St Augustine to Bermuda. A Mixed Passage. 32.22.75N 64.40.51W

Mandalay
Robin & Jenny Martin
Thu 3 May 2012 15:48


A passage of under 900 miles we thought we would comfortably do in six  days but we didn't factor in the low probability of head winds. Well that's what we had for the first and last two days of our seven day (and night) passage.
In between we had calm, perfect sailing conditions and a good day to have a hot shower and a hair wash, so much easier than when we were at an angle of 25 degrees and big seas.

People ask us what on earth we find to do on these long legs and don't we get a bit bored, well no, there's no time as we are so busy, a lot happens out here in the Atlantic.
Leaving St Augustine inlet we discovered that we had an airlock in the fresh water system, so Robbie was busy down below sorting that out while we sailed out of sight of Florida. The battery management system was playing up so we had to manually make sure we didn't overcharge the batteries. Then the first weather surprise, the expected light following winds didn't happen and the prepared spinnaker and twin head sails were redundant as we beat into 20 knots for the first 24hours. Luckily the supper was prepared so we had time enough to sort ourselves out before dark.

We do a 2 hour on/off  then 3 hours on/off at night and it seems to work well most of the time. So from after supper until dawn we don't see much of one another. We use either the auto helm to steer or the hydrovane (named number one). No. One preferred as she is silent and uses no power but isn't as accurate close hauled and can't be used when motoring. It's  like having an extra crew member that doesn't need feeding or question the skipper, well most of the time.

Day four was the calm day, glassy sea and cloudless sky for miles and miles and nothing in sight. Day 4 was great for catching up with things we were unable to do while the weather was ugly. Checking the rig for wear and tear and potential problems - see photo. Good day to make and mend. There was time to relax have a snooze and read, the first two nights having been a bit tiring.

The fourth night was one to remember. Flat calm and not a breath of wind. We set up the laptop for AIS (automatic identification system) and the radar and made our selves comfortable in the saloon. We also used the galley timer set every 20 minuets to get up and check the skyline from the cockpit. We enjoyed a very comfortable night confident that we knew if anyone was out there. A Portuguese cargo ship  came up on the AIS but too far away to see, and Robbie called the duty officer up on the VHF radio and they had a nice chat, the main reason being to check that they knew we were out there too, he did thank goodness as we feel very small in this vast ocean sometimes.

Daily chores form a loose routine to work around. Checking the iridium phone for messages and the  1300 UTC record keeping and then Robbie's busy SSB radio calls. We check in to Cruise Heimers a couple times a week and find out where friends have got too and check ourselves in too. Then there is the all important session with Herb at 1930 UTC. Each day he gives us accurate weather information and he is really very good even down to the timing of the arrival of the weather front that gave us our second bout of headwinds. After his prediction we prepare ourselves for what lies ahead - he's so good he even asked if we had enough fuel as he thought we would be motoring all of the last day-I think he has a crystal ball.

The fresh provisions held out which was just as well as a giant of a fish snatched the lure and dragged out the whole line, lucky we didn't loose the rod and Robbie! There's probably a massive angry blue marlin swimming around with a 100m of dynema line trailing behind him. Robbie likes to think it was too big to land anyway.The only fish we are likely to catch now are the flying ones that end up on the deck and they won't make us fat. We eat very well, better in calm weather of course and there is a real art cooking at 25 degrees when pot luck stew is on the menu.

For those of you who wonder about how to keep fit on passage it's a question of isometric exercising. Bracing yourself against the heel of the boat is hard work and after a couple of days of that you can feel those muscles aching. Everything you do on a boat is hard work and takes at least twice as long. Simple things like cleaning your teeth still means hanging on with the other hand. The key to it we have learnt is to make the most of those calm days! We like to stick to the saying 'the only easy day was yesterday'.
Closing Bermuda is always a long haul especially when you are motoring as we had to. We waited for Bermuda radio to spot us on their long range radar but nothing heard. We thought we might have snuck in under it! They normally pick you up at about 70 miles out, it was a bit of a shock last time when we were coming up from the Dominican Republic. This time we had to call them at 10 miles which was bit of a surprise for them. They quiz you about just about everything even the make of your liferaft.

Safely in through customs by 3pm which made the passage exactly seven days. Checking the log we had actually sailed 940 miles instead of our rhumb line calculation of 860. We used the engine a fair amount to push us through the calms and if we had not spent 24 hours beating into the wind we may have arrived a day earlier. Maymio, as ever enjoyed the windward sailing and kept us safe and sound.
Now, settling in to 2 weeks here doing some repairs and waiting for our 3rd crew member. Ken and Sally Drane are coming out for a holiday and Ken is staying to sail back with us to Bermuda.

Photos

St Augustine.
Loose fitting and the Skipper fixing it.
Flying fish and a strange sailing jelly fish.
Jen multi tasking

JPEG image

JPEG image

JPEG image

JPEG image

JPEG image

JPEG image

JPEG image

JPEG image