Written May 30th on Avalanche, approaching Jamestown within 3 hours of arrival. Posted June 1 from home.

Hello Everybody,

Due to technical difficulties with our communications gear, we were unable to communicate daily with all our friends as we have done in the past. Ben did his best pass along our descriptions from our telephoned conversations, and we really appreciate his effort. We were able to send a blog on Day 6, and thus encouraged, wrote another on Day 9 just after leaving Bermuda. Unfortunately we couldn’t send that entry. We will send it along with this entry once we have Wifi at the dock in Jamestown, which I have just done (6/1/09).

We are 15 miles and about 2 hours out, the cell phones work, and we have an appointment with Customs & Immigration at about 8:30 p.m.

Let me summarize our trip: something none of us dared say aloud until now. We were all afraid that if we mentioned our good fortune that it would jinx us. Our trip has been perfect! When I wrote Herb Hilgenberg, our weather prognosticator, giving him the tentative dates of our trip, I requested better weather than what we had going to Antigua last fall. And he came through for us. Or, perhaps it was our guardian angel, longtime delivery captain, Mark Johnson, who unfortunately passed away in April, watching over us.

We started from Antigua knowing that there was bad weather between us and Bermuda, not sure we could thread our way through various fronts, lows and troughs. When we discovered our communications issue we detoured 100 miles to St. Martin. It was that detour that allowed the bad weather to move away and gave us a wonderful trip to Bermuda. We had to pass through a trough for about 36 hours, but we had no rain or squalls. In fact the overcast was a relief from the intense heat of the sun. The rest of the way we had 8-18 knot winds and great sailing. Once we reached Bermuda, we calculated our engine hours and arrived at a sailing percentage of 86%, motorsailing 12%, and just plain motoring 2%. That is just incredible. There have been so many years when we have wished for a breath of wind because we needed to find 2 days of sailing to make the 950 mile distance with our fuel. During the Antigua-Bermuda leg we had several “sprinkles” of rain. Leo and Ruleo each got less than 30 minutes, then Jake and I had 15-20 minutes. The weather was so warm, and the rain so light that we didn’t even bother with foul weather gear!

Our stop in Bermuda seemed like a big loss of time for very little gain: we really didn’t need the fuel (as we know in hindsight); we couldn’t do any shopping; and it seemed like we spent lots of time inflating fenders, dealing with docklines, and making the dinghy available and then storing all of that again. It wasn’t your normal vacation! However, once again, the timing was fortuitous. The low that left the U.S. slowed down and later turned into a tropical depression that had gotten far enough ahead of us that the only way we even knew it existed was a marvelous “light show” on Thursday night that Peter and Nancy watched with awed delight. The high and wide clouds with lightning across the top was apparently spectacular. Once again we had 2 fine sunny days of sailing on Wednesday and Thursday without a squall or drop of rain. Thursday night Peter and Nancy got wet in a squall, and that was the last we saw of any rain! Friday we spend the day in the Gulf Stream catching fish!

Prior to the Gulf Stream the score had been Peter : 1 Amber Jack, Jake: 1 Barracuda, 1 Mahi, and one Brown Booby (all caught by Ruleo), Fish 6. In the Gulf Stream the fishing got really exciting. We lost 3 Marlin: one about 270# which Ruleo tried to reel in; another only about 200#, which Leo enticed to take the lure by jigging for it. One spooled us, and the second broke the line. We also lost a beautiful big Mahi and a tuna. But we caught a beautiful bull Mahi and shortly thereafter had 2 tuna on at the same time, with the lines crossing each other. Pete and Ruleo each reeled in the tunas and Ruleo caught that Mahi. The final score was: Jake: 4 fish, one bird; Peter: 2 fish, and fish (that got away) 11. Peter would like to note for the record, that we couldn’t eat either the barracuda or the bird!

The Gulf Stream passage lasted from about 8 a.m. until 6 p.m. with great wind and sailing, no bad weather, lots of fish, and Ruleo’s 19th birthday, which we celebrated with special individual rum cakes for dessert, including a fat candle and a rousing, if discordant, rendition of “Happy Birthday’! Last night, after exiting the Gulf Stream the temperature remained in the high 60s until about 2 a.m. before the temperature dropped. We had lightning from squalls behind us, and we encountered dense fog, but we were still off the shelf with little traffic. It was chilly for several hours, but the cold front arrived to evaporate the fog, the sun came out to warm us and we have had great sailing winds all day.

We’re heading into Narragansett Bay in the sunlight looking forward to a dinner of fresh Mahi as soon as we clear Customs and Immigration! (We finally had dinner at about 10 p.m.)

We have had several large pods of dolphin playing with our bow wave several times. I saw them in the dark for the first time, when I could see the phosphorescent trail in the water looking like torpedos of light, but not the dolphin. Jake and I also each saw a swordfish and Jake saw pilot whales.

The most miles we did in a single day was 205.

All the best from this trip’s crew of Avalanche: Jake, Marnie, Peter, Leo, Nancy and Ruleo. Please check the site again in the next couple of weeks. We will try to post photos from the trip, but we are all still tired, working on cleaning the boat, and our West Indian crew members are shopping up a storm, so it may take a few days.

This post was written on board Avalanche Thursday morning, May 28, 2009, after we had left Bermuda. We found we couldn’t send the post via email to the web site. Terribly disappointed, we phoned some information to Ben, who tried to keep you updated. Here is the description we wrote, posted from home on June 1.

34.11 N latitude, 68.17 W longitude, water depth 16,700 feet

Hello Everybody!

We got into Bermuda midday on Wednesday May 27th. We had sauteed both the amber jack and Mahi Mahi for sandwiches, and we cooked up fish water from the Mahi head (compliments of the 2 West Indian chefs aboard). We wanted to have lunch finished before we entered St.Georges harbour because we knew we would have some waiting at Customs & Immigration, and the sandwiches were hot. But you know what they say about plans: they are made to be changed, and so they did. We scooted through the narrow town cut with Norwegian Majesty, a cruise ship over 700′ long, closing on the island, and had to clear Customs & Immigration before they were called to the ship–so the sandwiches cooled off. As we left the customs dock, $35 per person poorer, eating our sandwiches and slowly cruising toward the gas dock we were alerted by Bermuda Radio that we needed to move with haste out of the way of the Norwegian Majesty, now entering town cut–a terrific photo op that we took advantage of. Then it was on to the gas dock for 50 gallons of fuel, followed by a cruise around the entire harbour in an unsuccessful search for Wifi. Delicious, reheated fish water came after we anchored. Lunch over, we got the dinghy and engine set up at almost time for Herb. 3:00 ish.

Now we were ready to begin our “vacation in Bermuda”. Many people might visit the beautiful beaches, the aquarium, the fish chowder restaurants, the duty free shops for china and woolens; or rent mopeds. Not us. The first assignment was to take a case of beer to Bermuda Radio, carried semi-annually by the rookie–this year Ruleo. He set out for the highest point in the area with Peter and Leo to help. Some guides they turned out to be. After walking past the turnoff, Leo remarked that he thought they had missed the turn, while Peter maintained it was further on. Leo was right; they backtracked, found BR, delivered the beer and enjoyed the view over the harbour and beyond as well as a tour of the facility. On their way back downhill they stopped at a local hotel and purchased Wifi use for 24 hours. Meanwhile Nancy and I set out for the grocery for some fruit (it had been slim pickings for produce in Antigua before we left) to be followed by window shopping in the interesting shops. Well, it turned out to be just that: ‘window shopping’, because despite signs that read “Open, Mon-Sat 9:00-5:00″, all the shops were locked up and our watches said 4:00. We had forgotten that Bermuda jumps to DST. The U.S. moved ahead, which put us at the same time as Antigua, and we never changed our watches, nor did we think twice about the time in Bermuda. (That probably explains why, when we reported to BR that our ETA would be 12:15, they called back and asked for our GPS coordinates. They knew it was already about noon and we were still miles away.) A passing cruise ship passenger pointed out our error. In the end the rest of the shopping was done at the drugstore! We all headed back to Avalanche with the Wifi code so Jake and Peter could download weather info, and then put away the dinghy motor and hauled the dinghy. The guys all swam and Nancy and I showered. By the time all that was accomplished we had our gourmet Mahi dinner on the table at 9:00. (Dinner included a special Happy Birthday toast to Herb Hilgenberg on his 72nd birthday.) Shortly thereafter Peter and Leo disappeared to bed with the rest of us not long behind. As you can see, not your normal vacation in Bermuda. At least 5 of us got to walk around for a couple of hours, but Jake only made 2 round trips the length of Avalanche to and from Customs & Immigration for his $35.

The next morning we were all up at 5 a.m. and heading out town cut at 6. We motored until about midday when we had enough wind to sail. The wind built during the afternoon and evening to 25-28, culminating overnight in about 9 squalls at once (wind around 30) for Peter and Nancy (only fair after all, because they hadn’t yet gotten wet). This a.m. Leo and I had clearing weather, followed by heavy clouds and sprinkles, followed by clearing weather again. It’s now in the 80s with sunshine, wind about 20k, but aft so we’re still motorsailing with yankee, staysail and main. Our current speed over the ground is an incredile 9.7 knots!

The fishing score remains the same. We had a wonderful display yesterday morning for Jake and Nancy and me by about 20 dolphins, who played around our bow for at least 10 minutes. It was hard to know how many because they were moving in and out and around each other too rapidly to get a good count. We continue to see lots of Portugese men o’war sailing past.

All the best from the crew of Avalanche, enjoying good weather for now, anticipating crossing the Gulf Stream tomorrow, and looking forward to arriving in Jamestown sometime Saturday.

Well, they didn’t make 6pm. I know because I was sailing in Newport all afternoon watching the horizon. We went in from 5pm and at 6ish I got a call saying they’re still a few hours out. They planned to be on the dock getting cleared through customs at around 8:30pm. But they’re well in range of cell phone towers so you can call them on any cell number you know they have. I know Jake’s and Pete’s phones were both on and Marnie’s was off.

On the phone with Mom again right now. They actually just had a fish hit while I’m on the phone. They’re at 38.02N 70.31W. They’re north of the stream in the ugly water. Still sailing and now asking me about my coastal forecasts so they they know what to expect tomorrow.

Well, they called from 37.24N 70.22W and they’re officially in the stream. They’ve got less than 200 miles to go and the water temp is 79º (they’re in for a real treat when they get on the shelf to 55~59º water!). Jake’s side caught another Mahi (Ruleo brought it aboard) and then both sides hooked up at the same time. Pete and Ruleo both landed black tipped tuna with Leo’s help on the back deck un-braiding the lines. They also had a 200lb marlin spool Jake’s line losing his best lure today. Ruleo actually fought it for a bit, but while sailing, it’s not exactly realistic to think you’ll do anything but lose a fish of that size. That puts the fishing score at 4-2-”a million” and -1 for the birds… Jake’s winning of course.

They’ve got 20~25kt of breeze and are still having a blast sailing. They were able to see the feeder bands to the tropical depression yesterday and last night they got to watch the lightning w/o getting hit with any of it. Sounds like they picked the perfect weather window to sneak out of Bermuda. They’ve got another front to cross tonight and they should be in sometime tomorrow night.