We started November on Greta and Gary’s dock in Norfolk
Virginia, waiting on weather to take us to Bermuda, a staging post for our
winter in the Caribbean. Apart from our
northward voyage in the spring, when we had hitched a lift from the Gulf Stream
up to Norfolk and then followed the coast to Block Island, it was our first
major offshore passage since Bermuda – Antigua of nearly a year before, when we
had a horrendous start which had tested Elsie’s nerves. For several days, it had looked as though
Saturday, 2nd would be a good time to leave. Winds should be generally light and anything
over 15 knots should be from behind the beam. It looked as though we might have
to motor for a fair way but this was worth it to get an easy passage and
rebuild confidence. So, on Friday, we
got a lift from Greta, topped up the propane bottle and did our provisioning,
including a dozen cases of beer. We also
topped up the water. Fuel was at 90%. We left the dock at 0945 and motored down the Elizabeth
River to a place where we could install the wind steering rudder (it makes
manoeuvring in confined spaces tricky).
Preventers were rigged; safety lines attached; all loose objects stowed
away. We were ready.
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| Elsie setting off in hope. |
As expected, we had to continue motoring down the
Chesapeake. At 14:00, the wind had risen
sufficiently to get the sails out and motor-assist. By 18:00, with a N’ly F2,
we were able to progress under sail alone.
The forecast was for the wind to back a little and increase to F4, with
maybe gusts to 20 knots. This seemed to
be working out when Elsie came on watch and we put in 2 reefs so that she would
have a comfortable night. The Cape
Hatteras area is notorious for rapid weather changes and, once again, it proved
our undoing. The wind continued to
increase and by 02:00 it was F6, with gusts to F7. We put the 3rd reef in but Elsie
was shaken and, at change of watch, suggested we return. I looked again at the forecast. It continued to show that, if anything, we
would have too little rather than too much wind and I made the decision to
continue, in the hope that a few days of lighter, favourable, winds would get
us back on track. I seemed to vindicated
that day. We kept the 3rd
reef in and just used variable amounts of genoa to be comfortable as the wind
varied between 10 and 20 knots. That
evening, with lighter winds, the batteries needed charging, so I started the
engine. Twenty minutes later, the
over-temperature alarm sounded and we had to shut it down. We carry a portable generator for just such
situations, so I got that out and gave us an hour’s worth of charge to see us
through the night. Fortunately, the
winds continued to be light, so I was able to work on the engine on Monday. Opened up the sea water pump: 3 of six blades missing from the impeller,
which was only 100 running hours old.
Replaced. Engine run. No flow.
The missing blades would have migrated to the heat exchanger,
restricting flow, but I wouldn’t expect them to block it completely. Nonetheless, I opened it up (managing to
catch most of my new coolant as I did so).
Yes, the blades were there.
Re-assemble; re-run; no flow. I
took each pipe off in turn to blow it though and found that the one from the
intake to the filter was blocked. There
were a few little mussel shells in the filter, which gave a clue. With some trepidation, I disconnected the
pipe from the sea-cock; gentle trickle.
Poke with screwdriver; stronger flow.
Re-connect; re-run and, hurrah, proper flow. Another bunch of shells in the filter.
The wind now started to veer round. NNE, NE, ENE.
We put the wind on the port bow and followed it round. This, unfortunately, meant that we headed in
the direction from which the wind had been blowing a couple of hours before,
with residual swell causing us to slam into it which both slowed us down and
made it very uncomfortable. Eventually,
it veered enough that we were able to tack, head East and have an easier motion
although we had to remain hard on the wind on this new tack for the rest of the
day and through the night. Up to this point, the forecast had been for very
light winds, but from ahead, for the last 100 miles, meaning that we could not
arrive in daylight on Thursday, so we had no reason to hurry as I preferred not
to enter harbour in the dark. Our new
forecast on Wednesday evening, however, showed that, if we made good speed, we
could arrive with an hour to spare so we piled on the canvas and
proceeded. Once again, it was Elsie who
caught the, un-forecast, gusts in the small hours. With too much sail up, she had a stumble,
hurting her ankle. The wind did die at
mid-day and we motor-sailed, then motored, the rest of the way. That afternoon Elsie broke the news that she
had decided not to continue doing something which she had come to hate – long
offshore passages. Did this include the
next leg down to St Martin? Yes. Given the experience of the last few days,
this was not surprising but it was still a blow. We had both known that the decision was
coming but hoped that we could make it down to our Winter cruising ground and
plan future voyaging with the need for long passages. We did make it to St Georges before sunset
and proceeded to the customs dock to check in, made easy as they had our
details from before and had already completed much of the paperwork ready for
us. We then motored across to the south
side of the bay, poured large rums and breathed a sigh of relief.
Friday was spent tidying up from the voyage, licking wounds
and tying to work out what to do next.
While Bermuda is nice, it has limited appeal and we definitely didn’t
want to spend the winter there; Elsie’s mind was firm that she was not going to
make the next passage; I was half tempted to do it solo but that was firmly
vetoed. We ran through people we knew
who might be tempted to sail with me and sent invitations but nothing doing
there. The Cruising Association have a
‘crewing service’ where they match people wanting sailing experience with those
needing crew. I framed an ‘advert’ for
this and read through many profiles of possible people, finally sending
invitations to the six most likely. Over
the next 24 hours, I got 3 responses: 2 would or could not help; 1 was
interested but wanted more details.
On Saturday, Elsie opened her heart on the internet, posting
the same message as on the blog, both to general friends and on the OCC
page. The result was rapid: huge
support, both emotional and practical.
She was offered a home to ‘look after’ in Cornwall for the Winter; we
were recommended people who might be interested in helping me and friends from
the summer said they would try to work out how they could re-arrange their own
lives to help. By Monday, we had a firm
plan: Elsie would fly back to the U.K.
and a Scandinavian couple, Mads and Lotta, who had hauled their own boat, would
join me and sail down to Antigua. After
that, it just required details.
Life continued on board.
We managed a little trip ashore on Saturday. On Sunday, we moved to the anchorage on the
North side, as the wind was forecast to shift and increase. A good move as, by evening it was starting to
blow. This didn’t prevent us from going
ashore to the White Horse pub for sun-downers, including an introduction to
‘Dark and Stormy’ cocktails – very appropriate to the weather outside. There were several other cruising couples
there, all of whom reported getting ‘beaten up’ on the crossing, which made us
feel a little better. Amongst them were
Gino and Carolyn, from Andiamo. They had
been about 12 hours behind us and had been struck by lightning, taking out
their navigation lights, their wind indicator, their fridge and their autopilot,
meaning that they had to hand-steer for over 24 hours. So, just maybe, we were
right to press on. Monday was a
maintenance day: While Elsie did the
laundry, I cleaned the carburettor of our little generator. It had been running
a little rough and was found to have dirt in the main jet. I was very pleased that it ran well
afterwards. Not so pleased that fuel was
leaking but a bit more torque on the bowl bolt sorted that. We managed to get some water from the dinghy
club, where Elsie was doing the laundry and were back to nearly full
tanks. More maintenance on Tuesday. Since getting our ‘new’ windlass, we have
slowly been accumulating twist in the anchor chain. This might be because the chain is getting
worn or, maybe, the gypsy (which is shaped to lift the chain) is the wrong size. As a temporary fix, I pulled all the chain out
of the locker and took, maybe, 30 -40 turns out of it, re-marking it in the
meantime. Elsie spent hours researching
flights and, eventually, booking them to take her home on Sunday, via New York
and Paris. In the afternoon, we removed
to mainsail lazy bag, which needed a new zip. On Wednesday, we took that ashore for repair
then bussed into Hamilton, the Capital.
A little shop browsing; a long visit to a gallery that imports carvings
from Zimbabwe and a shop at a supermarket that has a better selection, and
better prices, than that available in St Georges. Gino and Carolyn came over for sun-downer
drinks.
On Friday, Mads and Lotta, my crew for the trip to Antugua,
arrived. I bussed round to the airport
to collect them and we also bussed back, though the driver wasn’t too happy at
us bringing luggage on board. Saturday
was forecast to be wet and windy but we ventured ashore in the morning to do
the walking tour of the town. Quite
entertaining, though a little hammed up.
Mads and I got roped into the ‘ducking the gossip’ drama but little got
done in the afternoon. Then on Sunday it
was time for Elsie to leave. The mid-day
flight to New York had been fully booked which meant she had to catch the 0830
one so we booked a taxi for 07:00. She
then had a 12 hour wait at JFK airport and a further connection through CDG at
Paris before getting to Glasgow on Monday afternoon. Not an enviable trip. Mads, Lotta and I went for a walk in the
afternoon. We were just about ready on
board, apart for the usual wait on weather so on Monday we went for a little
sight-seeing trip.
First to the crystal cave, which was very nice but rather over priced at $24 per head; then into Hamilton to look for a bikini for Lotta (not available), buy rum, a little walk round the town and then a major dry goods shop before returning to Ruby. At 5, we went over to Andiamo for return drinks with Gino and Carolyn, who were still waiting on auto-pilot parts. The weather forecast was still holding good for a Wednesday afternoon departure so, on Tuesday, we headed over to the fuel dock to top up with diesel and water. Mads and Lotta then departed for a longer sight-seeing trip, down to the Naval Dockyard then back through Hamilton to buy fresh food. Mads cooked some excellent burgers for supper. We would have savoured them even more had we known how long it was going to be before our next good cooked meal.
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| Crystal cave |
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| Mads and Lotta in St Georges |
First to the crystal cave, which was very nice but rather over priced at $24 per head; then into Hamilton to look for a bikini for Lotta (not available), buy rum, a little walk round the town and then a major dry goods shop before returning to Ruby. At 5, we went over to Andiamo for return drinks with Gino and Carolyn, who were still waiting on auto-pilot parts. The weather forecast was still holding good for a Wednesday afternoon departure so, on Tuesday, we headed over to the fuel dock to top up with diesel and water. Mads and Lotta then departed for a longer sight-seeing trip, down to the Naval Dockyard then back through Hamilton to buy fresh food. Mads cooked some excellent burgers for supper. We would have savoured them even more had we known how long it was going to be before our next good cooked meal.
Wednesday started windy, as forecast but we ventured ashore
for a walk in the morning and stopped off to check out and collect our
duty-free rum. Lunch, then at 14:45,
picked up anchor and ventured out. The
wind was 20 knots, as forecast, but had not veered as much as we expected and
was on the beam rather than from behind.
I wanted to head away from it but Mads had plotted a blue line to
Antigua and, on his watch stuck to it.
Just as on our previous departure from here, once we were south of the
protecting banks we encountered a very nasty steep, short sea, with lots of
spray and occasional green water over the deck.
Lotta suffered badly and even Mads couldn’t face food. I couldn’t be bothered to cook just for
myself so just had a sandwich for supper.
Lotta was too ill to go below and spent the first 24 hours occupying one
side of the cockpit while Mads and I kept alternate watches from the
other. Thursday continued windy though,
with the wind now coming from behind, it was more comfortable. Lotta was able to go down that evening,
though was still not up to eating, so I just made bacon and egg for myself and
Mads.
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| Lotta crocheted a hat for Mads en route |
There was a tropical storm, Sebastian, to the south of
us. It was forecast to head east before
we got to its latitude but, to be sure, we continued with the wind on the
starboard quarter through the night to give it plenty of room. While
downloading weather on Friday morning I tried to make a cup of coffee. The gas would not light which was odd,
because I could smell it. Then the gas
alarm sounded. Everything off and
investigate. The flexible hose which had
been fitted, at great expense, in Annapolis had broken. This was very bad news. It could not be repaired on board and we had
no other means of cooking so it was going to be cold food from here to Antigua,
still 5 days away. Even worse were the
potential consequences: Propane is
heavier than air and will sink to the bilges.
Unlike in a house or caravan there are no holes for it to escape so
there it will remain. Any spark could
cause an explosion and fire which, on a small boat in the middle of the ocean
would probably be fatal for all on board.
I opened as many hatches as was prudent in the prevailing conditions,
removed the floor boards to assist ventilation and used the hand bilge pump to
try to pump the gas out. Elsie was
pestered with many messages through the morning to advise her of the problem
and ask her to try to find a solution for our arrival.
Weather downloaded, we could see that Sebastian was indeed
clearing to the east, so we gybed round to put the wind on the port quarter to
start making ground to the east. After
the afternoon forecast, I finally had confidence to shake out he third reef for
the first time since departure. On
Saturday morning, this was followed by the second, as the wind was forecast to
slowly veer round to the east and remain below 15 knots all the way to
Antigua. There was a sad ceremony at
mid-day as the fridge was emptied and all our fresh meat, which could now not
be cooked, was thrown overboard to feed the sharks. Sunday dawned clear with, as forecast, an
easterly 15 knot wind, giving us perfect sailing. Unfortunately, by late afternoon showers were
appearing and we had to reduce sail again.
At 8 PM, the wind unexpectedly veered to south and remained there all
night, forcing us to motor. It relented
a little on Monday morning and we were able to sail, albeit slowly as it rarely
got above 8 knots. By 16:00 it had veered again and we motor-sailed for several
hours. At 23:00 it finally co-operated
and we were able to sail again. By 08:00 on Tuesday it had settled in the east and
we were able to continue our gentle curve towards our destination. Convinced, 24 hours later, that it was going
to stay just behind the beam at 10-12 knots, I finally took out the last reef. If we managed to average 5.5 knots, we could
make Jolly harbour before sunset, have a restful night and check in the
following morning. The wind accepted the challenge and increased to 14, then 16
knots. By the time we were in the
shelter of Barbuda, we were making 8 knots over a flat sea with 18 knots of
wind. Great fun.
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| Predictwind tracking from Bermuda (arrowed) to Antigua. |
We arrived at Jolly Harbour at 14:00 and went straight to
the customs dock. I had managed to
remember the password for the local clearance system and was done in 20
minutes. By that time, Trevor, a local
mechanic, was aboard looking at the cooker.
Elsie had researched him and I had phoned on our approach. 30 minutes later, he had fitted a new
hose. We had a cooker! I had, however, promised a meal ashore, so we
went out to anchor did a quick tidy up, broached my new bottle of Goslings dark
rum and had a celebratory ‘Dark n Stormy’ apiece, before dinghying back for our
first hot meal in a week.
On Thursday
morning, we managed to find, and book, flights to take Mads and Lotta back to
the states for a week later. They then
took the laundry ashore while I did a bit more tidying up and relaxing.
Monthly stats:
Over ground 1591
Logged 1785
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| 3 dark n stormys |
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| Ruby at anchor off Jolly |
Monthly stats:
Over ground 1591
Logged 1785
