MW Ships Log April 26 - Reavers in the Night

Until the night watch, the most exciting event of the day was Kim's dinner creation - Angel hair pasta with chicken portobella sausage in a garlic, onion, oregano, cumin sauce with fresh grated parmesan. Yum. We'll come back to that night watch in a minute.

We sailed in similar conditions to yesterday. Fair winds and a north north easterly course.

Hot and sunny much the day with some clouds forming in the afternoon. Over the course of the day the jib was in and out and in again as we skirted some squalls. Captain says we covered exactly 161 miles in our first 24 hours under sail, and exactly 161 miles in our second 24 hours under sail. That is precision sailing.

During Kim's 9-11 watch, the "Firefly" closed to within a 1/4 mile off our port beam.

Easy visual distance - even at night . By the time I relieved Bob at 1:00 AM, she was 1 1/4 miles away shadowing our track and speed. I realized there was a high probability that Reavers* had taken the Firefly and eaten the crew's brains. I kept Morpheus on a course that increased the distance between us to over 3 miles. You don't want to mess with Reavers.


*Explanation of this cultural reference in an addendum linked here.
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4/26 - 1200 - Smooth Sailing Continues

After spending most of yesterday afternoon in squally, cloudy conditions with winds of aprox 18-20 knots, I was pleased to come on deck last night at 3am to find the winds had dropped to 13-15 with clear skies and a world lit up by a full moon!!

Beautiful!! However, once again I was disappointed to realize that what I was seeing could not be captured via a camera to share.

Today is more of the same. Sunny blue skies with a few clouds floating by. Winds under 15. We continue to work our way NNE towards what is predicted to be a large area of very light winds that will last for a few days. It appears that we will take advantage of our 150 gallons of fuel a bit early in the trip. This makes me a bit nervous as I don't want to lose the option of using the engine, but it makes Mike really happy as he equates engine time in light airs as fishing time!!

To those of you checking in. Thanks, but don't spend any time worrying about us today. It's pretty much perfect out here!

-Jim

PS> We have had some fairly large swells moving into our area over the past few hours. I assume these are the product of a very large low pressure system to our NE near the Azores. Lots of wind up there, but the system will be gone lone before we get close.

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MW Ship's Log April 25 - Comfort Food

Our first full day under sail. 200 or so miles in - 2000 or so to go. Winds reasonably consistent in a 12-17 knot range. The jib was unfurled and furled a few times.

We dodged a squall or two but mostly pretty easy and comfortable on a starboard tack.

Breakfast was a scrambled egg wrap seasoned with a cumin and pepper curry.  Lunch a ham and cheese wrap with spicy aioli garnish. Dinner was Greek Chicken pasta - a white wine garlic, olive and caper butter sauce and fresh grated parmesan.

the crew agreed to share cooking responsibilities but Kim has yet to relinquish the galley - to the gastronomical delight of everyone on board. No one is looking forward to Jim's specialty - sliced hot dogs with Kraft macaroni and cheese. 

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Ship's Log April 24 - Departure

Official Morpheus Transatlantic Crew Departure Portrait

From this point forward on our Atlantic Passage we are outside the range of conventional internet access and blog posts will be via "sailmail". I understand this to be a service where we connect to the internet via sideband radio one or two times per day to collect and send e-mail. It's limited bandwidth so text only - no formatting or pictures. Those of a certain age may think back to a 1200 baud modem. Yeah. It's like that. I don't have the skills to do ASCII graphics, so will be losing those who only check in for the pics.

Jim apparently had second thoughts after leaving me behind at the Saint Martin Yacht Club to photograph the departure (see prior post).  For better or worse, he returned on the dinghy to bring me back to Morpheus.

Or... perhaps he returned for beer and happened to pick me up also.

Buh Bye - to the brilliant blue waters of the Caribbean

We anchored off of Mary's Boon to clean and stow the dinghy, review safety procedures, and go through a final checklist. By 4:45 we were under sail.

Kim takes us out

Anguilla Isle was our last sight of land.

After a lasagna dinner the formal watch cycle began. We are working a continuous 2 hours on - 6 hours off cycle. I have the 1:00 AM, 9:00 AM, and 5:00 PM watches.

The term "smooth sailing" was invented to describe our first night underway. Full moon, clear skies, steady 15 knot breeze, no meaningful wind shifts, comfortable temps. The moon lit up the ocean like it was daylight. I was going to hang around for the pre-dawn watch in the hopes of catching the Lyrid meteor shower. As it turns out, we are past the prime viewing time. The moon did not set before sunrise. So... it was not a problem that I slept through it.

If any of my relations who read the blog are interested in reposting these logs on my FB page, it would be appreciated.

Well I've used up enough sailmail bandwidth for one post. We are underway. There is a big Ocean in front of us. Out.

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4/25 - 1000 - No sign of flu!!

Greetings!!

Nights on the ocean don't come much better than last night. Relatively calm seas, a full moon, warm, and 12-15 knots of wind.

All is well onboard Morpheus. The crew is falling into the watch schedule routing (2hrs on 6 hrs off), and we are heading right where we'd like to go.

More later. All perfect for now.

-Jim

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Turn The Page...

Alright, finally!  After a long week of prep we are ready and have a forecast that looks much like the one I've wished for.

We left the inner lagoon this morning along with Hasso Platners 100+ foot cruiser/racer, a J-Boat, and a Swan 100.  All heading in the same direction that we plan on going.  We must be on to something good.  Who cares if they sail twice as fast as we do??

All work done, now it's literally time to pick up the anchor and go sailing.

Best to all.  Follow along on this blog and watch our progress by checking the spot tracking box on the right of this page.

Here we go!!

-Jim

Morpheus is under the bridge and on her way

 Final prep.. we labeled our coffee mugs by the important roles we play on board.

Morpheus casts off, motors under the bridge and is on her way to the Azores.

Except... I am here taking pictures as Jim instructed.

I am not sure that Jim thought this through.

Sent from my Sprint HTC smartphone.

We,re still here

We spent the morning loading and stowing food to sustain our crew of four during the  two week voyage. Most of the food came aboard by way of the red dinger.  Watching the food come aboard, Bob wondered aloud where the additional four crew members we are provisioning for will arrive.  

When it became obvious we would not get out today, Jim declared a beach break. We spent a few hours at the Karakter Beach.

The problem with a delayed departure is that we spend each day eating and drinking like it is our last day on land. Then we don't leave and  have to do it again the next day.  If we don't get out here soon, I may  exceed Morpheus weight bearing capacity. - mw

For more details on our last minute prep, check out Captain Jim's blog;

http://morpheus-sailing.blogspot.com/2013/04/now-what.html


from my Sprint HTC smartphone.

Too busy to blog...

But, Mike Wallach has us covered... http://www.mikewallach.com/



Jim Gregory

Morpheus White 4

Now what??

The last few days have been a whirlwind of activity, to say nothing of the 20-30 knot winds that we've been dealing with at the same time.

We brought the boat into the st martin lagoon Friday AM at 930 expecting to have the boat pulled out of the water on schedule approximately an hour later. Clearly we forgot about "Island Time". We were informed that the yard was an hour or so behind schedule and they pointed out an area just outside the channel for us to anchor in. Well, it was only 13ft deep in the channel and about two feet after leaving the channel (slowly) we found ourselves aground in mud.

We ended up tying up temporarily to a dock at the marina across the channel from the yard after two "exciting" attempts to tie up in winds gusting to thirty. Physically unscarred but mentally scared. A few minutes later, I'm below and hear the bilge pump running. That's always interesting, but no cause for alarm. Three minutes later I hear it again. That's a potential problem. Pull up the floorboard and check things out. Oh no! There is a constant flow of water running into the bilge. Bob and I then began a rapid process of pulling up floorboards tracking the flow of water back to its source. It was well hidden and turned out to be the small 3/8th" vent tube on the shaft seal. The install manual says multiple times not to position the vent tube with a loop in the top. The concern being exactly what happened to us, the creation of a syphon that could sink the boat! When the yard (not to be named, near Newport, RI) installed the vent tube last year they obviously.y did not read the manual! Disaster averted and we've not even pushed off the dock!

We were eventually hauled out of the water at about, 530pm on Freday, and spent Saturday repairing the nick in the trailing edge of the keel. It was a bit bigger than I thought so I'm really glad that we took care of it. I'm also very happy with the way it turned out. We also put an extra layer of bottom paint in all the high wear areas, and re-greeted the propellor. Good to go!!

And then something happened There is always something.

This time it was Debbie. She had just gotten over a bad cold a few weeks ago, and on friday night she woke up telling me that she was feeling awful and that every bone in her body ached!! By sat night she was convinced that she had dengue fever!!!! On Sunday, she described the pain as being like someone shoving an ice pick into her brain every nine seconds!! Not good!

We finally convinced her to see a doctor on Monday morning. The good news/bad news was that she didn't have dengue fever, instead she had a highly contagious flu! This flu can take anywhere from 3 to 20 days to show itself!!!

Now it is Tuesday. Deb is thankfully feeling better. Today is the day that we are all supposed to leave. Deb is scheduled on a plane and we are to leave on a 12-14 day passage to the Azores!!!

What should we do???

Morpheus is back in the water

Morpheus made it back into the water without incident on q Monday AM. She is now afely berthed at at the Marina.

A lot of work is need to get her ready for the hop across the pond.  Long day today. More pics later. At this point it is unclear whether we'll cast off for the Azodes on Tuesday or Wednesday

R
Sent from my Sprint HTC smartphone.

Bottom Paint & Keel repairs

I hate working with this stuff, but today we managed to repair the trailing edge of the keel, touch up bottom paint spots all around the boat, and clean and seal the waterline stripes. 

At the same time, our final two crew members for the Atlantic crossing showed up!

Busy day!!

On the negative side, Deb has come down with a fever and is feeling miserable. 

Lots of balls in the air.....

Jim

Jim Gregory 

Bob Branstad

Final prep on Morpheus prior to crossing the Atlantic.  Big thanks to Bob who has really helped us during this process. 

Jim Gregory 

Fwd: Check this out

Jim Gregory 

Begin forwarded message:

From: kimcomfort <kimcomfort@cox.net>
Date: April 20, 2013, 5:37:44 AM AST
To: deb gregory <deb@jdgregory.com>, Jim Gregory <jim@jdgregory.com>, Mike Wallach <mike@wallachs.net>, Bob Branstad <bbranstad@gmail.com>
Subject: Check this out

I'm on my way to my gate & this is one of the display ads....

kimcomfort@cox.net
401.864.2750

Interesting....

Jim Gregory 

Bob Branstad Arrives!

Virgin Gorda, North Sound celebrates Bobs arrival with fireworks off of the Bitter End Yacht Club!!

Jim Gregory 

Our time in the Caribbean is about to expire!

Sad to say, but following a month long string of guests and more fun than you really should ever have, we are getting ready to say goodbye to the Caribbean and begin our journey to Europe and the Mediterranean.

I have some pretty mixed emotions about all this.  While I'm excited to get back on the Ocean, I have really enjoyed our time here in the Caribbean.  Europe and the Med. represent a great unknown, and while we have heard great things about the cruising in that area, I will be leaving a place that I know I could explore happily for many more seasons.  Debbie on the other hand,  says she has had her fill of the Caribbean and is looking forward to a bit more civilization.

We shall see...

The current plan is to spend the next two weeks getting the boat absolutely ready, while hopefully carving out some time to see and do some of our favorite things here.  Bob Branstad arrives on Thursday.  We will give him a very quick tour of the BVI's before heading off to St. Martin.

In St. Martin, we'll haul the boat for a day or two to do a couple of quick repairs (keel trailing edge bitten by mooring line.)  Mike Wallach and Kim Comfort arrive on the 20th.  We'll put the boat at a dock, and rent a condo for the last two days prior to departure.  The boat will get a top to bottom cleaning, and Debbie will be cooking up a storm in the rented condo's kitchen.

Once the food and supplies are onboard, weather permitting we will sail for the Azores!!

Brother Bob and Family

Picture of the day

Jim Gregory 

Island Time

My brother Bob and his family spent the past week with us. They arrived three hours after our previous visitors departed We were pleased to see right away that they would be an easy low maintenance group. The adjustment to "island time" seemed instantaneous!

Cinnamon Bay, St. John's

A new harbor for us, and boy oh boy is it nice!!

Jim Gregory 

Picture of the Day

We worked our way through a few major squalls last week!!

-Jim

Morpheus Spring Break

We just wrapped up a great week with long time friends Mike/Paula Tye and Joe/Michelle Hawkins in the British Virgin Islands.

We had just a little bit of fun!!