BOLO! SV Bella Dawn missing between Biscane and Bimini/Bahamas!

[SloopJonB]

I was in St Peter Port, Guernsey sometime in the 70s running RYA courses out of the Hamble. A young Irish family came alongside. The dad, with two young kids and a wife who obviously couldn’t sail, had left the east coast of Ireland, sailed down the Irish Sea, rounded Land’s End, crossed the channel and passed through the islands/rocks/tidal streams down to SPP. And he did it all with an AA British Isles road atlas.

I think my customers spent the rest of the week thinking I was over complicating things!

Better to be lucky than good I guess.

 

[fastyacht]

Warren Lihrs gotvjis start on a road map

 

[danstanford]

I'm trying to figure out what that means exactly FY......

Snaggleyacht is a new language...

 

[Sail4beer]

I'm trying to figure out what that means exactly FY......

Maybe this…

 

[kent_island_sailor]

And I was just attempting to stir the pot. 

I am interested to hear the "full shitshow" on this sailabout though. 

You missed this whole thing?

 

[Israel Hands]

You missed this whole thing?

Ok sorry for confusion. Yes I read that thread, but I didn't think of it when the bird-boobies were posted. And my ref to the "shitshow sailabout" was the guy that was the subject in this thread.

@AmandaColorado still hasn't given us the Baba 30 owner's version of his mystery voyage.

 

[slug zitski]

Depends on the destination. Contrails to Bermuda are reasonably reliable....... where else would they be going?

Prior to electronic navigation, contrails were somewhat relied upon when celestial was made difficult by conditions when headed out to the onion patch.

Sailing from Marquesas to Tahiti during The Gulf War I, GPS was detuned and not terribly reliable, contrails made for a good check......

Before departing for Bermuda we would get the inbound Bermuda flight schedule

cruise ship lights east of the welcome bouy were also handy 

 

[AnotherSailor]

@AmandaColorado still hasn't given us the Baba 30 owner's version of his mystery voyage.

+1

 

[fastyacht]

Before departing for Bermuda we would get the inbound Bermuda flight schedule

cruise ship lights east of the welcome bouy were also handy 

More hanfy are the clouds forming from shall ow reef convection. No technology requird

 

[kent_island_sailor]

More hanfy are the clouds forming from shall ow reef convection. No technology requird

Bermuda is a bitch absent electronics. You can be on the reefs well before seeing the island and there are a good amount of cloud buildups not on the island as well. In the dark days when men were men, women were men, and sheep were scared to you wanted to be north of the island come in on the RDF bearing, latitude was the easiest thing to figure out from sun sights, longitude a bit harder.

BTW, please give Snaggy his keyboard back, one of you is enough

 

[fastyacht]

There are shipwrecks on the reefd threr

 

[slug zitski]

From the east coast You sailed to 33n 64w , about 50 miles ne of the welcome bouy ….then dropped south to the latitude of the welcome bouy 

cruise ships, airplanes , clouds , radio beacons were usable on this route 

appraoching from the South, carribean  was straightforward 

 

[kent_island_sailor]

St. Georges has (had?) a very good beacon usable at least 100 miles out and there was always ZBM on 1340 AM.

 

[Tomfl]

Just as an aside going from Florida to the Bahamas can be one of the stranger navigation problems.  CH5 in BKH broadcasts weather and sea conditions.  This includes things like the location and speed of the Gulf Stream.  On some days it says the Gulf Stream starts two NM East of Sombrero Light House and on other days it is 20 miles out.  Not to mention the speed can vary from less than one knot to close to five knots.

Sure in a 10 knot cat like mine it is often only a five or six hour trip but in my book GPS is a big OK.