June 1, 2010 Day 11
41 52N 71 37W Jamestown, RI
Lots of (mostly) good luck

Hello Everybody!

FYI The overwhelming choice of title for our day of drifting serenely backward was “ETA never”, with a vote coming from as far away as Germany!

To continue the saga of getting home with no engine, let me say we had good luck. We did indeed get the predicted SW breeze overnight into Tuesday, 15 knots increasing to 20 and beyond. There was fog, but only 3 hours. Leo got to make a security call and Ruleo learned to watch for high flyers (lobster pots with radar reflectors on their buoys–which scratch the heck out of the hull if you hit one) on the radar. By daylight we had 25 knots of breeze from the SW, off our quarter, which is a terrific ride. That was all good luck. As we hurtled toward Jamestown the off watch crew was madly packing bags, stripping beds and filling laundry bags. We had a quick lunch of whatever leftovers were available as we entered Narragansett Bay. Just in time to jibe 3 times on the way to our mooring.

Fortunately the marina crew had put a pick-up wand on the mooring line for us and could direct us to the appropriate buoy (it’s been half a year, after all). They also stood by near the mooring to help if we needed it. More good luck (or was it skill): we didn’t need help. The wind had picked up (as Herb had predicted) to probably 25 knots–I don’t think anyone looked–as we approached the mooring. It looked as if we’d come up short, but with a full crew aboard they simply rolled out the staysail for a little speed, rolled it up again, and we coasted right up to the mooring. Meanwhile Brian & I were doing the “pickup dance” on the bow: get the wand, no use the boathook, no the wand…..you get the picture. In the end Brian grabbed the wand with one mooring line and got it onto the cleat! Success on the first try. More good luck.

We got to the mooring about 12:30, then continued our clean up and pack up as we waited for Customs & Immigration. The officer arrived about 2:15 and we lucked out again: although it’s not normal procedure, she took the launch out to avalanche at the mooring instead of asking us to come in to the dock. More good luck.

We left the boat with the C&I officer and all our clothing and personal gear and lots of laundry. Jake, with Leo and Ruleo, took Dave over to Newport and Brian home to New Bedford, where they had a great time checking out Brian’s bachelor pad and his Harley!

More good luck came with the weather. About 5 pm a round of thunderstorms came through with lots of rain (free fresh water rinse, good luck), followed by calm. As in no wind, which continued through most of today until the fog rolled in about 3 pm. It is now so foggy we can’t see the dock across the street! Really good luck that we didn’t have to attempt to arrive becalmed in the fog.

At this point we are feeling fortunate. Although we consider losing the use of the engine bad luck (especially because we try so hard to stay on top of maintenance), we were really lucky to be able to sail into the bay in bright sun and right up to our own mooring!

Regarding the fishing: I’m going to have to mend the 3 fish flags that flew through all the squalls and high winds. The West Indian lads plus Jake will have to pay off the bet to the engineers. The final score stands at WI+Jake 1, engineers 4, fish 1. About 4 miles from the mooring buoy we got 2 hits, one on each side. Bluefish. The good news: Leo, Ruleo, Jake & I had fish soup with bluefish for dinner tonight.

So, all the best from the crew of avalanche, ashore.

P.S. Please keep checking. We have photos to put up, but our photo editor (Ruleo) has been busy scrubbing and cleaning the boat, so he might take a day or two to put the photos together for us!

Hi Everybody,

We got into Jamestown about 12:30 today. Sailed right up to the mooring first try. Celebrated our arrival with our last ice cream bars on the mooring waiting for the Customs & Immigration gal to arrive. All’s well, everyone is home. We’re about to have dinner ashore.

P.S. Both sides caught bluefish on the way in–about 4 miles from home.

We’ll post today’s adventures tomorrow, along with photos and, if we’re lucky, that video we talked about.

All the best from the crew of avalanche, disbanded for now.

David Young is the oldest “rookie” we’ve ever had aboard avalanche.  He will turn 70 the day he comes aboard to help us get the boat ready for sea.  David was born in Tasmania and grew up in Australia, where his passport was issued.  His home, however, is apparently wherever he drops anchor!  He has been sailing forever, having taken his 24’ boat to Europe on to the Caribbean and further to the Americas.  He estimates that he has crossed the Atlantic in his boat and others 20-30 times.  He has canoed a 16’ Coleman canoe from Bremerhaven Germany on the North Sea to Sete France on the Mediterranean.  He has also piloted a 20’ boat throughout the canals of Europe.  Along the way he has learned to speak French, German, Dutch, Spanish and Portuguese.  He also managed to learn to fly a plane.

When I asked David to provide information for this biography he replied that if he had done nothing in 70 years he could easily answer, but that he has done so much that it would take another 70 years to tell it all.  He did have a further comment, which I quote here:

“We have 10 days or more of sailing.  If anybody wants to listen to boring stories, I will elaborate.  BUT, I do have great jokes, am a good cook, don’t get miserable, can keep my temper (when all around, others are losing their’s) and I’m extremely humble…”

So you can see, we think we have a fine addition to our crew.  Not only can the man sail a boat and fix stuff, he can call for help in 6 languages and keep us laughing!

If David Young is the oldest “rookie” we’ve ever had on avalanche, then Brian Barer is probably the most professionally qualified!   He graduated from the Massachusetts Maritime Academy and spent 5 years in the merchant marine as a licensed engineer, and as an officer in the U.S. Navy aboard a Minesweeper.  I suspect that if we have a mechanical problem of any sort, Brian will be able to solve it.

He has been sailing since he was a kid, racing Lasers and Sunfish.  He considers himself lucky to have been instrumental in resurrecting both brands from bankruptcy in the late 80’s and then to have served as general manager for the company responsible for building them.  He worked in the boatbuilding industry for 20 years or so in almost every capacity and at this point in his life says he feels that he knows enough about boats to respect their (and his own) limitations always!

He built his first boat out of plywood from plans that he got through the mail from a magazine when he was in high school–unfortunately it sank shortly after launch!  Someday he plans to build another boat from those same plans for his grandson, which we all hope will stay afloat!  Currently Brian owns an Irwin 31 that he keeps in Wareham and cruises between Maine and NY.

Brian has done several offshore trips, most recently just a year ago when he helped a prominent sailor deliver a Beneteau 41 from Tortola to Newport.  He reports that it was a hair raising experience.  I expect that Brian will be entertaining the rest of us with tales of that trip as we make our way home!  He says “I bet you will all find my stories very entertaining, I warn you though I have a lot of them and I think some of them are even true!!!!”

Ruleo Camacho will turn 20 during our delivery to Jamestown, his second birthday on avalanche.  Last year Ruleo joined us for his first trip offshore and performed admirably.  His first solo sailing experience was across Falmouth Harbor in a Sunfish at age nine.  Since then he has become a fine helmsman and sailor.  In addition his fishing skills are excellent, an important consideration in selecting crew for avalanche.  It would be difficult to choose between Leo and Ruleo as the more skilled fisherman.  You might have to include a count of who broke more gear trying to land really big fish to decide that debate.  (And would that count for or against the fisherman?)  You will notice that in photos of Ruleo he is almost always holding up something that he caught!

Like Leo, Ruleo is West Indian.  He has grown up in Antigua and now attends the University of the West Indies in Jamaica and aims one day to be a Marine Biologist.  We met him 11 years ago when he was 8 and his father was our favorite taxi driver.  Since then our families have become great friends.  Through the years we have had the Camacho family on Avalanche for a weekend at Green Island; they have driven us through the countryside on Christmas Eve to show us all the beautifully lighted houses competing for a month’s free electricity and $2,000.  We’ve had lots of dinners and watched many boat races, both full sized and miniature models.  In addition to the delivery last May, Ruleo has visited our home in Jamestown 3 times, at 13, 15 and 16.  He has always told us that he wants to see snow–even strip to his swim suit and roll in it.

And that is what makes the story of Ruleo and the dishes so funny.  Naturally Ruleo doesn’t have winter clothes, so we loan him a few layers for those last 2-3 days when it is so cold approaching the east coast.  Last year we had come up on the continental shelf in pretty moderate weather for the season, but we were dressed in lots of layers to stay warm and had the heat on below.  Ruleo had all his layers on and was doing his job of washing the lunch dishes.  Ruleo found it so cold despite wearing warm layers that he managed to spend over an hour drying 2 pots in order to stay below where the heat was on!  This year we have added more warm clothes to his bag!