Selah at Sea
A captain’s unfiltered log across 1,300 nautical miles — Norfolk to the British Virgin Islands
There’s a moment on every passage when land fades behind you, and all that’s left is the boat, the sea, and the horizon stretching ahead. For the crew of Selah, a 2025 Fountaine Pajot 44 Maestro helmed by Rebecca and Erik, this crossing from Norfolk to the British Virgin Islands was more than a delivery—it was a full test of seamanship, patience, and adaptability. Over ten days, Selah carried her crew through light winds and squalls, across calm seas and rough patches, past pods of dolphins, under star-filled skies, and eventually into the turquoise waters of the Caribbean they would soon call home.
What follows is the captain’s raw daily log, preserved exactly as written at sea, an honest chronology of weather, watches, wildlife, and the strange, timeless cadence of life offshore.
DAY 1 — Leaving the Land Behind
18/11/25, 7:23 am
Good Morning from SV Selah and crew! We are 22 hours into our offshore passage. The winds were light from the W coming out of the Chesapeake yesterday (11/17) midday. We motor sailed away from the land, lights and looked forward towards the deep blue. After exiting the Chesapeake, there were a variety of vessels from tugs to warships to building size structures seemingly meant to work on the windfarm that is being built some 20nm offshore. The size of the windfarm is around 11nm x 11nm ish. We continued to motor sail through all the oddities at sea with light NW winds 5-10 knots and waves barely worth mentioning. The first set of night shifts went well, albeit a bit chilly. We are all prepared with Montana grade hats, gloves and socks, as well as hand warmers stuck in various pockets and crevis'! We motor sailed through the night with one engine and low RPM's to keep our pace. This morning the winds picked up 12-15 knots NNW as we entered the Gulf Stream which flows NE at this point on it's route. There is a mild N swell of 6' and some wind chop creating beautiful waves flowing under us from our port aft to starboard bow, rolling off into the sunlight. To top it all off, we had a huge pod of dolphins with us for more than an hour surrounding the boat, coming from all angles, jumping, flipping and playing in joy. What a beautiful day! At this rate, we will be through the GS by mid afternoon. After that, play the eddies for a bump in speed and make our route down towards Bermuda. Until tomorrow!
DAY 2 — Finding the Groove
19/11/25, 6:34 am
Morning #2: We sailed most of the way through the Gulf Stream yesterday until the winds lightened. We motor sailed the remainder to keep pace and course in the lumpy seas. The afternoon brought naps by crew, more flukey winds and motoring. We also lost our wind speed and direction information on our garmin for awhile. The old ON/OFF of the navigation instruments rebooted the communication from our wind sensors. We are back in business. The motoring can only last so long and we waited patiently for the southerly winds to fill in as forecast. Right on time, after midnight the southerly winds came allowing us to move only under sail once again. It appears the southerly winds will carry us almost to Bermuda! We have 1 reef in the main and the genoa double reefed this morning with 16-22 knots AWS (apparent wind speed) with BS (boat speeds) of 7-9.5 knots. Seas are mild with some wind chop and 1-3 ft of SW waves. Wow! SV Selah can move. As you can see, we are on the leading edge of the southerly blow, so as long as we keep moving, we should see similar winds speeds and no rain for the next couple of days! If we fall short, we may have some elevated gusts and squall activity, but it looks good for staying ahead of it. The squalls are only forecast for today then they blow off. Fingers crossed for a dry helm. Note: we do not have a helm enclosure, so all crew is crossing all fingers and holding thumbs (in Swedish: hold your thumbs = fingers crossed)! Capt and crew are well fed, getting good rest and enjoying our champagne sails. Until tomorrow!
DAY 3 — Champagne Sailing
20/11/25, 8:08 am
Good Morning #3: Yesterday we sailed hard and fast to keep in front of the bigger gusts and squalls that followed the southerly winds. From around 10:00 - 17:00, we had AWS 20-25 knots with gusts 27-30 knots with a reefed main and triple reefed genoa. We had calm seas, 1-3 ft of wind chop which was amazing sailing. When do you have such mild seas with moderate to sporty wind?? Well, apparently when there was no wind in front of you and the wind you are sailing doesn't push down on you with waves, rather blows off behind. WOW! What a beautiful day. We managed 85nm in 10 hours, escaped the 40 knot gusts and only had a drizzle of rain late in the evening. It was a fun day out on the big blue. For the evening shifts, we took her down to the 2nd reef on both main and genoa. We had 18-23knots AWS; 12-16knots (opened the genoa a bit more) and still produced respectable speeds of 6-8 knots. Wow Selah, you know how to sail. Rebecca and Erik are super pleased with her performance. The decision has been made based on weather to continue direct to BVI rather than stop in Bermuda. We are also just getting in our passage groove, so it's feeling good out here. Crew is happy, rested and well fed. Until tomorrow!
DAY 4 — Warmth, Books, and Easy Seas
21/11/25, 7:06 am
Morning #4: Yesterday (11/20), we sailed on light SW winds 9-13 knots, close reach to a beam throughout the day and last nights shifts. Our boat speeds were modest 5-6.5 knots, yet it was a nice relaxed day compared to our sporty get-a-way sail the day before. Seas were calm, more books cracked, foods made and deeper conversations. As the sun rose this am, we were met with a squall line that we managed to thread without getting wet! Woohoo! Currently, motor sailing as the wind backs & lightens on us which may lead to a little gybe action later in the day to balance out our progress south and east. Winds are forecast light for the next couple of days and filling in here and there. All in good time. Crew is good, Selah is a delight to sail fast or slow and the sun is shining...did I mention it's getting warmer! Thank goodness, hats are coming off, socks thrown to the bedside and our feet are free again. Until tomorrow.
DAYS 5–6 — Slow Miles on a Still Sea
22/11/25, 3:52 pm
Good evening! These last 2 days have been slow with dried up winds and flat seas, yet beautiful and sunny; time for the crew to enjoy the big blue expanse and horizons. The night of 11/20-21, we had light winds 8-10 knots WNW pushing our course to SSW (165-180 degrees). Our night shifts were mild sailing under a stary skies in the inky blackness that surrounds us. At times, we are fully under sail and when we dip below 5 knots boat speed, we kick on a little motor to keep our pace. As the sun rose on 11/21, a band of dark clouds pushed up behind us with another clump of grey skies to our starboard (right). The rain was coming, yet squalls remained mostly north of our position. The stars of the squall show were the rainbows, curved in one cloud, vertical to the sky in another. There was a small window to pass through sans rain. We came out dry with blue skies on the other side. During the day 11/21, we gybed (turned through the wind from our stern) as the winds were backing on us to a NNW and rising. Late afternoon, a small rain cloud chased us down, yet we only saw elevated winds of 15 knots, barely worth mentioning yet gave us a nice sail for a couple of hours into the eve. We sailed SE south of Bermuda, eventually running out of air and relying more on our motors than the wind. We kept a slower pace these last 2 days to see if the front pushing off the NE US might catch us and push us along. Alas, we are a day early and riding almost in front of her. No big deal, we tried to catch more wind, yet there is always diesel and we have places to go! Early this am 11/22, we made our turn south towards BVI. It feels like our 2nd leg of the passage. We have had a lot of different experiences on this passage, from some sporty sailing to slow, breezy sailing to motoring on flat seas, meteor showers and dolphins! Today was the 2nd morning we were greeted with a large pod of dolphins. We saw them in the distance as they forged towards us to play at our bow. It's a great way to start the day! Night shifts are starting, bellies are full, cookies on the counter and stars are shining. Until tomorrow.
DAY 7 — The Philosophy of Passage
23/11/25, 11:18 am
Time runs different on passages. Our rhythms don't move only by daylight and night time. We rest when we are sleepy, eat when we are hungry, read when we need some other entertainment. What's for dinner? When is dinner...after your shift at 1:00am or is that an early breakfast? Does that mean the tacos we had at 6:00pm were lunch? The rules we have created on land do not apply on the sea. We are on an as needed bases. We adjust ourselves for the sea, for the waves and wind. We roll with what we are given. The only thing in our control is how we handle it. We can choose to slow down or speed up to avoid particular weather or for an arrival to land in the daylight - yet everything in between, we must accept, adapt, roll with and play with. Again today, we motor. We know the wind is coming and so it is that we must motor towards our destination. In the meantime, we put our extra jerry cans of diesel in the tanks for good measure; checked all engine and generator fluids, practiced a man-over-board with a fishing bouy & line we saw floating in the sea, some read, some napped, some stretched, some listened to podcast. We have time to ourselves and for ourselves, it's forced in a way being so far out at sea. Of course, we could be interacting with the outside world more with starlink, but our land lovers will be there when we arrive and until then it's nice to check in and update you all once in a while enjoying the solitude of the sea. Until tomorrow.
DAY 8 — The Whale
24/11/25, 11:12 am
Who cares, we saw a whale! While lounging in various levels of Selah, the fly bridge, the helm and saloon, crew Andrew starts shouting about something big in the water. We all sprung to the top deck and foredeck to see this massive shape under the bow. This was no dolphin, yet was riding our bow like a dolphin. It became clear that this was a whale with a white belly and white tips on the pectoral fins. The whale swam under the bow, rounded out of the water - blew water and sped off. That was not the end of the show. He/She was probably 20 ft long and had quite a robust body. It swam off our starboard bow and then circled back to port riding along side the hull. We could see it's colors, shadow, shape and length as we stood above in awe. Again, crossing our bow and jumping out of the water exposing it's massive topside and diving deep again. It created quite a wake upon re-entering the water. The last of the show was racing up behind Selah as a rapid pace, turning to show off it's white belly, darting back and forth before finally retreating and leaving us in ohhh's, awe's and utter delight. Wow! We saw a Baleen whale. It's a first for all aboard to see a whale of this type and size so close. It was curious to take a look at us, we are so thankful. Until tomorrow!
DAY 9 — Winds Filling, Spirits High
25/11/25, 11:16 am
Yesterday the wind started filling in from the NE, slowly, but surely! Around sunset, we had 8-10 knots of NE wind giving us a nice broad reach. We kept a little bump of 1 motor to keep pace and steadiness in the ride. Eric was on first shift (19:00 - 22:00) and was rock n and rolling for a couple of hours with...a beam reach 10-12 knots. The universe was shining on him and gave him a lovely sail. Next on was Andrew (22:00 - 1:00), the winds became a bit varied in speed and direction, which meant sometimes we were going fast and sometimes a bit slower. Capt (1:00 - 4:00) was next with variations in wind direction by 30 degrees and winds 9-17 knots which made for some tricky sailing to keep Selah smooth and moving at a comfortable pace. The motor was humming a little less at this point. Luckily, the winds steadied 12-14 knots for Rebecca (4:00 - 7:00) who watched the sun come up with a big rain cloud off in the distance which passed in front of us. As the morning drew on, the winds began to come up closer to the forecast (14-16 knots) and steady out. Finally, we turned off the last motor. We have been sailing on a broad reach with NE winds 12-16 knots all day. The seas a mild meter with small white caps dotting the big blue. The crew is still having a ball, enjoying the sun shine, dodging some rain clouds here and there, chatting, reading, writing, eating and napping. Capt even took sometime for a hair trim midday. Smooth sailing for Selah continues as we close in on BVI. Until tomorrow!
DAY 10 — Setback at the Mast
26/11/25, 8:16 am
We are moving a bit slower now due to a snafu with the attachment point for the head of the main sail and the mast track car. This is not a typical set up or sail shape at the head of the mast, requiring a special attachment device. There are some other issues with our mainsail halyard compounding the issue IF we were to be able to re-rig the head of the main sail and raise it. Further compounded by more elevated winds and gusts through the night making sailing on a jib alone and/or motoring more challenging. The decision has been made to motor sail in on the jib alone and set ourselves up for a shot behind (w of Anegada) towards Tortola. By our calculations, we have enough diesel for this plan and, of course, other options or possibilities of what is in store for us this evening are swirling. Crew is safe, Selah is good (less the mainsail issue) and we are only 120nm from our check in anchorage. We got this. Further updates to come.
LAND FALL — BVI
27/11/25, 10:19 am
After 36 hours of limping in on one motor to conserve fuel and a furled genoa, Selah is home. We lost our main the other day and the decision was made with only 36 hours to go to motor conservatively with the furled genoa to not waste time fixing the main. Albeit, we did some mental exercises on how we would fix the main if we were farther from land or crossing an ocean. Good practice. Last night, what we imagined could be quite uncomfortable turned out to be not to bad. We had 6-7 foot seas with 25 knots sustained and gusts to 36 knots at times. In the higher winds, we motored slow without the furled genoa and when the winds settled to low 20's we brought out some genoa to help us along. Our easting to set up for a perfect beam reach which didn't work out since the main was down, yet it worked out perfectly for our new strategy. The sun rose over the BVI's this morning with showers dotting the sky. It was a beautiful morning. We cleared in at Jost Van Dyke then over to Nanny Cay, home! Thank you for watching, loving and supporting us on this journey. Big love.