I am not doing the MKL and have a hotel room if anyone needs one.
Whappened?
Between cancelling the Reef Run, new work, project deadline that got pushed up and changes in logistics, it just became too much crap for one race. Not having the two races like the last time I did the run in '09 lost a lot of the luster of the run. The more I plan something the more messed up it gets. My wife actually reminded me of that fact. Our wedding was a perfect example.
The good news is that my boat is in great shape. I might try and scrounge up some money for a new set of sails and do the Bahamas run at the end of the summer. That has been on my bucket list for more than a decade and has more appeal than the Key West Run that I have already done.
Glad to hear nothing bad happened. Let me know if you need a compadre for the bahamas run. Always wanted to do that myself. Just promise not to plan too much.
Bahamas run always seemed pretty cool, although I would consider exposure to be a problem (as well as a really wide weather window. You could be stuck in Bimini for a week or more waiting to get back).
Maybe that Rackam 26 Cruiser http://www.forummarine.com/id35.htm
Yeah that would be just horrible.
Two Days. One day there, one day back.
Definitely be a fun run, what's the setting off point?
That Rackam 26 MIGHT be the ticket, doubt they sailed her across the Atlantic on her own bottom. Talk to me then, and only when the price is below $100K with all the bits. Really a beach cat may very well be the safer choice, it's faster (read: escape the weather), you can right it when it flips, upside down it's stable, miserable to ride out a storm that way but doable. Not sure I'd be making that crossing in a weekend though...
Yeah that would be just horrible.
+1
The course is from Singer Island to Lucaya Beach. It is 87.6 miles each way crossing the Gulf Stream almost directly accross. I grabbed a waypoint on my honeymoon to a section of beach, in front of a tiki bar, next to a hotel, next to a casino.
The logistics changed since I looked into it years ago. The Celebration Cruise Lines (https:/
well, those ships cruise at 15 knots, so you could probably keep pace with them...
Of course, they'd be all drinking and eating ice cream while you smash through the gulf stream, but still.... hella-cool
This has been done nonstop round trip on an I20. But I think the return point ended up 25 miles north from where they departed. You might want to begin a little further south going in either direction.
If I recall, that was one of the Delray guys and they went to Bimini and back in one day. They also did it dead reckoning. My trip will be two to three days to the Grand Bahama Island near freeport and I will have a GPS.
If you are doing round trip, it does not matter where you start you will be bucking the Gulf Stream regardless. I am starting and finishing where my boat lives. By going straight across, you are spreading it out evenly. I used to play out in the gulfstream all the time before we had kids.
The beauty of this is no ground support needed. Just a credit card and passport. If wife wants to come, she can take the cruise ship over and join me there.
Leandro Spina did it awhile back,if memory serves correctly( which is a big if).
What makes that trip so risky? I get cautioned every time I mention it but I never get a good explanation other than
it's the Gulf Stream, dummy
. How bad does it get and on what kind of frequency?
It does not take much to kick it up, especially if the storm is going against the current. There are the huge afternoon thunderstorms that come quick and without warning.
TheManShed and I were each out in the gulf stream on our boats when a storm came from the inland. I saw the storm and started heading in towards the storm. As I was passing TheManShed, I waved frantically and pointed towards the black cloud behind him. He waved back, gave a thumbs up and pointed forward toward the gulf stream. I figured he saw it and was going to try to sail around it. I considered the same thing because it was so big.
When it hit us, it was a complete whiteout situation and after it passed, we were about a mile from where I thought we would end up.
TheManShed didn't fair so well. He said an updraft picked up his boat and turned it turtle. He was underwater near the mast and had to blow bubbles to find which way was up.
I dropped my crew off and sailed North just far enough out to see a mast sticking up on the shore line. I looked for him until the sun set and I could not see anymore. I finally got back about 10pm and had to call his wife to see if he reported in. There was a small chance he was South of us and sailed it back into the inlet.
Turns out, the stream took him about 20 miles North and he was about 10 miles offshore. Just before the sun set, a fishing boat found him and towed him in turtle. If that fishing boat would not have found him, he would have not been close to shore again until North Carolina. That convinced me I needed an EPIRB.
Jake,
We had 15' seas (single spreader height) in the stream on the way to Bermuda. We had expert weather routing, a pro navigator (former Team Adventure navigator), and hit an eddy perfectly such that the current and wind direction aligned to keep our sea state low. 10 miles away laterally some friends on a R/P 65 hit a freak thunder cell with 50+ kt winds against a several knot current running opposite the wind. They saw double and triple spreader waves. They sent 7 guys forward and couldn't get their #3 down. Helmsman could only drive for 10 minutes at a time before shear exhaustion set in.
Playing that far offshore without an EPIRB is extremely risky, mine was strapped to my lifejacket in a 39' brick **** house the whole time we were offshore. Most of you are better big-ocean catamaran sailors than me and I'd be glad to team up to make such a run but I'd want 3 or 4 boats total and possible a high speed chase boat.
Oh, I definitely agree with certain safety protocols - EPIRBs (personal), multi-boat fleet that sticks together....yada. I don't know about requiring a chase boat though as that kind of removes the adventure from the whole thing. Might as well drink martinis on the chase boat.
my experience in a leaner was much more benign. We were becalmed about 1/2 way to Bimini for about the whole day. Sea was parking-lot flat, but we all knew (and plotted - back in the LORAN C days) our northward drift which was pretty substantial. We couldn't even catch a weed-line for hours.
Hotter than Hades above and below deck (1975-ish Tartan 27 - 3kt sb) and the faint gas smell and bilgewater would make you really nauseous in that heat. I swear we were less than a mile from the sun out there, and it came from everywhere (up, down, sideways) and just cooked us. Stanchions would burn you, deck was insanely hot
Knowing what I do now, we should have dropped the main and used it as an awning... probably would have gotten some fish that way, too (shade draws a lot of them out there)
Finally got some slight breeze around 20:00 hours local time and had to make a pretty long beat to make some southing.
Would have been nice if the iron genny (maybe an Atomic 4? with crud in the fuel which was probably dislodged from the sailing up to that point) was working.... But we had beer (for the adults) and OREOs (for us) a plenty, so life wasn't totally horrid.
Our Bimini stay was cut short by a day or so to catch a window back to the states. I think it was a 16 hour sail each way for that boat if the pressure and angle were right...
If the weather window is right the chase boat team won't be drinking martinis...and will be pretty useless at a rescue.
Will probably just pick a good weather window on a Friday and shove off with all of my onboard safety gear. Personal EPIRB, Spot Tracker, GPS units, waterproof cell phone and Radio (Both VHF and MP3).
I have some mods I want to add before I do it though. I want to add a third crossbar at the bridle tangs. The old Supercat 20 is good but getting old and I know of two that have broken off bows.