...we beat Richard Branson......!

....put it like this, we didn't exactly beat him, we just arrived fifty yards infront with more than a little wind up our tails.........to be perfectly honest, our maiden sail to Canada was a walk in the park compared to this one.....!

We left Yankee Point Marina a week last Friday having been advised by 'Herb' that the best time to make the passage was to leave on Monday so we (Herb is a radio 'guru' who gives out individual weather advice to people like us) thought getting as close to the mouth of Chesapeake Bay would give us the advantage.....true but that's were all the fun started.....a euphemism for aaaahhhh!!!!

Monday was calm....we even complained about lack of wind......not something that Tim usually suffers from.....toward the early evening things started to pick up and that was the last time until early Saturday morning that we slept anywhere other than in the cockpit of the boat.....no kidding

300 miles out we picked up a passenger. Not too sure which breed. It stayed with us 3 days, and headed to shore in Bermuda. It was very good at crumbs and defecation!

Not being an alarmist I will cut to the chase so as not to turn myself into a gibbering wreck by reliving blow by blow the full horror of the situation....suffice to say if you've read the papers re Sir Richard Bransons' failed attempt to cross the Atlantic then it was all true......winds up 35 knots and never below 17 knots, making it a gale force nine and sea swells of 40ft with full on rain obviously obscuring my already limited vision......which with hind sight was a blessing....!

Will add details tomorrow with some non scary photos cos I've already broken out in a cold sweat writing this much....

Gibbering wreck and Oh My God....aka Witter and Whinge

Let's start at the very beginning

We left UK early in August and flew to Washington DC. Renting a car at the airport, we decided that a satellite GPS navigation system would be a good idea. ...the real reason was he just didn't trust my powers of navigation, not that he's wrong 'cos I would probably be admiring the view or trying to read the map upside down! It is bad enough to have a different traffic system, without trying to balance a map on the steering wheel! ....typical man, can't multi task....!..us women find it no problem to apply lipstick, comb our hair and change the CD whilst driving....

Actually, we had been tipped off that the marina was "in the Boonies" (after Daniel Boone who surveyed the places other surveyors can't reach....I thought that was Heineken..), and we turned of the main road into smaller and smaller roads, finally seeing a sign that the highway ends.......good stuff this GPS, we wouldn't have believed it otherwise. ...perhaps you would if you lived in the village I came from in the UK, grass growing up the middle of the road, wing mirrors touching both sides...etc

In fact, the title of this post is wrong... we did try to buy a boat in England, but the survey was not good, (in laymans terms it was a crock of sh*te) so we had a major re-think. The boat we chose in England was a great design, so we searched the internet for the same make and model. There were 9 worldwide, then 8, then 7. We would have panicked, but it went back up to 8. The boat in Virginia looked reasonable, and had a new engine (must remember to post a photograph of the engine, it could be printed and displayed next to the photos of the anorak!), he really has got to get out more... so we ended up here. This time the survey was good.

The previous owners were helpful in many ways, but sometimes quite economical with words as far as faults went. Disingenuous is a useful word sometimes. The funniest(?) part was their lifejackets which were passed on to us, but both of them had big punctures - comforting!...the word condemned was used by the manufacturers....nice one.

Anyway, two new toilets, 1 reconditioned alternator, 4 batteries and 100 metres of rope later not to mention new fridge, freezer and bits, we plan to leave here tomorrow, and to head out of Chesapeake Bay on Monday........provided hurricane Omar has dissipated..

One of the best aspects to travelling is meeting interesting people, and we've met a real gem in Spike so we suggest you log on to his website and check it out for yourselves.
http://www.spikehampson.com/index.html

The number of people who have been incredibly kind to us (and put up with our quaint English ways...)is staggeringly high. The staff at the marina deserve a special mention. So thanks to Ken and Karen, Charlie, Ken (Angel OD), Mikey, Wayne, Mike, Leo, Phil (Capn Birdseye) Christopher, Shadow, Eric (who I would offer a job to in the blink of an eye). Jim, Nedra and Kenzie for services to caffeine!...and trips to Wally's World (Walmart to the posh amongst you)

If things go according to plan, the next post will be from Bermuda.

Countdown

We were just wondering how many more things we could expect to break at this stage.... Sam is really just enjoying the view (ok, replacing a bulb this time, but she's been up there at least half a dozen times since)

We are currently at Yankee Point Marina in Virginia. The shrewd amongst you will soon spot that that is where we bought "White Winds". The latest addition to both our wardrobes is fashionably ripped clothes, where the battery acid got us, as we fitted the new batteries, but at least we don't keep running out of electrical power now, so we can use the autohelm - quite handy!!

We plan to head from here to Bermuda, it's too late for Canada now, I reckon. We are now waiting for some Westerlies, without a hurricane predicted, to get out into the atlantic, and through the gulf stream.

We will not stay in Bermuda too long, there is a limit of 21 days - or we have to get a permit, so we will head off aiming to go to the Southern end of the Lesser Antilles, unless we decide that we have had enough, and shortcut to the Virgin Isles. We will be in either of those places sometime in December.

We took part in the Turkey Shoot Regatta, open only to boats designed 25+ years ago. We were given a very low handicap rating, which meant we could just enjoy the sail, without worrying about winning! We didn't!! 130 sailing boats competed, it was a fantastic sight, but as you can see, it can also be nerve-wracking sailing towards a gaggle of boats!

This is where we are headed, 20+ boats all in mid-manouevre - nice!