Last news from Out of India for a while June 17th 06
Out Of India
Birgitte and Ray Charmak
Sat 17 Jun 2006 12:41
Please create a new e-mail when replying and do not just hit "reply" as
this can cause compression problems as we are on satellite communication.
Out Of India
Ray Charmak and Birgitte Ribsskog
Us again,
Hope you are not yawning by now, another letter from Out Of India... If any
consolation, I am off diary duty when leaving the boat on Monday 19th for a
few weeks!
We had a few days delay before leaving Charleston on Wednesday June 7th. We
had to wait for the starter button to be repaired. But it gave Ray time to
deal with various business issues and lucky me cleaning the dingy job....
yuck. It had so much growth on it, seaweed and all sorts of stuff. There are
some quite unglamorous moments on Out of India, and I guess, this one
brought me back to planet earth after one week in total girly, girly state
with maybe too much retail therapy. So equipped with big diva sunglasses (to
avoid chemical splash), black heavy duty gloves and matching unflattering
clothes, I was ready for the job. I was insistent that I should manage on my
own to get the dingy out of the water and on to the pontoon in true Viking
woman spirit. Done that, next exercise tilt it to get buckets of rain water
out without dingy (or myself) falling over and back into very murky marina
water, did that without any of us falling in. No the easy stuff. We got some
hairy removing stuff, brush
on, scrape of, completely unenvironmently friendly. The seaweed literally
turns from green to brown in a matter
of seconds. Observer from neighbour gin palace/fishing boat was in awe.
Finally, Norwegian ice scrapers (Made in China probably) especially brought
by my sister
for the project, and scrape away. Very pleased with end result left to dry
of before stowing away, and still time for last bit of shopping!
Sad to leave Charleston, but plan to be back in November. And we have so
much to look forward to in between. We set of around 1 pm last Wednesday and
planned to sail in one hit to Long Island. But the calm weather didn't last
as long as we thought. Winds started to pick up, boat rolling and difficult
to get proper sleep. On Thursday evening we decided not to do the renown
Cape Hatteras, a storm was definitely coming and we changed course to
Beaufort. And did it storm! 6 months ago we would have been scared
shitless.... now we actually managed a little laugh now and then despite
being completely soaking wet and freezing cold. We have never experienced an
electrical storm like this, we counted between the lightening and the
thunder, and we were pretty much in the middle of it. Rain bucketing down
and gusts of wind up to 63 kn, fortunately it hit the stern, so the boat
kept incredibly stable. I was most concerned that the mast could attract the
lightening, or a freak wave would come along. Again did the life raft drill
mentally (can't help myself) and wondered where would be the best place if
we did go round, strapped to a harness in the cockpit and maybe drown or
getting totally smashed around or being downstairs securely fastened to a
bunk. I remained in the cockpit.
The following is nicked from a mail to Neville from Ray, (.... a writer's
privilege to do that isn't it?):
Ray writes: "All the same we kept going for Beaufort even though the storm
now was
passing through (Which was just as well as we could not see any of the
marker Buoys when first getting to the channel entrance) we had previously
made radio contact with the local Tow Boat US Captain who gave us
coordinates on how to find our way in as the local marina passed him onto us
as we were a few miles off when first making contact and could not receive
the call back from the marina,(and he could having a more powerful aerial)
he then kept checking if we were OK once the storm arrived and insisted on
coming out as we were entering Beaufort to show us the way to a suitable
anchorage (probably wanted to check out these mad foreigners or should I say
aliens). Although we had charts it certainly was a relief as the buoy lights
were a bit confusing and it was midnight by the time we dropped anchor.
I must say we have had nothing but civil and warm cordial assistance since
we arrived in the US. Needless to say we struck up a friendship with John
Wilson the Tow Boat US skipper and have since joined up as members with Tow
boat US as he was such a tremendous ambassador (and made no attempt to sell
us membership, I happened to have the brochure for membership which I had
picked up at a marine store in Charleston), and John returned next morning
to see if all was OK; we made provisional arrangements for him and his wife
to join us for a sail when we return in November."
Nicking over, back to B! Storm all in all a very good experience, and we
also managed to remain pretty good friends despite Ray almost crashing into
a buoy due to incredibly poor night vision and I got us completely off the
beaten track whilst Ray with great irony applauded my "perfect" vision, oh
how fun..... Hot brandy with ginger wine has never tasted better when we
finally had anchored. Completely knackered we crashed at 1 am and lights
out! I was far gone dreaming I was in some church brushing my teeth in the
Christening Bowl whilst ticking of the church assistants for chatting.... as
I said I was far gone and slept in.
Beaufort was a pleasant little gem. A picturesque fishing village with very
friendly inhabitants, people would wave and call at us, a very enjoyable
spot which we most definitely will revisit later in the summer. Weather
forecast good until Tuesday, and we set of to Cape Hatteras. So Friday and
Saturday sail, sail and sail. No boats around, only loads of wrecks
scattered about the seabed. It is getting colder and colder, not used to
this at all since the Bay of Biscay last October. I have been dressing up
with super underwear, fleece jacket underneath my heavy sailing jacket, my
lower body tucked away in a sleeping bag, a woollen hat down my ears with a
blanket wrapped around my shoulders and still with a cold nose. No need to
worry about bikini posing.
We have started 4 hour watches and the trick is to have some sort of project
going on to make time go faster and also to avoid freezing. Personally I
have specialised in fly killing. The trick is to wait for them to fall
asleep in the dark, then move gracefully around equipped with torch and
swatter. We were invaded by them for a few days keeping me busy. Then we had
all the credit card receipts from October that needed to be sorted....
another "fun" project.
We decided to cancel our New York stop ,and visit new york when we gail
South,
as Tropical storm/ hurricane Alberto was our tail,
we took advantage of the calm weather and arrived in Long Island by Monday
sunset among all the lobster
pots and dropped anchor in Fort Pond Bay, another beautiful spot. This was
true idyllic. A very unspoilt bay surrounded by park land forest. We went
downstairs (probably very wrong boat term, but I still hang on to my bed and
kitchen etc) and spread out our big map and congratulated ourselves for our
achievement. St. Lucia to Grenada, back to St Lucia then all the islands to
the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, the Bahamas, Florida
and all the way up to Long Island just the two of us. A much bigger
achievement then crossing the Atlantic in our eyes. Excluding stops in DR
and Charleston for 2 weeks, we have sailed quite non stop from St John,
taking us roughly 4 weeks. We toasted in new
bought proper glass wine glasses!!
Presently enjoying Newport.
All for now,
R&B