The passage between the East Coast and the Caribbean involves a series of challenges and compromises. First, you are leaving with continental, extratropical based weather systems. Towards the end of the passage you end off sailing in tropical tradewind weather. In between there is the Gulf Stream – current, waves, and weather – to be played. The best transitions between all of these elements are not always easy to discern – and often are contradictory. So, fast passages are a rarity (the record in the Caribbean 1500, in which we are sailing, is six days, ten hours and 56 minutes – for a roughly 1300-mile passage).

If you’ve been watching the fall weather in Europe or the East Coast of the US you’ve noticed some strange patterns. Affecting us has been a long-lasting upper-level cut-off low off of New England. Too far north for us to feel the rain or gale-strength winds, but close enough to give us northerly quadrant winds and mess up the weather systems coming in from the west.

And while there are often patterns between the highs and lows that can be discerned in advance, the last couple of weeks have been a jumble.

What we can say is that by Sunday AM that stalled low was strengthening yet again, and feeding the coast around Virginia some nice north-quadrant breeze.

Our plan was to start the race a little behind, so we wouldn’t get caught up in traffic, and then sail to the leeward of the fleet as it departed. Any tendency Beowulf’s crew might have had for an aggressive start was short-circuited by a broken mizzen halyard, forcing us to head back into the bay, anchor, and reeve a new halyard – all the while thanking the gods that this didn’t happen offshore!

We quickly worked our way past the 55 competitors and by the first sea buoy were ready to unfurl main and mizzen reachers, clipping along at a steady 13+ in 16 knots or so of breeze. The only problem was the wind angle – the rhumb line course was almost dead downwind – an angle we don’t like to sail with our ketch rig.

This raised an interesting tactical decision. We could jibe back and forth down the coast, staying to the west of the Gulf Stream, and then cross the stream at a narrow spot off Cape Hatteras – or head up to a hotter angle, and chase more wind pressure from the low to the north. Complicating the situation was the supposed existence of a cold eddy with favorable S. side currents just past Cape Hatteras.

In the end, we opted for the hotter angle and wind pressure, and headed offshore.

The main question in the typical passage to the Caribbean is setting yourself up for easterly or southeasterly tradewinds. If you use a NW breeze to start you on your way, sail the rhumb line, and then run into the typical trades, you are on a beat – sometimes a dead beat – when you finally hit the high-pressure circulation.

To avoid this the standard wisdom is to make easting with the NW winds at the start, sometimes as far east as 65 West – and then head south. This brings the trades onto a reach.

Of course if the trades come in from the NE, then you don’t need the angle and the rhumb line will pay off.

When we headed offshore it was looking like this would give us the best shot at reaching down to the finish and making good use of the E to SE shift, while avoiding the lightest winds from the center of the east-moving high pressure system.

We had an uneventful crossing of the Gulf Stream, only a couple of knots max of adverse current, and waves which were great for surfing – top speed 27.5 knots, and lots of long periods in the high teens.

But the faxes this AM and the routing data from Commander’s Weather are indicating a NE shift in a couple of days. This means we’ll be running from our present position, rather than reaching – so we’ve jibed early to starboard, and are broad reaching down the rhumb line – now at about 140 degrees true wind angle. In the light spots we heat the boat up by heading west. In the puffs we pull her down towards the direct course. We expect to work our way as the breeze lightens, and then jibe back against the NE shift when it comes in.

In the first 24 hours we put about 325 miles on the log – but not towards the mark. After our first 24 hours we have 1050 miles to go and are presently averaging 14 knots – with a hint of favorable current.

The big question is what has happened with the boats on the rhumb line, and if they have picked up a favorable current from the cold eddy. They have a better angle, and shorter distance. But do they have as much wind pressure as we do offshore? That question will be answered with position reports at the 1900 roll call.

Time to replace the reacher with the asymmetric chute – more later.