Crossing the Ocean on Momentum 42

November 2, 2023 - November 14, 2023

Hampton Virginia where all the events happen for the rally and where we will leave on our offshore passage. We had met Jill and John once before when we were both in DC at the same time. Often when you have people crewing on your boat you may not have ever met them in person before so we were happy that we had had the opportunity to have a few drinks and chat with them in person. Getting ready to head out on an offshore passage means ordering packages and having them delivered to the marina. Amazon must love these rallies as every boat on the dock was receiving multiple packages every day. The key is to try and get all of them delivered before you set sail. However, we do not have a set launch date for leaving Hampton as everything in sailing centers around one key element, weather. Weather dictates when you leave, and how quickly you can arrive but it also dictates how long you stay in place. You may need to move due to bad or changing weather even if you really like a place. 

This was the case with this year's Salty Dawg Rally. A lot of the boats were hoping for another couple of days before it was time to depart but some bad weather was coming and each Dawg had to decide if they should take the early weather window and get going or risk being stuck at the dock for a week to two weeks longer. The captains who had their crew and all the things to safely cross set sail in the first few days of November. Nikki and I chatted and decided that we would also head out early, setting sail on November 2, 2023. This did not give us as much time but we managed to finish our shopping, receive all our packages, and prep the crew on the boat and emergency procedures. 

At noon on November 2, 2023, our great journey began. We motored out of Hampton and entered the Chesapeake Bay. If you have never been to the area, it is a major shipping and naval area. This means you are always on the lookout for big ships but you also need to beware of the dredgers that are constantly operating at the entrance. You see the bay here really should not exist or should be more of an inland sea than a bay. If it were not for the dredging around the mouth of the bay it very well would have filled in by now. Once we got the sails up, around 1:30, and started to sail it felt great. We were with a group of around 20 or 30 boats all leaving the same day. The rally had 88 boats leaving from two ports, one here in Hampton and the other north of us in New Port, RI. The fun was short-lived as the wind started to drop and we had to start to motor sail by around 4 pm. 

Sunset on our first night

Our course for the next couple of days was to get across the Gulf Stream and head southeast towards Bermuda. We will not be going to Bermuda but we need to head East enough that we can catch some trade winds to take us all the way south to Antigua. 

By the second day, we had gotten word from our weather router, that we all needed to slow down and let a bad weather front move in front of us. So we reefed the sails and slowed down as much as we could. Eventually, we and several other boats had to sit and wait, no sails, no engines just floating waiting for word that we could make a run for it. We ended up making our turn south a bit early as again the weather was not helping matters. By day 4 and 5 we needed to pick up the pace and get South to a certain latitude or another front was going to push the tradewinds south and we would be chasing them to Antigua. That was not an option for us so we furled our parasailor and started motor sailing to get there on time! 

The seas and wind have been all over the map this first week out. We had gusts in the 20s and lulls in the 3-knot range. The shifts we had set were working out great. We each did a three-hour shift so over one day we would all do two complete shifts. This allowed everyone lots of rest time and we were all getting along well. John and Jill would sometimes share their late shift which is nice as the boredom can set in. 

By 6:00 pm on November 9th, we entered the trade winds and Nikki was quick to get the sails up and get those engines off. Over the first 7 and half days of sailing, we ran the engines for about 100 hours so over half the time we had been motoring or motor sailing. Needless to say, she was super happy to get them off. To give you an idea of how strong and consistent the trade winds are from the time we entered on November 9th until we dropped anchor on November 14th we only ran them for 5 hours and most of that was to motor around Antigua so we could get into Falmouth Harbour and drop anchor before it got dark. 

That is correct, at 5:45 pm we dropped anchor and officially arrived in Antigua. It was so nice to be there. 

Summary of our journey:

Left Hampton: 12:00 pm November 2, 2023 

Arrived Antigua: 5:45 pm November 14, 2023

Total Time at Sea: 12 Days 5 hours and 45 minutes 

Total Hours: 293.75 hours

Motor Hours: 105 

Sailing hours: 188.75 

Distance: 1,610 Nautical Miles 

Average Speed: 5.5 knots

Fish caught: 3 Mahi Mahi that we ate! 1 Swordfish that we were happy that broke free at the transom 1 Barracuda that we let go.

We saw dolphins numerous times, amazing sunrises and sunsets, and stars like you have never seen before. We had rough seas and calm seas, Zorro preferred the calm seas, but being out in the middle of the ocean for days on end is a magical experience. 

That is an overview of how we got to the Caribbean and we can now start the blogs with sun and fun. First Nikki needs to check us in, Zorro needs to see the vet to get cleared in and we all need a drink or two or three. Tune in next for our adventure in Antigua and Barbuda.