J/46 BRAVO World Cruising Update

(English Harbour, Antigua)- “The J/46 BRAVO has done it again,” says proud and happy owner Tom Babbit from Portland, Maine. “We now have three Maine to Caribbean passages under our belts, the first, nearly 30 years ago on our J/40 with 7 and 10 year old daughters as our only crew. 

As we’ve aged a bit, we have gone longer [46‘) and gradually transitioned crew from family to great and very experienced friends. 

This year’s voyage was a nonstop (hopefully) from Camden to Antigua. The crew was Galen Todd (J/42 Tango) with whom I have several thousand passage, cruising, and racing miles, and Paul Rogers, (J/42 Canty) who has a transatlantic (on Canty) and ten years or so cruising Scandinavia and the Med - so far) plus a house full of trophies.

We delayed our Camden departure to Tuesday, Oct. 31 (Halloween), due to 60-knot winds on Monday in Camden. Our first afternoon and evening were “sporty” going to weather in 25 to 30 TWS with large seas and of course lobster pots to dodge while we had daylight. Things moderated for day two and then we entered the Gulf Stream, with 25 to 30 against the flow. 12 to 14 knots SOG was fun for a while, but the sea state was a bit of a challenge...especially when the tanker Alexia suggested we head up into the mountainous seas and pass astern! A firm negative response from Bravo to that suggestion saw us both agree to alter course hard to starboard and pass port-to-port, nary a mile between us. 

After that, there was only one more sporty night well south of Bermuda (where we stopped for a few hours to top fuel off). After three days of motoring, the trades filled and we were off on moonlit nights arriving in 10.5 days at first light on 11 November.  Except for two shredded jib sheets in the Gulf Stream, zero damage to BRAVO, and a happy landing in Paradise! What a great boat and crew!”  Thanks for this contribution from Tom Babbitt. Add to Flipboard Magazine.


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