It’s Saturday morning November 12 and the crew of Pandora is getting ready to depart Hampton, VA for Antigua after 12 days of weather delays. We are, from left to right, Bob Osborn, skipper, and George Day and Bob Farley, crew.
Tropical storm Nicole swept through our area last night with gale force winds, followed by clearing westerlies. There should be as many as 50 boats in the Salty Dawg Caribbean Rally fleet departing in this opening weather window.
Our passage is in three parts. First, cross the Gulf Stream where we hope conditions won’t be too bumpy. Next, we will make our westing at about 28 north latitude to about 62 west longitude. The forecast is for motoring weather.
Then, we will take a right into the boisterous trade winds for that blast reach to Antigua. Squalls, calms and strong breezes are features along the way.
When you read this on Thursday morning, we will be in our fifth day at sea. Hopefully, a landfall at Antigua will be three or four days down the track.
It’s good to be going back to sea.
You can follow the Caribbean Rally tracker here
You can follow Bob’s daily blog while at sea here
