Mahe 36: Offshore

[Jeannius]

Kev&Jo

If you do want to do the ARC you've probably got no more than a week or two to get your entry in. As of this morning they have 211 confirmed entries and the limit is 225.

I pack in work (well as a full-time employee) in less than 5 weeks and then Jean and I are heading to the BVI end of June. See you in the sun however you get there!

[LarryW]

Hi JC,

Where are you off to? Larry & I are getting Kokomo ready too. We are planning on leaving around June 25 -27 for a little over three weeks. We're going to Regatta Time in Abaco in the Bahamas for a little while then on down to the Berry Islands and just take our time.

Enjoy your trip

Eileen

[jean1146]

Hello Eileen

We are leaving tomorrow heading south. The keys,and dry tortugas.We will make it to the Bahamas next year.I envy you,it is so much easier for you to go accross.Have a safe trip,show us some pictures.
JC.

[Jef & Marin, Netherlands]

We have our boat now since the end of May, sailing since then. Done around 1800 miles since then. Tomorrow we cross from Lowestoft (UK) to the Netherlands, around 100 miles.
The weather has been unusually bad here. Lots of wind, lots of rain.

I am very happy with the sailing performance of the Mahe.
A tip: when you sail in butterfly, straight downwind, take the jib sheet out as far as possible. We guide it under the center cleat. The jib will fly stably then. We will mount blocks in the vicinity of the center cleat, and get a third jib sheet (now we use the one from the side which is unused).
On the starboard side you can bring the 3rd jib sheet to the starboard winch; on the port side we use the block and winch from the spifurl.
Regards,
Jef

[IrieCat]

Hi Scott, I hope you had a GREAT time in the Bahamas. I'm sure you did. Teri and I are in NC already so we will miss you until the fall. We had to get some work done on the boat in Fort Lauderdale so that put us behind a little on time. We had the work done by Thierry @ Nautic & Co who is awsome. He is the first person who I have found who really knows the Mahe. We were lucky that Philippe hucked us up with him. Anyway, we sailed from Ft Lauderdale to Ponce, then to Charleston trying to get back on schedule. We will leave here as soon as this storm passes (Tuesday). I have to be at work March 15 in NY. Post or drop us an email, we would love to hear about your trip.
the irie crew

[jean1146]

Just wondering what everybody is doing.We need to revive this thread.We just got back from the keys.Great trip,great sailing weather,between 20 and 30 knots while we where down there.We sailed from Keywest to Marco,that's 90 miles in 11 hours,we had a blast,doing over 12 knts at some point.Fixing to haul out the boat for a bottom job.I just had to replace the valve on the waste tank,it was leaking all the time.Otherwise our cat is performing very well.
Check out our website at Saillaviecharters.com
JC and Laurence.

[RoadRacer]

Scott,

Thanks for the offer to make the Bahama crossing together. Still too far out to have timing set. Will keep you posted though!

Mark,

Thanks for the heads-up on 2009 changes. We can't wait for some pictures to come back from our salesman who is in La Rochelle for a FP seatrial.

Regards,
Chuck

[Wayward Wind]

Originally Posted by DtM

Hey John,

Are you back down in beautiful Sydney Harbour?

Trying to work out if it is you or Reflexxion at Bayview. It was going dark when we went past in the dinghy on Monday night.

daniel

Daniel

Wayward Wind returned to Middle Harbour weeks ago. Had a fantastic sail down from Pittwater. Nice to have a slippery bottom - and clean propellors - again!

That could be Reflexion you saw as I believe Martin is planning to have her anti-fouled before setting sail for the Whitsundays.

Martin, you still in Sydney?

JohnC

[Wayward Wind]

Daniel

Not only planning to sail to Whitsundays, but intend to join the Louisiades Rally from Cairns.

JohnC

[Cotemar]

Mahe's

Here is a great web site for planning your offshore trips. Shows

Surface Winds
Surface Pressure
Wave Height
Gulf Stream

www.passageweather.com

PassageWeather.com specializes in Sailing Weather Forecasts.
Provides 7-day Wind, Wave and Weather Forecasts to help sailors with their passage planning and weather routing.

Was given to me by a Captain doing offshore deliveries from New England to the Caribbean

Mark

[Scott730]

Mark
That is an excellent weather site, I used it on our last Bahamas trip, also try www.GRIB.US You will have to load an applet, but it is very useful and you can save the downloads. It helps when you don't have WiFi for a few days.

Scott

[MKB53]

Hi Guys
I have been quiet for a while as I have been cruising the Queenslad coast and loving "doing nothing". Currently running before a 25-30Kt NW in Hervey Bay. Lazy today so I only have a headsail (furled) up and are doing a steady 7+ Kts in a bumpy sea.

We raced in the cruising division of the Abel Point YC Multihull Rendevous end August which was a lot of fun. We only had 4 boats in the cruising division but in 10Kts or less we were much quicker to windward than a Salina, a Lavezzi and a Perry 57! We also caught some of the PHS racers in cruising style boats (eg: Lightwave 38) on the initial upwind legs in spite of a 5min start dvantage but once they got out the screechers we obviously lost out. All in all I was delighted at how the little Mahe performed. Better go and tend teh sail now

[MKB53]

Now that I am heading home I feel the need to get engaged in the real world again.

I thought I would put up a couple of photos from the many hundreds we took so far in 10 weeks of cruising. Just because pics are nice to look at and all this talk of laying up boats for winter needs a counter balance.

Reflexion at Peppers Resort Long Island when we treated ourselves to a 5 star dinner and the best view from a loo in the world. It took my wife some patience and luck to get that shot!

[Scott730]

Daniel
Kev and Jo have their boat up for sale, I met them in Florida and they told me that a business commitment cut their cruising plans short, even still they cruised the Med, crossed the Atlantic, cruised the Caribbean and the South East coast of the U.S. What an adventure!

[LarryW]

Scott, You mentioned you were heading to the Bahamas in December. Are you going to sail down the coast and cross from Ft. Lauderdale or Miami? If so we'd love to meet up with you for a night and see all the changes you have made to Oceanview.
Larry & Eileen Kokomo lwinchel@msn.com