Traveltalkonline: Discussion: Sail to or from the BVI

Okay - I caught up. I have about 8 PMs so far. Not everyone will be able to make it and of course there are two directions to sail in.

I'll try to address the questions that have come in the PMs to help people who may or may not be interested.

My girl friend Janet will fly down to meet me and we'd like the boat to ourselves for a couple of weeks. That doesn't preclude anyone from sailing in both directions, you'll just have to find somewhere else to be in between.

Recreational drugs are absolutely not acceptable on the boat. If I find anything I will arrest you and hold you for the authorities. This has nothing to do with my feelings on the matter but entirely the security clearance that has made this boat possible.

I don't run a dry boat. I expect adults to be adults and to act responsibly. I will secure alcohol if anyone gets out of control.

I have sailed this boat over oceans with 5, 4, and 3 crew. 4 is my preference but 3 or even 2 work okay.

I'm a weather and radio geek. We have SSB with e-mail and I generally send a daily update to friends and family so everyone you care about knows how we are doing. I can include a copy to someone on TTOL who can post the updates. That was great fun when I crossed the Atlantic in 2006.

There are four GPS units and three VHF radios on Auspicious. Don't waste carry-on space with more. I have a couple of 12V outlets so you can charge things and run the inverter during battery charging for charging and movies when conditions permit.

The arrangements on the boat look like this:

I carry 120 gallons of fuel and 120 gallons of water, plus 15 gallons of extra water. That should allow brief showers about half-way to BVI. Baby-wipes are the personal hygiene solution of choice offshore. I have LOTS of baby-wipes on board. *grin*

I have a ShipCom account so ship-to-shore radio is practical as needed.

Other radio geeks are welcome to share nets and weather. I'm sensitive about the laptop to preserve both physical and computational integrity. We'll talk.

I'm currently adding a Bullet-based wifi extender with internal wifi on the boat. That isn't installed yet but certainly should be before departure. That means that while in the BVI before and after Janet arrives crew can hang out and connect with their own laptops or smartphones.

I'm really excited by the amount of TTOL response to this idea. I've been on TTOL a long long time and it's nice to see the enthusiasm.

@Kirk, didn't we meet at the Annapolis party eight or nine years ago? You're welcome to stop by the boat any time.

sail fast and eat well, dave
S/V Auspicious

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dave

S/V Auspicious

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