When the sun rose this morning we had the loom of Bermuda’s lights on the horizon, and it’s possible we will see that same loom behind us as the sun sets. Our timing was terrific. We reached the northern reefs with their many lights and lighthouses before sunrise, which helped us verify our location and our approach to the island. Once the sun rose we were close enough to pick out the individual light towers and buoys. We had a lovely light breeze–just enough to sail for a bit without the engine as we made our approach. Otherwise it was sunny and about 75 degrees. A beautiful day.

Our goal when we motored through Town Cut into St. George’s about 0840 was to do a quick turn around: clear Customs, fuel and head back out to sea. The first glitch ocurred when we had to wait for a motor yacht to vacate the dock so we could go in–half an hour wasted circling. Next we were shocked to learn that the gas dock was closed! It had closed last Monday for major repairs of the quay wall and replacement of the underground tanks and will be closed through February. Now that was a major glitch. Our 250 gallons of fuel gives us a range of about 800 miles and we used about 200 gallons getting to Bermuda. We really needed to refuel before heading 900+ miles to Antigua.

Bernie, who meets every boat at the Customs dock, suggested a friend who would refill 6-gallon jerry jugs and bring them to the boat on his way home from work. Let’s see, 200 gallons, we have 2 jerry cans, 12 gallons per trip, that’s about 16 trips. That didn’t seem like a viable option. As another option, there are trucks that will bunker fuel, but they have a 500 gallon or greater minimum. In order to deal with them we would have had to find a bunch of other boats also in need of fuel. That could probably be done, but it wouldn’t be quick.

Fortunately there was a third option: A friend, Mark Soares, who was captain of Forever Young, a boat docked beside us one year in Jamestown, now lives in Bermuda, where he has started a Yacht Services business. We called him and he was able to arrange fuel delivery at his dock. Now that was another adventure. His dock is a work in progress. It is an old corrugated iron breakwall just inside the sunken rusted wreck of some sort of small freighter. He has built lovely new floating dock attached at one end. Unfortunately for us we had to use the old breakwall, not the floating dock to get fuel. And the reason will become obvious as I describe how we got diesel. Mark called a gas station to order the 200 gallons of diesel we needed. It was delivered in 2 loads on a flatbed truck, each load delivering 2 50-gallon drums. The fuel was pumped with a small electric pump through a small hose into our tanks. It wasn’t very efficient, but it did the trick.

The next problem was to get avalanche out of the rusty corner of the bay. Mark had it covered: he pulled us off the dock with a mike boat while a half dozen strong young men stood by to fend us off the dock if necessary. It was all very nicely accomplished to our relief.

In the end we were in Bermuda 5 hours, which seemed really quick under the circumstances. We exited Town Cut at 1330 and already have 28 miles behind us. We have gotten to 31 degrees 52 minutes N latitude, 64 degrees 7 minutes W longitude.

And now, goodnight to all from the really tired crew of avalanche, having been up since as early as 0400.

We’re in Bermuda. We came through Town Cut at about 0840, and have been
circling ever since, waiting our turn at the Customs dock. It is our hope
to check in, fuel and head back to sea. We’ll let you know how that goes.

Hoping you are enjoying the long weekend with good weather. We certainly
have great weather. All the best from avalanche at 32 degrees 23 minutes N
latitude, 64 degrees 41 minutes W longitude. (Bermuda!)

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We have had a wonderful Thanksgiving day. It began with the overnight highlight of a meteor that Peter reported had at least a 30 second tail.  The clear starry moonlit night dawned on a gorgeous sunny day. We had clear skies, warm water, and (unfortunately) light winds. The swells have subsided somewhat and we’re carrying the main and staysail as riding sails, which helps stabilize the ride as we motor. When the sun set Peter saw a green flash. And now we once again have a totally clear sky with such a bright moon that it is difficult to see the stars.

Unfortunately we didn’t catch any fish. We didn’t even have a bite. There was much reeling in of the lines as we motored through sargasso weed, but all we caught was “salad”. Kim and I had a bit of a laugh first thing in the morning when the fishermen let out the lines and then went off to bed, leaving the two of us fisherwomen to tend the lines. We decided we could handle whatever happened, and as it turned out we did, because absolutely nothing happened! Therefore the score remains Peter 1, Jake 0, fish 0, and only one tuna flag flies from the starboard halyard.

The highlight of our day was our Thanksgiving dinner. We had turkey with sausage stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, squash, cranberry relish, apple sauce and black olives with apple crisp for dessert! Everyone sat outside around the cockpit table for the meal, where we had set up a tray that would keep the side dishes from sliding to the floor in the swells; Leo said a lovely blessing, and we honored the day in the usual manner–by eating way too much! Following our dinner we took a group photo which should be somewhere near this post. The characters, all in fresh avalanche t-shirts, are from left to right: Jake Jacobsen, Peter Vaiciulis, Kim Hapgood, Marnie Jacobsen, and Leo Bontiff.

Now, just in case all this sounds very normal or ordinary, it was and it wasn’t. As Kim pointed out in understatement later in the day, cooking at sea is always a challenge. Because of the motion of the boat everything always has to be held down or secured behind a rail or on a gimbled surface; certainly the swells we’ve had have made such precautions imperative. While I was heating all the food for our dinner I had 2 large pans in the oven, the turkey on the bottom shelf and the stuffing on the top shelf, which isn’t the full depth of the oven. Early in the process I checked the oven, but could see only one pan through the window. When I opened the door I found that the stuffing pan had slid off the back of its shelf and was lying against the back wall of the oven with the juices pooling on the floor of the oven and bits of apple, bread and sausage scattered in the back corners. What a mess! Since the stove is gimbaled I had to have Leo help me open the door and get out one pan while keeping the other pan inside and the pots on top bubbling away. (Whenever the door is opened it changes the balance of the stove, which then swings. If there is only one pan it’s simple, grab it and close the door. But if there are 2 pans both want to come out at once. You must have one hand on the door and that leaves only one for grabbing whatever is flying out. And, of course, the oven is 350 degrees. So it took both Leo and me to handle the door, restrain one pan and grab the other.) We were able to get the stuffing pan upright and out without loosing more than about a cup of stuffing. We did a bit of digging out and mopping up and put everything back in (this time with a cookie sheet to extend the depth of the top shelf). Apparently we had rolled in a swell that, although not identified by the crew as super huge, actually was. The gimbled stove must have swung far over, which allowed the stuffing pan to slide to the back of the shelf and topple off landing against the back wall (which at that point would have been inclined more toward horizontal than vertical). The stove also suffered a pulled out electric ignition wire at the same time, so we know it had to be a major swing. As I said, it was a normal Thanksgiving dinner, and the working conditions in a galley at sea were normal, but if I told any woman ashore that she had to deal with upside down stuffing she wouldn’t say it was normal.

Meanwhile, we have gotten to 33 degrees 17 minutes North latitude, 65 degrees 59 minutes West longitude, only 88 miles from Bermuda (click me!), where the computer now predicts we will arrive at 0800 tomorrow.

Happy Thanksgiving from the sated crew of Avalanche, looking forward to Bermuda tomorrow.

Dad sent me a copy of the watch list and asked me to post it.  It gets pretty confusing if you’ve never stood a watch before.  When you look at it, you can easily see when any one person is up.  Remember each person is up for 4 hours.  2 with the person listed before them, and 2 with the person listed after them.  You then have 6 hours off where you can sleep, read, fish, help the “on” crew or anything else within reason. 

Good Morning and Happy Thanksgiving!

We’ve been asked to send a post first thing in the morning to let you know where and how we are. I won’t include much detail (because then what would I have to say later?).

We had a beautiful clear starry night with an almost full moon and a spectacular meteor shower overnight. We’ve gotten to 34 degrees 38 minutes N latitude, 67 degrees 39 minutes W longitude, about 200 miles from Bermuda. (Click here to see where that is.) At the current speed the computer expects us to arrive there about 0730 tomorrow.

Wishing everyone a very happy Thanksgiving amidst family and friends from the crew of avalanche, and may the Packers win!

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