BERMUDA 1-2 Take II

As noted in the previous post things were a bit hectic in April and May.  Son Zach graduated from college....

and daughter Rigel got married to Andy.

Last minute rush jobs were giving me a huge headache, the weather kept the yard from pouring Spartite around my mast and I hadn't had a chance to program the new instruments.

Finally Carol and I shoved off and headed up the Chesapeake into a foul current and then it started to rain.  I was below when I heard the engine throttle back and immediately popped my head up to see what was going on.  "We have company" Carol said and I see a Coast Guard boat and RIB coming up astern.  One of the Coasties hails me* and asks when was the last time I was boarded.  I chuckle and say NEVER!  He said they'd like to come aboard for a safety inspection.   "Do you have any weapons on board" he asks.  Being the smart-ass that I am, I said, "well, by weapons I assume you mean a firearm, because I have about 5 things in the cockpit alone that can kill a man, but NO, I don't have a gun on board!"  So I open the side gate and they come on board.  I explained that we were on our way to Newport for the 1-2 and I had way more safety gear than necessary.

Carol had throttled back to idle and the guys in the boat had no steerage so they told her she could keep moving.  Good thing too because we're already behind schedule.

USCGC  CROCODILE 

 One to do the inspection, the other to do the paperwork.  First thing he says as he points in to the aft cabin, "well I see you have your OIL discharge placard".  "And over there is my TRASH placard" I said, pointing to the galley.  Next he asks about fire extinguishers...  "Oh, one in the cockpit locker, one in that aft cabin locker by the OIL placard, one there in the galley and one right HERE" as I slapped the one in the hanging locker. He doesn't say much but I can see the gears turning: not going to find anything wrong on this boat!

"How about PFD's".  "Sure, 2 type I with lights and whistle, plus 2 type 3 in the V'berth".  He says "I see your inflatable's hanging there (3, with tethers), you know they...  And I finish his sentence... yeah, they don't count unless you're wearing them".  I think by now he'd figured out where this was going.

Um, okay, how about flares?  Oh, goody I get to pull out my offshore package.  Flares, Parachute rockets, Smoke bombs, more in the ditch bag in the cockpit locker, PLUS that bin over there has more that are expired!

 (I could put on a regular 4th of July party)

Only other thing he asked to see was my horn.  Manual pump up, PLUS the compressed air horn I also carry.  Okay, I think we're done here.  Now the only thing that bugged me is they wanted to see ID and I said, sure, let me get our passports.  No, they wanted to see Driver's Licenses.  They were harder to dig out (where is your license Carol???)  and he phones in to the SECRET WARRANT SEARCH OFFICE and find out that no, we are not wanted or bad, evil hombres.

Meanwhile Coastie #2 is writing down all the info off my USCG Doc paper doing it all longhand (can't they do this more efficiently?) and finally finishes.  He starts up the companionway forgetting that the plexiglass slider was closed because IT'S RAINING and promptly hits his head.  Slides it back, then climbs out, steps on the bridge deck, stands up and cracks his head on the underside of the boom!  Carol just looks at him and matter of factly says,  "it IS a sailboat".  Coastie #1 who was as nice as can be just smiled and shook his head.  I did think to get a pic of them as they were leaving.

While I can't say I'd like to be boarded again... they were very pleasant and professional.  Of course it helps that I run a tight ship and keep things legal.

* When I popped out of the cabin they hailed ME as skipper.  Not Carol who was sitting out in the rain driving the boat.  WTH is that all about?  Like she couldn't happen to be the skipper if I, the male, was on board?

A few hours later as we're transiting the C & D canal we pass the Coasties tied up presumably having dinner.  About 2/3 of the way through the canal we start to get a bit of a push from the current and then start down the Delaware river/bay.  Taking a short cut through the Cape May canal saves a few hours plus we need to stop for fuel as we've motored for almost 20 hours straight. Sitting down to breakfast was a nice treat also.

As we were getting ready to leave I had to walk past the Hinckley Bermuda 40 yawl ANYTIME that was getting ready to depart.  A few hours later as we were sailing up the Jersey coast he called me on the radio and we chatted a bit.  He also was headed to Newport and pulled in a few hours after us 2 days later. (A few days later he stopped by to chat with me at Newport Yacht Club) 

Unfortunately the first several hours of sailing slowly deteriorated as the wind slowly veered to the northeast and the seas got lumpy.  The next 40 hours or so were spent motorsailing and putting up with rain and cold and just crappy conditions.  We got to Newport late in the afternoon on Tuesday and promptly got showers, did laundry and started prepping for the race inspection the next morning.

I, of course made a trip up the mast to check everything over and while there took a few pictures of some of the other race boats.  

PANACEA, MELANTHOS 2, WINDSWEPT

CORDELIA (156), CONCUSSION, VELOCITY GIRL, SERIANA (if front of 156)

This was the first day weather was actually nice.  Newport had been having a lot of cold, dreary, foggy days.

June 2 rolls around for the start and we have a nice day although the wind was SW which means we have to beat out of Narragansett Bay.  Ugh. I get a pretty good start, just seconds after the gun and right behind MELANTHOS who nailed it and PRAIRIE GOLD who can screaming in on a reach. I could have shut the door on him, but that's not nice and we had 635 miles ahead of us.
The first several hours were pretty nice and we were booming along on course.  In this pic below there are 5 boats in my class all probably within 1/4 mile of me.

An hour into the race, leaving Narragansett Bay.

Four hours in.

I fortunately ate dinner early, prior to the 1850-1910 "chat hour" with the other boats.  I say fortunately, because right as we were finishing up, this front blew through and I put in a reef, and then a second. You can see from the clouds in the next few pics that it was a bit blustery.

So the first night was pretty uneventful but cold and I was glad to have my secret weapon; a hot water bottle to stuff inside my foulies!  Saturday morning was spectacular; The spinnaker was up, the seas were calm and I even had some tunes cranked up while eating breakfast.
Evidently though, when that front blew through there was some lightning associated with some of those clouds because the next morning FLYING TURTLE was headed back to Newport with pretty much all of its instruments shot.  He didn't think he took a direct hit, but it must have been close enough to make them wonky.  Turned out to be a good move on his part.

That afternoon the first of the really gusty wind showed up and the sea turned into a washing machine. I had to bear off a few times to keep the apparent wind speed down to avoid blowing out my jib.  After a few hours things quieted down a bit and the next day, Sunday was pretty nice.  The Gulf Stream crossing was almost a non-event.   Unfortunately, I wanted to be further to the west and this was the beginning of the end for my race.  The next day the wind started to blow harder from the SSW and I couldn't make ground to the west of the rhumb line.
While blasting along that Saturday afternoon I saw I was closing on SCALLYWAG II.  And rather quickly too.  WTH?  I called Bob on the VHF and it turned out his autopilot was out.  And his backup went also.  He ended up turning around and bailing out also.  Again, a wise move on his part.

Then, that afternoon I heard Jason on CONCUSSION talking to Justin on SPADEFOOT on the VHF.  Seems SPADEFOOT was concerned about the attachment of his lifting keel and in the rough seas that were developing he was afraid the keel was going to break out of the bottom of the boat in a catastrophic failure.  CONCUSSION texted to shore and received some guidance from the CG.  Justin ended up deploying his liferaft and Noel on SOLARUS picked him up shortly thereafter.  (SPADEFOOT ended up drifting around for 3 weeks before it came near enough to Bermuda to be towed in.)

DIANTHUS is the highlighted boat.  The yellow boat that zig-zagged is SOLARUS after it picked up Justin.  SPADEFOOT is NOT visible now on the tracker as it was put in "hidden" mode after being abandoned.

Here is a link to the SPADEFOOT story.

By now the wind and sea state had increased to the point that I was double reefed and had the storm jib up.  I would remain single or double reefed for the rest of the race.

Now,  being just 10-12 miles north of an abandoned boat with nightfall approaching and wanting to be further west I made the decision to tack to the west.

I tacked west for about 4 hours. You can see how close I came to where SPADEFOOT was abandoned.

While on this tack I took advantage of the slightly more comfortable ride to sack out on the cabin floor in my wet foulies on top of wet sail bags and contemplated my options.  200 miles to go, at least 2 more days of this weather and it was supposed to get worse.  Gee. Isn't this fun.  Briefly it even entered my mind to turn around and run downwind back to Newport.  Nah, 400 miles and who knows what the weather will be.

Around 12:30 am or so I stuck my head out the companionway and the first thing I see is a green Nav light.  AIS said it was Team Wichard.  I'm thinking if Vernon is still out there in a freaking 21' mini, then I'm going on.

Tuesday  morning I see HALCYON on the AIS and call up Dan to ask him if he would call Carol on his satphone and let her know I'm okay but have no communication as my satphone has not worked since Newport.  I didn't think she was too worried since I was obviously still sailing but...

Tuesday was pretty much more of the same and Wednesday was also but obviously getting a bit more wind wind and confused sea state.

Video from Wednesday afternoon.

I finally was on approach to Bermuda Wednesday afternoon and the last 10 miles or so the wind was in the 20's, AWS high 20's and sometimes over 30.  Seas were 6' plus.  In general, it just sucked. I just wanted to get in  At least it was daylight.  Finally I finished (cross within 0.25 miles of Mills Breaker when it bears 270 degrees.

After a couple of days of getting tossed around all I wanted to do was clear in and get cleaned up but NOOOoooooo.   Motoring in the "Cut" Bermuda Radio tells me it's one boat at a time at the Custom's dock because of the high wind and I'll have to wait.  In fact they want me to go anchor in PowderHole.  Uh, you do realize I'm singlehanding, it's blowing 30+ and there are boats anchored/moored EVERYWHERE?
So I ask the pilot boat to give me a hand thinking they could just take a line to my bow and hold me steady while I pull out the anchor, drop it and set it.  Noooooo, they come alongside me with their big flared side and promptly bend three of my stanchions.   So I ixnay that idea and end up motoring around for an hour and a half.  Finally get cleared in and instead of going to the mooring where the Race committee had worked out for me, I ended  up rafting up to another competitor at Town Dock.  Phewww.  Finally, safe and sound.  So I trudge up the hill to the Dinghy club to get a shower and who do I meet there but Steve Pettengill.  He did this race a few times years ago, as well as the OSTAR and came in third in the BOC roundtheworld race in '94.  And Carol and I sailed with him on a mutual friend's boat a few years back.  So off to the WHITE HORSE it was for a late nightmeal.

Next up... a week in Bermuda and the Double Handed leg.