by Steve Struve

My wife Teresa and I are nearing retirement. We have enjoyed sailing and currently own a Jeanneau 409 located in SF Bay. Our retirement plans include sailing about and warm climates, specifically the Caribbean and potentially the west coast of Mexico. Although the 409 is a great boat for San Francisco Bay and coastal cruising, we have felt it was a little too light and flat to do significant passages or to be caught in serious weather/seas.

While at the Annapolis boat show a couple years ago we first viewed the Outbound 46. Both my wife and I fell in love with the boat. However, it is a sizable investment and we wanted to make sure the boat performed as advertised. Phil Lambert, President of Outbound Yachts, recommended that we get in touch with Andy and Lisa (Frailey) Batchelor who owned the S/V Kinetic that we were actually viewing at the boat show. We looked up their website, and read their blog. I called Andy, and we had a great conversation regarding the boat and potentially signing up for one of their passages. Eventually our schedules meshed, and we booked a passage with Andy and Lisa from the Chesapeake Bay to St. Martin.

Although Teresa and I had sailed a bit, we have never done a passage of this duration. We were Bay and coastal cruisers. Below we will detail our experiences.

Both Andy and Lisa, are quite accomplished and incredibly interesting people. Andy is English, and was a Royal Air Force Wing Commander. My suspicion is that he is much more than that, as we talked about a number of his experiences and cases that put him in the center of dramatic world events. At times he was in the intelligence world, while other times he rubbed elbows with world leaders. Lisa is a retired Captain in the US Navy. She too has fascinating and diversified experiences including navigating the C130 aircraft, deploying on an aircraft carrier, and helping to shape Navy personnel issues. She has significant expertise and training in navigation, meteorology, oceanography, and aviation. They are both US Coast Guard Masters and ASA sailing instructors. We were onboard S/V Kinetic for a total of 17 days (including the pre-passage weather delay). So over that period of time we talked about many things. Andy and Lisa are both phenomenal individuals with experiences that will keep you mesmerized during the many hours on watch. Moreover, they are incredible instructors. They were patient, and tireless in helping to impart their sailing knowledge, answering our endless questions. Their organization and well thought-out plans from watch, mealtime, space utilization, charting, communications, route planning, daily maintenance, safety, weather, and last but certainly not least sailing and seamanship were comprehensive and impressive.

We flew from California to Baltimore and then drove to Solomons, Maryland. We spent an afternoon of onboard orientation and safety training before getting a good night sleep at our hotel. Next morning before dawn, we were picked up at the Holiday Inn dock to start our sail down the Chesapeake to Deltaville, VA.  The weather was somewhat unsettled and for a number of days there was no “weather window” to cross the Gulf Stream. During that time we had daily seminars regarding sailing concepts, systems, navigation and passage issues. The time was also filled with exploring Deltaville and Norfolk. Lisa monitored and spoke with weather routers at least twice a day.

Finally there was an acceptable window, and we left Norfolk, making our way down the coast and eventually crossing the Gulf Stream East of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. The Gulf Stream Crossing was somewhat choppy, but not too bad. It was like and ebb tide, with the prevailing summer west wind, experienced on SF Bay. After transiting the Gulf Stream, we had a period of time with little wind and unfortunately we had to motor a fair amount. Lisa and Andy were diligently attempting to set us up in a favorable position for when the trade winds filled in. As we were approaching the longitude of Bermuda, the forecast for a developing tropical low was of concern. Weather routers advised continuing East for 200-300 more miles before turning South to avoid the potential developing storm. This was not feasible  given fuel constraints. and the low probability of storm development. Fortunately the potential storm fizzled,  but did manage to whip up the seas and provide 20-30 knot winds.

During the last 4 days of the trip we encountered one storm cell after another, creating significant local winds and rain. Throughout all, the Outbound was steady and comfortable, performing “as advertised”. The last 4 days she consistently cruised through the swell and waves at 7-9 kts. She was stable, sea kindly, and fun. I remember one night while on watch with Lisa. Our wind generator was making an exaggerated noise when the wind freshened. Coming into a storm cell the wind would accelerate from 18-30 kts over a few seconds. These “sound effects” in conjunction with our boats acceleration in the midst of a pitch black universe was very surreal feeling.

In conclusion both Teresa and I had a fantastic experience with Andy and Lisa. We learned a tremendous amount about sailing and ourselves. We would do it again in a heartbeat.