Schooner Ernestina has set off from New Bedford, MA today at 10:45am bound for Port Jefferson, NY for sails with the Long Island Seaport Ecology Center on Friday evening and to begin a nine day multi-day program with Boy Scout Troop 444 from Franklin, Tennessee. Crew only are aboard for the transit this time.

We begin a voyage that will take Ernestina to New York City, Philadelphia, Wilmington, Atlantic City, Yonkers, Jersey City, New York Harbor and back in a month to New Bedford. You will be able to follow the trip through our calendar pages and read about the OpSail & TallShips 2000 events on our events page.

The Fores'l and Jumbo are set as the ship motorsails close to the wind toward Block Island Sound and the Race. Winds will build from the SW as a High Pressure system slides off the Carolina coast, a "Bermuda" High. This is a typical weather pattern for this time of year set up when high pressure sits over the Atlantic in the vicinity of Bermuda (Bermuda is 600 miles or so off Cape Hatteras) generating winds clockwise around its center. Often the winds carry lots of humid air. Haze and high humidity builds the longer the high sits with an associated strengthening SW wind in the New York/New England area. Did you ever spend a Bermuda High afternoon on the Delaware or Hudson Rivers? The winds funnel right up through our coastal estuaries.

Wind: SW Force 4
Visibility: fair in haze
Skies: partly cloudy
Seas: choppy with a gentle swell

Captain: Willi Bank
Program Coordinator: Crista Mellican