SV Kiviuq

People and boats are on the move in Jolly Harbour, or preparing to be so, and they are going in all directions.

Many crews are leaving their boats here for the northern summer and autumn, and thus for the hurricane season in the eastern Caribbean (which peaks from about mid-July to mid-November). The yard is therefore busy lifting boats, and every day we see a few make the slow 200m journey in the boat hoist to the long-term storage area.

Some boats and crews are sailing away to different points of the compass. A few will go south to Grenada or Trinidad for the hurricane season as these islands are below the main hurricane tracks, although hurricanes are not totally unheard of there. Then we have the true migrants; fewer in number but going further. These break down into two main groups, one of which has two subgroups. The first group comprises those boats returning to Europe. Some sail there, often via the Azores, while some are transported back to the European summer aboard cargo vessels. The option to transport back as cargo seems to be quite popular. As you might expect this is not an inexpensive option, but probably no more so than hiring a delivery crew.

Then the final group comprises those boats going to the north American mainland for the northern summer. These boats generally sail there, some with a stopover in Bermuda en route. We are in this last group.

Our plan is to sail to Nova Scotia, some 1800nm north of Antigua, with a stopover in Bermuda. Bermuda is happily almost on the direct route and about halfway between Antigua and Lunenburg, Nova Scotia.

When we leave will be dictated by when we are ready and by the weather outlook for the eastern Caribbean and western Atlantic. Much of the work to get Kiviuq ready for sea again is now done, and victualing is ongoing, while the evolution of Atlantic weather systems is under observation. And for the very first time we will be making use of a professional shore-based weather router for the passages north. To that end we have engaged Chris Parker in Florida with whom we will be in phone and email contact prior to and on passage. It will be interesting to see if Chris' views differ much from our own based on our interpretations of grib files and Metarea text forecasts. Where he will probably have the edge is in calling the cold fronts that periodically move eastwards off the American mainland, and that will be useful for routeing purposes.

The excitement and the usual pre-passage tension build.