Maiden Mahi Mahi!

1400 AST June 2 11 2114N 6600W winds NE 12-14 knots Speed 6.4 under full sail.
In life there are moments that get burned hard into memory, and so it was today with Jim the trout-stream fisherman. The rod tweaked but the line did not zing, and so I called Jim up from belowdecks and told him I thought we might have caught some weed. He donned the fishing belt while I luffed up to slow us down. The weed was hard to reel in. Very hard. Then something was splashing on the surface...and I said we had probably snagged a piece of flotsam. Jim worked the rod and reeled in the line two feet at a time. When "it" was 100 feeet astern, Jim said "I think it's a plastic bag." and then, THEN we saw the green emerald flash. Ten minutes later we had a perfect sized Mahi Mahi in the cockpit. Twenty minutes later I had it cut and bagged it into the freezer, and Jim had the cockpit clean as a whistle. So it was ceviche for lunch, and Jim and I relished our third shares of it with cucumber, olives and LA Ceviche Secret Sauce. Then we woke up Nancy, who had slept soundly through the whole adventure! Imagine her surprise when she surfaced to find Ceviche a la LA waiting on deck for lunch! All that was fun, but the sail has been just superb: enough wind for six plus knots, gentle seas, dry decks and hatches open; some sun, and some welcome cloud to shade us. These conditions are why I call this trip from the Caribbean to Bermuda "The Milk Run". Those who are following our lat. and lon. positions will see that we are West of our direct route to Bermuda: we are throwing the dice and believing the wx forecast (silly I know) and so we have come West a bit to steer clear of the worst of the 'doldrum no wind hole' that lies in ambush out to the East of us. We will see how it works out, but so far, so good: we did 151 nm in our first 24 hours. It has been an outstanding start for Jim's maiden offshore passage. With no moon and some cloud cover last night, it was pretty dark, and Jim was surprised how fast it seemed we were dashing through the water...so we had to remind him that this is a doddle: and that if he wants real excitement we need to find him 25 knot winds, 15 foot seas, rain and pitch dark! He says he'll take this instead!
JFK with Jim and Nancy ...now aiming true North at a half-way point of 25N 66W.

Traditions to Enjoy

1605 AST, June 1, 11. After provisioning and cleaning, routine maintenance, cooking and stowing, and after all the little things to check and the various tasks to be done both on and below decks, after watching the weather, making phone calls and sending emails, after all this is done, LA is ready for sea. But we do not leave. Instead we follow Larking About's tradition and take a day to relax, and enjoy everything being shipshape and ready. This time our relaxation started yesterday at noon with a lovely little sail around from Bahia Almodovar to Luis Pena, where we anchored in the sand road laying down our chain carefully to avoid the coral, and then we enjoyed a superb snorkel, the highlight of which was a large friendly angel fish that was spectacularly outlined in purple and yellow. Today we had a leisurely breakfast, and put up the lee cloths to keep us tight in our bunks; then we had a last swim and at 8.32 we were off on a beam reach on a 12 kts E breeze. We have done 45 miles on the log in our first 7 hours, under full sail. We have some lighter winds forecast on our way to Bermuda, and we expect to be motoring some. But for now we have a glorious sail with just a four foot swell. In a couple of hours we will celebrate another tradition: we will eat coq au vin for our first offshore dinner. It's tasty but not too spicy, and it's easily digested - even though there will be no wine to help it down: by another tradition LA is dry offshore, but gets quite wet fairly quickly upon arrival. Best to all, Nancy, John and Bro' Jim
1854N 6537W Partly sunny, winds E 12, seas 4 feet, average speed 6.4 knots. Course 005m, heading west of the rhum line to try and keep some wind in the coming days.

Via SSB: test email..

...just to see that emailing from our SSB long range radio works!
JFK May 31, 2011

Lashing & Scraping!

Lashing down the dinghy on deck is part of our normal pre-passage prep; but scraping off barnacles all over the hull, thank heavens, is a first! Happily we have Barnacle Bro Jim aboard and one of his post-grad degrees was in Nautical Scraping!

Larking About is ready for passage, so this afternoon we will follow our tradition and relax and have a snorkel on the magnificent reef at the north end of Luis Pena, which also happens to be downwind, so we will be able to check out our sails before passage. All being well, we intend to set sail tomorrow morning for a 900 nm sail to St. George's, Bermuda.

Best to all our Blog readers,
Nancy, John and Bro Jim
5/31/11, 12:30AST still at anchor in Bahia Almodovar, Culebra, Spanish Virgins

Getting ready in Culebra...

...for passage to Bermuda. We are sitting in Bahia Almodavar, in six feet of 85 degree water, and we just spent quite a lot of effort scraping the barnacles off the bottom. We returned yesterday to LA after a six week stay in PA, and boy do those barnacles love LA's bottom when she sits still in a PR marina for 6 weeks! We have got most of the cr*p off, and we will prep the rest of the boat tomorow. Happy to report that all systems are fine and dandy, and we now have 10 meals prepped and in the freezer ready for our passage. Bad news is the wx forecast: not unusual for this time of year here, we have very light winds forecast for the next 7 days to Bermuda: ah well, maybe we get to fly the gennaker across the ocean!
Best to all from Admiral Nancy, Capt. John, and newbie Number One- Bro' Jim.

JFK May 30, 2011 at 1600 AST 1817.7N 6515.3W

Just testing...

....how we post to this blog that Hayden kindly set up for us. Thanks, Hayden!

We are going to post our offshore updates here in future, rather than sending out emails via our offshore emailman Hayden.

Meantime, here's a photo of Larking About reefed down off Bequia in March 2010.

JFK
At anchor, Great St James, USVI 8 April 2011

Crew Prep in USVI

Larking About has just completed a one week Virgin Island and Spanish Virgin Island tour with crew members Hayden and Radeen. Arriving in St Thomas the team was picked up via dinghy at the airport where they were quickly boarded and sailed over to Honeymoon Bay. The following days were spent exploring the Spanish Virgin Islands and the private location of one of the best snorkeling locations in the Spanish Virgins. You will simply have to find this secret location on your own; our log book is locked up! After exploiting the fine dining of Susie’s in Dewey on the Island of Culebra, we sailed back to the USVI for reef explorations and swimming off Waterlemon Cay, St. Johns. From St. Johns we were presented with a bold opportunity to sail Larking About into a strong 30 knot east wind as we worked the crew through the paces of reefing, upwind sailing, tacking and full broad reaching at 8.3 knots of boat speed. Larking About is a fine sailing machine and she easily handled the 30 knot breeze with comfort and speed. After sailing these strong winds we returned to St. Johns for a trail hike and one more beautiful Caribbean sunset. The one week adventure was completed with a private anchorage location in Christmas Cove where the team snorkeled the rocky island and discovered many new tropical fish not seen in these waters before. No trip to the USVI would be completed without a quick shopping tour of St. Thomas and a delicious lunch at “The Green House” overlooking the harbor. The crew was safely returned to the beach for a quick hike up the hill to the St. Thomas airport. Now it is time to head Larking About west to Puerto Rico as we prepare her for her upcoming Trans-Atlantic Crossing!