Antares

Vessel Name: Antares
Vessel Make/Model: Bristol 40
Hailing Port: WhiteHall Bay
About: My crue are my son Juan David and my friend Richard Hinz (ex Bank)....
Extra: During the last 14 year I have been sailing the Chesapeake Bay and the West Coast, from San Francisco to San Diego -- plus some excursions in the Seychelles, BVI, and the Aeolian Islands. The time has come to start a longer trip...
06 April 2014 | WhiteHall Bay
03 April 2014 | Cape May
02 April 2014 | Atlantic Highlands
01 April 2014 | City Island
20 January 2014 | Washington - DC
Recent Blog Posts
06 April 2014 | WhiteHall Bay

We made it

It was difficult to write after Cape May. I thought that after the off-shore passage things would be much easier but both the Delaware Bay and the north part of the Chesapeake Bay offered gusty winds, choppy seas, and temperatures below 40.

03 April 2014 | Cape May

Down the New Jersey Coast

We arrived to Cape May this morning at around 7:30. The trip from Atlantic Highlands took 21 hours more or less. We didn't have much wind and the Atlantic was breading slowly in very long and deep swells. To keep the speed at 6Kt we had to motor-sailed most of the time. Antares, did great; an amazing [...]

02 April 2014 | Atlantic Highlands

Getting ready for overnight leg

Yesterday we had an uneventful trip along the East River with spectacular views of New York. Crossing the famous Hell Gate was a bit nerves racking (we had a current of 5 Kt) and there was a lot traffic in New York harbor, but other than that it was a nice day.

01 April 2014 | City Island

Completed first leg

I hadn't had a chance to update this since Saturday. Sunday was a nasty day; it rained all day and night. The main project for the day was to fill the tank with water. Something that is usually simple took several hours because at this time of the year the Marina shuts down the water pipes (so that [...]

29 March 2014

We made it to Brandford...

After weeks of planning the trip is becoming a reality. Yesterday, Friday afternoon, we arrived to Brandford. The town is gray and cold -- still below 40. Antares was waiting, all ready. She is beautiful. We did a sea trial and spent the rest of the day loading and cleaning the boat. Richard wanted [...]

20 January 2014 | Washington - DC

From the Chesapeake to the Galápagos Islands

This is my first posting on this Blog, which I m starting to document a trip I m planning to the Galápagos Islands.

We made it

06 April 2014 | WhiteHall Bay
Warmer now
It was difficult to write after Cape May. I thought that after the off-shore passage things would be much easier but both the Delaware Bay and the north part of the Chesapeake Bay offered gusty winds, choppy seas, and temperatures below 40.

We departed Cape May 2 hours after schedule (10am instead of 8am) waiting for the staff at the Marin to open the diesel pumps. I was concerned because the plan was to take the Cape May channel to enter the Delaware bay and there are two bridges that we had to clear -- only 55 feet high during high tide, while the mast of the boat is 56 feet. We had to cross the bridges before high tide and we barely made it.

When we entered the Delaware bay we had winds between 20 and 30 Kts and 5-6 foot seas. They were blowing from the East though so we were able to sail up the bay at 8 Kts. Originally we had planned to spend the night at anchor a few miles before the entrance of the Chesapeake-Delaware Channel (behind a small piece of land called Reedy Island) but since conditions were not nice, it was still daylight, and we had the right tide entering the CDC, we decided to continue. We entered the channel at around 5:30 pm and spent the night docked outside a very empty Marina 7 miles west of the entrance. We had a quick dinner and went to bed pleasantly tired.

The next day we started at 7am to catch the tide in the channel. We prepared coffee and sandwiches for lunch underway. By 9 or so we were out in the Chesapeake Bay and set sails. The forecast was for gale conditions with winds of 35 Kts from the west. It was not that bad but we had to work the sails hard setting and taking off reefs. The first few ours we had the wind in our nose and had to tack to the clear the land. Also, when I tried to turn on the engine to charge the batteries it did not cranked! Nothing. While Juan David and Richard sailed the boat I went down to see if there was something wrong with the solenoid (the switch that allows electricity to reach the starting motor). It took me a while to fix the problem with the boat moving up and down but eventually we had the engine running again (I have to change that solenoid). At around 12 am we also changed the course southward and we had a nice reach at 7-8Kts until the Bay Bridge (see pic) that we crossed at 4:00. We rolled the genoa and motored to the entrance of Whitehall Bay and then to Whitehall Marina, Antare's new home. We arrived before 5pm exhausted but very happy.

This part of the trip is thus over. We made the passage from Branford to Whitehall bay in 7 days; a great sailing experience and in very good company. We can also not complain about the food and wine.

The next part of the trip will take us to the Bahamas...



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