing was very fun, just had to do a good number of tacks. Hit 20kts around 7ft knoll so we reefed, and continued on. As the wind rose, we decided to head over to get a little shelter over along the western shore and approach the bridge from there. By the time we were close to the center span the wind shifts were quite significant and kept heading us enough that it pushed us over near the support a couple spans in. Switched the engine on just to get through the wind shadow and then continued on sailing past Annapolis. Was shocked to see a couple of kayakers heading towards us and on through the center span. They were barely visible with the waves and spray until they were already beside us. I can't imagine what they were going to do if a big ship came through at that point. Wind continued picking up further, we reefed a couple further times. Waves were very close together and seemed disorganized, mostly from the SE, but a couple more directly from the S, I guess following the wind shifts, but it was hard to maneuver through them without slamming. They calmed down substantially after thomas point though and also skipper got annoyed as my swerving and just out the autopilot on and we went straight through. Around thomas pint we also decided to just bring the sails in and motor the rest of the way since our racks were making little progress and it was getting dark. Saw 30kts apparent occasionally by then so even with our powerful engine we were making 4-5knts. Anyway we eventually got in with only a brief hiccup outside HH. An exciting successful adventure bringing Huzzah home. Warm sunny day, but wind was 17-30 true from the south right on our nose. Took almost 12 hours.