2010 Summer Cruise - Passage to New England - Key West to Beaufort

Devante's Dream is safely at the marina in Morehead City NC. Thank you Vlad and Gary for a great job in helping get her here safely. More on the passage later.

Eric

2010 Summer Cruise - Passage to New England - Final Preparations

Devante's Dream is ready. The main sail and stackpack are back on the boom.

Vlad and Gary are onboard finishing the final rigging of gear. Water has been topped off.

We are casting off. It is now 1015 May 27th 2010.

Hasta Manana!

2010 Summer Cruise - Passage to New England - Preparations 05-26-10

Preparations update

Heads

Replaced the plunger mechanisms and valves on both heads with the new locking style. Yucky job.

AIS
The AIS (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_Identification_System) receiver is working. Now we can see (and avoid) the big ships, their course, speed, name right on the computer. Cool.

Rigging

Checked all of the rigging and installed several new sheets and halyards (ropes for the landlubbers).

Took the main sail and lazy jack cover off and brought it to the sailmaker for repairs. We'll put that back on this afternoon.

Charts
We now have GPS and paper charts for the entire eastern seaboard. There are three separate GPS systems, the "built-in" chart plotter at the helm (RayMarine RL70C Plus), the laptop running Cap'n software and my iPhone running Navionics charts. Amazingly the iPhone is the easiest of the three to use. Each system is also running a completely different set of charts.

Navigating
We're not totally relying on the GPS though. We'll be recording our position in the log book at the start of the each watch and we plot our course on paper charts as well. We also have four compasses on board, two built-in and two hand-held, plus my iPhone even has one.

Safety
The satellite phone is onboard and working properly. It's pretty cool. In addition to normal voice calls I can sent text messages to both cell phones and email addresses as well as recieve text messages. A nice feature is that receiving text messages is free. Using this feature I'll be able to get (brief) weather updates at sea.

The running lights have been checked and replaced where necessary and spares are on board. The safety equipment has been checked and updated where necessary.

Flag
A small victory today was installing the new flag pole and flag.

Eric

2010 Summer Cruise - Passage to New England

Eric is in Key West getting Devante's Dream ready for the passage to New England. The scheduled departure date is Thursday May 27th.

Yesterday, Monday May 24, was punch list day. Figure out what things need to be repaired or adjusted prior to departure. It's amazing how many little details there are. Charts, fuel, sails, filters, emergency gear, spare parts, creature comforts, blah, blah, blah.

Jane did some initial shopping to get the provisioning started that I brought down in the car from Peachtree City. Finally got all that stowed away last night. Then had a nice dockside dinner with my live aboard neighbors going away party. They are heading back to Canada for the summer. There are probably around 10 -15 live aboard couples here at Oceanside Marina.

Today is more punch list work and also looking at the all important weather. The wind has been easting here unusally late in the season. Right now the forcast on http://www.passageweather.com/ calls for the wind out of the Northwest for the start of our trip, clocking west and utimately south/south west. Sou'-sou'-west is the prevailing summer wind here. If that forecast holds out that would be ideal for the first leg of the passage to Beaufort. We'll see.

"In my late forties I started to forget things. I'd tell you what they were but I can't remember."

Eric Langley, Sr.

This is Tinkers Island in the background. We'll be sailing right by it on our way to Marblehead. The children in the photo are my neices and nephew. Can't wait to have them onboard!

2010 Summer Cruise - Passage to New England

The gear is all laid out in the rec room and ready to load into the car. I am doing a one-way car rental with Enterprise to Key West so I can leave the car there. Heading out on Sunday morning.

2010 Summer Cruise - Passage to New England

After going far too long without a decent offshore passage Devante's Dream is heading to New England for the summer of 2010. Fresh off a complete bottom job and survey she's ready to go. This will be her second time up the coast with this one planned to go all the way to Maine.

But before we get to Maine though there's some ocean miles to cover.

Here's the initial passage plans;

Intinerary;
Key West to Beaufort NC
715NM on the rhumb line
7.5kts average (with the Gulf Stream and motor sailing when necessary)
3.7 days (best case)
Depart Key West: 05/27/10
Arrive Beaufort NC: 06/01/10 + - (allowing for six transit days)

Beaufort NC to Marblehead MA
675NM on the rhumb line
6kts average (motor sailing when necessary not much stream help after Beaufort NC)
4.7 days (best case)
Depart Beaufort NC: 06/04/10 + - (earlier if possible)
Arrive Marblehead MA: 06/10/10 + - (allowing for 6-7 transit days)
Landfall and layover in Martha's Vineyard then on to Marblehead MA which will be "Home Base"while in New England

Crew on board include;
Eric, Vladimir, Gary and Bob