14 days sailing to the Leeward islands

It was great to be at sea again with nice bit of open ocean in front of me with only some ships and nothing too big to hit or avoid. This would be my third singlehanded passage down on two different Hogfish designs of mine. I have done the return trip 4 times which can be a lot easier as it should be mostly down wind. This trip is a challenge because you have to make at least 400 miles of easting to get far enough out so that when the trades are encountered you can lay the course down to the islands. On three previous trips with three different boats every trip was different but the easting was made , albeit in rough going for the first 4 days hard on the wind.

The forcast was perfect, the first 3 days the wind was to be in the north and then slowly veer to the NE and by that time I should have been out far enough to catch the trades on down for the last 700 or so miles. The forcast was right on for the first day and night with 20-25 knot winds with the Hogfish close reaching along with "Sinclair" the wind vane steering perfectly or I should say steering well enough that I could stay out of the wet and wind. This was to be our first real offshore passage together and I had to figure out all of his wims and needs. By the end of this trip I can say that this Aries Mark IV vane is the best vane Ive every owned. 

By day 2 day the wind was dropping out to under 10 knots. I still had to go due east another 300 plus miles before the wind would veer into the east. I can carry 85 gallons of diesel onboard but never have more than 20 gallons in the tank. We just dont motor that much. I left with a total of 30 expecting this to last me the whole winter. My mistake . 

Stowing our 123" fiberglass dinghy on deck is very easy with two people but its just a process doing it alone. This skiff I designed and built to be out sports car, truckster, dive boat, sailboat and our lifeboat. My idea is it will not sink even with a hole in it, it can move instead of just floating about and you can just untie it as the boat goes under and roll it over and bail it out. Of course Iam not a cold weather sailor so I have to limit my disasters to temporate climates.

This chart has a few of HFMs passages on it to and from the Caribbean. The red dots are this last trips daily runs. You can see I just got out far enough to lay the Virgins. 650 miles of beating to weather. Glad my girls were flying down as this would not be fun for them.

 

Some other passages in the Hogfish flat bottom line of boats sailed alone or with my family.

Sunrise on the third day out sailing in a bit of breeze.

There it is ! Another day but could use a bit more wind , still making eastward progress.

Sunset on day three with "Sinclair" doing the steering.

I reefed  the mainsail 28 times on this trip. Went through 12 squalls that I pulled the jib in while I Steered through them. And used 28 gallons of diesel when it went flat .

I love Tropic birds. They are almost always in pairs. I wish life was as simple as theirs when all you did was fish all day and think about where you were going to procreate next. Simple life.

The beginning  of 4 days of next to no wind. This can be lots of fun as you get to see lots of stuff in the water that you would normally not see.

A Dominican fish attractor. You cannot see them but a huge ball of fish down bellow.

Ghosting by a nice bucket with a Triple Tail fish hanging out. I wanted to swap out our split yellow bucket for this grey one but did not want disturb him and the other small fish. I could spear these fish with my HeadHunters pole spear as they dont move but I was alone and had plenty to eat.

Heres some more that are camouflaging themshelfs in white next to a five gallon jerry jug.

I counted 15 that I passed by.

I can open my diesel tanks and look right inside to clean and to really see whats left. Takes a minute.

Now its calm, with next to no swell, I have no electric auto pilot as I dont motor much and dont want to have an expensive thing just hanging around waiting to be used. So I ended up hand steering for 16 hours a day till night. For two nights the wind would come up after 8:00 and we could sail along at 2-3 knots till day light when it would go flat again. It was a nice way to move along at night. I take short naps with a timer at night lasting 15 minutes each. Iam always rested.

Sunrise after being becalmed all night long. I had 2 gallons of fuel left so I just drifted all night moving south 6 miles in 18 hours.

The Wind started to pic up on the 7 th day out and this French sloop came by to ask for cigarettes as they had run out 5 days ago sailing from the Canary Islands heading to the Bahamas. I dont smoke  

Six days more of sailing hard on the wind I was just able to lay the Annagodda passage and sailed into Virgin Gorda in the BVIs . The wind had headed me going into the SE so I decided to see an old friend Argorn in Beef Island. The BVIs are packed with boats. It was a Hugh culture shock to be suddenly trust back into a world of hundreds of very expensive boats to avoid. But the BVIs are very pretty.

Lots of boats , and vacationing people. With Hogfishes shallow draft I was able to anchor in 3 of water so could stay away from all the liabilitys of so many boats.

After my visit with Argorn and a few cold beers i made landfall at St. Martin sailing 98 miles tacking to weather in 20 knot winds to cover the 78 mile direct course to get here taking 26 hours. I passed by within a mile of Anguilla and its out laying islands . Ahead is the French side of St. Martin.

Iam now in St. Martin waiting for Rachel and our dog Bequia to fly in. This island is the busiest place in the islands for yachts and turist. Its nosiey , tons of traffic, good food and lots of good people watching but I cant wait to get out of here. Soon they come.

The best part is beers are only a dollar and rum drinks only two!!! So I can relax after a days work on the Hogfish and talk to all kinds of real sailors from all over the world. 

Next stop Saba ... Talk soon.

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Multihulls in the islands

We are anchored in Prince Rupert Bay in Dominca today. The sail down from the Saints was in 30-35 knot close hauled conditions. The HFM made the crossing of 19 miles in 3 hours with three reefs in the mainsail and the 1# jib. When tacking into the bay we had to sail into an excelleration wind zone with gusts up to 40. With the jib furled in half we still put the sheer down to the water for the first time but had no problem tacking in and anchoring under sail. We have renamed these the exzilleration zones. There are 93 sailboats anchored here today. Five years ago at the same time there were only 10 yachts. Times are changing. The town boasts new roofs, docks, a half built huge hotel , and is remarkably clean. The place has gone through a clean up act. 

Having asked the boat boys how business is with all the yatchs about they say it is down because not so many charter boats that spend the money, just cruisers that only spend a bit in each island. They understand that our boats are our homes . But they do their best to help out and to see what $ can be earned from this crowd. 

Yesterday , Tim , Gayle, Rachel , I and our daughter Lillian climbed and hiked up one of the mountain peaks here taking 5 hours for this hike. It is mostly strait up on slippery leaves, rocks and mud. Going up the trails is hard but going down is worse as its so steep and slippery.

Today is recovery day so I will post some boat pictures in various categories .

I will be showing cruising multis mostly. A simple nice cat.

A fast looking tri in Guadaloupe sailed by a young couple.

This tri comes apart for shipping.

An oldie foiler. This tri has got to have some tales to tell.

This I belive is a Rodger Hatfield design . Built in plywood. Very simple and very strong.

Going to rot in Guadaloupe as this tri is outdated already.

A nice old Newick wooden tri in the Saints.

Simple plywood catamran . Truth is it takes as much time to build this boat as the HFMS as you have to do every thing perfect. The HFM in plywood could build 3 of these easyily. No lead though.

31 tri in Antigua. Looks fast but not so sexy.

A Nigel Irens tri getting ready for the Caribbean 600. I have had the pleasure of drinking rum and getting drunk  with this great designer talking shallow draft boat ideas and designs a few years back after a days racing during the Antigua Classic regatta . I was sailing on "Gaucho" a 65 double ended Mario Campos design from Argintina as tactian. We won third place in our class. 

This Dutch tri has anchored in front of our place last spring . They hung out for a couple of days waiting for a good weather window to sail to Bermuda in. They like light winds of 10-15 knots of wind as this tri would sail at 4-5 knots faster than wind speed so in 12 knts they would be doing close to 18 knts. When the wind got up so would the seas and so would the spray, motion and noise. After 18 knts they would then have to slow down to be comfortable. All boats are a compromise.

The Dutch speak such perfect English it makes me feel like I should go back and study my own language again. The woman that was sailing on this tri had built it herself years before with a husband and then sold it. With a new partner she found it again and bought it back. A work of art and a sailing machine.

Here is Lew Mcgregger on his Russell Brown Proa " Cimba" cruising with us on Hogfish 23 years ago. 

What a great concept. So much fun to watch them sail into a bay heading into the fartest Cornner with no room to move, suddenly stop , swing the mainsail around and sail back and out on a new tack and new bow.

This is Rodger Hatfields 31 tri built and designed by him in wood,ply and nomex. Here we are sailing out of Salt Run in St. Croix to go over to St. Thomas to do some warranty work on the first wave piercer power tri. This boat was a dream to sail as it was so fast you could just breeze by any sailboat. We closed reached over the 42 miles at an average of 18 knots an hour. This shot was taken 24 years ago.

This is my own Dick Newick Val  31 trimaran that I salvaged from a remote island in the Bahamas. It was sunk up a very hard to reach creek. I will be bringing this boat back to life when we return from this cruise. Its taken apart now and up high and dry for the Hurricane season.  It should be very fast as I will use all my knowledge to keep her light and strong with todays modern materials. So far I have removed whats not needed and she has risen by 6" . I feel this will be the fastest Val to date when Iam done. Iam looking forward to this project. This boat will be my fantasy speedster if I can handle the pressure. Ive told Rachel she will have to share a tooth brush and only wear bikini bottoms with Pareos only. Must stay light and fast.

This tri and my other sloop project are both 31 long have the same size masts and sail area. The tri weighs 1,900 lbs  designed vs the sloop at 9,800 lbs. The tri has one bunk. The sloop We can live in comfortably.

When we eventually sell the HFMS these will be our Bahama sailboats. I hope to live long enough to enjoy these boats.

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