We have officially moved onto Tahina, and are now making final preparations for departure. We had planned to be ready as early as Monday. We have to complete storing our final belongings, get provisions (food, water and fuel) for the trip, return the rental car, check all the boat systems one more time, and – once we have the right weather – we can leave.
The weather is the crucial part. Our first destination is Bermuda so that we can have a favorable route down to the Caribbean. Most sailors go this way in order to have favorable winds. If you try to go along the Bahamas you will have wind on your nose most of the way.
It takes about 3-4 days to get to Bermuda on Tahina from North Carolina – with the right winds. After we arrived at the boat, I started looking at the weather (I purposely waited because I didn’t want to rush our final preparations). Unfortunately, the weather forecast is not looking good.
Hurricane Ida is in the Gulf of Mexico and it will soon be influencing the weather up north. A front is scheduled to come into the Atlantic off the East Coast of the US by Wednesday. And will rapidly make its way across towards Bermuda (in the current forecasts). It doesn’t look like ideal weather for a passage currently for the entire week.
So, we may have more time to run some safety drills after all. We may even have a chance to relax and recuperate from the weeks of hard work leading to this point.
We’ll keep an eye on the weather – these forecasts can change dramatically (especially with a hurricane out there). Hopefully things will change so we can leave earlier.
My wife and I were excited to find your webpage-
Every time we’re there, I’ve always wondered what was in store for such a capable looking rig. Glad to see you have a way to track your progress.
We are native to Wilmington but are on the road most of the year for work. When we do make it back to the house, I keep Grace, our San Jaun 23, at Joyner, so we’ve seen miss Tahina quite a few times. Sue takes excellent care of us
We plan to do the same one day, once the kids are grown, so update often because we’ll definitely be checking back.
Bon Voyage!
Doug