19 25 N  65 39 W

This entry shows our position as of 1820 UTC; 1:20 pm EST on Tuesday Nov 10.

Fantastically gorgeous, blue sky day with air temp and water temp both around 86 F; 30 C….and now all the Sea Mist crew are truly enjoying this experience….what a difference a day can make when mother nature cooperates.

After a VERY difficult couple of days, with seas that were non-relenting in their tossing and battering of Sea Mist, the winds finally dropped below 25 kts Monday afternoon and the seas soon followed with a much less negative behavior profile.  We had endured almost 60 hours of winds 27 – 35 kts and the seas had developed into a set of pretty tough battering rams. For awhile yesterday afternoon, I manually steered to drive us through the pattern of huge swells in order to avoid them hitting us broadside ….and to take advantage of some high speed surfing….must find a way to discover fun in the midst of a mess…RIGHT?  A few hours after dark, we were consistently staying under 27 kts and much of the time under 24 kts….and more importantly, at last, the battering seas had abated and we were just facing a big Atlantic swell. In these times, it sure is terrific to know that it is a strongly built Oyster that is keeping you above the briny deep.

The passage was not without impact; a subsequent blog posting will cover those incidents….not really that atypical for a tough ocean passage……..some sort of “shi_” has to happen….or it wouldn’t be sailing.

DTG to Charlotte Amalie, St Vincent USVI:    82 nm;

ETA: Just after midnight local time

Note re local Caribbean time: it is Atlantic Standard Time i.e. UTC -4 hrs  and that, of course is one hour ahead of New York/Toronto…same time as Pocologan or Halifax