A final photograph.  We sent this photo of the crew to our local newspaper for the “Where in the World is the Jamestown Press” feature, and today they published the photo.  Here is the relaxed crew of Avalanche on November 22nd, 270 miles north of Antigua.  In the back row:  Kim Hapgood, Jake and me, and Peter Vaiciulis, front row:  Leo Bontiff and Chris Adams.

November 25-29, 2009 At anchor, Falmouth Harbour, Antigua

Hello Everybody,

I’m sorry this final blog has taken so long to post, but just as I predicted, the Patriots game kept me from writing on Monday night November 30th, so I am writing the final chapter of our November 2009 delivery south from stormy cold Jamestown instead of sunny Antigua.

Once the boat was cleaned up and all the work done, Leo had headed to his home, and Peter had flown off to cold upstate New York;  Kim, Chris,  Jake and I had a fun filled vacation for 5 days, including Thanksgiving.  Our vacation featured wonderful weather: water temp about 83, air temp in the high 80’s and 90’s, little wind, even calm at night, and after the first couple days only small seas with no swell.  We spent our time diving almost daily, snorkeling, swimming, bathing, reading and eating.   Probably the most fun was diving.  We all dove together 3 times, seeing a turtle and a threatening green moray as well as the usual colorful tropical fish.  We were excited to note that the coral in Windward Bay, which was wiped out by a hurricane several years ago, is coming back!  Jake and I had a 4th dive at Split Rock just below Eric Clapton’s cliff top home.  We had great visibility down to almost 100′.  Heading for the dive site in the dinghy we saw what must have been a jellyfish hatch.  As we motored we saw more and more jellyfish, closer and closer together, until finally the water was pink with little jellyfish–an area about 5′ by 20′.  It was incredible to see, and I was awfully happy that we didn’t find the same thing at the dive site!  We also saw a large turtle on the surface:  3-4′ in diameter.

The day Jake and I dove alone Leo took Kim and Chris on an “Antiguan’s tour” of Antigua.  They drove through Antigua’s rain forest; into the Jolly Harbor yacht and resort area; stopped in St. Johns, where they walked the streets with the locals, shopped at the produce market and ate fresh rotis for lunch.  (A roti is a flat bread with veggies and chicken, beef, shrimp or conch in a curry sauce all rolled up.)

On Thanksgiving day Kim, Chris and I hiked around Falmouth and English Harbors.  We checked out the local handcrafted items:  Nancy Nicholson’s signature blue pottery, Carl Henry’s great carved fish, watercolor paintings by local artists, and the ubiquitous t-shirts.  We wandered through Nelson’s Dockyard, named for Admiral Nelson, who commanded the Antiguan outpost in the 1780s.  The area has been restored, with historic buildings now housing contemporary businesses.  We finished by hiking over the hill and back to Falmouth Harbour where Jake met us with the dinghy.  By then we were hot, dusty, thirsty and tired, so we enjoyed a swim before preparing our Thanksgiving dinner.   Jake and Kim, both huge football fans, had a fine time watching football, and Leo joined us for turkey dinner with all the trimmings.  We wished Peter Happy Thanksgiving on the phone, and were happy to hear that he had gotten home in time to celebrate with his family.

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Sunday evening Kim and Chris headed up to Shirley Heights, a scenic lookout above English Harbour, from which you can see both harbors and on a clear night  Guadeloupe and Monserrat as well as  a beautiful sunset.  They feature  a steel drum band, a bar and restaurant, and a man who weaves hats, bowls, birds and more from grasses.  That evening was the final event of a unique introduction to Antigua for Kim & Chris.

Monday we took Avalanche to the dock, where Leo will take care of her in our absence.  It takes about a day to get that accomplished.  We always leave her clean, so the hull got a good polishing and the deck a final clean up, and the awning was taken down.  We had to pickle the water maker, defrost the freezer and clean out the fridge. We 4 had had the difficult task all week of finishing all the food on board because when we leave the boat we turn off both the freezer and refrigerator.  We ate very well:  lasagna, ham, turkey, meatloaf, eggs & potatoes & bacon, french toast, and on the last day a “clean out the fridge omelet” and a “clean out the fridge salad”.  On Monday night Leo was the recipient of spaghetti sauce and garlic toast for 6, plus a pork tenderloin and a few leftovers from the fridge.  Now he will eat well!

In summary, the delivery was quick.  We had some queasy moments initially when we were affected by Ida’s waves without any wind to steady us.  We got through the Gulf Stream with a brisk breeze, even catching a Mahi Mahi.  After we left the Gulf Stream the wind picked up for 3 days, which gave us a 200 mile day, but left the deck watch soaked with constant spray.  Because of our great mileage and the wind around Bermuda, we could forego the fuel stop, but we knew it was a risk because the weather folks were predicting areas with little or no wind in our path.  Fortunately we found enough wind to get to Antigua in  9 days and 1 hour, which also gave Peter a whole day to get to customs before departing for home the next day.  We had one of the most experienced crews ever, capable of handling any mechanical or sailing problem.  All in all, it was a very satisfying and pleasant trip!  A quick note for the record:  This year’s bath on the back deck was indeed the furthest north ever at 38 28 degrees North, it’s about 108 miles further north than the previous record of 36 40 in 2006!

Thanks for making the trip with us, we look forward to having you on board for the next trip!

November 28, 2009
Falmouth Harbour, Antigua

Hello Everybody,

Our morning arrival on Tuesday was a great relief to all because it meant Peter could celebrate Thanksgiving at home with his family. The morning timing was also a big help because it meant all 6 of us could pitch in to clean up the boat. This probably sounds picayune or nit-picking, but clean up is a huge time consuming deal! Remember we have just moved our 60′ home 1600 miles through the salty ocean full of splashes, breaking waves and salty air. Salt penetrates everywhere and attracts moisture and mildew, especially in warm, dark, closed spaces. For that reason we hose, wash with joy and rinse every inch of the exterior of the boat: deck, cockpit, hatches, hull, mast & boom, sails, lines, cushions, fishing gear and more. Inside we vacuum, then wipe down every surface with vinegar and water to cut the salt followed by Murphy’s Oil Soap to feed the finish. Foul weather gear, life jacket/harnesses and tethers, emergency flashlights, MOB watches, emergency gear pouches and other personal gear all get washed, rinsed and dried. Bedding gets aired or sent to the laundry. We were doubly fortunate in having a beautiful clear sunny day with none of the usual convection rain showers. Gear dried quickly. (In the photo gallery you will find a photo of Kim reading in the cockpit while everything was drying all around the deck.) The next step was putting up the awning and the “froo-froo” light in the cockpit, opening all the hatches and letting the balmy Caribbean breezes blow through.

While the crew was on clean up duty, Captain Jake had to play captain at Customs and Immigration. Unfortunately a clipper cruise ship had just arrived, so Jake had to wait about 2 hours for Customs to return to the office. Once he returned we took on 230.6 gallons of diesel. We had 31 gallons in the tanks when we got here. That was where we had planned to shut down the engine in any case, but the wind filled in before we had to make the measurement and the decision to stop motoring!

After everything was clean Leo took off for home and the rest of us broke out the rum and had a fine dinner of pork tenderloin. The boat was level, the hatches were open, the sky was clear and full of stars. We sat on deck and enjoyed our own company! Then we all fell into beds sans lee cloths for a full night’s sleep. (There is a photo of Jake in his bunk with lee cloth up, and my bunk empty.) We use the lee cloths to stay in the bunk when the boat heels. Jake was on the high side for the entire trip and had to have his lee cloth up, while Peter was on the low side and took great pleasure in goading Jake by not even putting his lee cloth up, except for one 6 hour period while we were rolling. That, he said, was strictly for insurance against having the entire crew laugh at him if he had rolled out of his bunk.

Chris and Kim have joined Jake and me for a mini vacation, Wednesday-Sunday, before we head home. Monday will find us moving the boat to the dock and closing the boat up to leave before watching Monday night football. Go Patriots! We all fly home together Tuesday, arriving in Providence about 7 pm.

Tomorrow I will try to get time at the computer to write again, but bear in mind that I will have to fight off the football fans because they watch the game on the computer.

All the best from the remaining crew of Avalanche, having as much fun in the sun as we can.

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We have a wonderful, competent, fun, fun-loving, exuberant, capable, experienced crew for this trip!  In addition to Jake and me (making our 24th trip!), we have Peter Vaiciulis (trip #16), Leo Bontiff (trip #6), Kim Hapgood (trip #2) and Chris Adams, this year’s “rookie”.  You all either know Jake and me  or you can read the introduction on the web site, so I’ll skip our introduction.  But I’d like to tell you a little about each of the other crew members.

Calling Chris Adams a rookie is incredibly ironic because Chris has spent over half his life on the water.  He tells me his family lived on a boat until he was 10, and that the other kids teased him because his mother rowed him in to the bus stop each morning.   He raced sailboats on the Newport, RI high school team, he has raced to or from Bermuda about 20 times, and he has built boats, taken boats apart, rebuilt boats,  bought and sold boats.  He has just bought a motor sailer called Mirage, which he brought home to Newport from Lake Ontario via the New York State canals and the Hudson River.  Once he gets Mirage squared away he will probably once again live on a boat!  Meanwhile he works for the local marina, where he is admired for his work as a rigger.  He has already proved his worth getting Avalanche ready by helping diagnose and fix a  mainsail furler swivel that wouldn’t budge!  Chris is cheerful, fun loving, ready to help with anything.

Kim Hapgood first went sailing on a sunfish with her Dad on a lake in Indiana, learned to sail at the Chicago YC, and really got into it when her family moved to England.  Since then she has done lots of racing, both match racing and sport boats around the buoys and offshore races like the Newport-Bermuda race and the Halifax race.  Now she’s turning more to judging and race committee work.  She says that much as she likes to sleep in her own bed, she really looks forward to being in the middle of the big ocean with stars above, and no one else around.  It’s a total change of pace and puts things in perspective.  She has been program director at Sail Newport, the local public sailing facility, for 13 years, so she spends a lot of time on boats and on the water.  Kim is also incredibly well rounded:  she’s a super chef, and has rebuilt her house doing much of the work herself–even the exterior shingles and for any of you who followed our trip South 2 years ago, she is a skilled Emergency Room Surgeon, or at least an Emergency Room steri -strip plastic Surgeon!

Peter Vaiciulis has been sailing with us since we raced our J-37 on Lake Champlain.  He has learned about sailing Avalanche as we have and is a terrific friend who will drop everything to help us move Avalanche.  He’s also a creative carpenter and scientific thinker.  Those traits have helped us on Avalanche  many times when we’ve had to find a solution to a problem offshore.  Peter is married to a wonderful gal from Tonga and has 2 sons, Peter Sione, age 8(who was able steer Avalanche from Block Island to Jamestown following a compass course at age 7)  and Thomasi, age six(who caught a 4′ shark off the transom of Avalanche at Block Island at age 5).  They are at home reading about our adventures.

Leo Bontiff is 3/4 Carib Indian, someone who truly belongs in the West Indies!  The Caribs were very fierce  warriors, whom even the Spanish couldn’t defeat, so Leo has a very proud heritage.  He comes from Dominica, where he was raised by his grandparents until he turned 18.  At fifteen he left school to fish with his grandfather in a skiff offshore around the island.  Leo is a very good fisherman, and Jake makes sure Leo fishes on his team.  At 18 Leo left Dominica for Antigua, where he began working for a local Antiguan boat yard owner.  He has learned so much and is so good at what he does that he has become the lead worker in the yard.  Leo has been looking after Avalanche in Antigua for about 5 years, and we can’t thank the yard owner enough for loaning him to us!

This fine group will be gathering at the boat at 6 am tomorrow to depart on our 12th trip south!

November 11, 2009

Still tied to the dock in Jamestown

Hello everybody!

This should be day 1. And indeed,  it appears to be day 1 of several, waiting for Ida to make up her mind!  Currently Ida is stalled off the east coast with high winds and huge waves–nothing we’d like to go to sea in.  We are watching the weather and communicating with our weather guru, Herb Hilgenberg, and it appears that the first opportunity to leave will be Sunday.  However, that is subject to change.  As a result this will probably be one of the best prepared trips we’ve ever made.  We already have everything loaded, much of the food in the freezer, even crew clothing aboard.  We  only have the final grocery run for produce and dairy.  It looks as if I will even get to bake chocolate chip cookies.  They appear on the list every year, and I think the last time I had time to bake them was May 2000.

Keep checking the site.  I should get the crew introduction up before we leave.

All the best from the crew of Avalanche, waiting.