June 2, 2008

As dawn came today we had multiple wind shifts, and wind velocity changes.
I was in on about 5 sail changes during my 4 hour watch. In the end we
started the engine. We have finally just finished a seemingly endless
battle with the Gulf Stream! It’s 1245 and we’ve just now been released by
the awful current that was keeping our speed over the ground at 4.2 knots.
Aaargh! Now we’re motoring directly toward home with our SOG increased to
6.5 knots (still not the 7.5 or better that we’re accustomed to).

We have a bright clear sunny day. The water temperature has dropped to 61
degrees (as we exited the Gulf Stream), but the air temp is 73 degrees.
During the afternoon all the guys have had a rousing card game going. We’re
finishing up all the produce on board (we’re not allowed to bring foreign
produce into the U.S.). We’ve been eating fruit all day. There’s a huge
salad planned for dinner, a big breakfast for tomorrow morning with fried
potatoes, and I’ll make onion soup for lunch. Anything else we’ll have to
throw overboard.

This period approaching and coming up on the shelf is when we have seen most
of the wildlife in the past. Unfortunately, because we were delayed so long
by the foul current, we will come up on the shelf about 2000-dark.
However, ever the optimists we’re all keeping our eyes peeled for something
exciting. The Rookie had the first sighting: a humpback whale about 30′
away from the boat. Everyone on deck had a good look at him. Unfortunately
he didn’t perform by breaching or slapping his tail. He merely sank out of
sight. Next were 2 sightings of Atlantic spotted dolphins in the distance,
followed by an ocean sunfish about 50 yards away. Next came 2 different
pods of common dolphins dancing through our bow wave. One pod stayed for
about 15 minutes and Rookie took lots of photos. Later we saw another large
pod of dolphins about half a mile away, but they didn’t come close. And
finally we saw a pod of about a dozen pilot whales surfacing and swimming
about 200 yards away.

As for fish, the score remains the same: Jake 0, Peter 1, Fish 5. The
fishermen are disgusted and discouraged. They only caught one fish, and it
was that barracuda just off Antigua.

I’m writing this at 0400. It’s a beautiful clear starry night with a light
breeze. It’s not too cold. (But perhaps I say that because I am wearing so
many layers that I look like the Michelin man!) We’re flying the main,
Yankee and staysail and motoring, making 8.5 knots. We can see the lights
of the Newport Bridge, we’re picking up the light on Beavertail. This is a
lovely way to make landfall. The computer predicts that we’ll be in
Jamestown between 0630 and 0700 in the morning, and then we’ll have to clear
customs.

All the best from the crew of avalanche, looking forward to our big
breakfast and being home!

Monday June 2 Latitude 39 37.72 N Longitude 70 28.92 W (111 miles)

.

Saturday, May 31, 2008

We have had a beautiful vacation day, unless of course we wanted to sail:
blue sky, calm wind, flat seas. The overnight temps have been in the high
60s, the daytime temps in the mid 80s. That’s a big change from the weather
south of Bermuda, when it was in the high 90s, even 100, during the day and
80s at night.

We’ve been visited by lots of wildlife. We had a couple of dolphins on the
bow just after dawn. Leo and I saw a bottle nosed dolphin mid morning, and
later in the day we had about a dozen dolphins feeding nearby. We think
they were feeding because they paid no attention to us, but circled and
surfaced together as if chasing lunch. There have also been many many
Portugese man-o-war. But no fish, and the fishermen have tried every trick
they know.

Saturday May 31 Latitude 34 29.9 N Longitude 67 36.0 W

Sunday June 1, 2008

We’ve had a long day. Ever growing seas began in the middle of the night.
When Leo and I were on watch at 0400 we had to furl the Yankee and set the
smaller staysail and then roll in some main as the winds crept up to 30
knots. As the morning passed the wind intensified and the seas grew. When
I left the deck the winds were gusting to 40 knots Jake saw a steady 40
knots with gusts to 50. The seas were enormous: 15-20′. We reefed down,
used the motor for additional control and had to hand steer through the
waves. Rookie (Pete L) did a fine job of steering and really seemed to
enjoy it. Finally after 5 hours the wind began to decrease to about 35
knots, so we could roll out some sail. Gradually the seas lessened and we
turned off the engine and begin to sail. It was wet and a lot of work, but
we made our way through it. Apparently it was a precursor to a low.
Definitely it wasn’t much fun.

The question now is where is the Gulf Stream? We’ve been through part of
it. We were swept 30 degrees right and the water temp went up to 80
degrees. We’re now able to make our course good, and the water temp is down
to 70. Herb tells us we have to cross another branch of the stream before
we’re done. So we have our work cut out for us tonight.

We’re 250 miles from Jamestown and the computer predicts arrival at 0600 on
Tuesday June 3. Of course the computer assumes we’ll be doing a constant
speed, and that can vary wildly, especially with the Gulf Stream in the
picture.

Sunday June 1 Latitude 37 39.18 N Longitude 69 23.62W (at 2000 instead of
1600) (175 miles)

All the best from the wet and tired crew of avalanche, looking forward to
our arrival in Jamestown.

.

We’ve had a busy 2 days, without a report, so this post will cover days 6
and 7 (May 29 and 30). Thursday the 29th found us closing in on Bermuda,
motoring with a light breeze. Jake was closely monitoring our fuel,
switching tanks every 4 hours or so to keep them even. About 30 miles from
Bermuda we refueled using the 10 gallons of diesel from our 2 jerry cans.
And it’s a good thing we had that extra because when we filled our tanks we
had only 2 gallons left in one tank and 18 in the other.

It had been our hope and plan to refuel in Bermuda and head directly back to
sea. In order to be as efficient as possible in our effort to get back to
sea, we each had assignments to complete as soon as we cleared customs:
Jake, Leo and Peter V fueled the boat and listened to Herb. I headed
quickly to the grocery store to replenish our most popular items: tomatoes,
fruit and yogurt. The 2 rookies (Jeff and Peter L) took the semi-annual
case of Heineken to Bermuda Radio. (We have done this every trip as thanks
for their help with a problem we had on our very first trip south.) Two
years ago another rookie, Michael Coddington, carried the beer up the hill
to BR and set the record: 7 minutes 34.87 seconds. Peter L took that as a
personal challenge, certain he could shatter the record. He talked of
hydrating himself ahead of time. He warmed up with stretches on the dock
before heading out. He and Jeff were given directions to the liquor store
and general directions to BR. (How hard can it be? It’s on the highest
point of land. You can see it from the entire harbor.) They took a wrong
turn up some steps and into a private yard. They retraced their path and
cut across another yard. They found stairs that led to a dead end and had
to go back. Finally, while Pete was retracing his path, Jeff found the
right way and arrived first, saying “I’m from avalanche, but the rookie with
the beer is lost. He’ll be here soon.” Their time: 13+++ minutes.
Needless to say, the rookie is getting a good-natured razzing. For their
effort they got a full tour of the facility with all the radar, GPS, radio
and monitoring equipment. Jeff, an electronics pro, was like a kid in a
candy store. The view is pretty spectacular, too.

We all got back to the boat to learn that Herb’s weather report was holding
us overnight. So we went out to anchor, launched the dinghy and pulled the
engine out of the sail locker. With 6 people it was just a minor project.
Peter V went ashore to buy renowned Bermuda fish chowder and red wine to go
with his dinner of lasagna, as well as some cold beer and ice. I had a
shower and holed up with my Clive Cussler novel after dinner while the guys
all told stories.

After a good night’s sleep we woke up to a gray drizzly day. We had a huge
breakfast and then all but Jake and I went ashore to do some exploring and
shopping. The guys hiked across the island to a really pretty little beach
where Jeff swam. Then they returned to town for a successful shopping trip.
Jake checked out with customs, we hauled the dinghy and had lunch. We
radioed BR for permission to leave, pulled the anchor and departed. The
heavy overcast was thinning and the drizzle had stopped. Within an hour we
had glimpses of blue sky and by sunset the bad weather had cleared out.

We had 2 fish on our lines not far out of Bermuda, one right after the
other. Pete L a.k.a. Rookie, grabbed the first rod and began reeling it in,
but lost the fish. As the 2nd fish struck he quickly grabbed that rod and
began reeling, losing that fish as well. To quote the 1800 log entry:
“Rookie farms 2 fish.” It’s a given that the rookie has a lot to learn and
will make mistakes, but when it comes to the fish that we all want to eat
and that count in the contest, it’s really hard to overlook those errors.
So.Rookie is taking a double dose of razzing: for getting lost trying to
find BR and then losing 2 precious fish.

Fishing contest score: Jake 0, Peter 1, Fish 6.

We learned about a couple of tragic incidents while we were in Bermuda.
Apparently in the week or 2 weeks before we arrived Bermuda had some awful
weather: high winds for days as storm after storm blew through the area.
During that time 2 sailboats were dismasted, one 30′, the other 35′. Each
boat was abandoned during the bad weather and is currently drifting, a
hazard to navigation, one 130 miles NNE of Bermuda, the other about 100
miles SW of Bermuda. The boat to the north had 5 crew aboard, who
desperately wanted to abandon ship. The Coast Guard strongly recommended
that they stay aboard for 24 hours at which point the storm would pass ,the
waters would be calm and a rescue would be easy and safe. Instead the crew
insisted that they get off the boat. A passing cargo ship threw a climbing
net over the side of their ship for the crew to climb up. Only 3 crew
members made it. The other 2 perished. I repeat this story because it has
made us appreciate our efforts to keep the crew and boat safe, our rule
about only abandoning ship if it is sinking out from under us, and our
opportunity to avoid sailing in stormy weather, thanks to Herb.

All the best from the crew of avalanche, who will be frantically fishing all
day tomorrow.

Thursday May 29, 2008 Latitude 32 22.4 N Longitude 64 40.8W (170 miles)

Friday May 30, 2008 Latitude 32 36.365 N Longitude 64 49.71W (19 miles)

.

Did I say “desert”? Well, that myth was destroyed today by about 40
dolphins dancing, leaping, and generally showing off as they came racing
toward us from our port bo! A half dozen played in our bow wave as we stood
on deck watching, calling to them and taking photos. The rest continued to
frolic further away. They performed their standard trick of leaping
gracefully forward out of the water as they swam plus another feat we’d
never seen. Several dolphins leaped vertically out of the water, seemed to
stand on their tails and then fall splat back into the water. They did that
over and over again. We never tire of watching the dolphins.

On the fishing front we have no news. We’ve had the lines out from dawn to
dusk, but haven’t had even a bite. The fishermen are hoping we’ll catch
something as we come up on soundings near Bermuda tomorrow morning.

It looks as if we’ll get to Bermuda sometime Thursday afternoon, sooner if
the wind comes in from the SW as predicted and we can throw some sails up.
A little later if we can only motor. We’d love to get there before the fuel
dock closes in order to depart again immediately for home. We’ll see.

The last item is a wonderful dinner prepared by the rookie, as we have taken
to calling Pete L. (He is, after all, the rookie this trip.) Peter V
coached him in preparing pork tenderloin with red potatoes and a huge salad,
and the rookie did himself proud!

All the best from the crew of avalanche looking forward to Bermuda tomorrow.

May 28 1600 Latitude 29 38.200N Longitude 63 46.800W (miles in 24 hours:
191)

.

We’ve had a wet exciting and topsy-turvey kind of day today. The weather wreaked havoc with the watch schedule. Sometime in the early morning the weather began to deteriorate, and by 9:30 we were in the midst of a full-fledged squall. The wind shifted forward, the seas got bigger and lumpier, the wind increased and so did the rain until it was really pelting the boat. Jake and the 2 Peters were on deck when the storm began and stayed until the end-no sense dragging all that water into the boat andsending someone dry out into the storm. They called for their foul weather gear and hats and hunkered down in the cockpit to keep the boat on course with a combination of power and sail. The radar screen showed heavy rain for 8 miles all around us, further in some quadrants. Jeff used the radar to monitor the movement of the storm for a few minutes and then suggested a course change that would get us out of the storm in the shortest distance. And it worked. It wasn’t quick, however. It took about 4 hours to get through the worst of the storm. We could begin to see a couple areas of blue sky, the dark clouds ahead seemed less dense than those behind. And the rain stopped. At that point we all had lunch and the wet guys came below while the dry guys went out fully dressed in foul weather gear. Yet another example of great teamwork on avalanche! (Peter V reported the highest wind gust he saw at 35 knots.) Jeff and I took a photo of our radar screen with the storm all around. We’ll try to post it. (The range was at 8 miles, the rings are 2 miles.) (It’s just like the Doppler radar the local weatherman shows on TV.)

The rest of the afternoon has been spent with Jake and the 2 Peters going down to sleep. Jeff has now joined them, Leo and I are on watch, but I’ve been permitted to do all my watching inside out of the weather, and Jake has gotten up again to go on deck and to talk to Herb. We’re waiting for Herb to tell us what we just went through and what to expect next, then it will be a
turkey dinner. It’s supposed to be Jake’s turn to cook, but since he’s out sailing the boat again, and I’m inside, I’ll do my best to get dinner together.

Unfortunately the propagation was miserable, so we couldn’t ask Herb what we had gone through, whether it was a front or merely an extended squall or squalls. We were able to learn that we won’t have much wind between here and Bermuda. But the best news is that the clouds have thinned and we have big patches of starry sky around.

Leo and I were both commenting on how quickly the sea can change. During the storm the seas were big, yet at midnight when we were on watch together the sea was practically calm in the moonlight. I had thought of describing the sea at some point, and this is a good opportunity. If you watched George Clooney in The Perfect Storm, it might be easy to imagine the ocean as wild with huge scary waves. Since we are able to select our weather window when we are out here with input from Herb, we don’t experience anything like those conditions. We are more likely to see 5-6′ swells with 10-20 knot winds and the accompanying white caps. In a squall like today the wind driven waves are whipped up, the water blows off the tops and it’s hard to see very far in the rain-just like at home on Narragansett Bay. When we have light winds and are motoring we are apt to have small swells, and when there is no wind it can be glassy calm. That’s when we have swim call!

Also of note is that the ocean is like a desert. We see very little life. We’ve had the barracuda and 2 marlin, but haven’t seen any other fish except flying fish. We’ve seen Bermuda longtails and shearwaters, but that’s about it for birds. I’ve spotted a couple of loose fishing floats, and someone saw a piece of lumber. Otherwise we see Sargasso weed. (We have a dip net to scoop up some weed to see all the life it carries, but it hasn’t been calm enough to use it yet.)

I have to apologize for forgetting to include our latitude and longitude in each day’s blog. I’ll include the 1600 position (that’s when we talk to Herb) for today, and append the preceding 3 days as well. All the best from the crew of avalanche, looking for a dull ordinary unexciting day tomorrow, perhaps some fish!

Tuesday May 27 Latitude 26 30.65 N Longitude 63 08.99W (miles in 24 hours:
178)

Monday May 26 Latitude 23 38.100N Longitude 62 22.6W (miles in 24 hours:
180)

Sunday May 25 Latitude 20 45.669N Longitude 61 52.174W (miles in 24 hours:
185)

Saturday May 24 Latitude 17 35.800N Longitude 61 39.111W

.