Tackling the Triangle

In the nine and a half days that it took us to finally reach Bermuda, I think we had every imaginable set of weather conditions, from dead calm to gale force winds and thunderstorms. We even had some stretches of wonderful sailing in between! Here is Terry's summary of the voyage:

Well, that was the voyage from hell and I’m glad it’s over and done.  We’re sitting nicely in the St George Dinghy and Sports Club marina in St George, Bermuda. 

What was supposed to take us 7 days actually took us 10 days, with three storms and then no wind in between.  The first storm was the longest – while the weather forecasting clowns were showing wind out of the East at 18 knots, we were hanging on to the wheel at 36-38 knots with gusts to 44 knots for 15 hours.  One would assume you could see something like that but perhaps you can’t.

The final storm, on the second last day, was a ripper.  Padraig actually got flattened in a squall with him hanging on to one side of the wheel and me holding the other side telling him that it was a sailboat and that eventually it would come back upright.  The last reading I saw before all the drama took off was 55 knots over the deck.  I don’t know how you can be a NOAA weather forecaster and put your hand out for your pay once a fortnight.  Still..

Well, we are here now and this is a wonderful harbor and country.  It has only 60,000 people in total, about what’s in Bunbury and surrounds.  We have spent the last two days doing all those little boat jobs that mount up.  Padraig went up the mast today first to untangle the Radar reflector and second to install the Lightning dissipater.  Hard work and the second one was beyond where I could lift myself.  Boat is running very well, but both sails are off for minor fixes.  The Hydrovane is a superb item to have.  It’s wonderful to lie back in the cockpit and watch it do all the work.

We had a group dinner tonight followed by a rum tasting put on by Goslings, the oldest business in Bermuda  - 1806.

We are all leaving here on Wednesday morning for the Azores, all 37 boats.  We’ve already made plans to visit the owner of the other Catalina 42 in the Rally, who has bought an apartment in Turkey, and to cruise in company with some Danes through the bottom of the Med.

We will have a SPOT tracker for the voyage, probably accessible through the ARC website (World Cruising Club)

[Carol] We sailed the final twenty miles in the early hours of the morning, and it was wonderful to see the glow of lights ahead and the flash of the lighthouse on St David's Island. And what a thrill to see the beautiful island in the morning sunlight, and to head in through the narrow St George Cut to a perfect harbour filled with yachts from the rally. We had been listening all night to the boats being hailed in turn by the operators at Radio Bermuda - pleasant and patient chaps who tracked each boat and assisted us all safely inside. 

I am quite besotted with Bermuda - if only we had more time to explore this exquisite island which seems to have been blessed with everything - great climate, fertile soil, a relaxed lifestyle but still enough productivity and infrastructure for everyone to live well, beautiful architecture and gardens, the ocean indescribably gorgeous, delightful people, no crime to speak of, interesting history ... 

We're leaving tomorrow on the major leg of the ARC Europe, from Bermuda to the Azores, so it might be a few weeks until I can finish the Bermuda story and update the blog. All the best folks - you can track us at the ARC website, as Terry notes above. Might be a bit like watching your lawn grow, but we will get there!

Passage to Bermuda Part 1

We set off on Wednesday morning in good spirits – a trouble-free exit from Mangoes Marina in Marsh Harbour, and a quick stop to top up our fuel and we were underway – almost.  A bit of confusion over which of the 752 ropes on board were our jacklines before setting them up, then we made our way out of the Sea of Abaco through Man O War Channel and into the open ocean. Within minutes Padraig had his fishing lines in the water, all kitted out with the pink squid jig recommended by the locals. Success came quickly – a good-sized Mahi Mahi (dolphin fish) struck hard and the fight was on! Pat battled with it for about 15 minutes, with Terry positioning the boat so the fish couldn’t double back and sever the line. What a beautiful fish they are – it broke the surface with its strange bull head, and you could see the gorgeous dark green and flashing yellow of its skin, and its brilliant blue fins. Pat brought it in with great skill for a novice fisherman – his first ever ‘proper fish’ – Terry gaffed it and I administered the bourbon sedative, skinned and filleted it.

We’ve had fried fish, fish curry, fish fingers – and there’s more to go so it might even be fish tacos tomorrow for Cinquo de Mayo.

There was a decent breeze for the first 24 hours and we followed advice based on the weather reports to make as much way north as we could before the wind slackened and turned northerly. We were getting great speeds up to 8 knots and really fun sailing, but unfortunately the wind turned north easterly instead - right on the nose - and we were able to make little headway the next day. It was frustrating being able to travel in any direction but the one we wanted, so we did a bit of motoring just to get some miles on the clock.

Day 3 began well with a beautiful sunrise over silky calm water, and thankfully the wind gradually picked up so we were able to skim along at a respectable 4 – 5 knots over a smooth sea.

 Another great Mahi Mahi lunch helped to keep our spirits up, as did the deployment of our Hydrovane (we are still debating the name of this valuable crew member)* which kept us tonking along nicely all day. All we really had to do was check our progress and make little adjustments – mostly to pretend that we humans were still in control of the boat.

 The vane really came into its own on Day 4 when we had a following breeze from the west. It’s hard to steer on this reach, with the constant threat of jibing, but the vane took over and handled it expertly for hours on end. We were pretty much redundant so we read, listened to music, Padraig went for his daily dip in the Atlantic and I made the tacos to celebrate Cinquo de Mayo, Mexican Independence Day.

* The Hydrovane is now officially named ‘Arthur’ after my father – calm, steady, hardworking and totally reliable. I like to think he’s here with us in spirit.

The next part of the Bermuda passage gets scary and exciting - stay posted!

Welcome Aboard, Padraig!

Common Sense has a new crew member, and very welcome he is! Here's Padraig arriving on the slow ferry from Nassau to Spanish Wells. Padraig Mallon hails from the town of Camlough in County Armagh (just north of the border), where he lives with his lovely wife Clare. He runs a successful air-conditioning business with his two brothers and is very handy with tools and systems - what an asset on a boat! He is also an endurance swimmer, having conquered the English Channel and participated in the Guinness world record open water swim, and an enthusiastic kite-surfer. Let's hope he doesn't need to make too much use of the distance swimming talent - although he did leap into the water to save some beer that went overboard from a Bahamian fishing boat, and was recognised on local radio for his effort!

Padraig turned 35 on his second day aboard, so we celebrated with a chocolate cake - the nine-hour candle was a pretty good alternative to 35 birthday candles. In case you're wondering, his reason for signing up to join us on the Atlantic crossing is that this is his "annual adventure". The whole Mallon family seems to be an adventurous lot. Padraig's personal motto is "if you don't go when you're gone you don't get" - I think it loses a little bit in translation, but you get the gist. We're delighted to have him aboard, not only for his skills and enthusiasm, but also "for the craic".

We're now in Marsh Harbour waiting out some ugly weather so we can start the Bermuda passage. That will be a test of the boat and of us - about a week at sea to cover over 700 nautical miles.

An Encounter with the Filter Boss Boss

(Terry)

So I’m walking along a street in Marsh Harbor, Abacos after a fruitful trip tracking down a) rechargeable batteries and b) a recharger.  Of course, this is not the first world so the charger and the batteries are sold in different places.  The place that sells batteries hasn’t a clue where you can buy a charger and the place that sells chargers doesn’t have any batteries.  Ok, so we manage to get the two combined and home we go to the boat.

We’re walking along this major street and we come across this group of people who’ve just left a hardware store.  The one guy asks “Are there any more hardware stores around there” i.e. where we’ve just come from.  Yep, there sure are I say.  There’s an Ace Hardware, a US chain, around the corner and up a ways.  Ok, cool, we know where it is but unfortunately it closes at 4.00pm as we found out.  So the party decides tomorrow will be good and we all turn and begin walking back to the marina/s.

The guy I’m talking to says where have you come from so I say we’ve been down the chain a bit in the Exumas and we originally crossed over from Florida.  So he then says “OK, you’re Australian and you’ve come over from Florida so you must be the guy who bought one of my systems”.  It’s Andy Keenan, the owner of Filter Boss!  We have a Filter Boss system on board and as fate would have it I’m walking along a street in Marsh Harbor in the Bahamas with a guy I’ve been emailing back and forth re a minor fix to the system.  I think I’ve said on this blog before – It’s a small world.  We could just as easily have been on the other side of the street, or simply walked on past.  Unbelievable.

We arranged to meet later in Mangoes restaurant but he came by in his dinghy to say plans have changed and they’re over in Snappas bar for Happy Hour.  Happy Hour in Snappas today is a bucket of Heineken (4 in ice) and a dozen conch fritters for $20.  So we sit at a table on the deck with Andy, his wife Carol, and four of their friends for beer and conch.  I called it a day at 6 beers but only because we were the last ones there.  Great night – interesting people with a huge range of stories to tell and pleasant company to boot.  One of the ladies we were talking to on a Bristol 40 was actually a horseback guide in Yosemite National Park.!!  It’s a great life.

To Spanish Wells

(From guest blogger Terry)

We motored out of our bouncy and uncomfortable anchorage at Rose Island yesterday morning and into 35-40knot winds in the New Providence Channel. A 5 hour trip to Royal Island was not looking all that good as we pushed into a very angry sea with plenty of spray over the bow and into the cockpit.
I put the sails up and we settled into a more easy motion but then discovered that the headsail had begun to come apart at the top and was unraveling down the leech. Had to put that away before we lost the whole sail. I suppose it’s better to find this out now than one day out into the Atlantic.
It was a terrible trip but eventually we made Royal Harbor and in through a very narrow entrance between two menacing rocks. Inside was like a lake and we wandered about looking for a nice spot with only 6 other boats to contend with. One of them was a massive Catamaran called Hayfu. It has wave-piercing bows and cost some $7m to build up in Nova Scotia. Don’t know what it was doing but the people on it were zipping about in their dinghy at 1.30am for some reason.
Out this morning and over to Spanish Wells for the last 4.5 miles. We’d arranged a slip in the Yacht Haven marina and were heading in when I went aground on a soft sandbank at the edge of the channel. We were so close to the channel I could have jumped from Common Sense and been in it. Lucky I was only doing 3kts so we weren’t stuck all that hard. It was a rising tide so all we had to do was wait and we’d float off so I went down below and fired up the internet and caught up on emails.
A man with his son came by in a power boat and offered to pull us off. The tide was rising and we had only 2 more inches to go to be square but he probably saved us another 20 minutes of hanging around waiting as he pulled us back out. Into the marina and organized for a sailmaker and a marine electrician to visit.
We went for a quick bike ride around town – it’s only 2 miles long and ½ mile wide – and is a superb place. The houses are all brightly painted, gardens are well kept and very nice indeed. We had sundowner drinks on a neighbour’s boat, a Norseman, and they mentioned that they went aground in the same spot. Old story – a marker pole has gone missing from the edge of the bank!
Another couple on board, Dennis and Bettye on a power boat, were chatting about life in general and Dennis’ US Air Force career (which we all agreed was what you did if you didn’t actually want to join the military here) when he mentioned a friend of his was circumnavigating on a Westsail 32. I asked him if that would be Bill Shaw. Small world, it is. Bill was a long time resident of the marina in Kent Narrows where we spent 4 months, and his voyage is being followed by many on the party dock, O-dock. Bill had left by the time we arrived but we have corresponded from time to time. He and Dennis are great friends and Dennis, who lives in St Augustine, actually had Bill’s Harley Davidson in his garage. It sure is a small world.
Anyway, if we can get our sail repaired and our wind generator working again, we’ll do it here if possible as it is a very nice place to be for a few days.
Best wishes
Hoges in a Haven
(again. The Yacht Haven we stayed in in Nassau was owned by the same man who owned this one. Sadly, he passed away only last week and his sons are taking over the businesses.)

Spanish Wells (Carol)

In 1647 a small band of Puritan refugees was shipwrecked on the fringing reef known as the Devil’s Backbone, which runs along the northern shores of the Eleuthera chain of islands in the Bahamas. They managed to find shelter in a limestone cave – the Preacher’s Cave on Russell Island – and proceeded to start a new colony at Spanish Wells.

The population was supplemented by English loyalists during the American Revolution. Today, Spanish Wells is a charming little town with a character unique in the Bahamas. Mostly white (Puritans and loyalists were anti-slavery), the people are pious, hardworking and very community-minded. They speak a distinctive dialect, and certain names and physical types predominate. Sunday is strictly observed – nothing opens except the churches – and most of the island’s work is focused on the sea. I was told that Spanish Wells supplies the lobsters for the whole Red Lobster restaurant chain in the US, which is quite an enterprise for a town of only about 1500 residents.

Stop Press: Padraig has arrived safely on the 'slow' ferry from Nassau

- great to have him aboard!

Easter in Black Point

On Easter Saturday we motored out of Norman’s Cut and then made the most of a brisk easterly to sail down to Black Point, which would be the southernmost point of our Bahamas voyage this time around.  1530 saw us edge our way around a big sandbank and enter the bay from the north. About 15 other sailboats and trawlers were anchored in the bay, but there was plenty of room and we found a good spot in about 8 ft of water just south of the Government Dock. Thankfully we didn’t go any further inshore – the skipper of the Italian boat that did had a surprise the next morning when he woke up in the shadow of a Bahamian freighter negotiating its way in just a few feet from his boat.

The Black Point community has a really nice feel to it. The people are welcoming, but tourism is not their focus - it’s more about church, the school and the local businesses. Kids jump and swim off the dock and old people plait palm leaves in the shade in their front gardens. There are a couple of pleasant little restaurants serving simple meals like fried grouper, burgers or conch salad, and the small general store and laundry are both run by friendly and obliging locals. There is a rubbish trailer and a free fresh water pump for cruisers to use. Most people make some kind of donation as thanks for these valuable services. We gave a pack of four life-jackets to the school – the Principal was very grateful as they were planning to buy some.

To celebrate Easter, I went along to a service at St Lukes Baptist Church – dragged out my most respectable gear for the occasion, but it was nothing compared to the fine silk suits, race-day hats and BIG heels worn by the local ladies. I think the theory goes that, the higher your hat and heels, the closer you are to heaven. The service was in the gospel tradition – with not enough hymn-books and Bibles to go around, we sang and prayed by call and response. The lady leading the service was quite formidable. She had the biggest hat of all – modelled on a bishop’s mitre with lots of gold braid – and a spine-tinglingly powerful voice. There was a pastor, but there was no doubt about who was really in charge of proceedings. The singing was amazing. After so many years attending Anglican school services where a half-hearted mutter is the best you can expect, I found the sound of a hundred men, women and children giving it everything they’ve got, with harmonies and shouted responses, quite overwhelming. The service was long, but participation kept everyone involved – the occasional crying baby was passed around until it settled, while fidgety boys were sent to sit next to a stern-looking gentleman who was obviously some kind of enforcer. He started with a pew to himself, and ended the service with a line of five perfectly behaved little boys beside him.

The only other non-Bahamians at the service were a couple – cruisers also, by their clothes – the woman playing keyboard alongside a local boy on drums, and the man sitting at the back of the church. At an invitation from the pastor, the man produced a set of bagpipes and gave a stirring rendition of ‘Amazing Grace’. And amazing it was – such a contrast of cultures, but each wonderful in its own way. After the service I was given a lift in a golf cart back to the main dock by the stern gent, who turned out to be a very affable and funny fellow, despite the façade. Met up with Terry who had been exploring, and had found a blowhole where waves from Exuma Sound sent plumes of spray 30 ft or so in the air. The area was encircled, not only by salt and seaweed, but by piles of driftwood, nets, rope and plastic debris that had all been shot up through the gap. He had also found an old cemetery, including the grave of Emeretta Sweeting whose dates were 1884 to 1989, making her 105 years old.

Stopping at DeShamon’s restaurant for lunch, we ordered fish fingers (fresh grouper, not the Birds-eye kind) and who should walk in a few minutes later but the musical duo from the church service.  We all introduced ourselves – they were an English couple who have been cruising for years aboard their beautiful  Amel  54 Caduceus of Burnham. (The caduceus is the winged sceptre with entwined snakes, symbol of the medical profession. Elizabeth is a retired doctor). Their names were Elizabeth and Martin – yes, really!

We settled in for lunch and a chat, and heard lots of stories and good advice about cruising in Britain and the Mediterranean. Before we realised it, four hours had sped by and it was time to dinghy back to Common Sense before dark.  Yet again, one of the great pleasures of cruising is the interesting and inspiring people you meet along the way.

Hope you like Terry's awesome sunset picture!

Nassau to Highbourne Cay and Norman's Cay

We headed out of Nassau Harbour quite early, planning to refuel on the way out. Unfortunately we ran into one of those problems that we residents of the First World have to come to terms with – the fuel dock was out of diesel. OK, we had plenty to get us the thirty nautical miles across the Yellow Bank to the Exumas, even if we had to motor all the way – which we did, directly into a light south-easterly wind all the way to Highbourne Cay. The Yellow Banks are a shallow area with lots of coral heads, but happily these are easy to spot in the crystal clear water.

Highbourne Cay was a welcome sight as we passed a bevy of luxury megayachts and entered the marina’s fuel dock. Clearly the fuel prices reflect the cost of transport to isolated places , and the fact that most of the clientele can well afford it - $5.90 a gallon for diesel – ouch! We could only afford an icecream and a couple of grapefruit at the store. Some cruisers we met later on said that those who stay at Highbourne all ‘have a mate for that’ when it comes to unpleasant tasks like carrying the dog ashore for a poop. The anchorage just south of the marina was lovely, however. I snorkelled over to the beach and collected a few legal size conch on the way, but had second thoughts and put them back. I didn’t really know how to crack or prepare them, and besides, they all looked at me with their beady little stalk eyes.

The next day we dinghied over to a gorgeous deserted beach at Oyster Cay for a swim.

Just for comparison, here’s the beach at Las Olas, Fort Lauderdale, during Spring Break!

Next stop on the journey south was Norman’s Cay, a pretty island with a dubious history as the centre of Carlos Lehder’s cocaine empire. All that remains of the high times of the 1980s are a plane wreck in the bay and a row of derelict buildings, some with bullet holes in the walls. Lehder is serving several life terms in US Federal prison, and Normans is now home to a very pleasant little bar and restaurant, some chalets and a small airfield. The couple of nights we spent at anchor here were a bit rough and rolly, with a westerly wind against the currents through Norman’s Cut – there were times when every single boat in the anchorage was pointing in a different direction -  but we couldn’t see too many alternatives.

Next passage will be a longish one down to Black Point, then we plan to head back up to Staniel Cay and to Warderick Wells in the National Land and Sea Park for a few days. Internet is intermittent, so we’ll be in touch whenever we can. Love to everyone – hope those in WA are enjoying some beautiful autumn weather and a safe and happy Easter.