November 4, 2010 Day 7
23 24 N latitude 59 51 W longitude

Hello Everybody,

We have had another beautiful day in paradise. More blue skies, stars at night, water temp 81 degrees, air temp in the low 80′s. We’ve had great wind for sailing ever since last night–18 or 19 knots overnight and this morning, building now to around 25. We’ve had almost constant SOG’s over 8, most of them 8.5. It looks as if we made 189 miles today! And with that kind of mileage under sail our fuel worries disappear. We have traveled 1313 miles since we left Jamestown and have just 400.5 miles to Antigua. The computer tells us that if we can continue to fly along at this pace we will get there around 8 pm on Saturday night. However, the computer doesn’t know that this wind is predicted to become lighter on Saturday. Using that information, the crew is thinking that the ETA will be sometime in the overnight hours between Saturday dinner and Sunday morning.

Peter L practiced steering in the seas today. Everybody bathed on the back deck and no one looked around for little projects to keep them busy. Everyone is still pretty tired from the lost sleep due to the stop in Bermuda, so the guys were all trying to nap. We didn’t have any hits on the fishing lines, probably because we’re going so fast. If the computer is correct about our arrival, we will sail past Barbuda, where the sea floor comes from 3,000′ up to 300′ or so, in the daylight when we can fish–maybe even slow down to fish. We don’t fish at night, so if it’s already dark as we pass Barbuda, we’ll miss that fine fishing opportunity.

Between now and Sunday morning the crew plans to make the most of these ideal sailing conditions, getting their last opportunity at the end of what has been a fine trip.

All the best from the crew of avalanche.

November 3, 2010 Day 6
26 40 N latitude 60 06 W longitude

Hello Everybody,

The fishing contest score now stands at Jake 2, Peter V 1, fish 3! We’ve had a rather busy afternoon. First a gorgeous White Marlin on Jake & Leo’s side: reeled in, brought to the boat, subdued by his bill on the back deck and brought aboard by Leo! The rest of us watched amazed and took photos. Leo has had lots of experience with bill fish and did not want to lose this one. The blue color is absolutely stunning, photos don’t do it justice; and the bill, big blue eyes and long dorsal fin are just majestic. After a brief debate we decided to keep him and have him for dinner tomorrow night. Judging against the size of the cleaning board he was about 50″ long and anywhere between 20 and 50 pounds, depending on whom I ask. When the other lines were reeled in we found one had had its hook and leader bitten off–score one for the fish. A couple of hours later Peter V caught a small Mahi on his side. And once again, when the other lines were reeled in one had had its hook and leader bitten off–score one more for the fish. The plan is fish sandwiches Thursday and Friday and fish fillets for dinner Thursday. If they keep catching at this rate we’ll have to put some of the fish in the freezer!

The only problem with all this catching is that it crowds out the bathers. Both Peter V and Jake had been planning their baths and naps for right after lunch. Jake was napping and Peter headed for the back deck when the Marlin struck. After Chris cleaned the fish and Peter V prepped the meat, Peter V headed to the bathing platform again, successfully this time; followed by Jake, who had to break the rules and bathe on watch because he had run out of time. Although he got his bath, the second fish kept Peter from his nap.

Yesterday I mentioned that crew duties include repairing anything that needs attention, usually at some inconvenient time. Well, last night Jake convened a spontaneous meeting of the entire crew at midnight for just such a purpose. As he made his midnight log entry he noticed that the bilge pump had run for 44 seconds during the previous 2 hours. (Usually it runs about 8 seconds every 6-12 hours) That was cause for an investigation. As Jake and Peter V (who was relieving Jake) and Peter L lifted floorboards Chris and Leo woke up and joined the search for a small leak. I got up to protect our living environment with dropcloths. Eventually they found the leak in the last place they looked. We had a couple of pinholes in a metal hose creating a very small leak. Chris soldered the holes, the leak stopped, and we’re back to about 8 seconds of pumping every 6-12 hours. The entire evolution took just over an hour. By 0115 only the watch was still up. What a team. Are we good or what?

Today, aside from the excitement of catching fish, we had a rather dull day: lots of sun, temps in the low 80′s, motoring with the mainsail strapped amidships. Once everyone had bathed and eaten and dealt with fish, these 5 avid sailors didn’t know what to do. Before we furled it up, Chris and Peter L noticed that the tell tales on the yankee were stuck and not flying freely, so they decided to replace them. They got out the rigging box & the sail repair kit and found new tell tales. Peter L put the climbing harness on and Chris winched him up the forestay to install the new telltales. Okay, that took 45 minutes, now what? It turns out Peter L had never learned to whip or splice, so Chris (a rigger by profession) pulled out the box of rope bits and taught him both skills. Now all our odd lines are nicely whipped–no more frayed ends. Peter V, meanwhile, was wondering about the results of the elections, so he tried to find the appropriate SSB channel for news (unsuccessfully, unfortunately).

Right now the guys are much happier. We’ve just had about 20 knots of wind come in so we turned off the engine, rolled out 2 jibs, and eased out the mainsail. The two Petes are on watch together enjoying the breeze and the stars (Somehow Peter V always has clear starry nights.) while they tweak the trim of the sails to wring every ounce of speed out of the boat. They are in their element again. They just recorded a SOG of 9.8! Today we made 194 miles and have only 610 to Antigua!

All the best from the crew of Avalanche, hoping to keep the crew happy tweaking sails tomorrow and catching fish, bathing and napping!

November 2, 2010 Day 5
30 11 N latitude, 61 39 W longitude

Hello Everybody,

We have a beautiful day: bright sunshine, a few puffy clouds, temps in the mid 80′s, winds around 15-20 knots from behind. The crew is relaxed and well fed; but not well rested, however, after our quick stop in Bermuda. Even as few as 3 and a half hours really wreaks havoc with the sleep schedule. For example Leo’s watch going into Bermuda began at 0200 and ended at 0600, exactly the time we got to work, so he lost his 6 hours off, and was back on watch sailing from noon until 4:00 pm. He worked 14 hours after only 5 hours sleep. Jake was 2 hours behind Leo in the rotation, so he was up at 0400 and had the same problem. After we left Bermuda all the guys took whatever naps they could, sometimes dozing in the cockpit for a few minutes. That would have worked reasonably well, but we had poled the yankee out to sail wing & wing. That was an all hands evolution as everyone had to remember just how to set the pole up and where to run the necessary lines & blocks. Then, after everyone had gone back to napping, a squall line and wind shift came through and we had to take the pole down. That process took only 10 minutes and 3 guys instead of everyone, so they were quickly back at their naps. Today everyone still feels the lost sleep and is trying to catch up.

The fishing contest still stands at Jake 1, Peter V 0, fish 1. Currently we’re going too fast to put the rods out so it’s hand lines only. Our average speed for the day was 8 knots for a total of 192 miles!

I’d like to tell you about life on board. With 6 of us I don’t stand watch. Instead I prepare all the lunches and dinners and normally all of us eat together at noon and 6. Breakfast is up to the individual from a list of options. Someone is assigned to help me clean up and to reload the fridge with sodas. Those jobs rotate, always going to someone on watch. I do a lot of the meal preparation at home before we leave, planning 14 meals and freezing about half of them. I always leave room in the meal plan for fish, but sometimes I’m disappointed by my fishermen. So far this trip we’ve had the turkey dinner I described, lasagna, homemade chicken soup, ham and scalloped potatoes, mahi sandwiches, marinated chicken thighs (brought by Peter V) and pork tenderloin. We still have taco salad, beef stew, chicken casserole, chili, shrimp scampi and meat loaf on the menu. We eat very well. The galley is well equipped with a 4 burner gas stove & oven, microwave, refrigerator as large as you might have at home, and a huge freezer. We even enjoy a Keurig coffee maker!

Aside from meals, the big event of the day is the 1600 chat with Herb Hilgenberg, our weather guru. Jake always talks to Herb, regardless of how little sleep he might have had, and Peter V is always right there, too. They call in to “Southbound II” at 1530 and wait for Herb to announce roll call and then come to them in turn to describe our weather for the next 3 days or so.

The watches are set up so that 2 guys are always on watch: 4 hours on, off for 6. Every two hours someone new comes on deck and someone goes off watch and makes an entry in the log book. So if Leo was up at 0400, he stood until 0600 with Chris, at 0600 Chris went off watch and Jake came on, and so on. The rotation is Chris, Leo, Jake, Peter L, Peter V. Each guy wakes his relief, gives him a condition report, suggests proper attire, and makes a cup of coffee or hot chocolate as desired. It is the watch’s responsibility to keep the boat going. That means watching wind and weather conditions, and furling or unfurling or trimming sails as needed, and keeping a good lookout for ships (and dolphin, whales, flying fish and Juncos). If the engine or generator is running it means monitoring the oil pressure, temperature, rpms. Other duties include making water, running the freezer, monitoring the bilge pump, keeping an eye on the fishing lines, and generally being aware of all the conditions on the boat. If it is raining it means sitting in the rain. Benefits include sitting under starry skies gliding along through the water watching the phosphorescence, enjoying the thrill of hand steering in 30 knots with 10-12′ waves, basking in the sun and telling stories, and chatting with other ships as they come close. (I just had the pleasure of talking with the Phillipino captain of a banana boat heading to Miami, on to the Panama Canal and Equador to pick up bananas.) Unfortunately duties also include helping to repair things that stop working properly (usually at the worst possible time). Our example this year is the alternator that needed a belt change before we left Jamestown. The entire crew was involved in diagnosing the problem, disassembling the alternator in preparation for removal—and thank goodness it was at that point that the belts were removed and replaced.

Avalanche is a roomy comfortable boat for 6 crew. Everyone has his (or her) own bed complete with sheets and blankets and a lee cloth or lee board. (On some boats crew have to “hot rack” the beds, using the same bed one after another, and many sleep in the salon.) On Avalanche two crew share a stateroom and each stateroom has its own head. The heads are all equiped with showers, but everyone prefers to bathe on the back deck. You put on a swimsuit and a harness and climb down to the swim platform. The sea water surges on and off the platform. On a hot day it is wonderfully refreshing to sit in 80 degree water that pushes you onto the boat, watching the waves behind. After relaxing, you simply stand up, wash and rinse off and either air dry or towel off in the cockpit.

The boat is either blissfully quiet, sliding along under sail, or really noisy. Much of the time the engine runs as we motor or motorsail when the wind is light. When we are sailing without the engine we have to run the generator at regular intervals and that is a diesel engine with a loud blower fan. The watermaker has another loud pump motor. Even when we are sailing the crew often finds it necessary to trim or ease sails or change them. All of that is done with electric winches, which have motors that make noise. When the SSB is on to listen to Herb or bring down weather faxes we hear a high pitched whine. Additionally, we use the cockpit and salon as general social areas to listen to music, watch movies, read or chat with the cook. But you would be surprised, it all blends into a background “white” noise and sleep is possible.

Another part of life on the boat that should be obvious, but doesn’t get much attention is that the boat is always moving. Sometimes it is reasonably flat so you can walk across a floor, more often we heel so the floor is on a slant and you have to brace or hang on. When we’re rolling everything slides in two directions. You have to hold on to something because you can’t predict the timing or severity of the next roll. When heading into seas, generally the boat is heeled, so you must add random frequent bumps to the heel. In those conditions and rolly conditions even activities like brushing your teeth or putting on underwear require good balance, agility and strength. Sometimes the only comfortable place is in your bunk wedged in with a couple of pillows! Today is great: slight heel, easy to walk, no bumps, things will slide because of the heel, but everything is managable.

All the best from the crew of Avalanche, today more than half way to Antigua, enjoying beautiful weather.

November 1, 2010 Day 4
32 13 N latitude 64 13 W longitude

Hello Everybody!

You probably imagine us having a lovely vacation in Bermuda. Well, there will beno more of that! There will beno aquarium, there will beno dockyard or museum, there will beno shopping, there will beno stop at the Whitehorse Tavern, there will beno Christmas shopping in Bermuda, there will beno vacation in Bermuda. And worse yet, there will beno sailing south of an imaginary line of latitude running through Savannah, GA until after midnight!

I’ll explain. We approached Bermuda in the dark at 5:30. By the time Leo had steered us through Town Cut and we had tied up at the Customs dock it was 6:00 and the sun had risen. Once checked in we all went about our assigned tasks industriously and quickly: the 2 Petes took our semi-annual case of Heineken to Bermuda Radio and picked up weather reports; Chris, Leo and Peter L hosed the salty crust off the deck; Peter V and I cleaned up the interior; we fueled the boat (we had only burned 69 gallons); and dumped the garbage. Chris and Peter L had a refreshing swim and shower. Meanwhile Jake’s responsibility was to digest the weather information and come up with a plan.

Briefly, the best option was to leave immediately for Antigua with the goal of getting east and south as fast as we can before Thomas enters the area. With any luck we’ll be in Antigua when Thomas is in Bermuda. The other option was to wait out the week and be in Bermuda for Thomas’s predicted landfall next Saturday before leaving. We chose to leave immediately with the proviso that we will turn back to Bermuda if conditions and predictions warrant it.

We left St. George’s Harbour at 10:00 and are now heading due east because our insurance company requires us to be north of Savannah, GA June 1 through November 1 inclusive, so we can’t turn south until midnight. We don’t want to waste a drop of fuel, so we are sailing just as fast as we can.

All the best from Avalanche, eagerly waiting for midnight and our right turn south.

Sunday, October 31, 2010, Day 3
33 45 N latitude 65 49 W longitude

Hello Everybody,

I’m writing early today because we have just talked to Herb. We are going to Bermuda, directly to Bermuda, not passing go, not collecting $200! We are currently 98 miles away and should arrive just after sunrise. In fact, we plan to slow down as necessary during the night in order to arrive during daylight. You all probably know why, because the weathermen are undoubtedly talking about nothing else. Apparently there are 3 storms which will be causing a ruckus, perhaps all at once: Thomas (whom we have nicknamed Thomasi after Peter V’s son), a storm building up steam in Mobile and a third in the New York area. Herb doesn’t want us out in that weather, and we don’t want to be there. So we will head into Bermuda, plan to spend a few days, perhaps explore, maybe head to the aquarium and over to dockyard. And I’m sure some members of our crew may hit the Whitehorse Tavern! So, this paragraph is meant to reassure any of you who have been watching the weather channel.

A quick recap: Yesterday we made 206 miles, today 187. We think this is one of the fastest trips we’ve ever made to Bermuda, and certainly one of the nicest. We’ve had great winds, mostly 15-25 with a few hours in the 30′s and gusts above 40, but all the wind has been from comfortable wind angles. Easy to sail in, a comfortable ride (with the exception of the rolly periods in big seas). We’ve had too little wind for a while, but the engine kept us going steadily toward our goal. We’ve only had a couple of incidences of light rain. Otherwise we’ve had lots of starry or sunny skies. The coldest night was 57 degrees. Today it was 82 degrees in the sun. Unfortunately we’ve been sailing too fast to put out the fishing rods, but our ever resourceful fishermen have put out the hand lines, so far to no avail.

The Junco I told you about yesterday turned out to be 2 Juncos. The fat Junco seemed comfortable on the boat and with people; we think he’s been on boats before. Leo even saw him walk along the anchor chain from the bow into the windlass locker under the deck. The skinny Junco didn’t seem comfortable. He flew below yesterday and we shooed him out. What we didn’t realize was that the fat Junco flew below for the night. Leo and Jake saw him fly out of the cabin at dawn. He landed on the deck next to Jake and hopped around, then landed in Leo’s lap as if to bid them farewell before flying away. The next step (not terribly difficult) was to find where he had spent the night. I found signs that he had been on the floor in the forward cabin and on my sink (thank goodness my toothbrush was inside the medicine cabinet). It didn’t take much to clean up and sanitize the areas, a Junco is a small bird, after all. Today we’ve seen a Great Blue Heron flying around. I just hope he doesn’t decide to land because he is decidedly not a small bird.

All the best from the crew of Avalanche on our last night at sea for a few days, looking forward to an enforced vacation in Bermuda (something we’ve never done before).