Too Long won’t read summary: Three crazy Canadians sailed from
Halifax to
Antigua in 18 days. This is the summary for those who are looking for trip info in the future.
Good day all. Writing this
posting to help those researching for future trips from
Canada to the
Caribbean. We struggled to find much information on it and hope this will help others who come after us.
We sailed north from
Antigua to
Halifax in May. This is about the trip south. The trip report north is located here:
https://www.cruisersforum.com/forums...da-234691.html
On the trip north we followed the US coast line up, staying well off shore. We got smashed by big
weather and decided to be smart this time and hire a
weather router. We engaged Chris Parker with
Marine Weather
Communications for the trip south for forecasting and routing. Quite happy with his
work and the detail he provided for us. The forecasts were all bang on and accurate and gave us appropriate routing for the conditions. Pricing was good and we would definitely use him again. Two thumbs up.
Our schedule is wide open so we were researching where to go to leave
Canada for the
winter. We were debating going to the
Mediterranean but after asking on this forum and seeking input from others we decided on going back to the
Caribbean. We had wanted to
head south by bouncing down the US
east coast but the border closure meant we were not allowed entry into the US. Their loss but it sure would have made the trip nicer to break it into smaller pieces. Oh well, this just meant it would be a long
offshore slog
Our trip north was just the two of us and we found it too much of a grind. We put a note on here looking for crew and had many responses. Overwhelming numbers actually and much better candidates than expected. We were thinking of getting two crew but ultimately decided that just one would be sufficient. We were just about to select one, when a
family member with zero sailing experience indicated he would like to go. We agreed to take him as we figured it would be good to take someone we know to have less risk of personality clash. He immediately flew to Halifax to start his pre departure quarantine .
One routing consideration was to grabbing the northerly trades to the
Azores and then coming back. A longer trip, but we thought it would be easier sailing. In speaking with Chris he was quite confident that we could get south without too much hardship by just going straight south instead of all the way to the
Azores and back. We told him that it was in his hands to pick the best departure and he just needed to give us a three day heads up to do final prep and we would be good to go.
We left it at that, thinking we had a number of weeks of waiting.
Hurricane Epsilion was hung up off
Bermuda and there was another one building further south. We thought there was a lot of time and then we got a note from Chris that there was a weather window to go but it would mean being at exactly the right spots at the right time. We were
game to go. Departure was three days away. We scrambled to do last minute
provisioning and say good byes to friends.
We left Halifax at daybreak the morning of October 18. Flat calm. Not a
wind ripple. Chris’ first target had us headed more than three hundred miles SW of Halifax to go for a spot for the
Gulf Stream crossing. We ended up being just over a hundred miles east of
Cape Cod. Winds were light or variable so we motored nearly the entire way. Chris was adamant that we had to be entering the
Gulf Stream by a certain time and out the other side by a certain time to avoid being caught in it during a coming storm. We met both targets by just a few hours to spare.
From the initial
forecast, we had understood they getting too and across the Gulf Stream would be the hardest part and then afterwards would be easier. Big mistake on our part. Every few days we received new routing and weather updates from Chris. Thanks Inreach
satellite texting!
Shortly after crossing the Stream, Chris said That we had to be south of a certain latitude by a certain date to avoid another storm. Oh yah, and the winds were from the south. We started off trying to sail close hauled off of the SE but there was no way we were going to make the deadline. Our
catamaran does not sail up
wind worth a darn. Close Hauled/close reach, it is useless. About the best we can do is 50 degrees but if the waves are short and choppy at all we start to slam. When that happens and the bow starts pitching up and down, all progress stops and the closest One can do is about 70 degrees. Not a good angle for trying to make southerly distance against a southerly wind. More motoring it was.
We
motor sailed south and go to the next latitude Chris had for us. Whew. We were safe. But now there was no wind. More motoring continued until we were south of
Bermuda
We passed Bermuda about 30 miles West. Bermuda
radio called us up to check our intentions. We could see the lights but did not stop as we did not to do any quarantine time, etc. Plus, we just wanted to go south.
After Bermuda the winds continued out of the south. So we sailed slowly ESE. Not big distance south each day, but we ended up going all the way to nearly 60w before the weather changed. Chris texted to say that there would be no wind and we should
motor south for the next day. Which we did.
More wind from the south so now we angled slowly southwest, waiting for a favourable weather window to go due south. Finally one was
forecast and if we could be south of 24 latitude by Tuesday we would be in the trades for the final push to Antigua. Yeehaw, this is what we were waiting for. Motored through the night again as it was flat calm, getting to 24 at daybreak. Winds started to build and we had a fantastic sail to Antigua, finally arriving here this morning.
A few points
Total motoring days. Eight full days plus little bits here and there. 550 litres of
diesel burned. Way more motoring than we would have ever thought possible for this trip. Good thing we brought lots of diesel!
The last four days were the only real enjoyable sailing days. All the rest were upwind bash days and not fun. Or were motoring
Total trip time. 18 days. But we did a massive S curve of the Atlantic to follow the weather routing. We made it safely so it was worth it but with better weather the trip length may have been shortened. Total trip length was about 3500 km.
We normally average 150-200 miles a day. This trip with all the upwind, we were right close to 100. Lowest total day was 70
Unique
events - crossing East of the mouth of the
Anegada passage, we had two potential
collision scenarios with freighters. In the space of less than two hours. At the wee hours of the morning. Based on
AIS, both were less than 100 meters closest point of approach. It is because of
events like this that I mandate someone is truly on “watch” at all times. No sleeping, no doing other things, your job is on watch. Nothing happened with these events as in both cases the freighters gave way after a short
radio talk, but I often wonder how close it is for those who sleep during the night and continue to sail. Not a risk I am willing to take and to me this is why we brought on crew - so we could allow easier watch schedules to ensure someone was always up.
Schedules for watches for this trip were four on, eight off. Worked well for us, and a schedule will keep going forward.
Crew - made our lives way easier. Would definitely do this again.
Problems - one
engine alternator was putting out a real weak charge. It worked but would not charge
batteries very much. Started a day or so out of Halifax. Time to replace the
alternator now that we have arrived in Antigua. Any suggestions? Or just go with the standard
yanmar for 3JH5E.
The
navigation lights (red/green) died on day two. We don’t normally use them when
offshore, unless close to other vessels, so not a big deal. Non repairable at sea. Something in the light housing itself failed.
Radar - stopped working. Right in a real squally night. I was pretty sure it just needed a reset, but to do so meant shutting off all
electronics and turning back on. Something I was reluctant to do but given that we had no nav lights,
radar become more crucial as we approached landfall. Finally, about fifty miles out from Antigua I did a full shut down and reboot and all came back up just fine. I was most worried about the
autopilot not coming back. Had spare chartplotters via
iPad and wind angle and direction could be eyeballed. But handsteering for hundreds of km was not to be messed with. That’s why I waited so late and was so happy the
autopilot came back on.
Learnings. No big ones. If it wasn’t covid times I would do the Bermuda stop just to break the trip up a bit. It’s not too long of a trip but it would have been good to have a bit of a break
Fishing wise - landed five dorado. Had four other big
fish bust off and take all my
gear from my 200lb test handlines. Never even saw the
fish, just hit, smash and gone. I have
lost so much
gear in the last year to big fish. Probably in the range of twenty or more lures. I think I’m going to start running 500lb gaijan halibut line and tie it to a stern cleat and drag the big fish until they are dead. In fairness though they are probably too big for me to use on the
boat so I don’t need them, it’s just frustrating with all the
lost gear
So we are now in Antigua. Waiting to clear
customs. We started the process this morning and it will be resolved tomorrow. Just some issues around quarantines and whether or not sea time counts. Positive it will
work out the way it should.
All in all, a good trip. Who would have thought that we would have sailed the length of the North American continent. Twice. In the last six months. These are weird times
If we do it again we will definitely hop up the US coast. Although it’s unlikely we will sail back to Canada again, we will never say never.
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