“37:01N 076:21W”

Friday 27^th October – Saturday 4^th November

We left Gary and Greta’s dock and motored out of Norfolk to the Bluewater Yachting Centre in Hampton, just 12 miles from Greta’s.  We refuelled and went to our slip, and then went and registered with the Salty Dawg Rally.

For the next week we attended twice daily briefings, plus various talks that were going on. On Saturday there was a chicken barbeque which is a chance to meet with other boats. On Hallowe’en there was a Dark and Stormy Party (fancy dress optional, plus drinks of Dark and Stormy (dark rum and ginger beer), followed by a pig roast.

On Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday there was a web cast from Chris Parker the weather guru.  Not a lot of wind but Thursday looks good (Tuesday broadcast); by Wednesday forecast was pretty much the same but wind also on Saturday.  Leaving Thursday seemed to involve 50 to 80% motoring to Antigua, but could go via Bermuda to collect more fuel.  Quite a few boats seem to be opting for that, but we were not keen. So we will leave Saturday.

The next consideration is the Gulf Stream which runs along the US east coast from south to north.  It runs quite fast and not good to cross with any northerly wind as we don’t want wind against current, makes big waves!  If we go Saturday we can sail most of the way down the coast and the wind is dying before we reach the Gulf Stream so we will motor across, and then motor around an eddy and then see what the weather throws at us.  We can sail in very light winds using our cruising shute, so we will see.

We hope to be in Antigua by about 16^th November.  We will post daily positions and blog as we go.