We beat Arthur

Friday, July 4

We beat Arthur

Thursday, the winds resumed, and we continued to sail.  With minimal spillage, Mike, Greg and I managed to transfer the 10 gallons of diesel from the jerry jugs to the starboard tank. 

Hoisting the spinnaker furled on the antitorsion line we found first that the upper portion of the sail was twisted extremely tightly, and that when we began the unfurl, the lower portion had reverse twisted.  Thus untwisting the top twisted the bottom tighter and vice versa.  This has been a common problem that plagues this device and occurs when the twist stored in the antitorsion line is released at the end of furling.  As it untwists, it grabs sail, usually below the clew, and twists it in the reverse direction.  Then, when unfurling, the event is impossible because unfurling above furls the bottom even tighter.

Down on the deck, I was able, I thought, to untwist the reverse furled part, and now with free spinnaker at the bottom, I used yarns to gather it up into sausages as was done in olden times (pre socks, pre furlers). Back up, pulling on the sheet as we unfurled the antitorsion line, only a bit of sail came out to catch the wind.  And then, the sail ripped extensively.  Another casualty of the $%#**&#@ top-down furling system.

We still sailed well with jib, main and mizzen until after dinner when the skies began to look ominous.  We lowered the main, sailing jib and jigger until we saw big squalls marching across Massachusetts Bay toward us and at around 10 pm, with all sails down, were hit while motoring with 40 knot winds and thunderstorms.  No problem.

Avoiding fishermen as well, we finally pulled into our mooring at 1 am on July 4th.  Tired and facing too much wind to safely go to the CYC dock, we just sat on the mooring until 5:30 when with dawn, we went to the dock, cleaned the boat, and Addie met us with pastries from A&J King bakery.

Post script, 7/7/2014.

      Took the spinnaker to Quantum Thurston in Bristol.  It was hopelessly and multiply reverse wrapped and wrapped so staggeringly tightly that the layers almost seemed annealed together.  Each layer had to be peeled from the next.  A technology that has a few bugs to be worked out.  Back to the sock would be the wisest move.

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Hurricane Arthur

Arthur the Hurricane
Thursday, July 3, 2014. 0500


Since Tuesday, we have been watching on the grib files a low coming up from Florida with intense cyclonic winds of 50 plus. Now, it is officially Tropical Storm Arthur predicted to grow to Hurricane Arthur as it follows a cold front straight to Marblehead, with arrival late tomorrow. We should beat it in although I am concerned about safety of boats on moorings in Marblehead. I was able to get a 24 hr surface analysis from a weather fax yesterday showing the transition from TS to hurricane as it passes the Carolinas.


We had great sailing yesterday up to a point. As predicted, accurately for a change, the grib files showed excellent wind from the south until we crossed west at 68 degrees west. Although it did not happen precisely on that longitude line, by dinner, the wind faltered and we eventually took down all sails as our boat speed fell into the 2's, far too slow to allow us to beat Arthur with about 175 miles sailing to go (as of dinner last night).

Prior, we had various sail combinations including poled out jib, main, mizzen, and mizzen staysail in increasingly heavy following seas. We were surfing down waves with boat speeds in the mid 9 kt range, and maintaining steady speeds in the high 7's and 8's.

No more. Motored all night at about 5 kts and now have a bit over 100 miles to go. From yesterday, the water temperature has gone from 82 down to low 60's, and we had fog all night with radar on, and fog horn blasting. As we knew, the AIS has far greater utility than the radar.

Now expect arrival Friday morning. And are hoping for sailing winds to resume although diesel fuel should not be a problem, especially with two jerry cans of it on the deck worth an extra 50 miles.

Good sailing

Steady as she goes
Wednesday, July 2, 2014

As of 0500 this morning, about 275 miles to go with yesterday's travel about 177 miles, probably a record high for this boat under sail.

We are going mostly downwind with magnetic heading of about 340-350 and making 7 kts. or greater for most of yesterday and last night. Sail combinations have included; main and mizzen alone; main, mizzen and poled out jib; that combination plus a mizen staysail; and main, mizzen, and asymmetric spinnaker.

The seas have built in concert with the wind with 8 foot rollers behind us and winds of up to 25 kts behind us on the port quarter.

Dinner last night was Canada goose stew and breakfast omelets were served this morning.

All crew functioning well together.

Endless Ocean

Endless ocean
Tuesday morning, 7/1/2014, 0700

After reasonable breeze yesterday morning, the winds dwindled and clocked to be behind us. We gave up on sailing, and motored from mid afternoon until about 6 this morning when the wind augmented to 10 -12 kts but now nearly straight behind our course. So, wing and wing with boat speed about 5 kts rather than the 7 we had been doing under engine. I expect the wind to build over the next couple days. Hoping for arrival on 4th of July.

Dinner last night: pasta vongole with white clam sauce. A small bit of leftover cooking wine was parceled out to the crew with daring aliquots of about 2 oz per man. Daring.


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Monday, June 30, 2014
Return from Bermuda

We left Hamilton around 9:30 local time, 0830 EDT. Peter flew home on Friday, so the return consists of Mike Stock, Billy Godiksen, and Greg Linderman, all F-18 pilots from the same Navy squadron, and Andrew Dieselman, a recent college graduate headed for law school.

The two hours out of Hamilton and clearing the reefs, and the next few hours toward Marblehead were punctuated by a few rain squalls carrying the only significant wind, so we motored. We were in a large gang of about 20 boats but they have gradually dissipated and now, only a few show up on AIS, and none visually.

Around 1400, the wind freshened from the east and we never saw less than 10 kts as of this morning. So, we had a delightful starboard tack beat all night, using a mix of hand steering, autopilot and wind vane.

Addie's Mediterranean lamb stew last night did not last very long with four young guys.

Hot and humid, mostly the latter.

Winds appear to be going soft on us later today as they clock from east to south and then, 10 to 20 most of the way home. To avoid the high pressure low winds, we have headed a little west of the rhumb line for several hours.


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Race completion

Wednesday, June 25 +15 sec into Thursday

Finished, at last

We sailed in sparse winds from the SE through Tuesday night and into Wednesday, always on a port tack and getting further and further south and edging west, too. Tacking would have meant heading back to New England.

Wednesday morning, the 5 kt. wind fell to zero, and within a minute, switched 100 degrees to the SW, exactly as the downloaded grib files had predicted, although rather late for our purposes as far as the race went.  So, 90 miles west of Bermuday, we reached in on starboard with spinnaker flying the entire time in a 7-9 knot breeze that, while not swift, was a wonderful respite from what we had experienced. 

We held the spinnaker reach all the way to Northeast Breakers where we had to douse it to head closer to the wind. We had to tack several times to get to the finish line which eventually we did at 15 seconds after midnight. 

During the entire voyage, Peter seemed never to become discouraged, and always did at least his share of the work and took his share of the watches. In fact, he took more than his share.

On the way in, we answered a distress call from another double hander, Sirena Bella.  She had lost her engine and were concerned enough that they anchored off Kitchen Shoals to prevent drifting into the rocks.  We promised them that we would return on our race completion to tow them into Hamilton.  Only several miles to the finish, it took us a couple hours before we could get back to them by which time they had resourcefully cleared the fuel lines and were restarted.  They followed us into Hamilton to be sure help was available should the engine fail again.  It did not.

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A rather frustrating day at sea

Tuesday, June 24, 3 pm
Frustrating

We are in a hole and have no way up out of it unless we start the engine.
The winds have been soft and from just south of east, which is the direction of Bermuda. Since we can point only to 70 degrees from the wind, any course we take gets us closer to Bermuda in tiny increments. Our hope is for a wind shift, and wind increase.

Although we have only 140 nm to go if we could take a straight line course, the miles to sail before we get there are over 200, and at 5 kts, that would be 40 hours, or Thursday. Sadly, we are not even able to do 5 kts; currently we are snailing along at 3 kts.

Last night, it appeared that our masthead navigation lights were not on. Aurora, sailing a mile from us, confirmed so we are using the running lights instead which we would normally use when motoring. I spent couple hours this morning checking the circuit and it appears that we have power to the base of the mast. So, we plan to go up the mast once in Bermuda to fix or replace the problem.

Then, later, running the generator because the new batteries had insufficient charge to run the chart plotter, the generator stopped charging the batteries because of overheating. With the aft gen compartment open, the same occurred. So, we started the boat engine to charge using the alternator, but were unable to accelerate the engine without it going into gear. I disassembled the clutch cable mechanism at both the control end, and by going deep into engine compartment, at the transmission end. After a couple more hours, everything was put back together and, surprisingly or even miraculously, it all works. There was a time when I thought we might need to get towed into Hamilton or St. George with no useable engine.

We just finished an experiment suggested by Peter. We are going so slowly that we tried sacrificing even more angle to get more speed by using the spinnaker. Well, we achieved both: terrible angle taking us even further away from Bermuda but at increased speed. So, back to sailing. Peter has been a fantastic sailing companion. Always upbeat, resourceful.

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Tuesday morning, June 24

On a long port tack we have seen only one race boat, Aurora. We followed him most of yesterday and although slower, she can point much higher than we. If we stay on our present course and maintain the same winds, we will end up 90 miles wide (west) of Bermuda so something clearly needs to be done. But the what depends on how the winds change. So far, the grib (gridded binary) have not been very accurate.

At times yesterday, we had too much sail: rail buried, and water, turquoise water, above the cabin windows on the leeward side. Out of prudence we put in a double reef and with that markedly reduced sail area, our speed of over 8 kts was maintained. When the wind fell off to 15 kts in the late afternoon, the reefs were shaken out and we maintained boat speed of 7 - 8 kts.

More dolphins frolicking and flying fish flying.

Dinner: goose stew over rice following the recipe from the book, After the Hunt. It was prepared in a slow cooker and then frozen. Rich taste.

Over the night, the wind quieted. Aurora, whom we had been gaining on steadily, quickly outpaced us in the light winds of about 8 kts. Whisper has an aversion to such whispers of wind. We are still moving but on this tack will be 90 miles from Bermuda when at its latitude. The problem is that on the opposite, starboard tack we will be sailing away from Bermuda. A change in wind would be welcome.

Wednesday night or Thursday are most likely finish times.




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250 miles from Newport

Blog to Bermuda 6/22

Sunday just after dawn, the skies are livid pink.

And we just sit here, no wind but we are making some progress thanks to ocean currents. Unfortunately, the current is heading us southwest when we need to go southeast. We are not in the Gulf Stream yet as presumed from the direction of the current pull to the southwest.

We might as well be a large bobber, waiting for fish to bite.

The wind died almost to zero over night and because the mainsail blankets the spinnaker, we dropped the former to aid the latter.

Still no boats to be seen, although several do show up on AIS.

Maybe the Gulf Stream will generate some wind, as is usually the case. But it is also the case, as the GRIB files being downloaded a couple times per day, that we will be sailing through a large area of no wind.

At around 11 am, the wind faltered further, then began to increase at time we decided to jibe. The outside jibe went off as if we had been practicing- which we haven't. Thereafter for the rest of the afternoon, we were making 7 kts and sometimes faster. We are catching several boats ahead of us, although at 9 nautical miles, we cannot see them yet; they show up on AIS.

After the difficulties just after the start, we were well in last place amongst the DH group and our hopes of finishing better than last seem distant.

Slow that we are, we star in the eating regatta. For example, our first three dinners have been homemade (by Addie) chicken tetrazini, Mediterranean lamb stew, and a roasted chicken for tonight. Monday might be the night for goose stew.

Sunday just after dawn, the skies are livid pink.

And we just sit here, no wind but we are making some progress thanks to ocean currents. Unfortunately, the current is heading us southwest when we need to go southeast. We are not in the Gulf Stream yet as presumed from the direction of the current pull to the southwest.

We might as well be a large bobber, waiting for fish to bite.

The wind died almost to zero over night and because the mainsail blankets the spinnaker, we dropped the former to aid the latter.

Still no boats to be seen, although several do show up on AIS.

Maybe the Gulf Stream will generate some wind, as is usually the case. But it is also the case, as the GRIB files being downloaded a couple times per day, that we will be sailing through a large area of no wind.

At around 11 am, the wind faltered further, then began to increase at time we decided to jibe. The outside jibe went off as if we had been practicing- which we haven't. Thereafter for the rest of the afternoon, we were making 7 kts and sometimes faster. We are catching several boats ahead of us, although at 9 nautical miles, we cannot see them yet; they show up on AIS.


After the difficulties just after the start, we were well in last place amongst the DH group and our hopes of finishing better than last seem distant.

Slow that we are, we star in the eating regatta. For example, our first three dinners have been homemade (by Addie) chicken tetrazini, Mediterranean lamb stew, and a roasted chicken for tonight. Monday might be the night for goose stew.




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send gfs:30N,43N,-62E,-77W|2,2|6,12..96|WIND


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Start minus 1 day

Rain in the morning during our visit to Stop and Shop for final provisions: the perishables that were added to the larder.

Then, Newport. Five gallon jerry cans purchased at West Marine that we will fill with diesel in Bermuda to give us psychological comfort on the return trip. Ten gallons equals about 50 miles of steaming. Then Team One where they kindly replaced a defective foul weather coat from two years ago.

The line waiting for Bermuda immigration where we pre cleared into Bermuda was about 1 ½ hours long but we made it to the skippers meeting with time to spare. The depressing news is that the winds for the first couple days appear to be light and variable.  The translation of that is that the lighter boats with taller rigs (as is the case with all the boats in our class) will almost certainly be mast down on the horizon before the end of the day.  Sometimes the forecasts are wrong.  Please.

Start minus 2 days

June 18, 2014

We went directly to the farm and got some eggs within minutes of being laid.  Unwashed, unrefrigerated eggs last about a month without refrigeration. We only need three weeks out of them.

Added a bit of diesel to the tanks, more on the left side and for the first time in years, the boat does not list to starboard.

Tonight, a party for the double handed class.  Quite possibly the last time I will see my competitors until we reach Bermuda, as many as two days later than many of them on their racing sleds.

Bermuda Race Preparation on Whisper

Tuesday, June 17, 2014

Tuesday, June 17, 2014

Race prep has been about a year long, but frenzied over the past two weeks.  Exploding our spinnaker a couple weekends ago did not contribute to a sense of equanimity, but it has been repaired (the sail).

We have loaded about half the food, with Addie and I having spent an inordinate amount of time cooking, and freeze/vacuum packing meals.  While we may be one of the slower boats, we will be one of the better eating ones.

With my double handed crew, Peter Dowd, and one of the return crew, Andrew Dieselman, we moved the boat from Marblehead to Little Compton (about 2 hours away from the start in Newport) on Friday and into Saturday, transiting the Cape Cod Canal at about midnight and arriving in Little Compton at 6am.  

Fog, all the way.  Cold, rain, windy, wind on our nose, and we sailed very little, mostly motoring.

Land could be seen twice during the 16 hour trip:  once in the Canal, and then not again until we were 100 feet from the breakwater protecting Sakonnet Harbor in Little Compton.  Braille sailing, as can be seen from what the appearance was like from the boat at early dawn today.

test

5/27/14

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