Day 1 - St. Thomas to Chesapeake - Lost Yael ha yafa to US-immigration
Blue Note
Marco M.
Wed 6 May 2015 16:43
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Date: Wednesday 06/05/14 - Time: 12:030 EDT Position 20:54.792N 66:01.472W COG 350M SOG 6.5kt, Wind 138T 16 kt, Temperatures: Air 30C, Sea 25.6C Barometer: 1015 hPa Last 24h Sailed Distance: 170 NM Last 24h Decrease Distance on rhumb line: 169 NM Sailed distance since departure: 171 NM Time since departure: 1d 0h 20m Average Speed since departure: 6.95 kt Average VMG since departure: 6.93 kt Average VMG speed last 24h: 7.04 kt Intention: sail to Chesapeake Bay Distance to End on rhumb line: 1099 NM ETA: Thursday May 14, 2015 Detailed Track (50 is the maximum number of point, i.e. once the last point reaches 50, the last point always is 50): http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0EIVGO9oiEYLjqAfRxhderm34cEEF9dMP Unfortunately Blue Note lost Yael ha yafa as crew to the US-immigration interpretation of geography. On Monday Yael ha yafa entered the US in Cruz bay with a ferry from West End, BVI. Apparentely, even after spending more than two months in the BVI and in the Leeward Islands (Dominica, Guadeloupe, St. Barths) for the US-immigration law this does not qualify as "having left the US" and the 90 days ESTA visa will not reset. Apparently going to any of the adjacent island (which island is not exactly clear) does not qualify as having left the US. The immigration officer let Yael enter the US but he told her (since she had first entered the US on Feb 16) that she will be able to stay only until May 14. So we had a dilemma: 1) Ignore US-immigration dead line and have Yael join the number of people that illegally extend their stay. Obviously the risk of that were quite high and so the consequence. 2) Sail together to Bermuda with the hope that Bermuda would not be considered an "adjacent Island" and it would qualify as having left the US. Then Yale from there would have had to fly to the US. 3) Yael will fly to Montreal in Canada, visiting the many friends she has there, and then fly back to the US on May 21 when for sure I should be back in NJ. We selected option #3 and on Monday night scramble to find flights for Yael for leaving the next day. So here I am sailing solo on Blue Note. Luckily the weather conditions are perfect, 15-18 kts wind on the bean with calm sea, and all is order on Blue Note with all system (so far - knock wood or touch iron as we say in Italy) working.  New Raymarine i70 to replace the old ST60 tridata that could not display wind speed but only depth and water-speed.  Last moment quick fix of the old genoa with the now indispensable speedy stitcher tool that French crew Damion introduced me to during the Caribbean-Azores voyage of 2013. Given the forecast for light winds we decided to get more miles from the old genoa and save the new one for some other crossing.  An easy nice sail in the trade winds on beam reach. |