All is Well

Apparition made it home last night at Midnight and all is well. They dropped Jim off in the C&D canal just like they did last time, but that didn't seem to add too much to the time for delivery. Leaving at 9pm on Friday, that means they made the delivery in about 51 hours. They beat us again, dang!

Looking at the results, I can see the final count shows Apparition finishing 6th out of 10 in the class. the J/100 managed to get a 1st place in the race around the island on Monday, so they got 5th place over all even though we tied in points. That makes sense, though. It's pretty hard to get a 1st place.

Congrats to all our competitors. It was some tough racing out there and they definitely earned it.

Fuel and drop

Captain reilly gave me permission to jump ship at summitt north marina and took on 10 gallons of fuel. They are off and bound for annapolis. Safe trip gents. jim

Had a little too much fun trying to take the inside channel right when depth guage crapped out. We then took the long route around cape may, lost some time. We are now at 3905915 7512136. Heading north against a knot of current. Gizmo says 230 am in annapolis. Delivery crew out.

Ac in sight

All is well, we came through some wind and weather last night, but managed to miss any rain or storms. Just had bout 40 dolphin hang out with us. Crew is well fed thanks to keith and the beef stew. We can just make out ac and think we will turn the horn at cape may after 3 am.

On the way out

Looks like the storms are moving out and the crew is on their way home. 9:00 and we are approaching. The cut to block island sound.

Enough rain I'm leaving

I think this rain is starting to mess with me. Race week is over, but now rain wants to stop me from going home.

If Sean and the delivery crew are smart, they will wait out the storms before leaving. want to take bets?

8th and she's done!

Well, that wraps up the week of sailing. We went out this morning hoping that there would be two good races, but the wind didn't want to cooperate with that. Slow winds to start caused some delays getting under way and then excessive agressiveness in the classes caused delays getting our start underway. Strong winds at our start calmed to a drifter by the first downwind mark and then shifted about 180 before we finished.

We probably got an 8th for today, but we beat the J/100, so we probably tied in points for 5th over all.

One More in the Books

Day 4 is in the books. Looks like we picked up a 6th in the light air.

Too early fothe tent party, but the dock party has started.

Finally!

Racing is on. The fleet is hheading for the cut.

Still Nothing

Still waiting for the wind to do something.

No Wind - Postponed Ashore

We're in postponement until at least 11am, so we're eating ice cream.

picture

6-3 Getting better

There was just lots of fog yesterday. Reasonable air with moderate shifts.
I think we finally got something going with boat speed. As the air fell out, we changed to our new light-medium #1 and the boat did quite well. First race, we finished 6th, but we did much better the 2nd race coming in 3rd!

No air today. We'll whav to see if we can race.

5-8-7 Ouch!

Not the best day we have had on the water, but at least it didn't rain hard. No protests, thank goodness.

The Swan 42s put on quite a show with 4 general recalls in the last race.

Welcome to the Washing Machine

They are calling for 15-19 knot winds with rain all day. RC just said we are going to have three races today. Good thing we washed all out clothes last night.

Big Party

The party is packed tonight for what appears to be Heinekin Night. Results show that we got a 6 out of 10 for today. Tim Wilkes Photography has some good photos of us, though.

A Day Only BoatUS Could love

That was a lot of wind out there. We did the race around the island clockwise today and wow! There was 20-25 knots for most of the race with some really big rollers coming in from the NE. The first upwind was a good indicator of how choppy it could be. After the mark we tried a chute, but that proved to be too much. After several broaches, we had a complete blow-out.
The rest of the race offered a few nuggets of hope for the rest of the week. We had some good speed off the wind and lots of point when working to windward.
After the race was over, the wind picked up to 30 knots adding lots of fun to the sail take-down. BoatUS circled around the fleet like a casket maker at a gunfight.

Day 1 - Calling for round-the-island

For the first day of racing, the racr committee has chosen to do the round-the-island race. Still not sure if we are going clockwise, or counter. The Farrs are all freaking out trying to decide on d2/d3 settings.
Weather forecast is calling for 25-30 from NE. It's going to be a fun trip for us!

Storm Fronts

The tent party is about to start, but storms are moving in. Seems like a good time to send someone up the mast. Could be fun!

Clean and Tuned in

We were having gusts to 30 today, but we still needed to get out and practice. Everything went quite well! Lots of good down wind work with the heavy practice chute and lots of tuning in the #3 for good upwind speed.
Coming in to the Salt Pond, we stopped off at the moorings to have the professional divers clean the bottom. Since we have no anti-fouling paint, it was quite dirty. Looks like were ready to go.

Happy Father's Day!

Crew has arrived

Most of the brain trust is finally on the Island and has started drinking ahead of the predicted rum front. Fortunately there is also food being prepaired. I still anticipate an Advil morning.

Sunset Saturday

We haven't cleaned the boat yet, but we took showers and put away delivery sails. Everything else is drying, so why not enjoy the sunset while drinking mudslides!

We're here! We came into the salt pond about 4:54 and threw lines to the dock hands right about 5:13.
Turns out that we still like each other.

So close - Rain stopped

We're passing Montauk. Only 15 miles to go.

Land and Sun again

Well, we finally made it back in sight of land. last night was interesting: heavy rain, low visibility, and it blew 25-30 until about 3 am. The boat zipped right along 7.5 knots with the #3 only sail up.

About 12 hours to go!

At 0700 Friday June 19, Apparition was at 40d 27m33s north ,72d36m29s west

After enduring winds 25-30 knots until 0200, they are now motoring along in fog with the wind at 5 knots. All ok. ETA 1900 today.

Lots of wind, lots of waves, lots of rain

1900 position report:
Marshall called in by satphone -- all are well. Position 39d40.5N 73d36.3WOff Barnegat NJ along the rhumb line from Cape May to Montauk. 120 nm to go. Wind 25 to 30 from south, sailing under #3 alone. Rainy. Only 15 min sunshine all day. Sailing along -- ran the engine only about 1/2 hour today, plenty of fuel and food, all are healthy, no issues, no messages. Planned arrival Block Friday afternoon.

Out in the Atlantic

Good morning, this is the shore crew (Mariana) with an update. I had a message this morning that said: "Hi, it's Marshall. grbhjrdfdlkrtjszdliuj. We're in the Atlantic. dgjlgkjdfogijdkgj. We crossed into the Atlantic at 5:50am dfgfdkjfgkf repeat at 5:50 gdkjgkljdlkfgj. I am running out of gdgfdgsdgkj reception gfdfgdsgfdlkjfglkj."

With any luck they're still well south of this torrential rain we're getting here in Easton.

More Rain Please

Past Reedy Point at 6:40 and have just about completed our tour of industrial DE. Looking foreward to rain all night.

In the Canal

We made it to the canal at 4:25 under #3 and full main. all looks good! We spent the day listening to Jonny Cash and cleaning hand-guns while it rained.
Keith is picking up our spirits by cooking some stew. More rain in the forecast.

Adventure Started

We pushed off from the dock at 10:13 and all seem well so far. The crew is already complaining about the draconian skipper, so I have them cleaning the head. If my next message is from the life raft,assume they grew tired of me.

Updates on the road

We're getting ready to leave for Block Island, but we will still have updates. I plan to have updates from my phone (like this one) and we have a shore team who will keep you up-to-date on our location during deliveries.

Rest assured that, if a crew member decides to join a reggae steel drum band, you will here about it here.

Throw off those dock lines

There is just a little over a week to go before the crew starts arriving in Block Island for the race week. Apparition will be leaving on Wednesday, June 17th, at 10 am. We're hoping to catch the currents up the Bay and then down Delaware Bay. That should get us into Block Friday evening sometime.

Several of the boats from Annapolis did the race up to Newport. That's certainly a good way to get your boat north, but it does use up crew. In our case, we only have one full team with spares, so we don't have the crew available to do two major regattas back-to-back. I know my job wouldn't be too excited about me taking three weeks off from work.

The delivery crew is ready to go. This weekend will be all about loading the boat with the last of the gear and packing all the stuff we'll need for the week. Keith is busy cooking and freezing the meals, so we will at least eat well on the trip up. I think Keith said there would be lots of beans and broccoli.

Monsters all over the course

Looks like there will be good representation at Block Island. There are currently 165 boats registered to race including a new monster entry from Steve's alma matter Kings Point. Looks like the Kings Point Sailing Squadron is bringing a new boat for them: the Storm Trysail Transpac 65 named Vanquish. I can't even find pictures of Vanquish racing, so she must be very new.

Once again, we will be on the Red course with all the big boats meaning that we will start last and that all the big boats will slalom through us like an obstacle course. It's lots of fun being on the same course as all the big guys, but it is a little humbling when you think you going fast down wind and a boat passes you going 20 knots!

We will be in the IRC 35 class and there will be some great competition again. Our old friends and fierce competitors on Lora Ann and Troubador will be out there as well as two X-35s and two J/35s including T-Bone from Annapolis.

I noticed that there is a Swan 42 with the name Apparition. Back off, buddy! We had the name first!

Check out the scratch sheets here.

Last practice race - test patience

Ouch! I guess summer is here. This last weekend's Ted Osious Memorial Regatta was a test of just how much you are willing to tolerate. Can you concentrate when the wind drops below 2 knots while the current is over 1 knot? What if the temp gets over 85º with sun?

Well, it was a drift-fest out there. We drifted around the windward mark loosing everyone, but passing boats in fleets in front of us. Just when the boat got moving, power boats on the run to St Michaels would throw huge wakes killing any chance to gain.

Drifting down to the leeward mark with barely enough wind to keep the spin open will also drive you crazy. Many boats gave up and just tried to fly jibs hoping the velocity headers were really new wind. We made it past the leeward mark and somehow managed to round in good position.

Then the RC took pity on us and abandoned. Since many boats were not able to overcome the current and were being drug down the bay, it was a welcome relief to fire up the engine. 35 horse power diesel will really change your outlook on life.

So no finishes to report, but we were able to change the boat over to delivery mode. Delivery sails on and racing sails stored. Only 10 days left until Apparition heads north for Block Island!