MUTUAL FUN - A SAILING ODYSSEY

	Sign In Sign-Up

FIRST MATE'S LOG - November 2000

FIRST MATE'S LOG-October 2000
CLICK HERE

FIRST MATE'S LOG-SEPTEMBER 2000
CLICK HERE

FIRST MATE'S LOG-AUGUST 2000
CLICK HERE

FIRST MATE'S LOG-JULY 2000
CLICK HERE

FIRST MATE'S LOG-JUNE 2000CLICK HERE

FIRST MATE'S LOG-MAY 2000CLICK HERE

FIRST MATE'S LOG-APRIL 2000CLICK HERE

FIRST MATE'S LOG-MARCH 2000CLICK HERE

FIRST MATE'S LOG-FEBRUARY 2000
CLICK HERE

FIRST MATE'S LOG-JANUARY 2000CLICK HERE

FIRST MATE'S LOG-DECEMBERCLICK HERE

FIRST MATE'S LOG-NOVEMBER
CLICK HERE

FIRST MATE'S LOG - OCTOBER
CLICK HERE

FIRST MATE'S LOG-AUGUST
CLICK HERE

FIRST MATE'S LOG-JULY
CLICK HERE

TO RETURN TO THE HOME PAGE
CLICK HERE

November, 2000

Bermuda

Where to start? I wanted to keep a log day-day but the trip was so….boisterous, it was impossible. We left on Monday, I believe the 30th of October, at 1:30p.m. We were nervous but the weather window seemed to be there and off we went.We had a nice sail out the Chesapeake in 15knot winds and 2-3ft. seas. The seas kept building to around 7-10ft and we hadn't even entered the Gulf Stream yet. Plan B was to sail southwest down the coast to the Beaufort area and pick our way through the Gulf Stream there. Well, since we were already in 10ft waves, we decided to tough it out and get through the Gulf Stream, which was only about 30 miles or 6 hours to live through. We stuck our toe into the Stream and found it rougher but we could live with it. Winds increased to 25-35knots and waves increased to some of the biggest we've ever been in; some in excess of 30 feet. They were huge walls of water coming at us from the quarter, meaning from behind but partly on the side, that picked us up and plunked us back down. Every once in awhile the combination of winds and waves would put the water on our side and come smashing into the cockpit, filling it up and getting us all wet. Fortunately, the water temperature was in the 70's and warm. We made it through the Gulf Stream but it was almost impossible for the off-watch person to sleep and we were beat. It was at this time that our autopilot went on the blink and we had 2 choices. #1 was to try to get the wind steering vane hooked up, set and running and #2 was to heave-to and rest. We knew we had to pick one of the two because we didn't have enough energy to do both. We hadn't eaten and were getting depleted quickly. We decided on choice #2 and set about heaving-to. This is a process used to stop the boat in heavy seas for the crew to rest. The problem was: Bob had to go up on deck in 30 knot winds and 25 foot seas to take the mainsail down while I steered the boat into the wind. With tethers secure, he made it up there and safely back. We then pulled out a tiny piece of the staysail, backwinded it and lashed down the steering wheel in the opposite direction. This allowed us to almost stop the boat although the waves still bombarded us. We both went below, dried off, made some soup and went to sleep. Under this arrangement, we kept watch every hour, alternating and were able to sleep 2 hours at a time. We did this all night and managed to get quite a bit of sleep and didn't stir until 9:00am. We felt so much better and got under way about 10:00. We were hove-to for a total of 15 hours.

If memory serves, we are now into day #3. Conditions are not improving in the least, even though we are in daily conversation with Herb on SSB radio, everyday at 3:00pm. and he says to expect lighter winds. He tells us to alter course and head in a more southerly direction to avoid a low-pressure system, which will make conditions even worse, so we do. We still have 25-30 knot winds and waves are 15-20 feet. At this point, I will try to describe what it is like on a sailboat under these conditions. Anything not completely secured down goes flying from one side of the boat to the other. It is impossible to walk below without holding on, and sometimes one hand is not enough. If you let go for one second, you will be thrown to the other side of the boat. Cooking is nearly impossible although the stove is gimbaled and pots and pans will stay and move with the boat. The problem is getting anything into the pots and pans. All plates and bowls have to be put on the stove, as they will instantly fly off the counter. All food will go flying if not put on the stove or into the sink, which, by the way, is full of dishes that nobody has the energy to wash. Water has sloshed down the companionway and into the boat so there are towels on the floor. Using the bathroom is a huge chore. Especially for me as I have on 3-4 layers of clothes when on-watch. I find myself timing when I will drink. Showering is out of the question. Changing clothes is out of the question. Being civil to each other becomes difficult and when especially tired, impossible. Now with that said, does it sound like we're having fun yet?

Day #4 brings us back on course and we are now on a rhumb line to Bermuda. We have wasted some 15 hours heaving-to (although well worth the waste) and some 120 miles changing course to get out of the way of even worse weather. We're tired but in good spirits. Every once in awhile, one of us has a really good sleep and lets the other one have a 3-hour off-watch and get caught up. We are keeping no formal watch schedule, varying from 2-3 hours, depending on conditions and how we feel. Meals are being prepared primarily by me and I am growing weary of it. I never liked it on land let alone under these conditions. I ask Bob to make dinner and give him a fairly easy assignment. Chicken noodle soup. I want him to see what I go through to make a meal. He just has to open a box, throw the mix and noodles in a pan with some water, boil it for 10 minutes and call me in when it's ready. Instead, something breaks down while he's cooking. He has to shut off the stove and come up and fix the problem. Once fixed, he goes below and the next thing I hear is one of our soup mugs go flying across the boat and breaking. He cleans that up without a word and then proceeds to get another mug, pour the soup into it and set it on the counter. OOPS, big mistake. It all goes flying and there is chicken noodle soup all over the floor. He cleans it all up and pours what's left in a small mug for me. We have a little spat over who is going to eat it. We both insist the other needs it more and when push comes to shove, neither of us is hungry and the whole mess ends up in the sink. No hot meal for us tonight. In the midst of these heavy seas and high winds, we have had mechanical breakdowns, which always seem to occur at 3:00 in the morning and include having to wake Bob. Waking the off-watch person is no easy decision. It has to be a pretty dire situation as sleep is most important, right next to the safety of the boat. Bob told me that the line that works the steering vane was starting to fray. As I checked that while on watch, I thought the fray was becoming quite serious and would tear through very soon. I had to wake Bob and he suited up and agreed with my conclusion. Luckily this occurred during the day and he was able to fix the problem. The generator stopped working at one point, while the autopilot was on and that means we're spending amps but not able to make them. The engine transmission got locked at one point and we couldn't get it undone for 2 days. The lines to the sails occasionally got tangled and that seemed to happen mostly in the middle of the night. Bob would have to go up o deck in the heavy conditions and get them untangled. A sacrificial metal piece from the steering vane eventually totally broke off, from the rough conditions, leaving us with just the autopilot. Had the autopilot not been able to hold our course, we would have had to hand-steer. This would have been one of the worst things that could happen. The conditions were so tough that we would have had to switch off every hour and would have been depleted quickly. We probably would have ended up sailing by day and heaving-to at night.

Day #5 brought exactly the same conditions as every other day so far. The off-watch person would open their eyes in the morning with a great sense of optimism about the new day only to be quickly replaced with a feeling of, OK, we'll get through this day as well. It was a monotony that we could live with, but wasn't pleasant. The good news was, we were closing in on Bermuda. At 4:00pm. we logged in with only 95 miles to go! And a big low-pressure system due to hit Bermuda Sunday night. Now, I was going to show Bob just how smooth a chicken noodle soup meal could be pulled off. Besides, I really was hungry for it. Everything made and poured into mugs, both of us at the table smelling that wonderful smell and then it happened. The boat rolled and soup came out and burned my arm and ankle. I panicked and let go of my mug and the mug overturned and went flying. Broth and noodles all over the seat, table and floor. Ugh! Another mess to clean up and the smug smile removed from my face. We shared Bob's soup, I went back on-watch in the cockpit and he went to bed.
I have to mention the highlight of our days. All of our friends that we have made in the last year and 3 months were all listening in on the SSB radio for us. Every morning at 8:00am and every evening at 7:00pm, I would check in with Ray, on "Mariah." I gave him our GPS position and wind and sea conditions. Ray took the time to check weather reports from the Internet and compare them with what we were experiencing. He also gave us input on what might lie ahead. He even e-mailed my mom several times to let her know our position and that we were fine. It was amazing to me that he would take so much time out of his day to do this for us. Gene on "Backstay" has a home here and gave us all sorts of useful information. He even made a call here from Boston to check on our safety. After we talked to "Mariah", there would be "Shamal" and then "Night Winds" and "Zaftra" and always "Elysia" to say hello and send us their support. Eric on "Elysia" helped us with our mechanical problems from 500 miles away. At the end of these transmissions, we felt revived and like we weren't out here all alone. Everyone was keeping tabs on us. They knew it was a rough trip and we could feel their concern and caring across the miles. We felt them cheer us on and we knew they felt for us in these extreme conditions. We also knew they were very glad to be in their snug harbours or in the safe Intracoastal. Many times we wished we were right back there with them but we were doing what we wanted to do and going where we wanted to go. We just wished it wasn't so hard.

Day #6.
We didn't sleep very well last night. Bob was nervous about entering the channel to St. George Harbour and getting through Customs and Immigration. I was excited. The late night brought milder conditions and we saw 15 knots for the first time in a week. Waves were less than 4 feet and we were pumped. Morning brought high-energy for us both. Bob stayed on-watch most of the morning while I cleaned the boat. I had heard that Customs boards your boat in Bermuda and it's nice to offer tea. I knew if I didn't clean it up, they would probably gag and go running. It took me hours but I had lots of nervous energy. I enjoyed the task and was very satisfied to see the boat put back to rights. We had our morning chat with all of our friends and when they heard we were 10 miles from Bermuda, they each took turns cheering and congratulating us. Each one by one and with Eric being the last voice, we both had tears in our eyes. The whole long and difficult trip was finally coming to a close and we were going to make it after all. And with the well-wishes of all of our friends.

We checked in and came into the Customs dock without a hitch. They were too busy to board our boat so we went to them. Getting off the boat after 6 days at sea is a real trip. With both feet firmly planted on the dock, I thought I might be sick. We staggered into Customs and took care of our business. I called home and checked in with my mom. It was 82 degrees and we were in shorts and T-shirts. We moved the boat to the anchorage, dropped the hook and gave each other a huge hug. After 2 attempts, we finally made it to Bermuda. The water is a beautiful shade of turquoise and the air smells sweet. We busied ourselves with more boat cleanup and blowing up the dinghy. We went into town to a pub, had burgers and beers and met a bunch of other cruisers. We also met the Bermuda Radio guy who brought us through the harbour. The neat thing about the cruisers in Bermuda is, they all came a very long way to get here. None of this day sailing or Intracoastal stuff. These are hard-core sailors and we all had stories to tell and things to learn from each other. And we're all going south from here. We'll all be waiting for a weather window down to the Islands. And while we're waiting, we'll be doing boat maintenance, laundry, provisioning and sitting around the pubs listening to stories and telling stories and making a whole new set of friends.
This life is not for everyone. But for those of us that are either brave or stupid, it sure is interesting!

November 9, 2000
We've been here a few days now but I can't say we're having much fun…yet. The weather has been rainy and windy and yesterday we had gale warnings. The high winds and rain kicked up just as Bob left the boat and got onshore to run some errands. He didn't know there were gale warnings, otherwise I'm sure he wouldn't have left. So, the wind pipes up to 30 knots and I have to think through just what exactly I will do if the boat starts to drag. I got on all of my foul weather gear, including boots and when there was a big gust, I would sit out in the cockpit in the ready position. The best that I could do alone would be to turn on the engine and just go forward, away from the boat behind us. I would have to stay in this position until someone came to help and then they could steer and I could lift the anchor. All of this was going through my mind and I was a bit nervous. When the winds dropped back down to a dull roar, I would go below and read. I ended up a sweaty mess because I had all of those clothes on and it was warm down below. In the end, Bob got back just in time for the heavy weather to have passed. My, he times that stuff well. We haven't set our watches to Bermuda time, an hour later, and so the sun comes up at 6:00am and sets at 4:30pm. The days are extremely short and in order to make the most of them, I get up at 6:30am and go to bed about 10:00pm. Bob's clock is all messed up since he stayed up until 2:00am watching the elections. Waste of time that was. We still don't know who our President is. This morning Bob is going to cut my hair (can you all imagine that?) and then I'll have a shower and we'll go to Hamilton for the day. It's a "big city" where Parliament is and there are shops, restaurants, etc. We'll go by bus today instead of moped because it's so windy. Yesterday was so crummy out I never left the boat and I have cabin fever. Today is warm and windy and sunny and looks very much like island weather. For those of you who may not be exactly sure where Bermuda is, in relationship to the States or to the Virgin Islands, take a peek at a globe. We are stuck way out here in the middle of the ocean, all alone, and that is why we are so vulnerable to weather. There is no body of land to stop the flow of water or air so it just gathers strength and runs right into us. We are about 650 miles from Hampton, VA, where we started from and about 830 miles from Tortolla, our next stop. It is pretty much a straight shot down from here but if we go east a ways, and then head south, the trade winds should carry us all the way down. It'll be another week or so to get there and we're obviously hoping to have a much easier sail there than here. We're not looking for a weather window yet. Maybe another week or so.

November 10, 2000
Had a fun day yesterday in Hamilton. We took the bus and the ride was about 40 minutes or so. The scenes along the way were beautiful. Bermuda is one of the richest countries in the world and some of the houses showed off this status. Hamilton is even more hustle-bustle than I remembered. Lots of people going back and forth to work. The men wear Bermuda shorts, long dress socks, hard shoes with shirt, tie and sportcoat. We would have to call that geeky but somehow it works here. The women wear regular suits and hose. Most of them ride mopeds around. There is new construction and everyone looks busy and prosperous. We "did" the shops and had lunch in a second-story restaurant overlooking the street. The meal was fair and the prices were high. We checked out a big supermarket, hoping to find better prices than in St. George's but they weren't good enough to make us want to lug it all back. Bob and I found ourselves eating the little cups of yogurt quite often instead of a meal, as they are self-contained and offer many of the food groups in one cup. Here they are $1.71 for an 8oz cup. In Hamilton they were $1.59. I think at home they are $.89. When we got back to St. George's, we stopped at the pub for a rest and a drink. There we met some interesting folks. There was a local guy named Alcott who claimed his family has been here for 300 years. He was totally crocked and bought us a round of drinks and kept insisting we drink more. We thanked him and declined. Then, a group of 5 or 6 men came in and Bob and I were watching TV, hoping to find out a little more about the election. Another man came in and sat right next to me. He got to talking with the group of men and I heard him say he was from Ohio. Turns out he was from Lancaster and went to school at the same college as Bob, just many years later. They had a lot to talk about and he told many stories of life at O.U. The group of men, it turns out, are on a research submarine called "Atlantis." As the story unfolds further, apparently these men and this submarine are on the cover of National Geographic magazine. They are going out to research the Atlantic shelf and will be going thousands of feet down in a smaller submarine called "Alvine." Now, I may have this all backward but this is the gist of what we picked up at a pub in St. George's Harbour, Bermuda on November 9, 2000.

November 11, 2000
Last night was a party given by many of the restaurants, banks and other establishments to thank us for our patronage. It was a very nice affair with yummy food and free Bermuda swizzles, Dark and Stormies and beer. We met many new cruisers and look forward to seeing them down south. There was a local dance done by mostly kids, in full costume called Gumba dancing. People threw coins or dollars in the street. At first, I thought that was pretty insulting but as the dance went on, the older people that brought the kids were picking up the money and so I guess it was the custom. There was a raffle and each captain filled out a card at the beginning of the night. And, guess who won? Bob won us a $50.00 gift certificate at one of the local restaurants. An Italian restaurant and I've been craving a nice pasta dinner, made by someone else. The prices are quite expensive here so it won't go far but should cover the meal. How nice! I'm starting to get antsy and think about our departure date. A bunch of boats left this morning but there are still more just arriving. The weather window will close for the next 4-7 days as fronts approach. Last night it poured buckets and our barometer is reading 996, which means we'll be getting hit again. Right now it's hot and sunny but we can see the dark clouds approaching. Our boat is pretty clean from all of this rain!

November 12, 2000
Here I am sitting in the office of Bermuda Harbour Radio. It's way high up a hill and the view is unbelievable. There are windows all over and the best binoculars money can buy. They can see yachts coming in from forever away. Chris has invited us up for a tour and this place is unbelievable! The radar screens are huge and they have all of this up-to-date fancy-shmancy equipment that would knock your socks off. We met Chris at a pub a few nights ago and he's just sweet as can be. He's the kind of guy you would like to fix up with your sister. In any case, finally, I get to send this e-mail and get the web page updated. Thank you Chris and thank you, Bermuda Harbour Radio.

November 17, 2000
Well, here we go again! This trip will be about 850 miles; a straight shot down south, slowly, slowly moving into more warmth. We did our laundry today at the infamous Laundromat on Shinbone Alley. It's about 3 million dollars per load. You give the lady money and she uses this card in a slot in the machine. Really, the small machines are $2.75 and the dryer is $.50 for 8 minutes. Last time was $16.00 for about 4 loads. Then, we had a teeny tiny hamburger with some other boaters that are leaving along with us. We did some last chores; I pre-prepared another meal for underway and Bob did some last minute checking. We had to tear our whole boat apart looking for a small 3/8" pipe that is used to manually drain the bilge, should the pump fail. We never did find it but we found a whole bunch of other stuff. That's the good thing about looking for one thing; we always are surprised by finding other lost stuff.

We had our "Last Supper" at our favorite Italian restaurant with another couple and here we are plunked back in our boat. I'm listening on the "net" and talking to other cruisers and Bob is watching the tube, hoping to find out whom our next President might be. TV is interesting here. We get 2 stations (I'm sure we could get more if we had an antennae, not just a rabbit ear. And I mean "A" rabbit ear) and sometimes when there are supposed to be commercials, there is just 60 seconds of fuzz because they were unable to sell the spot. There are still commercials but not all of the slots are filled.

We have found this to be a very well to do country. The man pumping gas is quite educated and takes at least 3 vacations off the island a year. Many of the Bermudians fly off to New York to do their Christmas shopping and cricket is a big deal here. Many fly to London to see the matches. You don't see poor people anywhere. Everyone is well dressed and educated. And, extremely friendly. We have made friends with several locals and have enjoyed getting to know them and a little about their lives. Their main means of making money is international finance and tourism. They used to export agriculture but now their farmland is so sparse, used for housing, that they only export the Bermuda onion, and that to New York. They are a wonderful people to have visited. Next stop, Jost Van Dyke in the British Virgin Islands. We're hoping for a really nice sail with no "other assorted disasters."

November 19 Day 1 and 2, 2000
Hi everyone! I'm singing a different tune so far this trip. We left at 3pm after finding a couple of mechanical problems; and fixing them. We were irritated and tired but the weather window was here, so off we went. Conditions were fine, a front had just blown through and we were riding out the tail end of it. We alternated sleeping right away since we were so pooped.

Today I awoke to the dawning of a beautiful day of sunshine and temps. in the 80's. Wind is light, the seas are light and we're not going to win any speed records but we're having a great day. I hope this keeps up. Until next time I can write, bye.

November 21 Day 3 and 4, 2000
Good morning campers. It is 8:20am, which, by the way, is 7:20am your time. The temperature is 78 degrees; it is another beautiful and sunny day. Things would be going wonderfully, if only we were sailing toward our destination. The winds have been out of the SSW, and that means that we have been sailing southeast for too long. Bob told me this morning that we are going to sail right off our chart and I laughed but he said, "no, really, look at the chart" Well, he's right. It only goes to 61 degrees longitude and we're at 61.21. The strategy here is this: Upon leaving Bermuda, it is best to sail a little east and then wait for the trade winds to fill in. They are from the SE and will push you back south and west. Good theory but it's not working because the trade winds haven't felt like showing up yet. So, after having full sails out for 48 hours and sailing southeast, last night the winds died down and the sea flattened out so we decided to motorsail, in a much more southerly direction. The Virgin Islands are just about due south of Bermuda; it's just a matter of getting there. We have enough fuel for probably 4 days of motoring but we need to keep plenty in reserve for the possibility of a hurricane and getting into the harbour.

When we have full sails out and are sailing close to the wind, it's not a lot of fun. The boat is heeled over so far that life becomes a chore. Cooking is impossible and sleeping took place in our bunk instead of the couch. I padded the bunk with 6 cushions so you could just scrunch up against them and wake up with a pretty stiff back. Also, the water is right outside the hull back there in the bunk and it sounds like the hull will break and suck you right out. Bottom line here is this; it's going to take us a few days longer to get there than we had hoped. So far, the weather is beautiful and that's OK.

I awoke to huge craving of scrambled eggs and toast and Bob obliged me. They were delicious. Can't wait to write you from Jost Van Dyke.

November 27, 2000 Jost Van Dyke
Man, what a long trip that was. Every day was hard sailing although most days were sunny and warm. We had a lot of squalls the last few days and that made for some interesting and tense moments. At one point, I was sleeping down below when I heard Bob yell my name from the cockpit. We had full sails out when a squall decided to come along and almost knocked us down. This is a serious thing on a sailboat. Before Bob could loosen the headsail the boat was so heeled over that water was gushing in and things in the cockpit were floating out. The sea was level with the side of the boat! Bob took the sails and I took the helm and we managed to get clear of the squall in half-hour or so.

I saw dolphin for the first time yesterday. We haven't seen any fish or birds or anything for days. As we got within a couple hundred miles of the Caribbean, we started to see airplanes. When Bob woke me for my watch early this morning, he told me that he heard some metal clanging and he feared something broke. He shined a flashlight and saw a flying fish had landed in the cockpit and there was blood on the cushions. As he was relaying the story, he told me that people have been seriously injured by flying fish because they are so hard. I couldn't keep a straight face and I don't think this pleased him in his tired state but I still thought it was funny. Last night, our last at sea, I was so tired that I didn't think we could make another night out. We changed our watch schedule to every 2 hours and I literally had to drag my body up for watch. We had seen a freighter the day before, almost collided with it in fact, so now we really had to pay attention to the traffic. There was nothing else out there, though. As we approached the islands, we saw that we were sailing too fast and we needed to slow the boat down. We tried all different things with the sails but the wind was 25knots and the boat just wouldn't slow. Finally, we had to turn into the wind, in the middle of the night, and Bob had to go up and take down the main sail. This slowed us a little but eventually, we had to take down the staysail, as well, and just motor to bring us down to about 3 knots. This adjustment was made at about 3:00am, as we saw we were too close and we needed daylight to approach the islands. There are no buoys down here and the islands are dark as night. Also, there is no moon and the stars are shielded by big, dark clouds. These very clouds are the ones that produced rain and winds to 41 knots this morning as we made our final approach. I just said to Bob, "why?" We weathered it just fine with no sails to worry about and pulled into Great Harbour, Jost Van Dyke, BVI at about 8:00am. We had the boat cleaned up, the dinghy in the water and had cleared customs by 10:00am. I was asleep by 10:30 and slept most of the day until 4:30. We then got up, showered and met our friends on "Wind Shepherd", who got in yesterday, and had a wonderful meal at the very famous Foxy's restaurant. I'm going to sleep like a baby tonight!

November 28, 2000
And sleep I did. Both of us slept great. I got up in the morning and scoured the boat for about 3 hours. We then went into town and had a hamburger, although we both think it was part cow and part goat. There are many goats on this island that just roam the hills, streets and are tied to trees in yards. There is a pig roast tomorrow night that Bob says he bets anything we don't get to see the pig. Goat, he says. It was overcast and hot today. The next few days are supposed to be this way so I'll probably get some more cleaning done. You can't believe how trashed the boat gets after 9 days at sea. I did manage to sweep once underway but usually I have to sweep everyday. After a meal, the dishes went into the sink and maybe we got to them the next day and maybe it was the day after. Clothes strewn all over. Foul weather gear and warm clothes for nights and shorts and T-shirts for days. Harnesses, deck shoes and rain boots. Let alone the one time I risked it and opened the window over the stove. The seas were fairly calm (6-9ft, if you can call that calm) and I was cooking with all 3 burners. It was so hot down there and that open window made such a difference. Well, of course, we took one over the side and about 5 gallons of water came washing in that little tiny window in about 20 seconds. I had to clean it up with 3 big towels, which got thrown into the shower stall for 3 days. Now, if that didn't have a nice odor when I went to hang them up. In any case, we are back to spic and span and the first mate is happy. Tomorrow, more exploring. Our friends dropped off their laundry at a lady's house who does it for $.75 a pound. Does that sound like a lot? Bob thinks we have about 50 lbs. so I think we'll have to pass until we get to Tortolla.