Off We Go!

I’m writing this post on the evening prior to our departure for a 1,600 nautical mile ocean crossing from Hampton, Virginia to Antigua. At least that’s where we’re supposed to be going. Given the fluky weather, we’ve had a slow start south this fall. We missed a narrow weather window five days ago, when more than 50 boats left our area, heading offshore in various directions. Some going to Bahamas, Bermuda, BVIs, but most heading to Antigua. But who knows… we could end up in some other island, as has happened before. And that’ll be ok, as it’s just part of the adventure!

I was kicking myself figuratively because it was my procrastination for installing a wind vane. (Blog post coming soon about that fun event). You see it’s a very expensive item, and I usually drag my feet for decisions like this. My decision was made when we ordered it during the first week of October, as we were intending to visit the big boat show in Annapolis to take delivery. Anyway… the confounded thing arrived late, didn’t fit right, and then they sent the wrong replacement parts twice! Shipments were further delayed, and so it goes! We got caught in the wait for parts just as our weather window opened and closed too quickly.

We had a visitor from the past ducking out of weather predicted next day.

So tomorrow is almost here! We are excited to get going! It’s beginning to get cold, and we’ve visited just about all the pubs and museums here in Hampton, so it’s a good time to get going.

Not sure it will work yet, but I’ve set up the ability to update this blog via our extremely slow iridiumGo email connection while offshore. We’ll see soon if it works! More importantly will be if the pictures come through. Please be patient if it really screws up the site, and I’ll fix when we get to civilization in a couple weeks.

Oh yeah, that reminds me… the passage will probably take 12 to 14 days. Follow us on the tracker from the Where Is Fayaway page.

We hope you have a happy start to this holiday season! And stay warm!