Late Monday night, May 25, 2009, Day 6 Antigua to Jamestown
News from on board Avalanche
30.46 N latitude, 65.08 W longitude, 100 miles south of Bermuda
A quick apology to all those we invited to read about the tales of our adventure, whom we have disappointed by not producing the promised daily reports. Unfortunately we haven’t been able to send emails to the web site due to a glitch in our satellite data system. We have tried to keep you up to date by phoning information to our son Ben who has been passing it along via blogs, a difficult process because the satellite cell phone is only infrequently and briefly available. A big thank you to Ben for keeping you up to date for us.
We discovered the problem with the data system shortly after leaving Antigua, so we detoured to St. Martin, where we hoped the electronics service people there would be able to solder a wire and fix the problem. We did a fine job of sailing the boat into the anchorage at 7:30 a.m. precisely, so Jake could go to Customs & Immigration and immediately to the electronics company. Unfortunately, the repair never got made. Thursday, May 21st was a holiday in St. Martin. So Jake had the pleasure of spending 3 hours and $47 to check us into and out of St. Martin, and all we got to show for it was a couple hundred flies!
Since then we have had wonderful sailing. The first two days were overcast as we worked our way through a trough, but that kept the heat down somewhat. Once we passed 23 degrees N latitude the sun came out and since then the weather has been delightful. The winds have been steady between 8 and 18 knots day and night. We’ve had a few fair weather clouds, lots of stars and shooting stars. Only 4 of us have gotten wet, and then in only a light rain or sprinkle. So far no squalls but that will change with the passage north of Bermuda. The seas have been almost calm. We’ve been sailing except for 13 hours. Two of those were getting into and out of harbors, and the rest was motorsailing. This has been an incredibly fine trip. The whole crew takes a bath and shower on the back deck each day. The water in the “pool” on the back deck has gradually dropped from 83 degrees to 75, but during the day the sun brings temperatures in the 90s. The nights are cooler–mid 70s, but clear.
We’ve finally had some success with our fishing. Early on a brown booby tried to attack Jake’s lure at least a dozen times before finally succeeding, and later he caught a barracuda. Yesterday Peter caught an amber jack, and today Ruleo (on Jake’s team) caught a Mahi Mahi, which we’ll eat for dinner tomorrow in Bermuda. We’ve had 2 Marlin take the hooks, but lost them and 4 others. So the score is Peter 1, Jake 2 (plus a bird), fish 6.
The first day out we spotted a large turtle, and Jake saw a king mackeral jump as high as our first spreader, about 20 feet above the water; at first he thought it was a bird. The fish jumped 3 more times to the delight of those who saw it. Today the a.m. watch counted 56 Portugese men o’ war. Otherwise it’s a big barren ocean. We haven’t seen another boat or ship in two days, but saw 3 or 4 ships before that.
All the best from the crew of Avalanche looking forward to a weather and fuel stop in Bermuda tomorrow afternoon & overnight followed by a dash home.
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