At some cost to the crew of avalanche, we slogged 175 miles upwind for 27 hours through 25-30 knot winds, 12′ waves, and heavy rain squalls back to Bermuda on a short-handed watch schedule, got cold, wet and tired, then bought 100 gallons of fuel at the going rate of $6.00/gallon. All to ensure the health and integrity of a good friend and crew member’s
finger….priceless!
As I reported very briefly last night, we returned to the Customs dock in Bermuda at 1330 on Sunday. The Customs officials were waiting for us and a cab had been called by Bermuda Radio after we radioed our approach. They were very efficient in getting us the help we needed, and Peter promptly headed for the emergency room at the hospital.
Meanwhile Kim gathered our laundry and headed for the laundromat, and Leo, Jake and I took avalanche out to anchor. We got the dinghy in the water and the engine reinstalled, then Jake and Leo went to work hosing the salt water off the boat. It was a huge job since we had had waves washing over the forward deck and spraying the rest of the boat. There was a thin but solid coat of salt on the dinghy, which rides in davits all the way aft! There were big salt crystals on the dodger. You could hardly see through it.
[singlepic=145,320,240,,]My mission was to clean up below. We have had an unidentified salt water leak that comes through the overhead into our port head. It only happens on a starboard tack with lots of water on deck, and those were the conditions heading back to Bermuda. During the stormy weather I had stuffed towels into the space to soak up the water, and now had to remove the overhead liners. I needed to dry out the liners and I hoped to identify the source of the leak. The liners dried overnight and we discovered that the electric halyard winch on deck above that head is probably the source of the leak. We’ll rebed the winch once we get to Antigua, and have tried to seal it against water until then. My second clean up job was to vacuum up the black beauty. When we had the deck replaced and the hull repainted in 2004 they sandblasted the aluminum decks and deckhouse. An awful lot of the black beauty (the name of the sand they use to sandblast) remained in the boat. As a result, every time we hit a big wave (and there were many) black beauty rains down–into lockers, onto bunks, into cabinets, onto the floor, into the cockpit, and I have to vacuum it up. After three and a half years much less black beauty falls, but 27 hours of beating shook a significant amount lose.
As I finished the ceiling and floors, and Jake and Leo were well into hosing off the decks, both Peter and Kim radioed to tell us they were ready for a ride out to the boat. Perfect timing! Peter reported that the physician did not stitch the finger and said that Kim’s application of steri-strips pulled the wound together and that he couldn’t improve on it. The important issue was the threat of infection, especially because the knife had been used on fish. Peter was given an intravenous antibiotic and a prescription for oral antibiotics. He was told he could not continue with us because the most serious threat of infection would be within the next 4 days, during which he should be near medical help. Since this leg of the trip is 5-6 days offshore, that meant he couldn’t continue. We had sent an SOS out to our son, Ben, and fortunately he was able to join us for the leg to Antigua.
As the sun set and the chores were set aside for morning, our exhausted crew had a very nice dinner of Bermuda fish chowder, fresh Mahi and a big salad–all served on real plates on a flat table. No bumping, sliding or bouncing. Everything stayed where it belonged. The 3 die hard football fans stayed up until after 0100 to watch the Patriots win a close game, and then everyone slept very well on level bunks with hatches open . A real treat.
I got up at 0800 to find Peter up, dressed, packed, ready to go, and drinking coffee waiting for the rest of us to stir. Then I used the toilet…..It didn’t flush. Before any of us (aside from Peter) was even out of our pj’s, we spent 2 hours pulling apart my bunk to get at the vent for the holding tank, which we found to be solidly blocked (with you-know-what). We disassembled the plumbing for the vent and used the dinghy pump and an assortment of snakes to clear the blockage. Then we spent some time pulling up floorboards to trace the hoses to and from the tank, the pump and the vents. We pumped the tank, we used a stethoscope to listen to the hoses, we checked the vents from outside the hull. Finally we figured we had sorted out the problem. The toilets would all flush and the vent line was clear. But the port stateroom and the port head and the passageway were totally torn apart and strewn with tools. (I have photos of the head with the ceiling down and the stateroom with floorboards up, but with Ben on board and not on line we can’t post photos until we get to Antigua.)
About this time we had a call about refueling, so we had to rush to put clothes on, brush our teeth, get Peter checked out at Customs, have something to eat (actually, Kim to the rescue again, we had great scrambled eggs with onion, ham and cheese), pull up the anchor and set up fenders and docklines. As we started for the quay wall (a different spot this time–big ugly tractor tiles against a smooth very hard concrete quay wall) Leo in the dinghy, having dropped Peter off to catch a cab for the airport, picked up Ben who had just arrived. The wind was pushing us down on the quay wall, but with Leo there to catch lines and hands from a couple of boats tied nearby we landed nicely without a scratch. Once again the man with the flatbed truck arrived. Unfortunately in 2 days one of his pumps had died and he had only one drum for fuel. Once again it took 2 trips for fuel.
Refueled, we headed back to anchor, then into town for errands. As we got out our wallets for the trip to town we discovered that Peter had left his truck key on the boat. We called Ofa to let her know that Peter would have a problem, and she had some ideas about getting a key to him. Meanwhile when Jake checked Ben onto the boat, we discovered that a call from Bermuda Radio, regarding a message at Customs that we had gotten in the midst of refueling, was actually Peter calling from the airport having realized that he had left his key. We just hope that Peter had a second key hidden in the truck or that Ofa was able to get him a key through the local dealer.
After checking Ben in at Customs, Jake headed back to check in with Herb to learn about our weather. The rest of us delivered our semi-annual case of beer to Bermuda Radio (in recognition of our very first trip south when we got caught in bad weather and had a communication schedule with BR in case of trouble), then bought groceries. Once back on the boat we rushed to stow the dinghy engine, hoist the dinghy into the davits and get underway. We headed out Town Cut for the second time at 1730.
Since then we have traveled 50 miles at about 6-6.5 knots. Once again we’re beating, but this time we have starry skies, the wind is only 18-22 knots, and the ride is reasonably comfortable. Our position is 31 degrees 34 minutes N latitude, 64 degrees 46 minutes W longitude.
Looking forward to a new day at sea with no problems to solve or messes to clean up, all the best from the crew of avalanche!
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