Pajarito - Day 12 - The Welcoming Committee

This morning at dawn, two sea gulls flew over to check us out.They circled several times, closely inspected, then scolded us for not having our fishing lines out.A little later, several dolphins joined us for breakfast.They swam along side keeping us on course.We must be close now, the welcoming committee is here! All is good this morning.We have smooth (relatively speaking) sailing, cinnamon rolls, and coffee.Who could ask for anything better?Sure beats last night when Captain Bill was battling the elements over a bag of tater chips.The elements got the upper hand, and the contents of the bag became airborne, swirling around the cockpit like a blizzard.Bob and I had to turn our heads; we couldn't stand to see a grown man cry. We're getting close enough to the tiki bar on Tortola that. read more...

Pajarito - Day 11 - Patience

Have patience, grasshopper, for Tortola will come.We've reached 22 degrees north latitude and are approximately 200 miles north of Tortola.So close, and yet so far!We're all pretty anxious to get into port.We expect to reach our waypoint 35 miles north of Tortola by midnight tomorrow (Tuesday) night.And we should be in port early Wednesday morning.This schedule works very well since we'll be coming into port in the daylight. The sky, the seas, and the temperature all seem much more tropical now.The seas have lain down a little bit.The 14 ft. swells which we've been wrestling with the past 24 hours have calmed down a little bit.The low pressure system we've been monitoring for the past 5 days has been kind enough to wait awhile before forming into a tropical storm.The storm is expected to. read more...

Pajarito - Day 10 - Yeeehaaaw!!!

We've been ridin' this buckin' bronc fer two straight days now, and still ain't tamed 'er.  Actually,I think it's us who's being tamed.The swells from the northeast continue to build, 12-14 ft now, making for a swashbuckling time.We've orange-locked (de-commissioned) the stove because it's just too dangerous in these seas to try to cook anything.Looks like it'll be cold cuts and Cheerios from here on out. Got milk?Yes! We do. We've found that our best sail combination is our main with two reefs and the staysail.This keeps us moving along at a 6- 6.5 kn pace.No reason to get too greedy.If we push it past hull speed in these swells, we could broach.Definitely not good.So, we'll just mosy on south and expect to reach Tortola Wednesday morning.Hum, my old rule used to be "No booze. read more...

Pajarito - Day 9 - Big Waves

Big winds bring big waves.And boy do we have both.We've been sailing in big winds, 25-35 kn, for the past 24 hours.So, we're seeing the sea build some big waves, about 10 feet, mostly on our port quarter, but some on our beam.It's a little intimidating seeing these big waves coming at us.I keep hoping we'll continue to rise up and over them (rather than the reverse).So far so good.  Our speed could be better.We're only making about 5.5 kn average.Every time we try to put up more sail, we get hit with a blast of wind, and we need to reduce sail.Or, we encounter one of the many squalls surrounding us, and need to reduce sail.Captain Bill hasn't had much rest the past two days.So, we opted to stick with reduced sail for awhile so that we don't have to continually change sail and he can. read more...

Pajarito - Day 8 - Hey, wait for us!

We've been checking in with the rally twice a day and are beginning to wonder, have we been left behind?We seem to be quite a bit farther north than most of the other boats.Due to the wind conditions, we've been traveling mostly east, making very little progress south.This afternoon, the long awaited north winds kicked in.So, finally, we're headed south!These winds, according to the weather forecasters, are supposed to be fairly strong, 30 kn with gusts to 35 kn.We're looking forward to being able to make some quick progress southward and catch up with the rest of the gang. We've had some boat issues come up lately which, luckily, have been minor. Captain Bill found a masthead chalk lying in the salon this afternoon.So we spent several hours pounding blocks of wood into the masthead to. read more...