29 October 2016 | Georgia, USA
29 October 2016 | Georgia, USA
08 October 2016 | Brunswick, Georgia, USA
07 October 2016 | Hotel on West Side of Hwy I-95, Brunswick, GA, USA
07 October 2016 | Brunswick, Georgia, USA
06 October 2016 | Brunswick, Georgia, USA
05 October 2016 | Brunswick, Georgia, USA
04 October 2016 | Photo off Outer Banks near Cape Lookout, North Carolina.
27 September 2016 | Piankatank River, Chesapeake Bay, Virginia, USA
22 September 2016 | Current Position - Sassafras River, Chesapeake Bay, Maryland, USA
16 September 2016 | Orient, Long Island, New York, USA
11 September 2016 | Ebenecook Harbor near Boothbay Harbor, Maine, USA
07 September 2016 | Penobscot Bay, Maine, USA
05 September 2016 | Penobscot Bay, Maine, USA
04 September 2016 | North Haven, Vinalhaven, Maine, USA
28 August 2016 | Castine, Maine, USA
27 August 2016 | Belfast, Maine, USA
12 August 2016 | Mount Washington, New Hampshire, USA
06 August 2016 | Canada/USA Border Crossing
04 August 2016 | La Malbaie, Quebec, Canada
The Hitch Hiker
19 November 2013 | At Sea - 13 deg 12.827N; 080 27.436W
Vicki – At Sea, Air 29C, Water 29C,Cloud 4/8, Wind 11kn N, Swell 1.5M, Barom 1008 mb
It was extremely hard to leave Bastimentos Island and the Red Frog Marina, especially after I saw my first wild capuchin monkey on a tree near the pool at my favourite villa as I took a last look around. But a good weather appeared over the weekend allowing us to head north towards Jamaica so yesterday we headed out to sea at 0800 in very heavy rain and short sharp 2 m swells. Maynard assured me that the swells would be worse at the beginning but lessen the further north we went and he was right. Windows for a comfortable direct passage between Panama and Jamaica are rare as the trade winds whip across the Caribbean Sea at 25 kn year round. However, when a hurricane or tropical storm forms in the Atlantic, it often disrupts the trade winds. Tropical Storm Melissa has been forming over the last few days and is now a huge storm measuring 230 miles across its centre. As you can see above, TS Melissa has completely disrupted the trades and this has resulted in a great diminution of the swell in the central Caribbean. The swells here are often very steep and have a short period and going against it can be very tiring and hard on crew and equipment so finding a window like this is very important. The swell in the centre of the above storm is around 10 meters and where we are in the green colour is 1 – 2 meters. We should be passing Jamaica on Thursday and may even stop for a rest unless the weather dictates that we need to keep moving.
We were accompanied yesterday by a brown booby bird which stayed with us for 5 hours hovering above the deck before swooping down to catch flying fish. We estimated he caught around 3 fish an hour. Around 4.45pm he landed a few times before deciding to sit on the cover of our Portugese Bridge for the night. He yawned a couple of times then rested his head in his feathers until sunrise at 0620 this morning, stretched his wings a couple of times and flew away 20 minutes later to a freighter which just happened to be passing us heading south about 3 miles off our beam. Perhaps he does this every night hitch hiking the Caribbean on whatever vessel comes his way and as we’ve only seen 3 vessels in the last 2 days, he’s a very lucky bird.