176: SAILING FROM Deltaville, VA to Marsh Harbor, Bahamas - FIRST BIG OCEAN PASSAGE

And I need my coffee! Swell, whoa. Ow. Oh my gosh. The juice is on the loose. That's a MacGyver right there. That's a MacGyver. Give me dribble or give me death. We were supposed to be in Hampton, Virginia three days ago for the Salty Dog Rally but we are still in Deltaville and still doing sea trials. The boat is not ready to make the five day passage from Virginia to Marsh Harbor in the Abacos. And we have a small weather window that just opened. But we have to leave tonight. We had hoped this sea trial would be issue free but it's not, yet again. We have an issue with the fuel injectors and it's not looking good now to leave tomorrow. Alex is on his way here to Deltaville even though we're supposed to be picking him up six hours south in Hampton. This is really not a good start to an offshore passage and wondering if we're even going to get offshore. Hey! He's here! Welcome! We're going to come help you out. Well, it's pretty much a miracle that we're leaving and even more of a miracle that Alex is here. This is awesome. We've been taking video probably because we left at 9 o'clock last night. It was pitch black and it was all hands on deck and a super sporty sail the entire time. It's been really sporty this whole day from daybreak. We got the sails up. We're so glad Alex is with us. Having him is just awesome. We've got the sails raised. Ooh, we're doing 5'8", huh? We've got to adjust the main. So we're back to sailing. The winds have died a little bit. Got both sails out. No reef anymore. We did reef earlier but now we're not reefed. And we're making good time. We have not been doing much filming and part of that is because we've just been really attending to the boat and issues that we've been facing like we got a split in our coolant line that goes into our hot water heater which exploded under the bed with our batteries and inverters so that had to be cleaned up and then fixed. Let's see if that works. That's a MacGyver right there. That's a MacGyver. Oh man, you are awesome. So far so good. That's awesome. Let's hope it stays that way. And we have an air cover that has come off that needs to be fixed and replaced and trying to keep on top of everything that's happening and the swell and the chop have just been really difficult to do anything effective while we are under sail. So that's been really hard and it's very easy to get seasick when you're down below trying to do something. We also had a wave break and we didn't realize that our hatch was open so the wave just came through and crashed into one of our heads which soaked the head and our washing machine and so that had to be cleaned up as well. It's not finished being cleaned up because it's just too dangerous to try and work in that space when the boat is literally crashing. It almost feels like hitting a brick wall. We are doing pretty well on our journey. We have an estimated time of arrival at 3 in the morning right now on Friday which is not good. We really need to be getting in on Thursday night. We were on track for that when we were doing 6-7 knots but now we've dropped under 6 knots and we're just kind of feeding into it at the moment. We've got about 40 nautical miles before we head off into the Gulf Stream. Not sure what that's going to look like. We've heard from the forecast from Chris Parker that the crossing the Gulf Stream after 7pm tonight is going to be rough. 6 foot swell. Woah. Oh my gosh. 6 foot swell, 3-5 foot wind chop and not a lot of wind so we're really just going to have to push through. It's going to take about 10-12 hours. We will enter that 11 o'clock tonight later than we had hoped but that's kind of what's happening at the moment. This is day 2. Got the parasail up. Caught a dolphin playing with us. It's a beautiful day on the water. We've tried our parasail, we've tried our main, our jib and the wind is just too variable and gusty for anything to work. We're going with the twin Yanmars and the best news of all is we're in t-shirts and shorts now because it is beautiful. The temperature is perfect. It's probably in the low 70s. Two days in we're doing well. Last night the Gulf Stream was calm. We were expecting a very, very rough crossing and it was perfectly calm. Our first reefing line snapped so we have replaced it. You can see it got chewed up. This is like 5 hour job. It's just crazy how long it takes to do this but we've got to get it done because we need our first reef, that's for sure. My messenger line that I made worked. I was able to pull it through but once I get the line I need to feed through I'm going to attach it to this, pull this back through with the mouseline and that will refeed the mouseline. It's our third morning out on the water and while the seas are pretty calm it's just a motion that rocks the boat from port to starboard port to starboard which is not a motion that feels great so we're kind of all just getting done when we need to get done and just doing our best. We are making good time we just don't have a lot of wind so it's just a constant motor sail, that's what we're doing now hoping that things will get better tomorrow. We have been doing a lot of snacking this time Alex brought all of these amazing snacks and really we've just been lunching lightly over the course of the last few days eating a lot of avocados, veggies. Alex hasn't been feeling well most of the trip which is unfortunate but I think he'll get better today. Ron and I thankfully have been okay. Team council reeling one in It's on video right now Look at how beautiful that fish is Who needs the big rock tournament? Here on Blown Away we're also very ecologically sensitive we're cleaning the ocean one net at a time. Here we are as far off of the US 250 nautical miles and the avocados as we'll be far away from land on our passage and we're working on projects What you doing babe? What are you guys up to? Stringing the second reef line There's a little barb right there, I don't like that Where? Don't pull it together Fill that right there That is really sharp We don't want to pull on that We need to file that down The juice is on the loose Everybody have their safety glasses on? Give me dribble or give me death Look at that, it's like a weapon He's wielding it like a weapon That was it Let's get rid of some burrs Oh man, it's like a brand used one You know what, you get it all here on the Blown Away channel That was a beautiful He's funny Oh that's good What you doing there Admiral? Making a messenger line Upgrading your lines While it's nice and calm Why are we upgrading those lines and what are we upgrading them with? We're going from a 12 millimeter to an 8 dynamic core Look at the difference, put it up close That's huge Do you think this movie is going to be PG with my shirt off? We can bleep this if we need to We don't want people unsubscribing Look at this It's not even refastened or it's fastened incorrectly when this was put in and it's popped out I've got to find the other screws In the meantime That's a pretty big fatty screw I think she's on Good, that's a good thing Thanks for doing that It just helps to have somebody standing there cheering you on At least telling you what not to do I think we've had a good night We've got two new reef lines in You've refastened the exhaust thingamabob? Oh yeah! We did good Alex has inspired us This guy can fix just about anything I'm trying to catch up with you and not feel bad about myself I'm coming up with things to fix just so I don't feel bad about myself We'll come up with more It's Wednesday morning It's 6.40 I started my shift at 6 I love this 6-9 shift because you have only about 25 minutes of pitch black and then you start to see the sun rise which is just beautiful What are you doing? I'm getting ready to eat Doesn't everybody do this for 20 minutes for one cup? There's got to be a better way I ordered this It's a Javapress on Amazon It's a five star review Don't buy one It takes forever And I need my coffee Alex, give us a solution I've got an idea MacGyver over here has an idea Ok, now ready? MacGyver Can you feel it driving? This is the best thing ever Feel it? Try it And there we go So that cut down the time by like, what, 10 minutes? 10 minutes At least Just one of many things that Alex aka MacGyver contributes on this boat And this being the most important thing Alex wants a workout before their coffee Oh my gosh, it's a whale Oh my gosh Wow Unbelievable Oh yeah I predict Mahi Yeah Oh he just got off Oh no way Did you see him jump? Yeah he jumped, it was a big Mahi No way This one's definitely not as big as the last one Our first Mahi We got another one I'm coming I'm coming, boy No way Oh my gosh That's crazy Eli's gonna be so proud Awesome That was freaking killer That was killer Two whales this morning, two Mahi Well done boys This is our fifth morning It looks like we're arriving at 12.35 which is four hours from now We have been motoring the whole time literally since we left Virginia Gonna drop the sails in a little while Haven't caught any fish this morning but it's time to reel everything in Wow, here we are after almost five days at sea We're finally here All the boat work that we've done All the passage that we've endured which really gets better as the passage goes, it takes about two or three days to really start getting into it Thanks guys for coming along with us and we really appreciate it That you would want to watch us as we explore What would make us so happy would be if you subscribed, hit the like button and please share our videos We really appreciate that We're starting to get some depth It was just a hash mark for days being in about 10,000 feet of water Now we're starting to get closer Putting up the Q flag Whoa, first step Getting closer We're here! At Bahamas Immigration, well I was and everything is done online now which is great except if you miss something Well the Bahamas Immigration Service does not have internet that you can use so I'm not checked into the country but I was told to go walk down to town and get internet So I am free in their country but I am not checked in and anyway it's a little bit of a mess but I think I've got it done, we'll see Here's the immigration office I'm coming back Yay, good job I'm asking all of our fellow passengers here what was their favorite part of the passage What are your highs and lows? Highs, whales dolphins and catching the tumahi Lows, starting out at 9 o'clock at night when it was pitch black and zero orientation It was amazing considering that Alex arrived and he's like yeah let's go, totally game for it If he had any hesitation I don't know if we would have done it Second low was trying to keep the boat in the channel on the Chesapeake I turned it over to Alex, it was really smart of me I was like oh Alex you're in control now It was so hard to see anything I like how you did that, you put all the pressure on him when it was too late for him to get off the boat That was perfect No he did a great job And then third low probably was when the first reef line snapped and I realized we had to change the reef line out at sea and it ended up being really easy but that was a low Next stop Alex I would say the first low was simply I'm into the trip recovering from bronchitis So I was already kind of a little nervous because I was coughing a little bit and so the low for me was probably the motion of the boat, probably the second day I was feeling real squishy There was no rhythm to the boat movement, it was rocking in every direction I don't think I ate for like 24 hours and so I really was starting to hit a low point because I was like is this something that I could really do? Is this something that we can do with the future of our plans of wanting to be on the boat and so I guess I was second guessing the whole thing. Then by day the next day I guess with the little bit of food that I finally started to get the seas calmed down and it kind of just changed I was like oh, this is an adventure, this is cool you know, being way out in the water my hesitation and doubts started to fade away a little bit and it started to turn more into like an adventure which is what I was looking for. I gotta say too, some of the night watches were tough for me. I think my body cycle was used to being asleep at 3 in the morning and so trying to stay up and I was literally setting my stopwatch for every 15 minutes just to make sure I didn't doze off and if I did then I would wake up within like 10 minutes just so I could be awake because I knew that was important so I had a tough time with the night watches. What were your favorite things? Helping fix stuff yeah, I know you're good at that I like to help sort through the problems and then definitely catching those Mahi, that was awesome. Today pulling in with the clear water and going inland and eating some good food and going riding around and stuff that was it's all worth it. Fantastic and knowing that Stacy's coming tomorrow right? That's right can't wait to see you honey I'll have to say that my low was checking the engines. We had some engine work done on our boat at the boat yard that we went to and I was just very leery of the quality of the work done and so we would periodically run one engine four hours shut it off and start the other engine and we would check the oil and the coolant to make sure everything's fine because you don't need any surprises especially when there's no wind and you're motoring most of the time and we just didn't really weren't sure about the work and so I went to check the oil on our starboard engine, zero oil on the dipstick and that's not good. Where was it? It was all underneath the engine and the engine bilge so that was definitely my low point high point were those fish catching those fish they're so beautiful always wanted to catch a mahi-mahi on the back of the boat and that was just a real groundbreaking thing and what a beautiful fish and great to eat and can't wait to get a whole lot more