Markus
20-Jun-2008, 100 nm East of New York City - 40-42NN 071-38W

Mick Jagger comes to mind... just realized that yesterday (19JUN) evening and this night (0200 local right now) was probably the last time I took a star sight before this trip comes to an end in Maine (last night sailing outside the sight of land - the picture above shows Nicky taking his own "sights" earlier in the day...). We're east of Long Island with about 70 nm to go to the Cape Cod Canal. After the lightning storm the night before (no reference to Lennon/McCartney intended) this night has been absolutely beautiful with clear starry skies. Unfortunately, there's hardly any wind so we're motor-sailing again, hoping to pick up a breeze again after sunrise... before that we will break the 10.000 nm mark on this trip (the log is at 9992 right now). Stay tuned...

PS: Here's a picture of our GPS log "rolling over" from 9,999 to 10,000 miles...

04 - Puerto Rico to Maine

Comments [4]

Markus
19-Jun-2008, 70 nm East of New Jersey - 39-37N 072-33W

.. to the Cape Cod Canal, where we will make a stop to pick up Ralf (the "other Ralf" - Boeck this time) who will join us for the last short leg to Peaks Island, Maine (also, Nana's mother will make a short visit up from New York to see her grand son). After beating to windward during our first night out of the Chesapeake Bay we had to motor part of yesterday in very light winds. Yesterday evening it picked up again and we were sailing on a nice broad reach and the down-wind before a lightning storm passed over us between midnight and 0300 and forced us to run with it off our course for a few hours. Now (1200 on 19JUN) the wind has died down again and we had to raise our red "Beta Sail" again (i.e. start our Beta Marine engine).

It's quite amazing how sharply the air temperature appears to have dropped once we were north of the Chesapeake Bay. While the sun is still pretty strong during the day, the air definitely feels much cooler and we've dug out the warm sleeping bags for the nights again. Step 1 in our slow acclimatization back to live outside the tropics...

04 - Puerto Rico to Maine

Comments [0]

Markus
18-Jun-2008, East of Delaware

Slipped our mooring in Portsmouth/VA this morning, waved good-bye yet again to Arearea and sailed out of the Chesapeake Bay at 1300 local time. Now (0145 local time on 18JUN) we're beating to windward under a full moon on our way to Cape Cod, the last planned stop before Maine. All is well aboard, stay tuned...

04 - Puerto Rico to Maine

Comments [0]