Novice Sailor: Bill and Yvonne Thompson
Family Award: Peter and Anna Fuller
Racing Family: Wendy and Blair Magnus
Super Cruiser: Dave Christianson and Vera Steinberger
Volunteer of the Year: Rob Eby
Single Handed Sailor: David Luke
Tea Cup - May 31st 2008:
1st Black Pearl
2nd Borderline
3rd Deja Blue
Summer Solstice Pursuit Race - June 21st 2008:
1st Sloop Du Jour
2nd Black Pearl
3rd Sorcerer
Warroad Race - June 28th – July 2nd 2008:
1st Bird Bath
2nd Vixen
3rd Fogger
Commodore’s Cup Pursuit Race - July 19th 2008:
1st Black Pearl
2nd Sorcerer
3rd Raven
Rear Commodore’s Cup Pursuit Race - Aug 23rd 2008:
1st Raven
2nd Black Pearl
3rd Borderline
Club Championships 2008:
1st Black Pearl
2nd Borderline
3rd Sorcerer
Update from Nana Maria
Well, we're still out here, but I swear to you, we are the only ones. I haven't seen another boat in days. I'm exaggerating a little, because there was the odd light at night on the horizon every once in a while. But that's about it. In other years, we'd see a boat here and a boat there throughout the day and night. So I keep wondering, did we make a wrong turn somewhere? Where is everyone?
A couple of the boats in our fleet have had to divert to Bermuda because of damage to sails and rigging. Fortunately, it was not too far for them since most had headed towards Bermuda at the start in case they needed a place to hunker down if Paloma became a problem. Sunday we were able to sail most of the day. The winds were pretty light and behind us, so we got out Captain Mark's favorite sail-a flasher that he affectionately calls "The Whomper!! " (Janel refers to it as "His Bag of Terror!") The Whomper looks like a big kite flying on the front of the boat. It is just too big and powerful to be used safely in heavy winds, so Sunday was a good day to try it out while making progress towards Tortola at the same time.
Unfortunately, we have not seen any wildlife yet, other than a Tropic Bird, which is a white bird with a long tail that is common in Bermuda. On prior trips we've caught lovely fishmahi mahi, tuna, and white marlin. This time we haven't even had a strike. Fisago and Glass Slipper are reporting the same results.
Janel is determined to catch fish for dinner. She has resorted to her final trick-she is spraying the lure with a secret recipe of WD-40 and a secret ingredient. But just in case we're skunked again, she has started working on Plan B-she has pulled a homemade meatloaf dinner from the freezer Necessity is the mother of invention so we've found a new use for the engine. The Yanmar 160 Turbo now has secondary duty as food defroster as well. Janel is working on getting Mark to let her cook on it too.
Today, the engine is back on as we try get some "easting" done before the winds shift. The seas were still very rolly-polly on Sunday, but today they are smooth as glass. All day, we were surrounded by some very ominous looking large and dark clouds. Apparently it is some sort of Trof or Ridge that is being or will be fed by the remnants of Paloma. The sun is about to set and the cloud ridge is getting closer and uglier, so we've battened down everything and are about to have a hurried dinner in case we are up all night. To add to the excitement, we just saw a small pod of whales not too far off the starboard side of the boat. That was a nice treat. I guess we are NOT out here all by ourselves.
More Later.
Kelly & Howard
A couple of the boats in our fleet have had to divert to Bermuda because of damage to sails and rigging. Fortunately, it was not too far for them since most had headed towards Bermuda at the start in case they needed a place to hunker down if Paloma became a problem. Sunday we were able to sail most of the day. The winds were pretty light and behind us, so we got out Captain Mark's favorite sail-a flasher that he affectionately calls "The Whomper!! " (Janel refers to it as "His Bag of Terror!") The Whomper looks like a big kite flying on the front of the boat. It is just too big and powerful to be used safely in heavy winds, so Sunday was a good day to try it out while making progress towards Tortola at the same time.
Unfortunately, we have not seen any wildlife yet, other than a Tropic Bird, which is a white bird with a long tail that is common in Bermuda. On prior trips we've caught lovely fishmahi mahi, tuna, and white marlin. This time we haven't even had a strike. Fisago and Glass Slipper are reporting the same results.
Janel is determined to catch fish for dinner. She has resorted to her final trick-she is spraying the lure with a secret recipe of WD-40 and a secret ingredient. But just in case we're skunked again, she has started working on Plan B-she has pulled a homemade meatloaf dinner from the freezer Necessity is the mother of invention so we've found a new use for the engine. The Yanmar 160 Turbo now has secondary duty as food defroster as well. Janel is working on getting Mark to let her cook on it too.
Today, the engine is back on as we try get some "easting" done before the winds shift. The seas were still very rolly-polly on Sunday, but today they are smooth as glass. All day, we were surrounded by some very ominous looking large and dark clouds. Apparently it is some sort of Trof or Ridge that is being or will be fed by the remnants of Paloma. The sun is about to set and the cloud ridge is getting closer and uglier, so we've battened down everything and are about to have a hurried dinner in case we are up all night. To add to the excitement, we just saw a small pod of whales not too far off the starboard side of the boat. That was a nice treat. I guess we are NOT out here all by ourselves.
More Later.
Kelly & Howard
Life at Sea on Nana Maria
Our first day at sea was Friday. Winds were light and variable so almost all the boats spent the day motoring out of the Chesapeake Bay instead of sailing out of it. Norfolk is a very high traffic area for ships. Big tankers come into the are and wait for a pilot to escort them up the bay to their final destinations. There also plenty of tugs moving vessels as well as a huge fleet of Navy Warships and the like. As we were trying to leave the bay, one of these warships started down the channel. It was an aircraft carrier with a plane on its deck. It was being escorted by a helicopter. The helicopter kept buzzing the fleet to make sure we were not posing a threat. We waited for the warship to pass so Howard and Rodney could get a good look and some pics. It was HUGE.
In this race, you can run your engines, but there is a penalty. They add on 1 hour to your time for every hour you run your engine. So our rule of thumb is this: If one hour of engine time gets us further than 2 hours of sailing time, we run the engine. Up until Friday night, the fastest we could get the boat to sail was 3 knots so turned on the engine. By about 7pm, the wind picked up, we were singing along at 8-9knots in 17-20knots of wind. Not too shabby!
This race is “handicapped” also. Each boat has a certain number of hours that will be deducted from its time. The ratings come from the size and shape of the boat as well as the size and shape of the sails each ship is equipped with One of the fastest boats is called 1700Somewhere, a Macgregor 65 just like our Sunsets. 1700Somewhere will only have about 5 hours deducted from his final time. We will have about 23 hours deducted. Some of the smaller boats will have a much more than that deducted. This is how they even the playing field. Additionally, the Racing Fleet is broken up into 3 divisions. There is an overall winner as well as a winner for each division. We are in Division 2 and we are one of the fastest boats in that division. So if you are tracking our progress on www.Carib1500.com, keep in mind that the boats that are further south may have more engine hours or a smaller handicap so they still may not win for their divisions. (That’s my way of saying—No matter how bad it looks, we are not losing!!)
Janel is a wonderful chef and has prepared and frozen several lovely meals that we can eat on the crossing. Friday night, was her fabulous homemade Lasagna for dinner. The sails were set for the evening and it was a lovely dinner followed by a beautiful sunset. Howard and I covered the Midnight to 4M shift. It was very precarious because a thick fog settled in around 10pm. We could not see a thing. Thank goodness we have radar to keep an eye on things. The fog was fully lifted by the end of shift at 4am.
By daybreak we were well into the Gulfstream with its choppy waves, Saturday’s wind lasted all the way into the night and we spent the day plowing through the stream. Being in the Stream certainly makes things uncomfortable. The boat is tossed about and you have to hang on to do anything. The Stream runs up the coast of the US and then veers off to Europe. It carries very warm water with it. We watched water temperatures jump from 68 to 82 in a matter of a few hoursl By the end of Saturday, we were out of the Gulfstream, thank goodness. The confused and choppy seas not only contribute to seasickness but also make it hard to do the simplest tasks.
On Saturday. Marianne and I both came down with the 24hour flu that has been going around the fleet. Marianne felt it coming on all day Saturday and I joined her in her misery on Saturday night. We think Howard may have it too, or he has another bad case of seasickness. (We may not have found the right combination of drugs to keep his seasickness under control) With 3 crew members down and out, the “weak” cold front that the weather folks had been predicting blew through. It slammed with us with sustained winds at 30knots, gusts of 45knots, rain and 10’ seas. The winds were so strong that they sheared the foam off of the violently breaking waves. Sails were reefed in and out all night in an attempt to keep control of the boat. Unfortunately, Marianne and I were useless. I spent the evening tucked into the bottom berth with the lee cloth in place. (A lee cloth is a piece canvas that is strung up across the entrance to your bunk so you don’t get pitched out of bed. Believe me, it was a necessary piece of equipment last night.) Marianne wedged herself across the V-berth in an attempt to stay still. At times, I expect that she was airborne a couple times through the night as the boat lurched and slammed into the oncoming waves. When a wave crashes into the boat just right, it sounds like gunshots. Everyone was up all night and totally exhausted by daybreak. Even into the morning, we would watch the squalls gather on the radar screen as the proceeded to hammer us. Finally, the weather calmed down around 7am on Sunday.
Sunday looks like it’s going to be a beautiful day. Just don’t know if we’ll have wind.
Take care all.
Kelly & Howard on NanaMaria
In this race, you can run your engines, but there is a penalty. They add on 1 hour to your time for every hour you run your engine. So our rule of thumb is this: If one hour of engine time gets us further than 2 hours of sailing time, we run the engine. Up until Friday night, the fastest we could get the boat to sail was 3 knots so turned on the engine. By about 7pm, the wind picked up, we were singing along at 8-9knots in 17-20knots of wind. Not too shabby!
This race is “handicapped” also. Each boat has a certain number of hours that will be deducted from its time. The ratings come from the size and shape of the boat as well as the size and shape of the sails each ship is equipped with One of the fastest boats is called 1700Somewhere, a Macgregor 65 just like our Sunsets. 1700Somewhere will only have about 5 hours deducted from his final time. We will have about 23 hours deducted. Some of the smaller boats will have a much more than that deducted. This is how they even the playing field. Additionally, the Racing Fleet is broken up into 3 divisions. There is an overall winner as well as a winner for each division. We are in Division 2 and we are one of the fastest boats in that division. So if you are tracking our progress on www.Carib1500.com, keep in mind that the boats that are further south may have more engine hours or a smaller handicap so they still may not win for their divisions. (That’s my way of saying—No matter how bad it looks, we are not losing!!)
Janel is a wonderful chef and has prepared and frozen several lovely meals that we can eat on the crossing. Friday night, was her fabulous homemade Lasagna for dinner. The sails were set for the evening and it was a lovely dinner followed by a beautiful sunset. Howard and I covered the Midnight to 4M shift. It was very precarious because a thick fog settled in around 10pm. We could not see a thing. Thank goodness we have radar to keep an eye on things. The fog was fully lifted by the end of shift at 4am.
By daybreak we were well into the Gulfstream with its choppy waves, Saturday’s wind lasted all the way into the night and we spent the day plowing through the stream. Being in the Stream certainly makes things uncomfortable. The boat is tossed about and you have to hang on to do anything. The Stream runs up the coast of the US and then veers off to Europe. It carries very warm water with it. We watched water temperatures jump from 68 to 82 in a matter of a few hoursl By the end of Saturday, we were out of the Gulfstream, thank goodness. The confused and choppy seas not only contribute to seasickness but also make it hard to do the simplest tasks.
On Saturday. Marianne and I both came down with the 24hour flu that has been going around the fleet. Marianne felt it coming on all day Saturday and I joined her in her misery on Saturday night. We think Howard may have it too, or he has another bad case of seasickness. (We may not have found the right combination of drugs to keep his seasickness under control) With 3 crew members down and out, the “weak” cold front that the weather folks had been predicting blew through. It slammed with us with sustained winds at 30knots, gusts of 45knots, rain and 10’ seas. The winds were so strong that they sheared the foam off of the violently breaking waves. Sails were reefed in and out all night in an attempt to keep control of the boat. Unfortunately, Marianne and I were useless. I spent the evening tucked into the bottom berth with the lee cloth in place. (A lee cloth is a piece canvas that is strung up across the entrance to your bunk so you don’t get pitched out of bed. Believe me, it was a necessary piece of equipment last night.) Marianne wedged herself across the V-berth in an attempt to stay still. At times, I expect that she was airborne a couple times through the night as the boat lurched and slammed into the oncoming waves. When a wave crashes into the boat just right, it sounds like gunshots. Everyone was up all night and totally exhausted by daybreak. Even into the morning, we would watch the squalls gather on the radar screen as the proceeded to hammer us. Finally, the weather calmed down around 7am on Sunday.
Sunday looks like it’s going to be a beautiful day. Just don’t know if we’ll have wind.
Take care all.
Kelly & Howard on NanaMaria
Two from Noonsite - Violent attacks against cruisers
http://www.noonsite.com/Members/sue/R2008-11-10-1/view
http://www.noonsite.com/Members/sue/R2008-11-10-1/view
Fatal Pirate Attack in Venezuela
Created by sue. Last modified on 2008-11-10 17:19:20
Topic: Piracy Reports 2008
Countries: Venezuela
It has been reported on cruising forums that on Sunday night an American, the captain of the vessel Chill, Ken Peters, was killed by pirates at Isla Borracha near Puerto La Cruz.
It appears that Ken and his wife Cathy were anchored with another boat I'Lean, with fellow cruisers Steve & Gloria Davis aboard. Both boats had departed Puerto La Cruz from Bahía Redonda Marina headed west and had stopped at Isla Corracha for the night to clean the boat bottoms and prepare for the voyage west.
At approximately 1730 on Sunday a piñero with 3 men aboard approached the two anchored yachts asking for water. When one of the crew came back up from below with water, they shot Ken with pistols, and attempted to kill Steve. Details are not precise, but Steve apparently then shot at the pirates with a shotgun killing one and injuring another. Ken was killed in the exchange and Steve was shot in the thigh.
The Guarda Costa was called and responded and the 2 boats returned to Puerto La Cruz. It has been reported by cruisers in PLC that the whole community are in a state of shock and grief and that a large scale exodus of cruisers is probable.
The Venezuelan coast remains dangerous and prudent cruisers would be wise to avoid it for the time being.
http://www.noonsite.com/Members/sue/R2008-11-10-1/view
Attention Yachts Cruising the Ecuadorian Coast
Created by sue. Last modified on 2008-11-09 16:35:47
Topic: Piracy Reports 2008
Countries: Ecuador
SY ARGONAUTA I, currently cruising the Costa Rican coast, reported hearing of an armed boarding in Ecuador via the Panama Pacific Net, 0800 hrs local on 8 November 2008.
SY SARANA reported that while at anchor overnight they experienced an armed boarding and robbery by four men. The pirates stole money and electronic items and roughed up a crew member. Fortunately, injuries amounted to cuts and bruises.
The location of the attack was near Punta Pedernales, Equador. Co-ordinates 00 03N/080 050W.
The crew reported the incident to both the US and Ecuadorian Coast Guards. Ecuadorian authorities came on board to interview the crew.
Yachts traveling the Ecuadorian coast should note the area where the attack took place and be advised to avoid the area.
Please take proper precautions, be vigilant and cruise safely. Drop me a line to learn more actions you can take.
A reminder for all
Man found guilty in murder of couple tossed off yacht, 1 other
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/10/20/yatch.killings.ap/index.html?iref=newssearchJust a reminder that protection of you, your vessel and loved ones does not occur only when cruising. It can happen right at home. Be vigilant and prepared.
It would have been better if the couple had been able to defend themselves adequately against this scum.
Don
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