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Auspicious Delivery: Goteborg Sweden to Annapolis, MD
ell boys and girls here we go again!
Most of you have heard me say it at least once… that’s right.
“Life is what happens while you’re making other plans”
But wait, lets pick up where we left off shall we?
Ahh, yes… the now infamous Maine Trip!
If I remember correctly, ignoring the various interruptions, we had been traveling for approximately 14 days, got as far as Provincetown (for the geographically impaired, that’s not in Maine) left Rocinante in East Dennis (again, not Maine) and then drove back home in just over 5 hours!
Even though we didn’t reach our destination, the trip had served it’s purpose… we proved to ourselves that we could handle adversity, breakdowns, bad weather, lobster dinners, etc. We’re hooked! So we set about planning our escape.
Tentative itinerary:
- July - August: Maine (we have to finish the darn trip to Penobscot bay)
- August - November: heading down to Norfolk Virginia
- November - December: on our way to the Florida Keys
- December 25th: Florida Keys
- Spring 2007: Florida Keys
- Summer 2007: head back north for hurricane season...
- Fall - Winter 2007: Caribbean
- Spring - Summer 2008: head to South America for hurricane season...
- ?
Solid plan, ordered the guidebooks, the various nautical charts we would need for this year and started the process of filling in the details… then it happened!
On Wednesday, February 22nd 2006 at 5:55PM a message was posted on the Renegade Cruisers Bulletin Board “Delivering Auspicious: Have a Spot”
We will leave Ellös Sweden Tuesday 25 April, weather permitting. Ports of call Southampton England, Horta Azores, St Georges Bermuda, Norfolk Virginia, Annapolis Maryland.
This was an opportunity I couldn’t pass up! I shot out a reply that while much more eloquent, boiled down to “Pick me! Pick me!” (You’re picturing Donkey in Shrek aren’t you?)
And so, to make a long story short, Rocinante will have to sit and wait for us just a bit longer… I’m heading to Sweden to begin my first transatlantic sailing adventure!
So stop by often and take a moment to sit back and relax as I regale you with salty tales of life aboard the 40’ Sailing Vessel Auspicious with Dave (Master), Anya, George, Kathie and yours truly.
More or less on my way - Friday, April 21, 2006
ight now, I’m on a flight to Sarasota Florida for my sister’s wedding tomorrow then a quick flight back to Newark on Saturday and I’ll be boarding my flight to Amsterdam and then on to Goteborg!
As you can imagine, it has been one heck of a hectic month…
Lets see: contractors swarming allover the place repairing damage from the tree (remember the 120’ oak that fell on my house the day after Thanksgiving?); Splitting said wood for the winter; building new racks to store the wood; some spring cleaning in the gardens; cleaning and staining the deck; planning the quick side trip to Florida.
Last but not least, packing for the trip to Sweden and subsequent transatlantic voyage!
That was fun… heavy foul weather gear, light foul weather gear, hat for cold, hat for sun, mittens, sweaters, t-shirts, jeans, shoes, shirts, celestial almanac, reading glasses… yes, you heard me… reading classes. Lets see, where did I leave off… sunglasses, towels, miscellaneous toiletries, camera, laptop, cell phone, sat phone, all the associated chargers, cigarettes for one of my crewmates, cables to hook up the ipod to the stereo system and… most important of all LOTS of underwear!
It’s still a bit hard to fathom… how the heck did I end up on a trip from Goteborg, Sweden to Annapolis Maryland on a 40ft sailboat!
Slowly but surely, it’s sinking in and I’m getting ready for the experience… one of several stepping stones on our journey as Maria and I continue to hone our sailing skills in preparation for our multi-year cruise aboard our beloved Rocinante.
This particular trip of course serves yet another purpose… it’s my first delivery!
That’s right, a business trip!
Yes, I know I’m unpaid crew… but next time!
Bradenton Beach, Florida - Saturday, April 22, 2006
ne lucky SOB!
Right now, I’m sitting at a little table outside “VinJavGar” in Bradenton Beach, Florida writing this piece and puffing on an awesome Romeo Y Julieta. It’s about 80 degrees and I’ve got a breeze coming in off the Gulf of Mexico at my back.
“VinJavGar” is a great little place right on historic Bridge Street just off the main drag. As the clever name suggests, thee sell a nice selection of wines, coffee, and cigars and the three small bistro style tables outside provide a great place to sit down, relax and watch the world go by.
But lets back up a bit…
My morning started with a nice walk down Bridge Street, past the town’s clock tower and out along the town’s fishing pier. Great walk, lovely views, awesome breeze and friendly people… can’t ask for much more than that!
A bit later, I decided to stop at a local eatery, “The Crepeary”. I had the French Breakfast… the crepes had quite a bit more jam in them than one would expect but a nice enough place, probably better than this one experience would lead one to believe.
Back to my room to mess with my Internet connection, check email, send email, setup the blog for remote publishing, etc.
Time for lunch…
Sitting on the 3rd floor veranda of “The Sun House” overlooking the white sand and blue waters of the Gulf of Mexico with an amazing Bloody Mary in my hands… yep, tough! Just as I finished off my jumbo shrimp (did I forget to mention the two olives, stalk of celery and Jumbo shrimp in my Bloody Mary?) my lunch appeared… a pint of Yingling and a great fish and chips dish with a bit of tarter sauce. Now for you traditionalist, I have to say it was not battered, but rather coated in seasoned breadcrumbs, however, they actually had Malt vinegar and more amazingly didn’t seem surprised when I asked for it.
If you find yourself in Bradenton Beach Florida, I strongly recommend “The Sun House”… heck if you’re within a couple of hours of these folks, swing by. I assure you, it’s worth the trip.
A quick trip up to my room to pick up my laptop brings us back to where we started… puffing on my cigar outside the “VinJavaGar”
In a few hours, I’ll be heading on down the street to the beach where my little sister will be married on said white sand along said blue waters and where one more day will slowly pass into eternity.
As I watch one more gorgeous sunset, only one thing will be missing my better half… but I’ll be sure to take some pictures to share with her when I get back.
Third day at sea - Wednesday, April 26, 2006
ell, our little adventure is well on its way…
It’s currently 12:27 UMT smack dab in the middle of our third day at sea!
Lets see, I left Sarasota Florida Sunday morning on a 7:15 AM flight back to Newark where I was met by my lovely wife. After a nice reunion we headed home, had a great breakfast, took care of a bunch of items I hadn’t gotten to prior to leaving on Friday and headed back to the airport to catch my 4:30 KLM flight to Sweden. Great flight… watched a couple of movies, had a couple of meals, and arrived in Amsterdam a bit tired, but not bad… Went through customs… do I have anything to declare? Hell yes, I’m on my way to Sweden for the start of my first transatlantic sailing!
But since I didn’t think he would care, I simply answered “no” and was on my way…
My passport had finally been stamped!
With a 2-hour layover ahead of me, I decided to call home and let Adita know I was OK. Not as easy as one would think… seams my prepaid calling card is just about worthless something about a country access code (who knew you couldn’t simply dial 001800CallHome?) bottom line, no call.
I actually watched as my bags were gently placed on the conveyor belt for their trip into the belly of the flying beast. Well, perhaps not gently, but it certainly was comforting to see them actually make it onto the plane with me. I boarded my flight and was on my way… in another hour and a half, I would be in Sweden, in the meantime, it was time to eat… I was offered the choice between a meat OR cheese sandwich. MEAT OR CHEESE? Why not meat and cheese, while we’re at it, why meat, why not ham or turkey or salami or anything that would give me some idea what the heck I was ingesting? Deciding I didn’t want to know, I simply said “MEAT, thank you” and was soon questioning my choice… can you imagine, me questioning the ingestion of anything? Oh well… we landed in Goteborg Sweden a few minutes ahead of schedule. Customs again… this time it was going to be tough, I had my bags with lots of stuff in it… certainly they would want to search it and would inevitably find something suspicious… “Oh, just go right through those doors?” “Wait, what happened to the cavity search?” (Good thing most of these dialogs go on in my head and never make it out of my mouth or I’d be in big trouble!) Having safely made it though to the other side, I walked around looking for the man with one red shoe… I didn’t find him, but I soon spotted someone outside that looked like a “Kathy” puffing on a cigarette (the one thing I knew about her) the typical exchange happened… me: “The crow flies at midnight” she: “The pickle isn’t dilled” or was it more like “Kathy?” “Carlos?” … Yeah, yeah that was it. We boarded a bus that would take us to the marina where Auspicious and the rest of her crew waited. After about a 30 minute ride through a country side that looked very much like Upstate NY, we arrived at the Bus terminal and proceeded to haul my bags, across the street, through a mall and to the hotel where we would meet up with Dave, George and Anya. Getting the typical pleasantries out of the way, we headed back to the mall to pick up a few last minute items and headed over to the marina where Auspicious waited patiently. We went aboard, got my stuff stowed (that means put away… see, I told you I was a sailor) after which, we all got a tour of Auspicious and her systems.
We had a nice launching ceremony and were on our way!
 Leaving Goteborg in our wake, we wound our way down a scenic waterway towards our first objective: fuel! On the way, we saw gun-emplacements, windmills (the modern ones, not the cute fairy tale ones) wait till you see the pictures! It was a lovely ride sitting on the edge of Auspicious’ cockpit camera in my jacket pocket waiting for the next gorgeous view to present itself. Then, (you knew it was coming) I got up to take a picture… “klunk!. Sploosh!” Yep! The camera fell from my pocket, hit the deck (that was the “klunk”) and then (I don’t have to tell you what the “Sploosh” was do I? That’s right, into the water it went… oh well, better now than at the end of the trip.
We finally made it to the marina, fueled up and headed out… that’s it; we won’t be setting foot on dry land until we hit England. What’s that Dave? Ohh, that’s right make landfall, arrive, anything but HIT!
Anya made a great pasta dinner that hit the spot while we motored through the night making our way towards the Black Sea…
Kathie and I had the Midnight – 4AM watch and Monday morning finds us still motoring along… how many days is this trip?
I wake up for my 8-noon watch just as we reach open waters… Dave, George and Anya are in the process of setting the sails. Yipee! Adita knows exactly what I mean…
We sailed along at a nice clip, but the prevailing winds were already building… it was time to reef.
With a reefed main and full jib, we continued along… we are still heeled over further than I’ve ever been comfortable doing (hey, that’s why I’m here right?), but the loads on the boat have been substantially reduced with minimal reduction in boat speed. A few hours later, the decision is made… winds are supposed to continue increasing and since we don’t want to be messing around on the foredeck at night on an unfamiliar boat, in unfamiliar waters, we would put a second reef in the mail and partially furl the jib. The partially furled jib is not very efficient, and so we decide to furl completely and put up the staysail (not sure if it’s spelled correctly, but it’s a smaller sail raised a few feet behind the jib)… Kathie takes the helm and Dave, George and I attach our tethers to the jack lines and move forward to raise the sail and work the sheets back through the blocks to the cockpit winches. Once we are all set, George and I work our way back to the cockpit while Dave stays behind to tend to the staysail… back in the cockpit, George starts wraps a few turns of the starboard staysail sheet and starts grinding on the winch… the look on Dave’s face says it all; something’s wrong… a quick glance at the staysail and we can all see for ourselves, it ripped!
Not a huge tear, but torn nonetheless… if we put it up, it will beat itself to pieces, if we don’t, we’re back to motoring… oh, well, it was good while it lasted. Dave’s reaction was similar to mine when I lost my camera overboard “shit happens” George and I attaché ourselves to the jack lines and once more make our way forward, this time to manhandle the staysail back into it’s sail bag, while Dave starts up the old “Iron Genny”. Its no fun up on the foredeck… George does the lion’s share of the work, stomping on the staysail to make it as small as possible, while I help tie it down and shove it into the bag… all the while, the bow is bouncing up and down slamming into each wave showering us with ice cold seawater! Great! in our rush to get the sail under control, we inadvertently tied it to the lines used to hold down the tender… we untie, wrestle it free, tie it down again and re-shove the sail into it’s bag… finally we tie the bag off to the stay and crawl back to the cockpit… all in a days work ;-)
The seas have gotten nasty, nothing dangerous, but enough to make the ride cold, wet and uncomfortable… especially for those down below trying to get some rest before coming up on watch. Dave, suggests throttling it back a bit to at least stop the slamming… it means we’ll be out here longer, but at least we’ll be a bit more comfortable… if you can call it that.
 In order to put this into perspective, remember who is writing this; Carlos the guy that barbecues in shorts and a polo for New Years… so trust me when I tell you IT WAS COLD!
Polypropylene underwear, fleece top, neck garter, watch cap, mittens and full foul weather gear zippered and velcroed and still the cold damp night finds it’s way in to chill you to the bone!
But soon enough your watch is over and you descend down into the warm comfort below while one of your shipmates (happily?) takes their turn up above.
Well, the lack of sleep, cold outside, heat inside and 24/7 motion has had it’s effect on me… I visit the “Porcelain Throne”… yep, god ol’ “Mal de Mar” fortunately, I manage to keep it at bay… very little food, frequent visits topside for air and sips of ginger ale… two more visits over the next day and a half and I’m none the worst for wear.
We left Goteborg during a new moon… on top of that, the constant cloud cover means no stars above… so the nights are an inky black and cold… did I tell you it was cold?
A nice chicken pasta dinner thanks to Kathie gets us through the night…
The North Sea - Thursday, April 27, 2006
esterday, we switch over to a 3 on - 9 off watch schedule… I draw the much-desired 6-9 watch… Yes! A full nights sleep!
The seas are a bit calmer, so I decide to make Jambalaya for dinner to celebrate (a double batch so that we have it available when it’s not so calm.) Not my best ever, but Captain and crew seem to enjoy it… it took over two hours to prepare mostly trying to figure out where the heck everything was stowed… too bad I couldn’t be here when they provisioned… oh well, I’ll figure something out. I take my watch with the Jambalaya to be simmering on the stovetop and leave strict instructions that No One was to lift the lid to take a peek!
 At 6:25 Captain Dave takes over my watch so that I can finish up dinner (we both consider it a win-win situation)… I go below, rip up some romaine lettuce and dress it with lime juice, salt, pepper and olive oil… placed on a plate alongside a steaming helping of hot shrimp and chorizo jambalaya is passed out to the crew… As I hand George his plate, he asks for the hot sauce… cohollo (BTW, for all you non-hispanics, the “ll” is pronounced like a “Y”) I shout at least taste it first! Naturally in fear of a Hispanic man yelling obscenities, he obliges… “it’s good, now can I have the hot sauce?” “but of course”… I offer to bring the Tiger sauce, but he requests Tennessee Sunshine instead… we have a hot sauce connoisseur on board! Anya graciously offers to do the dishes for me… needless to say; I take her up on her offer and plate in hand, I head out to the cockpit to resume my watch…
Relatively speaking, It’s a lovely evening; the dampness is gone, the skies are a bit clearer and you can actually see a few stars… 9 PM comes quickly, and I stay in the cockpit with George for a while to catch a glimpse of the sunset… it’s not to be. Oh well, with 40-some more nights ahead of us, I’m sure I’ll get at least a few gorgeous sunsets to add to my collection… I head below and make my way forward to an available bunk, crawl in (not quite the same without you babe) make myself as comfortable as possible and quickly doze off. Somewhere around 2 AM, I wake up as I’m being bounced around… think washing machine… up down side-to-side what the hell!
The winds have died down but the seas are confused… it goes on for what seems like an eternity and then the rhythmic motion that you quickly become accustomed to returns… not so quickly this time, I once again fall asleep. A bit before 6 AM Kathie comes and wakes me… time for me to take over the watch. I change into my “suit”; Polypropylene underwear, fleece top, neck garter, watch cap, mittens and full foul weather gear zippered and velcroed oh, and don’t forget the PFD.. grab a cup of coffee and head up top… sometime latter, as Kathie is about to settle in, she checks in and offers to refill my coffee; “Ginger Ale if you don’t mind”… can’t get to cocky or ol’ Mal de Mar might come back!
I was thinking of how to describe this moment, but George said it best, and so I will paraphrase him:
Picture if you will The North Sea!
Gale force winds whipping the dark frigid water into steep waves 20 feet high!
5 misplaced Americans clinging to their tiny vessel; survival their only thoughts!
Ok, now forget all that and picture a tranquil pond… and you’ll have a better idea of what is actually going on right now.
It’s a quiet morning on the North Sea… humans are a funny lot; never quite satisfied, they long for what they don’t have no matter what... A high off the Azores has left us with no wind and the formidable North Sea resembles a lake… almost glass like water surrounds us… yet we yearn to be challenged, a bit of roughness is actually appreciated… until of course it starts to get rough, then we’ll be praying for the calm.
My watch ends as we approach a traffic separation zone heading down towards the English channel… this constant motoring means we need to refuel before we head out into the Atlantic.
George comes up to relive me and Dave crabs his Guide book and looks for a marina that won’t take us to far off our route… just looking for a hit-and-run no need for anything else, we’ll do all our provisioning later… we find one near Dover… Accessible 24/7, diesel, only 25 or so nautical miles out of the way; sounds like a plan. George goes into a very funny English accented skit about being stuck at the marina for weeks because the winds are blowing just right and there is not enough water for us to get out… guess you had to be here.
I go below, get myself out of my “suite” cleanup some leftover dishes and put on a pot of coffee.
Time to think about breakfast… I search high and low, but can’t seem to find the oatmeal… only four eggs left (who provisioned for this trip?) time to become creative… Three crackers with cheese and two slices of hard-boiled egg with a bit of salt and a few drops of Tennessee Sunshine, a cup of steaming hot coffee and we have breakfast… hey come on, this isn’t the Ritz work with me, ok?
Dave, George and I enjoy the makeshift breakfast / snack while Anya and Kathie sleep.
The calm continues, rather than dodging supertankers, we’re all topside enjoying a bowl of leftover pasta with Swedish meatballs that George whipped up for lunch… the sun is shining, we have a light breeze gently rippling the water… I’m on the aft deck with my back against the radar mounting post taking in the sun and the surroundings… life is good!
The White Cliffs of Dover - Friday, April 28, 2006
hh yes, taunt the gods and they will respond!
Shortly after the writing of the previous post making light of the North Sea, the North Sea decided to have some fun with us fortunately, it let loose only a minute portion of its power. The winds built coming in from the North… not enough to sail by, but enough to churn up the seas into 3 to 4 foot swells that just so happened to hit us right smack on the starboard quarter causing Auspicious to roll back and forth incessantly with a bit of a pitch thrown in every now and again for good measure.
I went down below around 10 PM, but sleep didn’t come easy. I was literally being bounced up and down and rolled left to right in my bunk… several times, my shoulder bounced off the shelving above me, but eventually sleep came albeit an uneasy sleep.
It’s 4:30 AM and I’m awaken by the sudden change in engine RPM… its funny how attuned you become to the various sounds you expect to hear and those you hope not to hear… seconds later the call from above for “another pair of eyes up hear!” launched me from my bunk… Dave still in his “foulies” beat me up the companionway; I followed in my propylene underwear (a bit chilly!)
Kathie had been tracking an incoming tanker and then lost him in the fog. For what seemed like an eternity, we peered into the fog hoping to see some sign of the ghost ship… eventually, we decided it had passed us by without incident; we throttled back up and went on our way. Dave stayed behind with Kathie while I went below to warm up… I went back on deck at 5:00 AM, 1 hour early for my watch and relieved Dave. Not long after, the sun started to rise and banished the fog and all the other things that go bump in the night…
In the daylight, the steady stream of tankers and freighters plying these waters didn’t seem as menacing. We respectfully stayed out of each other’s way and went about our business. All except for one huge ship that stood still forever looking more and more like some huge city in the water. It decided to play chicken with us heading straight across our path. I radioed the captain of the behemoth and insisted that he change course immediately or we would put a major scratch in his paint job! OK, I altered our course 20 degrees to starboard and kept a close eye on him until he passed behind us… I guess discretion truly is the better part of valor!
At 10:30, we hear George calling from above; he’s spotted The White Cliffs of Dover!
We all head up to see this magnificent site! I guess he gets the point for seeing them first, but heck I could barely make them out… by 11 / 11:30 we were well within sight of them… I couldn’t even begin to describe the sense of awe as we sailed by… yet another once in a lifetime experience that I’m fortunate enough to experience. As we continue our trek south, out of the North Sea, we spot France off our port side… We continue on… we should hit our first destination by dawn.
The day goes by as the others before it… we take our watches, sleep when we can, make meals, eat, etc… pretty uneventful… and yet WOW!
Hamble, England - Saturday, April 29, 2006
t’s 6:00 AM… cheerio govner!
You guessed it, we’ve completed our first leg and made landfall in England… specifically the Village of Hamble on the river Hamble of course.
 We have a lot to do today, fuel, water, provisioning, sail repair, laundry and most importantly of course, showers! But all of that will have to wait. The fuel dock opens at 8:00 AM, but we’re wired so George, Anya and I headed out for a walk through the streets of this lovely village. I found the perfect house for Ada and I… a nice little cottage surrounded by 15 foot tall arborvitae hedges.
We make our way back to auspicious and wait for 8:00 AM…
We fuel and move auspicious to her berth (D14) where we will spend the day…
First order of the day is showers!
We emerge from the showers excited and smiling… I’m convinced that this is exactly what is wrong with the world… we have become spoiled with all our luxuries and we no longer appreciate simple pleasures. After we all showered, we headed off on our individual tasks George had laundry detail… “Please be careful with my delicates”… Kathie and Dave head off to purchase what we need for the various ship related items, oil change, sail repair, new radar reflectors, etc…. Anya and I head off up the road to do the shopping; 34 lbs of chicken; 300 eggs; 16 lbs of pork; 8 pounds of beef; 18 cans of crushed tomatoes, etc., etc., etc.
As we approached town, we were not sure which way to turn, so I approached a gentleman that was walking by and asked where the grocery store was… his response caused us a bit of concern, the one we had been walking to, would probably not be adequate for our needs, however there was a “Tesco” about 3 miles away… “Tesco” is a huge supermarket / discount club type of set-up think Costco or Sam’s Club Only tons better!
We had a blast; who new grocery shopping could be so much fun… within an hour or so, Anya and I had to trolleys loaded with groceries and where headed for the checkout counter… we had already chatted with a number of the other customers that found our purchases and in aisle discussions amusing… “Do you think 300 eggs will be enough?”… “They only have 15 pounds of chicken breasts, I think I’ll simply grab 20 pounds of thighs “
 Waiting for the cab to take us back to the marina (we had informed us that we had two trolley fulls of groceries) , I remembered my lost camera; a quick dash back inside and up the people transport (a kind of people moving conveyor belt) to the second floor a chat with a “lovely” sales lady that insisted that everything was “lovely” and another quick dash back down found me waiting for the cab again.
We loaded up the bags and were soon back at the marina unloading the bags into carts; to haul them down to Auspicious; to unload the carts and move the bags into the cockpit; to unload the cockpit and stock all the lockers… first of course re-packing the various meats and labeling them.
George Dave and I moved all of the grocery bags into Auspicious’ cockpit from which we could more easily manage the stowing process. Dave and I accomplished the stowing of our provisions onto Auspicious in record time... smart man Dave; seeing I was on a roll and had everything under control, he took on the all important job of keeping me happy; The Gin & Tonic started to flow liberally… by the second one, he had actually managed to hunt down the limes for us… I would package the meats and tell him how to label them… “Chicken Thighs” – “CHK Thighs”; “Breakfast Sausage” = “Breakfast Sausage”; Sausage Sausage” – you guessed it, back came a package labeled “Sausage Sausage”… I continued to rearrange the lockers of food simultaneously creating a map of the boat and what was stored where. We finished up and decided to enjoy our third Gin & Tonic topside at, where else, the “Gin & Tonic” seats of course!
It was now close to dinner time, and so we walked over to the marina’s pub where a table was reserved in our name; sat down and relaxed for a bit while we waited for Anya & Kathie to return.
Now it gets really weird!
There seated next to us was a young man and his wife… he looks over at me and says “I know you, you’re the chap that was buying 300 eggs at Tesco’s today!
I’m famous!
We chatted for a while, because that’s what we do here… unlike you Yanks, we sit about and chat while drinkin our stout!
We eventually got around to dinner, a few more drinks and then called it a night… we would need to finish up a few more boat chores tomorrow in time to shove off with the tide.
First taste of the Atlantic Ocean - Sunday, April 30, 2006
ovely day, bright and warm… not as warm as yesterday, but warmer than it has been.
Ahh yes, time for another shower!
Having met my essential objectives for the day and having checked the key performance indicators to ensure they where in line with our overall goals and objectives, I grabbed my laptop and headed for the pub for breakfast and some internet access.
Finding the rest of the crew there, sipping on their watered down coffee, I decided to order something a bit more substantial for myself… coffee, OJ and toast with marmalade. “What color would you like your toast?” …”pardon me?” “what color would you like your toast?” “we broil it to order to your liking” “Brown” “lovely, that will be 4 pounds and 35 pence” I hand him a five pound note; grab my coffee and juice; collect my change and head to my table to await my toast. A few minutes later what shows up at my table should put you Yanks to shame… four thick slabs of the most glorious bread broiled to perfection… golden brown and crunchy on the outside; firm and chewy on the inside… heaven!
The others headed off to the boat while I stayed behind to finish off my breakfast and shoot out a couple of emails.
Back at the boat, we checked off the various tasks; George and Dave changed the oil; Anya started making brunch; I started to transcribe our provisioning map and Kathie headed back to town.
After changing the oil, Dave and I hoisted George up to the second set of spreaders to swap out the radar reflector; I was on belay… the key objective was to not drop “The George”… objective accomplished!
We then proceeded to repair the ripped sail… a bit of Sail repair tape (I’ll bet anything it’s simply white duct tape) to hold it all together and some quick stitching to strengthen the repair and back in the back it goes!
A few more odds and ends and we’re on our way… to where you say? To Plymouth… yep, the weather is tuning ugly, so we don’t want to head for the Azores just yet, but we figure we can at least make some headway west and hold up there.
We catch the tide just right and it’s a brisk ride down the English channel, at times we get up to over 11 knots! Sailboats all over the place… flying spinnakers no less… these Brits sure know how to have a great time!
 We continue our journey and meet up with Paul and Jeanne along the way. They’ve come out to meet us in order to hand over some equipment; what a concept! We spot them in their HR 36 (we later find out it was the 2nd to last in the series); drop sail and slowly motor up along side… they’ve got fenders out and we toss each other lines used to tie the boats together… introductions all around… a few moments for a nice chat and then we’re on our way… lovely people!
As we work our way out into the Atlantic to gain some seaway in order to tack in on a good course to hit Plymouth, the winds build and soon the seas follow… before you know it, it’s blowing 18 knots… The “time to put in a reef ballet” ensues; George and I hook in our tethers and start moving forward towards the mast; George frees the main halyard and I the reefing line… George starts lowering the main while I shove the loose sail across the boom; he then hooks the reefing ring to the hook and starts to tighten up the main while I wrap the reefing line around a winch and start hauling it in… the final couple of cranks are more difficult than I would have thought… should have Dave ease the main sheet next time to take some of the pressure off. Mission accomplished, we head back to the cockpit; climb in and unhook… a standing ovation!
Not much later, the wind has continued to build… the “time to furl the Jib and raise the staysail ballet” ensues… not too dissimilar from the previous one. I hook in and get out of the cockpit to roll in the jib while George eases the sheets. That done, Dave heads forward (hooked in of course) to get the sail out of the bag and bring it back to the cockpit… we stow the bag and then Dave and I move forward to bring back the staysail sheets run them through the blocks and back to the cockpit… I then go forward again (this time to the mast) to raise the staysail while Dave tends to the sheet. We’re rocking & rolling in no time!
Oh, no, I meant it literally! It just kept getting worse… it was going to be a long night.
Plymouth, England - Monday, May 1, 2006
leep was difficult to come by last night… the wind and seas continued to build into the night, reaching 28 knots with gusts into the low 30’s and matching 8, 12 and 18-foot seas! In my bunk, this translated into being tossed back and forth banging my head, shoulders, knees etc. against the overhead lockers and bracing my left hand against the other bunk to stop from being tossed out altogether… oh, and several Zero-G moments tossed in just for giggles!
You see, as Auspicious crested some of the larger swells, the bow would shoot out the top and free-fall for a few seconds before slamming into the trough below… during those few seconds, I would literally levitate an inch or so off my bunk, before being slammed down again when we hit the bottom. That however was not the best part, no… the best part was one particularly large wave. We finished off the race down the face of that wave with our bow buried in the next wave… icy cold seawater shot through the mushroom vent in the v-berth like it was coming from a fire hose… soaked in seawater and chilled to the bone, I was determined to get some rest. It was around 3:30 AM and my next watch was quickly approaching. I headed out into the main cabin climbed into the portside chair, braced my legs against the starboard settee and dozed off several times over the nest few hours… somewhere in between my various naps, Dave came into the cabin and lay down on the cabin sole to sleep; his head right below my legs… note to self, don’t step on Dave!
At 5:30, I started donning “the suit”… this time it required an incredible amount of ingenuity… laying down was about the only way to ensure I didn’t get launched across the cabin as I put on my jeans, fleece top, foul weather pants, neck gaiter, foul weather jacket, PFD, watch cap, gloves, hood and finally boots… tighten down all the straps to seal out the water and clamp down on the Velcro closures to keep out the wind. I made my way up the companionway ladder to the real world; a dark world of 23 knot winds and 8 to 12 foot seas that where so confused, we couldn’t even attempt to climb them and come back down the other side… we would have to be content to try holding course between 240 & 270 degrees magnetic. A quick recap of our current location; conditions and surrounding traffic from Kathie as well as some handling advice and a pair of waterproof gloves and I was at the helm for my watch… rain pelting me in the face, bouncing along and making course corrections as each new wave swung us one way and then another… at one point while looking around for any oncoming ships, I lost my concentration and got spun around to about 320 degrees before I was able to correct… won’t let that happen again!
The nice thing about the 6-9 watch, is that you get to experience day break and with day break came a calming effect, both emotionally and physically. As I’ve mentioned before, the light of day banishes all the things that go bump in the night… suddenly, the wind starts to calm down, we’re down to the high teens and finally the low teens by the time my watch is over… I even saw a couple of dips into the single digits. The seas are down to four feet or so, the storm clouds are clearing out and you can make out clear skies in the distance… we lost a lot of ground to the storm, heading out into the Atlantic several times to gain enough seaway in order to get on a good tack for Plymouth; our intermediate destination.
We pressed on through the day and finally made Plymouth just as my watch was ending… we got a side tie at one of the local marinas; tidied up and headed off to the local pub for a pint… or two.
It was a nice walk out of the marina… we made our way along a local road, down a little side street to a local pub that claimed to have ale, food and lodging… we walked in and were met by two dogs and a number of locals… now this was a local pub!
I ordered up a pint and headed off to the men’s room as it was being poured… we all sat at a large table in a corner by the fireplace (loaded with logs and kindling, but not lit… it was a rather warm evening… and just enjoyed our well earned drinks… a local fellow struck up a conversation with Anya and hung out at our table all evening chatting it up… offered us use of his internet access at the office if we couldn’t find anything local… around 11:00 we left the pub and made our way back up the lovely cobblestone streets to the main road that would take us back to Auspicious. Half way up the road, the proprietors of the aforementioned pub passed us… guess we closed another pub!
Plymouth, England - Tuesday, May 2, 2006
ven though I was sleeping on a cold damp cushion, sleep came easy last night…
This morning we woke up to a cold damp day… the winds were definitely building from the SW exactly the way we wanted to go. That my friends, is why we are in Plymouth… heading to the Azores with this kind of weather and wind on the nose would not be fun, so we are going to wait out this weather pattern… as it passes, the winds should clock around and give us at least a couple of good clear days of sailing towards the Azores.
We have coffee, everyone is still having a grand old time talking about the “Spotted Dick” we picked up in Hamble… BTW, it’s a dessert (a pudding of sorts… which BTW is a cake of sorts, not a custard) anyway, Anya and Kathie share the “Spotted Dick” while I warm up some crumpets for the guys… very nice; warm crumpets with butter; Dave grabs his plain and heads off to find the chandlery; George wants his with a thick spread of Nutella (I obliged) and I, of course, have mine with a bit of orange marmalade… I say, quite lovely!
We head off for our showers… I have to remember to take my camera with me next time; the showers at these marinas are amazing! Dave finds a sail maker where we can get a proper repair done on our staysail and George and I head off to find Internet access. The first café looks promising, but nothing; we pack up and head off down the road… which brings us to here and now; sitting at a table having finished off a cup of hot cocoa at the Waterside Café where we paid 4 pounds for 2hrs of internet access… a Bargain in my book!
Plymouth, England - Wednesday, May 3, 2006
esterday afternoon was quite nice, we took the water taxi over to Plymouth from the marina and strolled through the streets… we had a nice dinner and headed back.
After our showers today, George and I declared “shore leave” for ourselves and headed off to catch the water taxi back to Plymouth for some proper exploring… it was great! It seems George, like me, loves to take the path less traveled… we wandered in and out of small side streets until we found out way to the city’s center… our choice for breakfast wasn’t going to open for another ˝ hour or so and we weren’t interested in waiting… I hunted down the closest local and asked if he could suggest a local place and he pointed us to a restaurant on the top floor of “Dingles” (Dingles closely resembles Macy’s back in the states). We headed up to the 5th floor and grabbed a tray and headed for the food… two eggs over easy; two sausage links (2 different types of sausage); a grilled Portobello cap; a small potato thing; a slice of white toast with butter and marmalade; black coffee and a table by the windows overlooking the plaza below… great way to start the day!
Breakfast was so-so… George’s fried bread was horrid!
But eat it we did and headed off to explore… it was an absolute gift of a day!
We made our way through the streets of Plymouth toward the waterfront… finding a path that lead around an old fort, we followed it, climbing high above the city… gorgeous views!
We decided to head back to the boat so George could change into his hiking shoes for some proper trail blazing… and then headed for the South Coastal Path leading to the breakwater and beyond!
Public access to the waterfront is amazing around here… nicely maintained trails that the locals truly take advantage of. We worked our way up winding trails climbing higher and higher along the cliffs (great pictures to come) huge expanses of lawn and benches accentuated each plateau… amazing we continued to work our way up soon, we were the only ones willing to continue up and we left the crowds (relatively speaking) behind… we continued on for about 2.5 miles or so reaching the highest point we could on this particular part of the coastal path… again, amazing views for miles!
Satisfied with our accomplishment on this particular day and no longer the same two individuals that had started up that not so well worn path, we headed back…
Anya made a great pork chop dinner… we all quickly devoured it!
We huddled around George’s laptop in the main cabin… It was movie night; “The Last Samurai”
It’s a bit tight for 5 on Auspicious… not a problem when we are on watches, but now that we all sleep at the same time, it’s tight! I slept on the cabin sole last night and George volunteered to do so tonight… don’t think so; I’m not going in that hot v-berth!
I remind everyone that the sleeping bag is mine and decide to sleep outside in the cockpit… amazing night… think I’ll be able to rent this puppy out once we hit the Azores!
Plymouth, England - Thursday, May 4, 2006
oday was a blah day… weather is not great and we have a lot of things to do to prepare for our Friday morning departure. Since the death of Dave’s laptop, mine has become the official ships computer… it means it’s tied up a good portion of the day retrieving weather faxes, etc. The High over the North Atlantic is starting to form again… good news for us.
I do my laundry; George makes lunch; Dave downloads more info… after lunch, George, Anya and I head off to catch a bus into town for some re-provisioning… need more eggs!
We hit pay dirt… off the bus and heading into the shopping plaza, George and I simultaneously spot a computer store and head straight for it with one thing on our minds… a USB case for Dave’s hard drive… perhaps we can at least salvage that!
I pick up a 1Gig USB memory stick for myself… backup for my pictures (just in case)
We do our shopping, pack it all up and head for the bus stop.
A quick trip back to the marina, some careful stowing, list updating and we’re done.
Now I’m here writing this entry.
Tomorrow we head out for the Azores. It should be around 10 days…
On our way to the Azores - Friday, May 5, 2006
ow, what a gorgeous day!
As I mentioned in my last post, we’re preparing to head out to the Azores today… It’s 7:48 Dave, George and I are showered… George is having his coffee, Dave is running around doing various things and I’m sitting down at the Nav station writing this small entry. We’ll soon be underway again, heading out into the Atlantic.
We topped off the water tanks and then headed to the fuel docks to top off our fuel tanks as well… by 9:30, we had our mainsail up and the jib fully unfurled as we shot out the mouth of the river Plym doing close to 2.2 knots!
It’s 11:08 to quote George, “This doesn’t suck!”
We’re ghosting along somewhere between 3.8 and 4.3 knots… winds are expected to gradually increase during the day… we can only hope.
On our way to the Azores - Sunday, May 7, 2006
ep, it’s Sunday… Saturday? …what do you mean what about Saturday?
There was no Saturday, there was no Saturday, there was no Saturday…
Ok, that’s not working!
Yesterday was a miserable day… you all know the old saying; “be careful what you wish for…” well, if you remember my Friday post: “winds are expected to gradually increase during the day… we can only hope.” You know exactly what went on… you would think we would learn!
The winds picked up OK, and kept picking up until they were in the 27 – 28 knot range with gusts into the 30s! We spent the bulk of the day and night bouncing around under a triple reefed main sail and our staysail! Absolutely miserable,,, you really can’t do much other than lay down… even then, it’s impossible to rest. Your body is constantly tense awaiting the next neck snapping roll or hip jarring pitch into the sides of the hull, cabinets, posts, etc… basically you become the little ball in the pinball machine and the ocean is going for top score!
But hey, if I had wanted to go sailing on a glass like pond, I wouldn’t be here now would I?
You simply have to accept is as a part of the whole experience. We walk around always tilted to one side; a bit to nasty to cook, so we snack all day and don’t get much rest.
I devised a new sleeping plan, which got approval from the rest of the crew and was instantly implemented. In essence, we shift sleeping locations with each shift in watch… that way, the person coming off watch gets some rest on the cabin sole for their first three hours and then gets three hours of sleep on the starboard settee before going on watch again and spends the middle three hours riding the bucking v-berth!
Seems to be working well, we all seem a bit more rested today.
I ended my watch at midnight with heavy seas and diminishing winds… always seems like it’s one extreme or the other… you see, wind the wind down, your boat speed drops and when the boat speed drops in heavy seas, you get bounced around like crazy… not good.
Well, shaking out a reef or two helped, by the time I took my watch again at 9:00 AM, the winds were really flaky; the high over the Atlantic completely disappeared, gales where heading up along our route to the Azores and more gales where forming in a low of the Bay of Biscayne!
Since the wind wasn’t cooperating anyway, we decided that today would be a good motoring day and set a new course of 200 degrees basically trying to head south to the Azores while stating out of the Bay of Biscayne and away from the storms building to the west. If it works, we’ll be able to get by in between the two lows and then catch the wind and make some headway west tomorrow… sounds like a plan.
We’ve made good about 260 miles so far, that’s a bit over 100 miles/day… not bad, 940 more miles to go…
On our way to the Azores - Monday, May 8, 2006
t was a cold miserable night… should I expand on that?
I guess that with all the sunshine you need a little rain sometime… I actually was rather depressed last night. Tired, Cold and fighting back the onset of seasickness will do that to you.
We continued to bounce along in lumpy seas last night and nothing seemed right… not enough stars, not dark enough, etc., etc., etc… my watch couldn’t end soon enough.
I came off watch at midnight and decided it was time for the patch behind the ear… it might make me drowsy, but then again, I was going to need some sleep anyway.
Around 3:00 AM I was awakened by a load bang and Dave coming forward to get tools; not a good sign. Seems that the pin on the outhaul shackle had worked its way loose and had come flying out; bounced across the deck, but fortunately not overboard.
George and Dave fought the Main down… nothing we could do till morning, the shackle had bent in the process and the pin wouldn’t go back in… besides, the threads had also been damaged.
I woke up feeling much better; it seems the patch was doing it’s job; the day was clear and we were actually sailing along at 6-7 knots… “This doesn’t suck”!
My 9 – 12 watch this morning was uneventful; nice seas; no commercial traffic; warming temperatures… was able to use my light jacket and not that @#$%*! foul weather jacket… hate that thing!
Anyway, I’m sure my more upbeat mood will return… we’ve been averaging 100 mile days, which, as I said before, are not bad at all… another 9 days or so to the Azores!
The Azores - Monday, May 17, 2006
“Those that would go to sea for pleasure would go to hell for pastime”
ow, it’s been a while and I have a lot to cover… where to begin?
First let me say that the upside of all of this is that it makes the down side disappear so fast it’s not even funny, but I would be doing everyone an injustice if I didn’t cover the bad with the good, so here goes.
As you know, we left Plymouth, England on May 5, 2006 bound for the Azores… 1200 miles give or take a few hundred depending on how close to our rhumb line we could sail.
That said, the weather was simply not interested in our agenda… it was going about its business and simply not cooperating.
Each day and night we received and reviewed weather faxes from England, France and anywhere else we could find them. We had a ton of folks back on the bulletin boards tracking down every bit of information they could and forwarding it to us via sailmail (SSB radio-based email) we had Herb; an internationally known cruiser turned amateur weather Guru tracking us and the various storms providing guidance on best approaches as we did everything we could to stay ahead of one set of gales; south of another; west of another; east of another and south of the big one approaching the Azores from the North… needless to say, we where not going to be able to skirt all of them… our favorite saying quickly became “I’d rather be lucky than smart!” as we avoided the full brunt of most of them… it was slow going, taking us a bit over 10 days to make landfall in the Azores.
Among the various lessons learned to date, I have learned that I’m a cruiser, not a passage maker.
Let me explain…
Like making a passage, Maria and I set sail from one destination and head for another… but that’s where the similarity ends. We normally sail for 6-8 hours… our “long” days are somewhere in the 10 hour range with a “killer” day around 16 hours. We then anchor for the night; have dinner, a nice glass of wine look up at the stars, listen to the weather, check to make sure the anchor is well set and go to sleep… when we wake up, we shower, have breakfast, I write my logs, we pull out the charts and plan our “next leg”… you can hear us now can’t you? “no, no, that won’t do… it’s too far to that spot… we’d have to give up our late afternoon snack… lets find a place a bit closer… hey, how about across the bay?… yeah, that’s far enough for one day…” it suits us just fine, we’ll eventually make it around the world, it will simply take a few reincarnations, that’s all.
I really thought I was prepared for this trip, but I was not… I was prepared mentally, emotionally, but the physical aspects finally wore me down… going 24/7 with close to no sleep kept wearing me down and finally got the better of me… by the third day I was seasick… not the “please kill me now” type of seasick… that would have been to easy. No, rather this was an insidious “I’m feeling fine except when I’m not” type of seasick… it was awful! I really felt fine, was able to handle all my watches, etc. but could not keep anything down… truly a sight on my 9 to midnight watches bashing through the waves:
take a look around for traffic; check course over ground; check wind direction and speed over ground; pull myself out of the cockpit hanging onto the winches… tether stretched to it’s max reach (keeps me in the boat should a wave decide to hit at that particular point in time) and heave over the side; spit; wipe; repeat (amazing weight loss program!) sorry for being so graphic, but felt it was necessary to paint the proper picture…by the 5th day, there was real danger of dehydration… I kept taking small mouthfuls of water every half hour or so and throwing it back up every 9 hours or so… figured some would be absorbed… by the 7th day, we started talking about finding replacement crew and me heading back from the Azores… it would really suck, but the reality is that the Bermuda leg will be at least 15 days… longer if the weather is against us… too high a risk. Dave’s description of the evacuation process is to vivid to ignore; put me in a survival suit and toss me overboard so that a diver could hook me up to a basket hung from a helicopter… no thanks… I would call it done at the Azores.
The last 36 hours were brutal… heavy motoring dead into the wind with heavy seas… now sleeping with a Ziploc bag… would never make the head, never mind over the side.
Now, let me tell you about one particular moonlit night that even nausea couldn’t ruin…
I was, as usual, alone in the cockpit during my 9 to midnight watch; the seas were perfectly calm with an excellent 16-18 knot breeze coming in over our starboard quarter moving us along at a nice clip (6-7 knots) the stars were out and the moon was slowly rising off our port bow!
In essence, the moon was just on the horizon and we were sailing straight for it… amazing!
OK, back to the misery…
When all was said and done, I had gone 8 ˝ days without food… 9 ˝ if you don’t count the piece of buttered bread I had for dinner when we made landfall… and almost as many with minimum amounts of water… put away almost a liter of water when we made landfall!
My legs barely carried me along as we made our way through the town that night… the showers would not open till morning, but we were hungry and simply needed to get off the boat!
Words couldn’t begin to describe this motley crew… just to get your imagination going, remember… we had not showered, shaved or changed clothes in 10 ˝ … BTW, when we slept, we slept in the bulk of our clothes as well.
After dinner, I apologized to the everyone for being rude, but informed them that I was spending the night in he hotel… one of them asked, “how much is the room?”
Dave new the answer… “He doesn’t know and more importantly doesn’t care!”
The Hotel Do Canal was absolute decadence!
I took the most amazing shower anyone could ever imagine… actually I took two showers that evening… my body simply repelled the soap and water during the first one… just kidding, but almost!
After my shower I went to sleep between the softest sheets; with my head on the plushest pillow ever created; in a room that was solidly connected to the planet earth!
WOW!
The next morning, I awoke from the first nights sleep I had had in well over 20 days.
I showered again, shaved and put on clean clothes… feeling somewhat more human like, I made my way down to the restaurant and had a light breakfast;
A glass of mango juice; a cup of black coffee; scrambled eggs; sausage; two pieces of bread with blackberry jam; another cup of black coffee; a bowl of mixed fruit and two large classes of water… yep, the healing process had begun!
I met up with the rest of the crew later that morning… Dave went to get us cleared into the Azores and we went about the task of tidying up the mess we had created during our lovely ride over... finishing up, we headed into town to explore…
This place is amazing!
You’ll just have to wait to see the photographs, and even they will not do it justice… remember, we’re out in the middle of the Atlantic (give or take) on some amazing volcanic islands used for centuries as a stopover point for sailing ships, then cargo ships, the Pan Am Clipper flying boats would take off and land just outside this harbor!
This is truly a cruisers Mecca… the concrete walkways are permanently painted with the flags; ship names and crew members that have made it to this tiny little outpost… my name now permanently and proudly stands alongside them forever (well perhaps not forever) recording my passage… wow!
Yes, I know you can get here on a regularly scheduled flight from Boston, but it’s not the same…
The scene is crystal clear in my minds eye: many years from now an old man will walk these paths with his son and grandson at his side reading the names beneath their feet. The old man will pause for a moment at an old and worn, but still legible patch of yellow and black smiling just a bit. His grandson will ask; “Who’s that grandpa?” and he’ll respond; “Why, that’s Carlos of the Auspicious crew… he’s the fellow I saw in Tesco’s buying 300 eggs!”
It’s now been two days since we made landfall and I can tell you with complete honesty that the previous two pages not withstanding, I would do it all over again in a heartbeat!
The amazing experience of being here has quickly washed away the misery… it’s all but a vague memory right now.
That said, I’m most definitely looking forward to going home to reunite with Adita… But in June, I will more likely than not reunite with my crew in Bermuda for the final legs home.
I’ll close this chapter now with the absolute certainty… well, lets say hope, that I will be back to Horta someday together with Maria aboard Rocinante; for I guess what I truly am is a romantic… a cruiser willing to endure an arduous passage in order to sail these beautiful waters, explore her shores and embrace her peoples.
Bermuda - June 12, 2006
t’s 6:09 AM as we head up the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay via the auxiliary channel… almost home!
But as usual on this trip, I need to back up a bit… deliveries don’t allow for daily updates or even daily writing like cruising does.
I think we left off in Bermuda with the “Anya Incident”
To recap… Dave and the crew completed the checking in process in Bermuda (quick side note- the people in St. Georges are unbelievably polite and helpful… definitely a great experience and a good example of how even government employees can be pleasant) George and Keri were getting off Auspicious and would be flying back to the states in order to attend a wedding (I believe Kerri’s Aunt) Dave Anya and I would continue the trip across to the states, so we start the checking out part and find that Anya, a Dutch national, requires an entry visa to enter the USA… there goes the quick turn-around :-{
Amazingly enough, while it is not required for entry via a commercial flight, it is required for entry via private yacht… go figure. A quick call to the embassy finds a person willing to help us out… we schedule an appointment for 8:30 the next day and rush off to get a picture taken… the closest place is in Hamilton; a 45 minute cab ride away. $65 for the cab and $12 for the pictures (yep, this aint Horta!) and we are back in St.Georges. Anya and I stop for a quick snack at a local spot and then radio Lambada for the dingy. Did I forget to mention Lambada?
Just more proof of how small this world truly is… it seems that a Dutch cruising couple (15 years now) that Anya met in Curacao (Anya is a nurse and the female half of the couple was her patient) where also anchored in Bermuda… go figure!
We had rafted up to their boat earlier in the day, did the “meet and greet” thing and headed off to Hamilton… anyway, a radio call would bring the dinghy to pick us up and take us back to Lambada.
Great people, looking forward to running into them again someday, somewhere.
We made our way across the harbor to Lambada, had a glass of wine, chatted a bit and then got back in the dinghy and headed to shore for dinner. Nice dinner, great company, kewl stories…
The following day, around 7:30 AM, Anya and Dave headed off to the embassy and I headed into town to the Internet café… had some breakfast, read the paper, wrote a quick piece for the blog and then headed off to get a haircut. Well, while I was there, I decided to get them all cut and later headed back to the dinghy dock where I found Dave and Anya waiting for me. We hailed Lambada on the radio and Lucas came out to get us… talk about hospitality. All we could do now is wait, so wait we did… around 12:30 Dave called to confirm that he would call at 2:00 as instructed (interesting ploy) and was told to do so (countermove, the game was afoot) at 2:00PM, he called again and sure enough, they had managed to expedite the process and Anya had her entry visa! Well, not yet, off she went in her trusty cab (this cabby was making a fortune!) Dave and I headed to the fuel dock for fuel and water and tried to stall for time so that we could get Anya back on board and head out. First we filled the fuel tanks, then we filled the water tanks, then one by one, we filled the 5 jerry jugs and put them back on the boat, then we purchased some oil, then we added one liter to the engine and put away the rest, then we emptied our trash, then we emptied our used oil, then we went to see where we might be able to tie off, then we stopped by another boat to see if we could raft up to them, then we walked back to the boat, then I went in to get something to drink, then Dave asked to use the men’s room, then we bought some ice cream… that was just about as much as the woman behind the desk could take, so she ever so politely asked if we where going to be leaving soon. So we did, found our way to a usable seawall and tied up… minutes later Anya showed up… so close!
With Anya on board, we were on our way… I undid the bowline, followed by the spring line and hopped aboard after giving auspicious a small push away from the wall. The wind caught the bow as it came away from the wall and started us turning out into the harbor… Anya held a fender low to protect the boat from the concrete seawall as I released the stern line and we headed off… to quote Dave; “Elegant”… oh yea, the stern line did get caught up and we did have to drop it in the water to retrieve, but hey, Elegant nonetheless!
Finally, USA here we come!
Not so fast… we call Bermuda traffic control and are told that one of the cruise ships is leaving Hamilton and we would have to stay in the harbor until she cleared.
So wait we did, making circles and figure eights and who knows what as we waited and waited and waited. Finally, we catch a glimpse of the monstrosity that was holding us up as she disappeared up the channel. We called Bermuda radio, advised them that we just saw the cruise ship leave and were following her out… Finally, USA here we come!
We headed out making our way to the cut through the reefs surrounding Bermuda… the cruise ship made a left (headed north) and we turned right heading south around the island. Anya made a lovely curried chicken for dinner and just as I came on watch (12:00 – 4:00AM) I made an offering of slightly processed curried chicken to Neptune… I’ve come to think of my meals onboard as simply borrowed for a period of time.
Quite frankly, I had had enough of this foolishness… I was going to get this seasick garbage under control one way or another. The following morning, while speaking with Adita, I told her not to worry, that I had devised a plan of last resort:
I would hook sensors to my gut that would pick up the start of the contractions associated with the retching process; they in turn would trigger a relay hooked into the boat’s electrical system that would send a jolt to alligator clips attached to my testicals!
Well, I think “They” took me seriously, contacted the guys in my inner ear responsible for balance control and threatened them with untold horrors if they didn’t fix this and fix it now, because it all went away as quickly as it came on!
I spent the next few days with no further food return issues.
The next few days across where what they were… everyone was just looking forward to getting Auspicious and us home. Along the way we had an awesome display put on for us by the dolphins… it was one of those rare moments, when all three of us were in the cockpit at the same time (we usually have a slight overlap of time as one of us comes off watch and the other goes on) when my peripheral vision catches a glimpse of something black moving and then nothing. Since I had reacted to the movement, Anya asked what had happened, and I told her “nothing, I thought I saw something, but it must have been your arm moving” No sooner had I finished my sentence, than a huge pod of dolphins exploded from the water along both sides of Auspicious; treating us to several minutes of what seamed like a fully choreographed ballet; leaping out of the water in graceful arches… It was amazing! While I look forward to the day when this sight becomes a regular part of my day-to-day life, I can’t even imagine ever taking it for granted.
The weather got reasonably rough and forecast were not good for the next few days; several fronts where coming though and a storm was forming off Cape Hattaras;… the decision was made to “run for it”. We dropped all our sails leaving the two reefs in (if it got bad enough that we had to stop motoring, it would be nice to be able to put up the sails with the reefs already in place) and tied everything down tight. I must say, quite an experience in these sea and wind conditions… Dave took the helm, trying to keep us into the waves in order to control the rolling; Anya was hooked in at the mast, bringing down the main; I hooked in to the jackline and hung on to the swaying boom, tying down the main as I worked my way to the mast… I would pull back on the leech of the main sail to stretch it out; place one end of a sail tie in my teeth; use both arms to pull down and compress the bunched sail; hold it there with my left hand; take the looped end of the sail tie and reach over the top; hold the sail down with my right hand, while my left came down to take the other end of the sail tie from my teeth; slip that end it through the loop held in my right hand; wrestle it into place; tie it off and move on to the next spot… by the time I got to the last tie by the mast, I just couldn’t get my two hands to meet, but a quick assist from Anya in passing over the looped end, had me pulling down hard and tying off the last of the sail ties.
Everything properly tied down; we motored hard into the wind and waves making a beeline for Norfolk Virginia. Heavy rains, 30+ knot winds and heavy seas followed, but fortunately, the fronts had sped up on their northward trek and we on our westward shortening considerably the time we spent together… the storm building off Cape Hatteras, never showed, died, we don’t know… the last two days motoring into Norfolk were, while not comfortable, certainly uneventful and relatively easy with some minor rain squalls and winds in the mid to upper teens.
I had instructions to wake up Dave this morning at 4:00 AM as I came off watch so that he could shower… shower? I did and he did… Dave came up into the cockpit where Anya and I sat (it was around 5:00 and her watch, but since I couldn’t sleep, I figured I would hangout for a while) something smelled funny, and then it hit us… we were picking up the scent of a recently bathed person! Sensing an opportunity, I quickly started down the companionway saying to Dave; “I assume it’s OK if I shower as well, right?” as I disappeared into the head…what was he going to say, No? of course not… so shower I did.
It was akin to the old superman, only in reverse… you know, Clark Kent with the glasses goes into the phone booth (remember phone booths?) and out flies superman… in this case, into the head/shower went Captn’ Stinky and out came Carlos!
Which brings us back to the start of this post… It’s 6:09 AM as we head up the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay via the auxiliary channel… almost home!
Shortly thereafter, we were tied up at the marina in Norfolk; yellow quarantine flag raised to our starboard spreader… here we would check in to the United States.
We where greeted by a couple of folks from the board; x, y and z and by Dave’s female friend (I don’t know!) Kate. Ahh, that explains the shower!
They came bearing gifts: bagels, cream cheese, and muffins… Oh my!
Dave welcomed them on to Auspicious and gave them a quick tour while I made coffee.
While Anya and I enjoyed our company and treats, Dave got back to business… we still had to check in. He called in and we where informed that someone would come down “in a bit”… hmm? What exactly is “a bit”? Well, we couldn’t get an exact answer, but we figured we had enough time for Anya to enjoy a shower at the marina, so off she went. Not much later, an immigration officer showed up, took all our info, officially welcomed us into the country and was on her way… gee, that was easy!
Wait, what about customs and the whole “do you have anything to declare?” thing?
Oh, no, someone else handles that and you need to make an appointment to see “them” and then drive to the airport to meet “them”! Dave sprung into action and quickly found someone that would see us “now”… Kate and Dave headed off to customs, while Anya and I headed off to stretch our legs and find some lunch.
We passed the bait shop and I thought to myself, “if only I had a hot rock”… but alas, we found our way to a nice little restaurant in the marina instead and sat down for a bite… what can I tell you, one of the daily specials was a softshell crab sandwich… done!
We heard back from Dave that things where moving along nicely, then heard again that it would take a bit longer… seems they wanted him to post a bond… pesky import taxes and state taxes on the boat… what; a personal check wouldn’t cut it?
Nicely stuffed from lunch, Anya and I decide that Bagels would make a nice dinner!
Since we had a while to wait, I decided to hunt down a supermarket where I could pick up a red onion, some “real” cream cheese (while greatly appreciated and enjoyed earlier that day, whipped cream cheese just doesn’t cut it on a bagel… needs to be a nice thick slab of Philadelphia brand cream cheese) and of course smoked salmon! I went back to the bait shop and got directions to walk up to the main road, hang a left and keep walking until I got to the strip mall; there I would find a supermarket… off I went.
Once I got to the supermarket, I grabbed the red onion and went off looking for the smoked salmon… looked in the deli; nope no smoked salmon… asked the young lady at the deli-counter where I might find it; she wrinkled her nose (in disgust?) and asked the other young lady there if she knew where such a horrid thing might be kept (my words, of course) she replied; “perhaps with the meat”… with the meat? OK, to the “meats” I went… let’s see; pig’s feet; smoked ham hocks; beef tongue… nope, no smoked salmon!
I thought OK, so it doesn’t seem to be as popular an item here as it is back home… perhaps in the frozen foods… hey, it could happen!
I left with my onion and my cream cheese… oh, well!
Thinking back, I should have seen it coming. Having reached the main road and turning left, I was confronted with “The Flame” gentleman’s club, an oh so lovely adult book store and Chilly Willey’s Barber Shop… not exactly smoked salmon territory.
Dave and Kate got back to Auspicious somewhere around 3:30 PM… guess what?
Kate is joining us for the final leg… OK, who didn’t see that one coming?
So off we go, we’re in new territory now… inland waters bring their own challenges and are definitely my strong suit… you need to be able to pick your way across the shallows, follow the navigation aids and avoid commercial and recreational traffic… you are also working at a completely different scale… you can no longer stay 6 or 8 nautical miles away from other vessels their simply isn’t that much room… it’s OK, that the light house is directly in front of you at a distance of 3 nautical miles, you can’t turn until you’re a couple of hundred feet away… nerve wracking for someone not familiar with these conditions and especially at night.
I’m sure that picking my way through a bay strewn with coral heads would have the same effect on me.
Annapolis, MD - June 15, 2006
ome!
But you know the drill, let’s back up…
It was an uneventful trip as we left Norfolk, with fairly calm waters… As usual, I took my watch at midnight… I started spotting items bobbing in the water, first one, then two… as my eyes got accustomed to the dark, it became clear, I was in a minefield of crab pots and fish traps… gee, thanks!
I needed to get my bearings before I could do anything about it… I find that the easiest way to correlate the buoys you see in the distance to those you see on the charts is by timing the blink frequency… that said, it must have been about 45 minutes or so before I was confident that what I saw in the real world matched what I saw on the chart plotter.
It was a great night on the Chesapeake Bay… we made our way North and dawn found us pretty close to our destination in Annapolis… almost home!
I turned the watch over to Anya, but stayed topside for another hour or so to give her time to adjust, then headed below for a quick catnap… we should be getting in sometime around 11:30.
Around 6:30 or so, I decided that the little bit of restless sleep I was getting would do me little good, so I headed topside and temporarily relieved Anya… she offered to make a pot of coffee… sounded like a fair trade to me!
We sat topside and enjoyed the ride as the sun ever so slowly started to warm the day… by the time Dave came on watch at 8:00 AM, it was still a bit chilly, but almost warm enough to take off the windbreaker.
Anya declared it Sunday and went below to make pancakes (actually crepes, but close enough)
We had our breakfast, some more coffee and then headed off to the “Gin & Tonic seats”… Anya for her post breakfast smoke and me to simply sit back and enjoy the ride… we would be in well before my 12:00 noon watch, so I was free to spend the rest of the morning on the stern enjoying the ride!
We motored into Annapolis and found a spot along the wall to tie off…
Before we knew it, we were surrounded by various “Renegade Cruisers” / “Midnight Watch” members welcoming us home; Bella, Fender, Stinky, Les, Tack, George, Oscar and his awesome Family also showed up aboard “Lady Kay”… hopefully I haven’t forgotten anyone.
And so with lifetime memories and amongst new friends it ends…
Until next time…_/)
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