We hoped to make our last passage a non-stop trip home to the Chesapeake Bay. As this would take three to four days we recruited Paul and Carter to assist as extra crew. They didn't resist – or couldn’t resist? Both Paul and Carter had helped us on previous passages so they knew what they were getting in to – and we knew we could rely on their help and have a less demanding passage for the two of us.

Paul and Carter arrived the morning of May 25th. Their arrival coincided almost exactly with a favorable weather window for a non-stop passage and we got underway at 11:43 am – even before they could unpack. We motored out into the Atlantic through Lake Worth Inlet with full main set and rolled out the genoa as soon as we could turn towards the north in the moderate easterly winds. We had rigged the Code 0 but couldn’t use it as the wind was too far forward. But before long we were taking advantage of the north flowing Gulf Stream and by sunset we had averaged 10.3 kts speed over ground, even without our fast reaching sail. That afternoon Paul cashed in some mojo and landed a dinner-for-four size Big Eye tuna. Yummy!

Over the next two days we made good progress in varying wind conditions. We used all our sails in various combinations and, thanks to the Gulf Stream current, we were averaging over 200 nm per day. The weather forecast continued good with all winds from astern and it looked like we could make a non-stop run without bailing out to an intermediate port because of weather. Riding the "elevator" (the Gulf Stream) far off shore was easy as we had gotten the coordinates for the Stream axis from our weather router and had waypoints loaded into our chart plotters.

On May 27th, while preparing to reef the mainsail for the night during brisk winds on starboard tack, Dave noticed more chafe on the mainsail halyard at the mast head. This time the halyard was possibly rubbing on the original chafe point on the port side of the masthead crane. To prevent the halyard from breaking our immediate thought was to take the mainsail all the way down and finish the passage on foresails alone. As the winds would be behind us this would not be a problem, but just slower on some points of sail. Going up the mast at sea to try to fix the problem is dangerous and not a reasonable option.

But with all the engineering acumen aboard (in the persons of Dave, Carter and Paul), we quickly brainstormed that after lowering the main we could cut the damaged halyard near the deck and hoist the mainsail without its 2:1 feature – using a single part halyard and minimizing luff tension on the sail. None of this required going up the mast, but it did mean this halyard would become too short to be used again as a 2:1 halyard. We implemented this plan and were sailing again in short order with the mainsail at the first reef and full genoa.

Early on May 28th we exited the Gulf Stream as we angled N towards Cape Hatteras. We arrived near Diamond Shoals at dawn and with all hands on deck prepared to rig a spinnaker for what we hoped would be a fast all day run close in to the North Carolina and Virginia coasts to Cape Henry. In parallel Paul put out our baits. With everyone forward rigging the spinnaker something big took a bait and ran out a lot of line. Paul made his way back to the rod but whatever it was soon threw the bait – we never saw it. Darn!

The wind was up and down all day and we doused and reset the spinnaker several times. Being very familiar with our specific destination at Willoughby Bay, we were comfortable arriving at night and were prepared to set an anchor in the Bay if needed to await daylight before entering Willoughby Harbor Marina – our point of departure last November and where Pas de Deux would be initially docked. We took the spinnaker down for the last time at sunset and slowed a bit using only the genoa. Our ETA in Willoughby was just before dawn so we decided to adjust speed slow enough to arrive in daylight to avoid having to anchor at all.  

The wind died completely around 3:00 am on the 29th while off Sandbridge, Virginia and we had to motor the rest of the way into Norfolk. This allowed us to easily control our speed and we finessed it to permit a 6:00 am arrival at Willoughby Harbor Marina. We were met at the dock by John and Joan of S/V Alize, our friends who helped us dock at 6:05 am right in front of their boat. The passage from Lake Worth had been approx. 715 nm; 3 days, 18 hours, 22 minutes. Average speed over ground was 7.91 kts.

















2010-2011 Winter Cruise Trivia

Flag display of countries visited

4773    nautical miles traveled November 8, 2010 – May 29, 2011
203      days – duration of cruise
99        days we didn’t move
17        countries entered
18        full nights at sea + two partial nights
27        days one of us was back in the US
1          diesel fuel stop – 109 gallons on April 14
2 ½      propane bottles used
10        bottles of sunscreen used
15        trips up the mast by Dave
2150    pictures taken
1          fishing reel exploded
0          days or nights in a marina
0          gallons of water we didn’t make or collect ourselves
0          pounds of food meat or poultry purchased
0          pounds of ice purchased
1          hat lost by Donna
3          hats lost by Dave
0          bathing suits lost by Donna
1          bathing suits lost by Dave (not what you think)
0          glasses lost or broken by Donna
3          glasses lost or broken by Dave
1          Blue Marlin
2          Wahoo
few       Tuna
several Mahi-Mahi
too many Barracuda
 
Our Equipment Challenges Enroute

For those of you who might wonder what type of challenges the sailor might confront over the span of cruising seven months (it’s not all rum and mangoes!), we experienced the following—none of which (thankfully) threatened life, limb, or vessel. This does not include preventive, routine, or minor maintenance items which occur more frequently:

Pactor HF radio modem failure – on passage to Tortola November 12. This disabled our ability to send and receive radio e-mail, receive text weather information, and to provide text travel updates and position reports. We used our satellite phone as back up to provide daily voice reports for the rest of the passage. After much troubleshooting we determined the problem to be a faulty serial port to USB cable between the modem and computer. This was resolved on November 18 by replacing the cable, generously furnished by friend Mike on S/V Awakening whom we met shortly after our arrival in the BVI.

Spectra Water Maker reverse osmosis membrane slow degradation of product water - this problem began on our November passage to Tortola. The TDS (total dissolved solids) got as high as 1000 ppm; normal is < 400 ppm. We suspected the membrane needed to be replaced as it was original equipment on this 2001 boat. We chose to try to delay membrane replacement until returning to the US as we could continue using low quality product water for washing and some cooking. We collected rain water for drinking that ultimately lasted until our return to US. Not knowing how much more rain we'd get in the dry season, we replaced the membrane April 7 in St. Thomas which returned product water back to spec immediately.

Electronic Wind Vane failure – after arrival in Tortola in November. We noted intermittent/erratic indication of the masthead wind direction instrument which degraded over time to eventual failure. This was likely due to aging – this is original equipment on the boat. The apparent wind speed indication, supplied by the same instrument, continued to function normally. As a result of the failure, we lost cockpit analog and digital electronic apparent wind direction indicators, wind direction input to navigation equipment, and the true wind speed and direction calculators. We sailed the old fashioned way as a result - using installed mechanical wind direction indicators on the masthead. We did not attempt troubleshooting or repair beyond simple wiring checks. This will be resolved during summer maintenance.

Mainsail halyard chafe – first noticed December 23 in St. Lucia. This was a continuing problem through the remainder of our cruise. We replaced the chafed halyard December 26 in St. Lucia with a spare purchased there. This worked well until March 6 when the halyard broke while sailing and the mainsail fell. Up until this point we had seldom used the main at full height where, apparently, the chafe problem is worst. The root cause is faulty design of the masthead crane – it needs a second sheave to allow the halyard to hang further aft and out of contact with the mast. This problem was not resolved during the cruise – we attempted numerous workarounds, none of which was fully successful. We finally had to use a single purchase halyard setup – implemented on final passage to Norfolk on May 27.

Uniden 525 VHF radio failure – January 15 in Grenada. This was the same failure we experienced on the same unit last year while in the Bahamas which was later repaired by Uniden under warranty. We resolved this immediately by installing our on board backup Uniden 625. The warranty is still good, so we'll send the 525 unit back to Uniden in June.

Spectra Water Maker feed pump #2 pressure switch failure - January 21 in Tobago Cays, SVG. This disabled one of the two feed pumps which, along with the degraded membrane, resulted in product water being unusable. This was resolved immediately by replacing the pump head assembly, which includes a pressure switch, with an on board spare. The faulty pressure switch can be replaced separately during summer maintenance.

Anchor windlass failure – January 27 in Bequia, SVG. The windlass motor thermal tripped during repetitive use while attempting to anchor in Admiralty Bay. We suspected corrosion present on the power lugs contributed to high current draw. We picked up a mooring ball to allow troubleshooting/repair. We broke an internal electric connection on the windlass motor while performing initial troubleshooting. With vital assistance from Hank on S/V FLASH we completely disassembled/repaired connections/reassembled the windlass on Jan. 27 & 28. It worked well throughout the rest of our cruise.

Starboard engine large alternator voltage regulator failure – discovered February 20 in Sint Maarten. We detected no battery charging from the 130 amp stbd alternator that recharges the house batteries. Based on initial troubleshooting, we suspected a problem with the external voltage regulator. We used the port engine with its identical alternator as needed. After much trial and error troubleshooting of the regulator, including replacement with a new one obtained while Dave was in Florida, we removed the alternator and had it bench tested March 31 in St. Thomas. The alternator tested OK. Dave finally discovered a short in the wiring harness to the regulator and rebuilt the harness April 1 in St. Thomas. He then reinstalled the original regulator and the alternator returned to normal performance. We had early troubleshooting assistance from friend Wally during his visit to Sint Maarten.

Cockpit Table loose joints – discovered March 1 in BVI. The loose joints in the wooden table were likely due to normal use and the table being leaned on during rough weather. The table was disassembled and all joints were re-glued – all was accomplished by friend Larry during his visit while Dave and Wally worked on the alternator regulator. The table has been solid ever since. 

Masthead tricolor navigation light failure – discovered February 28 departing Sint Maarten on night passage. We used deck level nav lights as backup. The anchor light function of the combination unit was still working. After much trial and error troubleshooting, including test replacement with new tricolor/anchor light obtained while Dave was in Florida, the problem was finally fixed on April 22 in the Spanish Virgins by using a spare wire in the wire bundle to connect the + side of tricolor power supply.  The hard-to-find cause was an inaccessible open wire circuit inside the mast.

Steaming light failure – discovered May 18th underway to Lake Worth. We would have used the fore deck light if necessary for “legal” nav light in traffic areas. This was repaired on May 19th in Lake Worth by cleaning corrosion on bulb contacts.