In which we leave the States and head to warmer climes for the winter.
The start of
December saw us on passage from North Carolina to Bermuda. To say
that were ‘ship shape and Bristol fashion’ would be stretching
things. Our radar wasn’t working; our dingy wasn’t holding air,
so might need replacing – probably easier in the States than
Caribbean; on the second day out, we discovered that our main VHF
radio was again not receiving but worst was the lack of recency of
the crew. We had had only one day of sailing, in fairly benign
conditions in the last six months. Elsie frankly admitted to terror;
I hid mine. On the plus side, we knew the boat well and had done
longer passages in the past; we were full of fuel water and food; we
had confidence in our ability to get weather updates and the forecast
showed light winds, all from behind the beam. We would have been
happier waiting a few more days and getting a bit more recency in but
winter was pressing in and the longer term forecast didn’t give any
other weather window for weeks. We had had a little trepidation over
crossing the Gulf Stream, it being an axiom that you don’t do so
with any significant North in the wind. As it was, we hit it at a
quiet patch and although, at times, we could see a 2-3 northerly
drift, you wouldn’t know it from the surface. What was amazing was
the change in temperature. Only 150 miles from the coast, where night
temperatures had been below freezing, it was now warm enough to put
away several of the layers of clothing we had worn the first night
out.
On departure, our 4
different weather models had given us widely different ETAs. By the
morning of the first December, they started to agree that we would
arrive around sunset on the 3rd. The weather overnight
3rd / 4th looked a little lively and the
entrance to St George is a bit technical for an after dark first
attempt so we needed to keep our speed up. On cue, the wind dropped
and swung directly behind us so we started the engine to give us some
assistance. It’s not something that we like to do for long periods
but flexibility is good. The wind picked up again late in the
evening and came round to just behind the beam, giving us a nice
reach in smoothish seas and 8 knots through the water – heaven. It
went up and down a bit over the next couple of days, giving us some
nice reefing practice but we managed to keep ahead of our predicted
speed and arrived off the coast of Bermuda at lunchtime on the 3rd
with an hour to spare to enter in daylight. Our hope was to go to
anchor and clear in with customs etc. the following morning but, just
as we got to the entrance, we were instructed to go straight to the
customs dock, which meant bringing in the spinnaker pole, tidying
away lots of ropes (preventers, guys, spare sheets etc.) and getting
out fenders and mooring ropes. Twenty minutes of frantic activity
had us prepared and all went smoothly with very friendly officials
making handing over $70 seem almost a pleasure. Half a mile motoring
across the bay and another half hour of tidying away and we were able
to take much needed showers, break out a drink and toast another
successful passage. We had motor-assisted for nearly 24 hours but
got back into the groove and could relax until the weather gave us a
window for the next leg.
Customs House, St Georges.
Tuesday was, as
forecast, wet and windy so we had a day of doing very little, just a
bit of cleaning, tidying and trying to sort our radio problem. Our
fuel gauge also seemed to be hugely optimistic but that would have to
wait as I could not find access to the sender. A new calibration
might be required. Wednesday was better so we got out the dinghy.
It now seemed to be holding air in (maybe grit in a valve on first
inflation) though still letting a little water in. Our new, heavier,
outboard was installed without problem and we went ashore for a look
round the local town. Very scenic and touristy, with a hammed-up
reconstruction of 18th century punishments as lunchtime
entertainment. The local
supermarket was also better than (and not
as outrageously expensive as) we expected.
Thursday was again windy, so we elected to stay on board again.
On Friday, we took
the bus to the capital, Hamilton and on yo the other end if the
island group, the Naval Dockyard. This is where the cruise ships tie
up and is a real tourist trap, with plenty of craft shops to augment
the usual. We had omitted to pack a lunch and ended up paying over
$30 for sandwiches and tea. Stopping off in Hamilton on the way back
gave us some comfort, as we discovered that we could buy spirits duty
free, to be delivered to customs for us to collect on departure. 2
very nice litre bottles of rum for $36. I wonder if we regret not
buying more. Saturday, we took another local walk round St Georges,
seeing the unfinished church and, at the northern point of the
island, a new luxury resort under construction. Sunday got
progressively wetter and windier with severe S’ly gales overnight.
We were well prepared with everything battened down and even the wind
generator curbed in case it over speeded. We unleashed it on Monday
and, at times it was giving us over 100 watts so soon caught up the
backlog.
Unfinished church
We had been
following the weather closely and, from about Friday onwards,
Wednesday had seemed the day for departure so, on Tuesday, we had a
last trip down to Hamilton then came bacxk to tidy up and prepare for
our next 930 mile leg down to Antigua.
On Wednesday
morning, we eves-dropped a couple of other boats discussing their
plans. Chris Parker, the weather guru, was recommending a 24 hour
delay as there was a large, 3 – 4 metre swell running from the
previous day’s high winds. We ran our forecast again and confirmed
that delaying would make us miss our weather window. It would be
fine for the first couple of days but then we would be caught in a
calm then, worse, be sailing into a headwind for the second half of
the passage. Our reckoning was that it was worth taking early pain
for later gain. Final preparations: securing below; rigging lines; a
top up of fuel, then we checked out (not forgetting to collect our
duty-free rum) and headed out at 1040 with 2 reefs in the main and
most of the genoa in a WNW’ly F5. While in the lee of the islands,
the motion was fine and we made good speed. As we sailed south, the
swell increased and, rather than the even ocean swell we were
expecting, it became irregular and confused, possibly by the wave
train being broken up by offshore shallows. Our motion became very
uncomfortable and we suffered one slide down a particularly large
wave, crashing sideways into the trough. We were both shaken by this
and neither of us slept much that night. The following morning we had
a little respite as the wind, as forecast, decreased to F3 and veered
round to the NNE. We were travelling much slower but the motion
improved a little, though there was still a significant W’ly swell.
I then discovered water in the bilge. Only a couple of gallons but
Ruby is such a dry boat that it had us worried but it seemed to have
ceased and there was nothing we could do but monitor.
We were now in trade
winds which kept a fairly steady direction, between NE and E, and
speed, F 4-5 for the next 2 days. We should have been enjoying this
but the first 24 hours had shaken and tired us. Elsie was unwell,
probably just sea-sick, but was unable to keep anything down and,
unusually for her, to sleep. I was eating OK but not sleeping. On
the night of the 15th / 16th, the wind veered
further to ESE and decreased to F 3-4. This meant that we were
fairly close hauled, which in turn meant well heeled to starboard.
As our forward bunk is on the port side, this meant using the port
quarter berth, next to the cockpit and engine. This became
significant as the wind veered and decreased more on the 17th,
requiring us to motor sail for prolonged periods to stay ahead of the
forecast calm. During an occasional stronger wind period, we
suffered a further unpleasantness when the clew of the first reef
gave way. Our ‘new’ main (we have had it for over a year, but
not sailed very far in that time) had been modified by the makers,
North, and a poor choice of shackle, supplied by them, had sawn
through the webbing supporting the clew block. We managed a quick
jury rig but, looking at the rest of the system revealed that the
line had chafed badly at the tack. Being out of sorts on this
passage had led me into not properly doing my twice-daily rounds and
I had failed to notice that it had been poorly led. We managed to
stay ahead of the calm and finally made it into Jolly Harbour at 1225
on the 19th. What we wanted to do was just curl up and
sleep but, unfortunately, you can’t do that. We dropped anchor
briefly, to tidy up and have the first proper showers in a week then
motored into the customs dock to spend an hour or so doing paperwork
and paying our dues. They were kind enough to let us stay alongside
for a further half hour or so while we had a quick shop, then back
out to anchor in the bay to finally relax.
We now had quite a
few maintenance projects and the festive season was rapidly
approaching. Our liferaft was overdue for survey and re-pack, as we
had been unable to get this done in the States; The main sail needed
repairing; the radio needed repairing; we needed to replace the
first reefing line and the shackles for the reef clew blocks needed
replacing. Fortunately, we were in a good place for all of this.
Jolly harbour has a good chandlers and all of the technical people
seemed to have capacity to help. Lots of phone calls and well-loaded
dinghy trips saw everything required go ashore. Now to investigate
the bilge water. The initial few gallons had been filthy with fibre
glass dust, presumably from repairs back in 2014. We had dried that
up but now there was more and it seemed to be coming from the keel
area. This was deeply disturbing and I feared that our sideways
slide on the first day had loosened bolts. It was, however,
trickling out from a cross beam, which had no bolts inside. Lots of
investigation revealed that it was coming from the raw water cooling
pump for the main engine, trickling down the heating pipes for our
domestic hot water tank and emerging in the beam. It was an
annoyance that the pump, which was only replaced a couple of years
before, was leaking but it was so much better than the possible
alternatives.
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| New clew for hammock |
 |
| Carrick mat |
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| Turks head on re-covered wheel |
The next few days
were spent with minor jobs, chasing repairers and, occasionally,
relaxing in the sun or strolling on the beach. It became clear that
nothing was going to be returned before Christmas so we bowed to that
and made the best of it. We had a few socials with Ocean Cruising
Club friends and got invited to BYO beach barbecue, courtesy of the
local sailing club, on Christmas day. On the 27th, it
became apparent that the radio and sail needed more active chasing
so, on the 28th, after a final shop, we upped anchor and
headed down to English harbour, anchoring in time to nip ashore, drop
our old water pump off for investigation and collect a repaired sail
and an unrepaired radio. The latter was an annoyance as the
manufacturers had diagnosed the problem
by internet and were
prepared to repair it at reasonable cost. Only problem was that they
were 3000 miles away. We decided to continue using our portable set
(Elsie having cured a charging problem) and take the main set back
for repair when we could. We re-installed this set as we knew that
it was transmitting and, at the very least, was one of our several
ways of sending a distress message, if required.
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| Coldies coming ashore for Christmas Barbie on the beach |
The anchorage at
English harbour is rather cramped and, with strong winds forecast, I
couldn’t put out as much anchor cable as I would like so, on Friday
29th, We motored round the corner to Falmouth and settled
in. We attempted to re-install the main and managed to get the
battens in but the wind blew up, so lashed it to the rail to await
calmer weather. I woke the next morning to find, unforecast, light
winds so dug Elsie out, with surprisingly few complaints, and 30
minutes later it was back on the boom. On Monday afternoon we were
informed that our water pump was ready, so we picked that up. It was
too late to check out so we spent the evening messaging friends and
family as their New Year passed. At midnight there was a nice
firework display and all the guests on the big yachts took their turn
at blowing the fog horns. Eventually things quietened down and we
went to bed to dream about 2019.
Monthly stats
Log 1620
Over ground 1372
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