Phil Simpson

First time out in forever! New sails and running rigging took some adjusting and made the standing rigging really stand out as out of tune. Had a snafu pulling out when the transmission wouldn’t engage but got back to the slip with the help of a neighbor. Turned out to be a sticky disengage button. Headed out with light winds and were very chill. Almost no wind at 5-10knts. For our first time out in so long the conditions were ideal.

As you can probably see, The Abacos are nowhere near San Salvador island, and that’s my fault. After a Gulf Stream crossing where Raven reached as many as 8 knots, on the exit we hit some very rough conditions with our staysail and cutter still deployed. It took an enormous amount of courage and effort for us to get things under control again but I felt the experience intensely. The event also brought back my seasickness, which I thought I had beaten. The next morning, for very personal reasons, I told Jason I had to stop my journey. He was gracious and kind, more than could be expected, and at great cost to himself and his own goals, he rerouted to the nearest safe harbor for me. We fought wind, wave and current nearly the whole way. If that’s not a testament to a great skipper, I don’t know what is and I will be forever grateful.

It was a long motor but necessary to keep us on track for the Gulf Stream window we needed to hit. We did some motor-sailing too, and even got a little practice in with the big kite! Highlights included the sunsets and moon rise but the real show stopper was the dolphin pods that played in the bow wake! We pulled I to Cape Canaveral for fuel And water and were back out as fast as we could, so here we go! Oh, and Seth continues to surprise us with his ship-board culinary skills! Pizza on the high seas is a treat!

Trip started out decent with some wind. We were not eager to continue down the ICW anymore so we headed out to sea. We ran about 30 miles off shore and the wind continued to build. We saw gusts up to 29knts and a consistent sea state of 6-8’ waves, often breaking and closer to 10’. We ended up going to the second reef in the main and letting a tiny sliver of the staysail fly. Once we were able to beat our way into the channel, we just had to avoid the commercial traffic.

The trip was in strong winds and clear sky’s. We motored the entire way head on into 15-20mph winds. Three miles from our destination we ran aground in the middle of the marked channel. The tow boat guy said he had pulled 3 other boats off in the last 2 days! Ridiculous! Raven was pulled off with no damage and we were able to get docked with no drama. I know the app says 17kt gusts but we saw 24+ regularly!

Crew practice session. Forecast was 12kts sustained with gusts into the 30s so expected to practice reefing and heavier weather tactics. Put a reef in the main, rolled Genoa up to 100% rather than normal 140. Flat water in the river with some chop and tidal effects in Port Gardner Bay.