31:09N 64:45W Calling Bermuda Radio
The Snark on The ARC
Ben Little
Thu 5 May 2011 06:31
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Hi Folks,
I guess this is the last on passage blog for the
first leg of our 2011 epic. It is approaching breakfast time in England
and still pitch black only lit by the stars on the last night watch of the trip
to Bermuda. We are now 70 Nm off St George and will definitely be in
before nightfall, best estimate is 2pm tomorrow afternoon which is a 6 day
passage exactly only 1 day more than the initial estimate. The optimistic
view was that with fair winds it should have been around 4.5 days but that is
history.
We have had to sail an extra 100Nm or so due to our
tacking against strong headwinds which topped 20 Knots for a good portion of the
time. Short but steep waves banging into the boat have also made progress
much slower than we would hope. Even under engine progress is very slow
into steep seas like this it takes about 2 knots I would guess off boat
speed.
Crew morale is back up now the sailing is more fun
again and Bermuda if not actually in sight can be heard on the radio. They
are really active and helpful, I have listened in on several of the broadcasts,
with advice and caution on how to approach the island. I guess this is due
to the number of dangerous reefs in the area. The do appear to be warning
of new wrecks in the area so obviously still dangerous even in these days of GPS
and boat sat nav!! The good news on this score is that we are going to be
approaching in daylight so we will be able to see where we are going. At
night it is a question of do you trust the lights (which ones) or the GPS
plotter in front of you. Plotter I guess is the answer though more
traditional mariners will tut tut at this I am sure.
Fresh food supplies are low and everyone's appetite
is low at the moment. We have plenty of supplies for the traditional Snark
Omelets but the last of the fresh meat (chicken) went into the bin due to lack
of freshness. Plenty of tins, pasta and rice so no one is starving but not
excited. Disappointing lack of fish, though to be fair we have not put the
line out the last couple of days and before that there was so much weed about
all we did was get a hook full of that. Mike seems keen on just eating a
bowl of rice a day, maybe with a dash of soy sauce, just to prove
how rugged he is, his offers to take on the kitchen have so far been
rebuffed as a consequence. I favour more variety in the diet and hope we
can do better on the next leg, both in terms of fish we catch and in terms of
supermarket sell by dates. The shops in Tortola were horribly expensive
and frankly very poor in terms of variety and for fresh meat very limited and
sell by dates were a problem with nothing more than a few days and only frozen
Chicken with no dates on.
So by dinner time we will be ashore no doubt
scouting the local restaurants for something different to eat
and investigating what the Bermudan equivalent of the pain killer is
(national drink of the BVIs). We will also be press
ganging Quentin into service as he is arriving this evening on an
undisclosed flight?? We will be in phone range so hopefully he will find
us.
(Quentin if you get this message please send your
flight details to this email address by reply)
So we will be showering off at least 2 days of
grime, shaving off 6 days of beard and pumping up the dinghy to get ashore in
approximately 12 hours time. More likely we will all collapse and sleep
for 12 hours and wake up wondering where we are. Nevertheless, Bermuda
here we come.
last thought, our long suffering yellow sail has
survived a trans Atlantic leg without a tear in it!!
Ben and the Crew of The Snark
bentlittle {CHANGE TO AT} btinternet {DOT} com thesnark {CHANGE TO AT} mailasail {DOT} com +44 777 070 4382 (Mobile) +88 1631589195 (Sat Phone) Follow our voyage blog at:
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