Abigail - Beautiful sailing continues

Greetings from Abigail.As expected the wind went light and turned from East to East Southeast last night and this morning has gone to Southwest, although the wind speed has picked up a bit.Last night we managed to keep sailing in the light stuff with all our working sails (jib, main and mizzen) up. We have not often sailed without at least one reef in the main on this passage. Surprisingly we managed to make reasonably good progress until 0415 this morning when the wind dropped to 5 knots directly from astern.At that point we started the engine for the first time this trip and motored for about 5 hours. We took advantage of the situation by making around 50 gallons of water, and Bob and David took showers. Then the wind came up a bit and we decided to set the spinnaker, and while we were. read more...

Abigail - Another 200 mile day

Over the past three days we have logged 602 nautical miles with daily runs of 201, 194 and 207, reaching all the way.Despite the usual late night/ early morning squalls it has been glorious sailing.Actually, so far dodging the squalls has been a kind of fun game that has helped to keep us awake during the wee hours.Today the wind has gotten a bit lighter and shifted more toward the south.A trend we expect to see continue throughout today and tomorrow, so keeping up the speed from here on in will be more of a challenge. All of the crew is doing well and we've begun thinking about the dark and stormies (is that how you spell it?) we'll be enjoying when we arrive (actually Pam has been dreaming about Chardonnay).. read more...

Abigail - 234 mile day

We continue to speed toward Bermuda and we logged 234 nautical miles of a 24 hour period from noon to noon.I'm pretty sure that's the farthest Abigail has ever traveled in a day and puts us very close to the half way point in our journey.We are all doing well and catching up on our sleep and getting used to the very unnatural routine of sleeping and waking in 3 (at night) or 4 (during the day) hour intervals.Last night between midnight and dawn we sailed through numerous squalls.Fortunately, with the radar working we were able to dodge them all. It was a fun game helped keep us awake.The bad news is that not a drop of rain touched us and Abigail sure could use a fresh water wash down.Today is a beautiful, sunny day with only a few fair weather clouds in the sky.As has been the case from. read more...

Abigail - Day 2 - Off to a good start

Greetings from Abigail.We are about 200 miles north of Tortola and off to a great start.It's blowing about 18 knots out of the ENE and we are doing 8.5 knots or so under a double reefed main and jib.Yesterday's start was spectacular as we sailed away from the BVI at over 9 knots under full sail.As dusk came we put in one reef and a bit later, perhaps a bit too late, we put in a second reef as the wind built to over 25 knots.Eventually we even rolled in the jib and sailed under main and mizzen alone doing a slower, but more comfortable 7.5 knots.This morning with the wind down a bit we decided to drop the mizzen and put up the jib again and that's the sail combination we've stuck with for today.The boat could handle more sail, but everyone is comfortable with what we've got. Everyone is. read more...

Abigail - Abigail Ready to go

All of the crew has arrived.David and Mary Bows arrived yesterday evening.Yesterday was Pam's birthday and we celebrated by going to Brandywine, an excellent restaurant here on Tortola.We also celebrated Mary's birthday, which was a couple of days ago and David's, which is today.We are stowing final bits of gear and food and checking systems and rigging.We just got new sails last week over in St. Thomas.The guys at Quantum did a great job making sure the sails were ready for our scheduled departure.We've only sailed a little since we got the sails, but they look great and we're looking forward to putting them to good use. Right the weather looks ideal for a fun passage to Bermuda.. read more...