MV Dirona travel digest for Newport to Kinsale 2017

Position: 41°29.10'N, -71°19.05'W

At Kitty Corner Cat Clinic to pickup Spitfire's EU health certificate that just arrived this morning from Albany, NY with USDA endorsement. We have almost everything we need to leave for Ireland, all that's left is a load of diesel and a quick grocery store trip.

Position: 41°29.10'N, -71°19.05'W

Conditions rarely are perfect in the North Atlantic, but we've got what looks like a reasonable weather window opening up late tomorrow after the leading edge of a low pressure system passes the area. Another small low pressure system is expected to pass us about 3-4 days out, but it doesn't look very intense.

Two large and deep low-pressure systems will be forming in the Atlantic as we are underway, but both look to dissipate and move eastward before we reach their position. And it looks like we've got a blocking high forming at the 500mb level that hopefully will keep low pressure systems along the US Atlantic seaboard from moving eastward on the second half of the passage. It won't likely be a smooth passage, but it should be a safe one.

The current ice limit, shown in turquoise, has suprisingly moved north of where it was a week ago (earlier limits shown in grey), so we've been experimenting with different routings that take us further north. If we take the route the boat is currently shown on, we'd have a total distance of 2814nm from Rhode Island Sound to Kinsale Head, compared to 2,888nm with the most southerly of the four routes. While shorter, the nothern route does look to be just slightly more rough from a weather perspective.

Position: 41°29.10'N, -71°19.05'W

Large expanses of glass are great for views, but may not be strong enough for survival conditions. Storm plates fit over large windows to protect them. Rugged storm-capable boats really have only two options: very small, very thick windows, or larger windows that need protection at sea. Smaller windows make the boat less livable, and given the frequency of being at sea and the ease in which storm plates can be installed, the latter approach used by Nordhavn works quite well. We only use storm plates when we are going to be at sea for longer than the reliable forecast period or we have some reason to head out into forecast rough conditions. Here James is installing the storm plates on the starboard windows.

Position: 41°29.10'N, -71°19.05'W

For longer passages, we plug the furnace exhaust to prevent seas from forcing water through the exhaust and into the furnace boiler.

Position: 41°29.10'N, -71°19.05'W

There is no walkway down the port side of the boat so installing the storm plates requires putting the boat up against the dock on that side. Another approach we sometimes use is to do them from the tender but the plates are large enough and the window tops high enough above the water that this isn't simple task. Today we lowered the tender using the crane down to the window height with the storm plates in the tender. From there it's a breeze to climb down and install the plates using the tender as a working platform a yard above the water.

Position: 41°29.10'N, -71°19.05'W

The crane extension boom requires annual lubrication.

Position: 41°29.10'N, -71°19.05'W

A final produce shop as we prepare to get underway this weekend.

Position: 41°29.10'N, -71°19.05'W

James carrying the bikes up to stow on the fly bridge.

Position: 41°29.10'N, -71°19.05'W

Our last Amazon Prime delivery for a long time.

Position: 41°29.10'N, -71°19.05'W

Folding the deck furniture to make space for the bladders. That low pressure system we've waiting to pass through before we leave is bringing heavy rains.

Position: 41°29.10'N, -71°19.05'W

Erica Buchanan, who is from Seattle but now lives in Newport, brought over a batch of homemade biscotti for our trip. Yum!

Position: 41°29.10'N, -71°19.05'W

A final delivery from Peapod of some heavier perishables.

Position: 41°29.10'N, -71°19.05'W

We took on 2,074 gallons of fuel today and, with 976 gallons in the bladders, are carrying 2,714 gallons or 16,000lbs of diesel. The boat is several inches lower in the water.

Position: 41°29.10'N, -71°19.05'W

A final stop at the Fastnet Pub before we embark on our Fastnet-to-Fastnet run. We'll be passing within six miles of Fastnet Rock, the pub's namesake, as we near Ireland.

Position: 41°21.40'N, -71°11.69'W

The fishing vessel Nathaniel Lee was one of the few vessels we saw as we left Newport. Conditions were pretty rolly with 12ft beam seas on 8 seconds, so no surprise not to see many pleasure craft out there.

Position: 41°17.92'N, -71°4.44'W

We're just crossing over our track into Boston from last June.

Position: 41°17.87'N, -71°4.34'W

We've fallen out of cell range and are running off the V7-IP now. The white color on the indicator light labelled "Mode" means we are running in full fail-over mode, rather than restricted mode, on our router. This means we'll still fallback to cell if it comes back, but we'll operate on the V7-IP without any restrictions. In restricted mode, we'll fail-over to the V7-IP if nothing else is available, but only allow outbound email from the automation system so on-board warning and alerts go out via email if we are not on the boat to see them.

Position: 41°4.23'N, -70°37.89'W

Shrimp salad pitas for lunch.

Position: 41°3.37'N, -70°36.24'W

We're in 11-12ft seas on 8 seconds and seeing a pitch and roll of 10.7 and 10.8 degrees. Boat motion isn't severe, but is enough that if one of us was going to bed now, we would likely elect to sleep on the floor to be stable between the bed and bulkhead as we sleep.

Position: 40°56.22'N, -70°18.41'W

We're in a strong counter-current and are making only 4.9 knots with a fuel economy of 1.06nm/gallon. And our "drive the lights" indicator is let up in orange on the bottom left indicating we need to slow down further still to meet our fuel economy goal of 1.21nm/gallon. For this trip we have way more fuel than we need which gives us the freedom to run at higher power levels and shorten the trip somewhat. These big counter-currents are from the Bay of Fundy area not far north where the worlds largest tidal exchange of over 50' can be found.

Position: 40°54.27'N, -68°52.30'W

We're now in a favorable current and making 8.2kts with a fuel economy of 1.26nm/gallon. Conditions have improved now, with max pitch and roll at 6.1 and 6.5 degrees. We expect conditions to be good for the next 3-4 days, when we pass through a low pressure system coming northward off the US east coast. We'll enjoy these calm conditions because we are predicted to have 2 weeks of rough water in our near future.

Position: 40°54.23'N, -67°59.68'W

The RO/RO Hoegh Singapore en route to New York.

Position: 40°54.21'N, -67°36.93'W

Spitfire enjoying the calm conditions.

Position: 40°54.21'N, -67°25.93'W

Conditions have improved even more, with max pitch at 3.9 degrees. Roll has increased slightly to 7.2, but overall boat motion is pretty minimal.

Position: 40°54.21'N, -67°25.42'W

We're hoping to get far enough east by Thursday to avoid this low pressure system working up the coast. It is very speed-dependent though, and with the currents our speed has been quite variable.

Position: 40°54.30'N, -67°5.31'W

Roast beef sandwich wraps for lunch.

Position: 40°54.29'N, -67°1.93'W

We're just off Georges Bank, one of the most dangerous fishing grounds in the world, and the setting for Sebastian Junger's book, The Perfect Storm. Fortunately conditions are calm for us as we pass by. The green circles to our north are a cluster of fishing vessels.

Position: 40°54.46'N, -66°32.18'W

We just passed a few floats like this one in 1,100 feet. They aren't marked with a radar reflectors like others we seen in these depths, so hopefully we won't see a lot more, particularly at night.

Position: 40°54.59'N, -66°27.74'W

The International Ice Patrol has just completed another aerial pass and the limits of dangerous ice have moved north, so we'll take advantage of this and shortened the trip a bit to run a more northerly route. It's only about 40 nm less distance, but we'll take everything safely available.

Position: 41°31.13'N, -63°10.76'W

The water temperature has shot up from 52°F to 75.1. We're in the Gulf Stream and making excellent speed of 7.9 knots. This despite the tight 10ft beam waves that are rolling us nearly 15 degrees with max pitch at 7.7 degrees.

Position: 41°34.98'N, -62°21.06'W

We're still making excellent speed in the Gulf Stream, but the waves have settled down and we're only rolling 10.5 degrees and pitching just under 6 degrees.

Position: 41°38.22'N, -61°29.73'W

A strong southerly current is pushing us off course and causing us to crab along our route. The green line shows the direction the boat is heading in order to keep that easterly route shown in orange. We're still in the Gulf Stream, with 76° water, but are only making 6.4 knots with this strong southerly current. It must be a backeddy, and we believe the main stream is further south.

Position: 41°36.47'N, -60°3.04'W

As an experiment, James got a Raspberry Pi just before we left from Australia to Rodrigues. It turns out to be a super useful monitoring and control system on the boat and it's evolved to the point where there are 22 digital inputs reading off/on status of many things on the boat and 8 channels of digital output allow automation to turn things in the boat off and on.

That Raspberry Pi is running close to I/O capacity and, rather than run many sensor wires from the back of the boat to the forward Raspberry Pi, James is preparing to install one at the aft end of the boat. The package pictured here is a 5V power supply, the Raspberry Pi, connected using a ribbon cable to a junction box below the Pi. The junction box has the 4 transistors and relays that drive the digital outputs and is where all the sensor lines will connect up to power, ground, and Pi I/O ports.

Position: 41°37.72'N, -59°38.41'W

Waves entering the cockpit swept our hose attached to the port bulkhead across the boat and out the starboard scupper where it has been dragging through the water behind the boat catching kelp. Too bad we didn't get a fish.

Position: 41°39.94'N, -58°39.72'W

Conditions are great now, but we've got a couple of lows coming in the next few days. The first is relatively minor, with seas no more than nine feet. This system is approaching from the southwest and we might be able to mostly outrun if we can keep up a good speed. The second system, pictured, is a stronger one with expected sustained winds in the 35 to 40 kt range with 18ft seas on only 8 seconds. Fairly ugly.

We've not fully investigated the model but it looks like a good strategy might be to slow way down Friday morning and run dead slow over the weekend. We'll still take some big conditions Saturday and Sunday but, by slowing down, we give the storm to start to subside somewhat before we get into the worst of it. If we do that, it'll lengthen the trip a day or two but avoiding the worst of those conditions would seem to be prudent. Once we get past these systems, we should have relatively smooth sailing in that blocking high which might carry us all the way to Ireland.

Position: 41°41.02'N, -58°7.33'W

Because of the proximity of where we are to the Bay of Fundy, where the world's largest tidal range is found, the alternating tidal currents out here are remarkably strong. We're currently getting a good tidal push out here and making 8.5 knots. Unfortunately with all tidal currents, the other half is coming. Conditions are excellent, with max roll and pitch at 4.5 and 6.7 degrees.

Position: 41°46.40'N, -55°12.35'W

For quite some time now we have been watching a very large low in the weather models coming down from Greenland. Read more ...

Position: 41°41.64'N, -57°48.34'W

Well, more like 3am eggs. Jennifer has the 10pm to 5am shift and usually has an early breakfast before going off watch at 5am.

Position: 41°44.06'N, -56°35.15'W

We're doing 10.4 knots and our "drive to lights" indicator labeled Faster is lit up, indicating we can speed up and still meet our fuel economy goal of 1.15nm/gallon. We've never run this fast in a crossing before. The weather models indicate improve conditions in that low we're approaching: we may only see 13ft on 8seconds. Our plan is to make the best time we can and turn northward into the waves if they are too large to take on the beam.

Position: 41°44.52'N, -56°21.35'W

A pod of dolphins swam past about a half miles away, leaping out of the water. Unlike most dolphins we've encountered. they seemed to have zero interest in chasing our bow wake.

Position: 41°44.70'N, -56°16.11'W

We'd burned enough fuel, over 400 gallons, to have room in the main tanks to drain the 367 gallons from the forward bladder and stow it. Now we now have nearly full main tanks, plus another 600 gallons in the two 300-gallon cockpit bladders.

Position: 41°45.71'N, -55°45.18'W

The 443ft cargo ship MITIQ passed us en route to the Port of Matane in Quebec. Being directly on the path of commercial traffic heading up the St. Lawrence and into the Great Lakes, we were expecting to see more traffic on this run, but so far haven't seen much of anything.

Position: 41°39.82'N, -53°15.80'W

Our second ship sighting was the 587ft (179m0 bulker Clipper Nestorio en route to the Port of New London in Connecticut.

Position: 41°37.60'N, -52°11.37'W

It's getting busy out here: three ships in two days. :) The 899ft tanker Nordic Cosmos passed us en route to the Port of Quebec.

Position: 41°37.65'N, -51°54.00'W

Last night, the winds picked up as that first low pressure system we had expected to contend with caught up with us. We expected winds in the 20-kt range, but got 30-35 knots with gusts to 47 kts, and lighting all around as a bonus. This low was deeper and brought both bigger winds and bigger seas that expected. At 1:15am, we faced our first emergency at sea. We have had mechanical problems in the past but none ever required immediate attention and none worried us much at all. This one was different.

At 1:15am a piercing alarm when off. James jumped out of bed and found high bilge water alarm had triggered. Still naked he checked on the engine room and found the main bilge was already full and there was a thin layer of water already forming on the starboard side engine room walkway. The main bilge pump was running constantly but was not able to keep up and the bilge water levels in the engine room were building fast. We found water gushing in at 2 to 3 gallons per minute in the starboard rear corner of the laz.

We first turned the boat 180 degrees in an effort to reduce the water ingress rate. We then went after finding the leak and reducing the flow to the point where the bilge pump could keep up. We used the Pacer emergency bilge pump to clear the bilge water and it was very effective and cleared the bilge in around 15 seconds. But, because the water inflow was so high, we would have to alternate between working on slowing the flow at the leak and emergency bilge pumping. Between the rough seas, needing to start and restart the emergency bilge pump every 5 min since the main pump couldn't keep up, and possibly tiredness or fright, it took a long time to get the situation back under control.

It was nearly 10 hours before we could start to relax again. This was by far the most difficult situation we have faced in our boating careers.

Read more ...

Position: 41°37.72'N, -51°30.72'W

Conditions are comfortable now, but will start deteriorating over the next few hours. And in about 24 hours, we'll see what the weather models say is most likely the biggest weather of the trip. The models indicate we'll be in 14-ft beam seas on an 8-second period for a good 12 hours until we pass through the worst of it. And another 24 hours after that, conditions should improve dramatically. Our plan is to keep running this course and if conditions are too difficult on the beam, to turn north into the seas.

Position: 41°45.32'N, -50°29.38'W

A boarding wave carried a tennis ball into the cockpit and left it balanced on the port bladder tie-down. This gives an idea of the size of the waves coming in that it was high enough to deposit the ball there.

Position: 41°45.59'N, -50°27.24'W

The winds have started to pick up into the 30s and max pitch is 11.6 degrees with max roll (data missing from display) approaching 20 degrees. The big seas are slowing us down and likely we have a counter-current as well. This makes conditions feel more difficult as the stabilizers do better with more water flow over them. And it means we'll be in the rough conditions longer.

Position: 41°45.77'N, -50°25.78'W

During one particularly large roll, the stairwell pantry locker flew open and a couple of cans fell out. On investigation, the latch isn't tight enough so James shimmed it to ensure it locks postiviely.

Position: 41°47.40'N, -50°12.79'W

Conditions have continued to worsen. The weather models estimate that we're in 12ft seas on 8 seconds with pitch and roll both nearing 20 degrees and we can barely make 5 kts and still hit our fuel economy goal. The boat is doing fine, and we're able to sleep well on the floor, wedged between the bed and bulkhead, but we have to be super-careful moving around. Crawling is the safest and easiest.

Position: 41°54.47'N, -49°32.44'W

The seas are fully developed now and we're in 14-20ft beam seas on 8 seconds with the winds steady in the mid-30s. The maximum roll in the past 15 minutes was 29.5 degrees and our speed is down to 4.6 knots and even at that pathetic speed our fuel economy isn't quite good enough to make the full trip. Several times breaking waves the height of the pilot house have slammed into the side of the boat with such force that the whole boat shudders. We're glad those storm plates are installed.

Position: 42°10.48'N, -48°37.52'W

Less than 24hrs after the high bilge water alarm, Jennifer got a checklight on her watch indicating low house water. Looking at the historical graph, we'd lost 150 gallons in the last couple of hours and were down to 50 gallons, which triggered the check light. Lovely.

Jennifer checked any taps she could without waking James, and checked the water pump in the engine room, but couldn't find the leak. She shut off the freshwater pump at the pilot house breaker panel and that stopped the flow. So something was leaking on the pressure side. This definitely needs to be addressed, but didn't warrant waking James up for, so we'll wait until morning to deal with it.

It turned out to be an easy fix—the tap on the boat deck was left on and the storm conditions were vigorous enough that the quick-release hose fitting disconnected. This was not a location Jennifer safely could check on her own at night. Our basic rule is that nobody goes outside when alone at the helm except into the Portuguese bridge. We closed off the tap and started up the watermaker and all is good.

Flashing an indicator on the dash helped us save 38 gallons, which isn't ideal, but it's enough to survive on if the watermaker wasn't working. Of course, the watermaker is working fine and we'll be back to half-full by end of day. Thinking this through, we've decided we'll alert at 150 gallons instead, on the argument that if we're alone at sea, we want to have more reserve water.

Position: 42°45.19'N, -46°35.40'W

On passage we always have selection of snacks set out for the person on watch. We tend to eat smaller amounts underway, so despite these not being the healthiest choices, Spitfire is the only one that ever gains weight on passage. No ocean makes conditions rough enough that Spitfire won't eat.

Position: 42°50.98'N, -46°19.56'W

The 591ft tanker JS Ineos Invention (180.3m) passing us en route to Rafnes in Norway. Conditions are settling down now and the winds have fallen from steady in the 30s to now in the mid 20s.

Position: 42°57.32'N, -46°2.68'W

We're just clear of any ice risk now, and earlier today plotted a great circle route to Ireland that happens to take us near Fastnet Rock. We've got just over 1,600 miles left to reach Kinsale Head and if all goes well, we won't make another course change for the next ten days until we reach Fastnet Rock. Our last restaurant meal before leaving was at the Fastnet Pub in Newport, RI. And looking at our course, it appears the first bit of Ireland we'll see will be the famous Fastnet Rock.

Position: 43°0.26'N, -45°54.82'W

The water temperature has gone up 20°F since last night—more than likely we're in the North Atlantic Current, the main branch of the Gulf Stream that runs northeast across the Atlantic. We're making excellent speed of 8 knts and still will arrive into Ireland with 300 gallons of reserve.

And what a difference 24 hours can make on conditions. Winds are down to around 15 kts and pitch and roll are both about 8 degrees. With any luck, we've paid our tax to Neptune and can ride that high-pressure system across the Atlantic without any more rough seas.

Position: 43°11.02'N, -45°26.07'W

Shortly before going off-watch, Jennifer prepares a bowl of fresh fruit for herself and one for James when he comes on shift at his "morning".

Position: 43°11.32'N, -45°25.25'W

A beautiful sunrise on a calm morning in the North Atlantic.

Position: 43°41.20'N, -44°4.94'W

We drained the second cockpit bladder today and stowed them both. Jennifer is wrapping the fill nozzle and the drain valves with rags and bubble wrap to protect the bladders. We have used each of the three bladders six times so far, and they continue to look good and function well.

Position: 43°42.77'N, -44°0.70'W

Once the bladders are prepped and folded, we stow them in the flybridge brow. They take up remarkably little space.

Position: 43°43.93'N, -43°57.55'W

The Swedish chemical tanker Torm Platte, en route to Houston, is the first boat we've actually seen for almost a week.

Position: 43°45.02'N, -43°54.64'W

We're doing an incredible 10.5 kts and our "drive the lights" indicators are orange on "Faster", meaning we can go faster still and have 300 gallons of reserve when we reach Ireland.

Position: 44°12.52'N, -42°47.02'W

We haven't had steering issues in the past. Given they can happen anywhere, why the heck would it occur within hours of dead-center on our 2,800 nm trip through the North Atlantic? Read more ...

Position: 44°30.96'N, -42°1.76'W

The tanker Lotus, also bound for Houston, passed about nine miles to our north. Overall ship traffic has been surprisingly light on this passage.

Position: 44°38.59'N, -41°45.28'W

The total distance of this trip will be roughly 2,800 miles and we've just hit the halfway mark at 1,400. Our high pressure system has gotten smaller, but the weather models indicate we still should have decent conditions for the remainder of the run.

Position: 44°44.19'N, -41°37.01'W

We diverted course slightly to pass north of the Milne Seamounts. We try to avoid seamounts, as underwater waves colliding with them can generate freak waves, even in calm conditions. And seamounts are likely locations for fishing vessels, so we want to be extra vigilant and stay clear of them. The two we've marked rise abruptly from 15,000 ft to 6,000 ft and likely don't pose much of a hazard, but we've had enough excitement for one trip.

Position: 44°59.58'N, -41°11.09'W

Despite having the port-side door dogged top and bottom, the wind pressure during the big storm was enough to force water through the door and soak the carpet. On close inspection, the weather strip is firmly seated all the way around. It seems like wind pressure is just forcing it through. We've since been drying it with a fan and applying Nature's Miracle. We carry it in case Spitfire has an accident on the carpet, but have used it effectively to kill all kinds of biological odors such as spilled milk.

Position: 45°23.81'N, -40°2.22'W

James has been slightly annoyed with himself for not having a spare steering bolt, given it is such a mission-critical part. It turns out, we actually do have a spare bolt and nut. Normally the way parts storage work on Dirona is James remembers "what" we have and Jennifer looks up "where" it was. James didn't recall buying this part. Last night Jen looked it up anyway and, wow, we actually do have a spare. The old one is still doing well and not moving at all now that it is torqued up properly. Even with all the lost metal, it's doing great.

Position: 45°32.18'N, -39°36.03'W

We continue to make excellent speed and currently are running at 9 kts. Conditions are reasonably calm, with max pitch and roll over the past 15 minutes at 5 and 6.3 degrees. The winds have been light the past couple of days, but will increase to the 20s for the next 2-3 days as the eastern edge of a low pressure system just barely overtakes us. The seas will pick up to 8-10 feet on a minimum of 8 seconds, but mostly should be shorter and on a longer period. and they'll be on the beam, so shouldn't slow us down much. After that system dissipates, the models predict calm conditions for the rest of the run to Kinsale.

Position: 45°60.00'N, -38°8.52'W

The cargo ship Figaro overtook us two miles to our south, running 18.7kts en route to the port of Zeebrugge in Belgium.

Position: 46°29.86'N, -36°33.92'W

This trip will be 400 hours and our oil-change interval is 250 hours, so we needed to change the oil during the passage. This is our second oil change at sea—the first was on the 3,700nm run from St. Helena to Barbados, which we discussed in To Change or Not to Change? That is the Question.

At sea, our main engine charges the boat, powers the hydraulic stabilizers and provides propulsion. So today we started up the generator to power the boat and the wing engine to provide propulsion and power the hydraulics, then shut down the main. The oil change went smoothly and we were back running on the main again within a half-hour.

Position: 46°33.43'N, -36°22.66'W

Ireland is five hours ahead of Newport and we've been meaning to move the clocks forward in two chunks. But we've had so much else on the go that we just haven't gotten to this and sunrise is now at 3am. So we decided to just take the whole change in one gulp and jump from 11am to 4pm.

Position: 47°10.03'N, -34°25.98'W

The main entrance to our engine room is through the master stateroom, which means disturbing the off-watch person. Fortunately we have a convenient hatch in the salon and a step below that makes for easy access. After a few cases of the hatch slamming shut at sea, we've upgraded the struts so the hatch almost opens itself once unlatched.

Here Jennifer is accessing the engine room to transfer fuel into the supply tank while James is off-watch and sleeping in the master stateroom. As we describe in Dirona fuel manifold, we choose to explicitly pump fuel from the appropriate bulk tank to the supply tank rather than gravity feed. This is a slightly more manual operating mode but has some advantages that we really like.

Position: 47°10.04'N, -34°25.96'W

MSC Spain, en route to Bremerhaven, Germany with hazardous cargo, radioed us to let us know they'd be passing us on our starboard side and to request that we maintain course and speed. Commercial ships rarely radio us at sea—this is the first ship in a long time.

Position: 47°11.15'N, -34°22.11'W

We just crossed 9,000 hours on our John Deere main engine. When we started boating 18 years ago, the salesman asked us how many hours we thought we'd use the boat each year. James said "50, perhaps sometimes up to 100". It turns out we like boating more than we guessed, and it's rarely less than 1,000.

Position: 47°33.40'N, -33°4.81'W

We just passed into triple digits remaining—only 994 miles to go. We should arrive at Kinsale in less than a week.

Position: 47°47.10'N, -32°16.96'W

We're still in the eastern edge of a large low pressure system. The winds have been in the 20s all day and the seas are about 9-10ft on 8 seconds. But because they are mostly on the stern, boat motion isn't uncomfortable. Max pitch and roll over the past 15 minutes is 5.9 and 12 degrees.

Position: 47°59.43'N, -31°30.24'W

Looks like we've got one more low-pressure system to pass through before we reach Kinsale. According to the weather models, on Sunday, three days from now, we'll be in the southern portion of a moderate low with winds nearing 30 kts and waves up to 11.5 feet on 7 seconds. The system is forecast to stick with us into Kinsale, but should moderate early next week.

Position: 48°43.54'N, -28°32.92'W

Spitfire loves the helm chair, but he doesn't pay much attention to the instrumentation.

Position: 49°4.87'N, -26°58.23'W

The seas have settled down over the past few hours and we expect them to remain that way until late tomorrow when the next system overtakes us. The models indicate we'll have a couple of days of rough weather as the system passes to our northeast, then calmer conditions for the last couple of days into Kinsale.

Position: 49°27.90'N, -25°9.17'W

The primary fuel filters were starting to show increased vacuum so we changed over to a new one yesterday. That's the second time in this trip that we needed to change fuel filters. The first one when 73 hours and this second one went 174 hours. On the short side for both but not totally surprising given how rough it's been. Rough conditions can stir up settled out debris in the fuel system and plug filters more quickly. We normally get 200 to 600 hours on a filter.

Position: 49°27.94'N, -25°9.00'W

We still have the badly worn bolt in the steering system and were getting some metal dust build up underneath it. Everything looks right and we can't see any movement that shouldn't be there, but we are still getting accelerated wear. We have a rough day expected tomorrow with 30 kts winds and 14-ft seas on 7 seconds. We don't want to take on the storm tomorrow without knowing things are exactly as the should be, so we shut the boat down today and let it drift while we changed these parts for new ones. The boat handled well in the swell, we got the spare bolt installed, and can't see any other possible problems.

Position: 49°30.66'N, -24°53.60'W

The barometer is starting to fall and the seas are picking up slightly as that low pressure system begins to overtake us. The models and the NOAA surface analysis charts indicate that the system is moving fairly quickly to the northeast and deepening from 992mb as it passes us to 987mb as it passes north of Ireland in two days. We expect the worst conditions tomorrow for about 6-8 hours during the day, and then the seas will slowly settle overnight tomorrow. It's wonderful to have the boat 100% operational again with this system looming.

Position: 49°55.32'N, -22°41.04'W

A ship showed up on AIS about six miles to our south, but we never got more than it's MMSI number.

Position: 50°14.29'N, -20°42.49'W

We've crossed 500 miles left, only 479 to go. It looks like we'll arrive into Kinsale on the 24th.

Position: 50°17.96'N, -20°17.43'W

The seas picked up overnight to 11-12ft on 8 seconds and as expected, conditions were at their worst this afternoon. Seas were 14-20 ft seas on 7 seconds and winds steady in the high 30s with gusts to 46. The winds have peaked and are starting to settle now, but the seas aren't. We just took the biggest roll of the trip: 38 degrees. The boat is handling the conditions well and everything is 100% operational, but we have to be super careful moving around and ensure that any loose items are secured.

Position: 50°28.02'N, -19°6.22'W

The 642ft(199m) RO/RO Tosca is almost disappearing in the swell. Conditions are starting to settle down, but we're still in 10-11 ft waves on the stern.

Position: 50°31.56'N, -18°41.15'W

We're flying through the miles--only 400 to go.

Position: 50°35.88'N, -18°9.33'W

Conditions have settled down considerably since yesterday. The winds have dropped from steady in the high 30s to the low 20s and roll is much reduced from consistently over 20 degrees to a maximum of 13.3 in the past 15 minutes. And the barometer is starting to rise as the low pressure system passes away. It wasn't a very long storm, but it was quite intense.

Position: 50°53.90'N, -15°34.88'W

Our grey water pump wasn't pumping very well. The valve had failed, so we replaced it with a spare.

Position: 50°54.45'N, -15°29.34'W

As part of cleaning up the boat in preparation for arrival, James removed the material he'd used to plug the leak. This is what came out.

Position: 50°55.58'N, -15°17.80'W

Spitfire loves sleeping on his fleece blanket, but won't when the boat is moving too much because he will slide around. He's happily back on the fleece now that conditions have settled substantially.

Position: 51°2.58'N, -14°6.88'W

We've changed our "drive the lights" (bottom left) to a deadline mode instead of fuel-economy mode. Instead of indicating that we should speed up or slow down to ensure we have 300 gallons of reserve when we arrive into Kinsale, we're now want to adjust speed for a 10am arrival. As a consequence, we've slowed down considerably as our fuel-economy speed would have us arriving in the middle of the night.

Position: 51°6.27'N, -13°26.54'W

We've just crossed the Continental Shelf. Depths have dropped from 14,000 ft to 2,000 ft with less than 200 miles to go.

Position: 51°12.49'N, -12°7.41'W

We're starting to see a lot more vessel traffic as we near Ireland. Supply vessel Bourbon Tern and research/survey vessel Geo Caspian appeared to be travelling together. Bourbon Tern listed an AIS destination of "G. Caspian Guard V/L" and Geo Caspian's AIS indicated it was towing with a 5nm cable.

Position: 51°14.07'N, -11°47.15'W

Jennifer tearing down our offshore ditch bags now that we're approaching Ireland. We stow our ditch gear in two large drybags with lifejackets attached for flotation.

Position: 51°16.50'N, -11°14.42'W

Our first reception of Ireland weather radio. We're getting close now.

Position: 51°16.76'N, -11°9.09'W

For most countries we've visitied so far, we've flown only the yellow 'Q' flag to indicate we require clearance. Ireland customs specifically requested we fly the Irish tri-color as well. Once we clear in, the 'Q' flag will come down and the Irish tri-color takes over the top spot.

Position: 51°17.65'N, -10°50.91'W

Only 100 miles left to reach Kinsale

Position: 51°19.35'N, -10°16.76'W

The west coast of Ireland is showing up clearly on the radar about 16 miles away. It's been a long time since we've seen anything other than ships on radar.

Position: 51°21.25'N, -9°38.16'W

With Fastnet Light a mile to port, we've nearly completed our Fastnet-to-Fastnet run. Only 50 more miles to Kinsale.

Position: 51°24.95'N, -9°17.07'W

Conditions are wonderfully calm for our last night at sea as we pass along the south coast of Ireland. With a push from the flooding tide, we're running at 1,077 RPM to run slow enough to meet our 10am arrival time into Kinsale. Dirona is just purring along effortlessly.

Position: 51°28.06'N, -9°1.41'W

As the day brightens we can actually see land now. Our first view to Ireland!

Position: 51°28.44'N, -8°59.55'W

We were expecting heavy fishing activity, and possibly lots of floats, as we passed along the south coast of Ireland last night. But conditions were incredibly smooth and easy—we didn't see a single float or other vessel from Fastnet Light until morning. As we just pass daybreak, we're seeing lots of fishing vessels off the coast.

Position: 51°28.92'N, -8°57.08'W

The lighthouse on Galley Head shining through the overcast morning.

Position: 51°31.12'N, -8°45.98'W

Spitfire hasn't wanted outside for most of the run from Newport. But he always wants out as we approach a coast and is on the bow getting his first smell of Ireland.

Position: 51°35.48'N, -8°30.36'W

The first light on the Old Head of Kinsale was established in the 17th century. The headland is known for being the closest point of land to where a German submarine sank the RMS Lusitania in 1915.

Position: 51°39.68'N, -8°30.16'W

The verdant hills of Ireland. It's so amazing to actually be here!

Position: 51°39.88'N, -8°30.14'W

Jennifer getting the inflatable fenders ready to deploy. They don't look so big when in use, but they sure look huge in the cockpit. Jennifer is "height-challenged" though, so most things look big next to her.

Position: 51°40.42'N, -8°30.11'W

Paul Murphy (closest), manager of the Kinsale Yacht Club, and Richard came out to greet us as we entered Kinsale Harbour.

Position: 51°41.35'N, -8°29.95'W

Charles Fort was completed in 1682 and is one of the largest military installations in Ireland. The fort is open to the public and receives over 85,000 visitors a year.

Position: 51°41.43'N, -8°30.05'W

Our first view to the town of Kinsale.

Position: 51°41.60'N, -8°30.19'W

James Fort, also known as the "Old Fort" (Charles Fort is the "new fort") was completed in 1607.

Position: 51°41.92'N, -8°30.29'W

Bill Skelton, former owner of Nordhavn 47 Nexus, sent us this picture taken from his home above Kinsale Harbor.

Position: 51°42.13'N, -8°31.04'W

Amazingly, that pigtail we built in Papeete in 2013 still is working for us. We had power within minutes of arriving. The adapter has worked in every country we've plugged into in the southern hemisphere except Australia.

Position: 51°42.13'N, -8°31.04'W

We drop a cutoff fender over the exhaust to prevent rainwater from getting in. This reduces the amount of soot ejected from the stack when we start up after sitting for a while. We also ran a while at wide-open-throttle to clear out the soot from the long, low-load ocean crossing.

Position: 51°42.13'N, -8°31.04'W

We'd notified Customs of our ETA and they arrived shortly after we did. The clearance process was among the smoothest we'd been through in any country. We presented our passports and ship's papers, and no other paperwork was required. And we got an excellent lunch recommendation.

Position: 51°42.13'N, -8°31.04'W

We've cleared through so can remove our 'Q' flag and fly just the Irish tri-color.

Position: 51°42.13'N, -8°31.04'W

Jim Hegarty of the Department of Agriculture arrived shortly after Customs to check Spitfire in. When Customs was here, Spit was outside checking them out, but as soon as a vet showed up, he ditched. Somehow he knew. But the whole process was as low-key as the Customs check-in. That huge wand Jim is carrying scanned Spitfire's microchip instantly from nearly a foot away and Spit became an EU kitty before he even knew what had happened. The handheld scanners most vets use require more precision and need to be a lot closer.

Position: 51°42.13'N, -8°31.04'W

Our home for the next couple of weeks at the Kinsale Yacht Club. It's hard to believe we're actually here. Now to find a pub.