Gypsea has headed Southbound!

From Liz - I want to THANK ALL OF YOU for your support, thoughts, and prayers. It just so happens that today is All Saints Day (I'm a bit of a lapsed Catholic!) - and all of the crew are saints for helping out. I also hope all of the angels and saints are looking over our guys and guiding them safely and swiftly on their journey.

Ed has skippered many boats to/from the Caribbean over the years, and I've watched him prepare for all the deliveries over the past 11 years. For those of you who don't know Ed's "M.O.", I want to assure you that he is an exceptionally prudent and capable skipper and sailor.

He is mechanical and can fix most anything. He is a superb team leader and manager -a skill that is most important when keeping a crew of five, sometimes strangers, glued together, feeling supported, and in the end, hopefully walking away with their sailing skills enhanced, more confidence, and a tighter bond to each other.

Even though Gypsea is a "vintage" Swan (1979), she is very well-founded, with safety and maintenance updates done on a consistent basis. New rudder, new hoses throughout, major engine PM (preventative maintenance), heater installed that runs on engine power (nice for the cold nights and days during the first leg of the trip!), new water maker that makes 6 gallons an hour when the engine is running - may not seem like a lot - but it's really an amazing addition to the current water storage - and will actually allow the crew to indulge here and there in a hot shower!

New Single Side Band with Pactor modem (email capability) - - it does not allow attachments, but will allow Ed and crew to keep us updated when they are out to sea. It's operating on very small/slow bandwith - and the system stops after 90 minutes of weekly transmission.

New VHF radio, new liferaft, new dinghy.

Monitor Wind Vane which allows the crew to relax a bit more while on watch, and let "Hans Solo" or "Hans Free" as we call it, do all the steering, and very accurately, when they are under sail. The boat also has an auto pilot which allows steerage while under power.

Ed is super knowledgeable about weather/meteorology - and this is perhaps the biggest piece of this whole thing. As he says, when you're out there and you encounter bad weather - you deal with it - but you never KNOWINGLY go out in it.

This is the predicament now...the biggest concern is always the Gulf Stream - any bit of bad weather gets exacerbated a zillion percent there - so the goal is hit it when it's favorable - least amount of unfavorable wind direction, skinniest part of it so you get through it quickly, hit it without opposing wind/current conditions....it's all very tricky and requires careful analysis and real good timing.

From what we heard this morning from Commanders Weather (Gypsea's weather routing service), there are a bunch of Low's (low pressure systems) lurking around the Atlantic - and the Stream will be a cauldron on Tuesday/Weds of this week. However, it should become more favorable late Weds/into Thursday. It takes two days to get from Newport to the Stream - so they are planning on sailing to Newport today - getting into the Cape Cod Canal around slack current (8:40pm tonight, Sunday) and getting to Newport by 2am Monday.

Crew member George Smith, bless his heart, knows everyone and has his great connections - and was able to arrange a 70 ft (!) dockside slip in Newport - where they will hang all day Monday/Monday night, and then plan to head south into open sea on Tuesday.

They are not sure if they will be calling on Bermuda or going straight through to Antigua. If they need any repairs or fuel - they probably will do a quick 1 day stop (provided they don't have any bad weather that holds them there....)

I've provisioned them pretty well I think - food is something you really look forward to during a delivery - although it's never fun to be the one in the galley prepping it while underway - so I tried to keep some of the main meals as easy as possible.

It's extremely difficult to think about 5 men, 12 days, 3 meals a day (180 total meals!) plus snacks, treats, etc. I made about 8 frozen meals for dinners - nothing gourmet but it will stick to their ribs (Shepherd's Pie, Vegetarian pot pies, Lasagnas, Chicken enchiladas, etc), and then there is some frozen shrimp, pastas, rice/beans, soups galore. Eggs, oatmeal, cereal, cheeses, turkey/ham, english muffins, bagels, pita pockets, tuna, chicken, crabmeat, cookies (a bunch of homemade choc chips, oatmeal raisin and magic cookie bars), M&M's, leftover Halloween candy, chips, crackers, zone bars, and then healthy stuff too - apples, oranges, canteloupes, lemons, onions, peppers, tomatos, spinach/salad stuff for a few days, canned veggies/fruits....

Please rest assured that the guys are as safe as possible and in good hands with a very capable boat and skipper. Please PRAY for the most favorable weather, for guidance from above, for a safe and swift passage.

You may track Gypsea's actual location by checking our Blog - http://svgypsea.blogspot.com/ and click on "Where's Gypsea Now" (top right corner)-which will give you the Lat/Long.

Cheers to our Gypsea and our Crew: Jim Bunton, Jim Fox, Shaun Deinstadt and George Smith and Captain Ed!