Last night we dropped anchor off Matthewtown on Great Inagua Island. These days this is the port of entry for the Bahamas that is farthest east and south, so the most convenient for boat traveling in the direction we are. The over all trip was 866 miles, over 5-1/2 days. An average speed of 6.6 knots. No engine use at all except for anchor maneuvering at the beginning and end.
Overall the trip was easy and smooth. Winds were favorable, so much so we spent almost two days with the twin-headsail downwind rig up. The highlight of the trip was having a 10lb blackfin tuna accept our invitation to dinner.
The freshest sushi that can be had…
Karen has checked us into the Bahamas at the local customs office. She and Keven then walked down to the general store and found the shelves totally bare. Apparently the last supply boat was here two weeks ago, and the next one is not due until Saturday. We’ll be digging into the frozen and canned stock for our veggies for the next two weeks.
Our plan for tomorrow is to start an 18 hour sail to West Plana Cay, one of our favorite uninhabited islands. We’ll explore, fish, and comb the beaches for treasure, for a week(?) then head to Fort Lauderdale where we’ll take care of some doctor appointments, and we also say goodbye to Kevan who has been a great crew for this whole trip. Splitting watches 3 ways instead of two makes passages a lot easier! He will be missed.
This morning we pulled anchor from the Sainte Anne anchorage in southwestern Martinique, and set sail. As always, you can find our track and status here:
For most of the two months we’re were at the dock in Martinique I was traveling on one business project or another while Karen stayed put working as Project Manager for various repair and upgrade projects on Harmonie.
Our target destination is Great Inagua in the Bahamas. The first of the Bahamian islands with a port of entry where we can check in. We are about 5 days out from there. We hope to spend a week or two exploring, beach-combing, and fishing in the Bahamas before heading further north to the next project.
This will be an easier trip than most. For the first time in ages we have crew aboard to help with our watch schedule. Kevan has sailed with us before, and we all expect things to go easier with ta 4 on/8 off schedule compared to the 4 on/4 off that Karen and I are used to!
Our first day at sea has been uneventful. We have been treated to two brown boobies using the boat to help them catch fish.
Brown boobie on the wing
They soar around the boat waiting for a school of flying fish to scatter from the hull, and they are on them in a flash grabbing them just after they splash down.
Tomorrow afternoon we will come up on an open ocean weather buoy, where we hope to snag a tuna or two for the freezer.
Harmonie is performing well. It is good to be underway on our own boat.
This morning we pulled anchor from the Sainte Anne anchorage in southwestern Martinique, and set sail. As always, you can find our track and status here:
For most of the two months we’re were at the dock in Martinique I was traveling on one business project or another while Karen stayed put working as Project Manager for various repair and upgrade projects on Harmonie.
Our target destination is Great Inagua in the Bahamas. The first of the Bahamian islands with a port of entry where we can check in. We are about 5 days out from there. We hope to spend a week or two exploring, beach-combing, and fishing in the Bahamas before heading further north to the next project.
This will be an easier trip than most. For the first time in ages we have crew aboard to help with our watch schedule. Kevan has sailed with us before, and we all expect things to go easier with ta 4 on/8 off schedule compared to the 4 on/4 off that Karen and I are used to!
Our first day at sea has been uneventful. We have been treated to two brown boobies using the boat to help them catch fish.
Brown boobie on the wing
They soar around the boat waiting for a school of flying fish to scatter from the hull, and they are on them in a flash grabbing them just after they splash down.
Tomorrow afternoon we will come up on an open ocean weather buoy, where we hope to snag a tuna or two for the freezer.
Harmonie is performing well. It is good to be underway on our own boat.
The delivery of an Amel 54 across the Atlantic has been completed without incident. The boat has performed well, only minor issues. Weather was very cooperative. That makes be my first TransAtlantic trip.
We did pause at an open ocean weather buoy anchored in 13,000 feet of water to catch a tuna on a hand line for dinner. There were a lot of fish at the buoy, we could have filled a freezer if we wanted.
We arrived in Ponta Delgada, Azores after 16 days underway from Martinique. The town and island are beautiful, and well worth stopping for in their own right.
We spent two nights there to pick up fuel and fresh provisions, and were back back underway for about a week to our final destination of Vigo, Spain.
The rugged coastline of São Miguel, Azores.Ponta Delgata, São Miguel, Azores
And the Finish
From Sao Miguel to Vigo, Spain was another 6 days. Winds were contrary, but light. We spent about 2.5 days motoring in the final approach to the coast.
Overall the trip was straightforward. We had no nasty weather, and no serious boat mechanical issues. We left Martinique on April 19, and arrived in Vigo on May 13, with a two day break in the Azores. That’s 22 days, a very fast trip.
Right now I am on my way back to Martinique, in what seems like a painfully long series of flights and layovers. 26 hours instead of 22 days!
And Next
While I have been off traveling for a month on other people’s boats Karen has been holding down the fort on Harmonie back in Le Marin. There have been a number of projects large and small she has been managing with the local shops. It looks like they will all be done either before I get back or within a few days of my return.
We are actually having crew join us in Martinique for our sail north. Kevan has sailed with us before, and we meant it when we said he’d always be welcome back. Our plan is to head to the Bahamas. Where we will explore some of our favorite spots, and then head further north.
A Super Maramu in waiting for me in New York to install a new C-drive that was damaged in a collision with floating debris. Hopefully we can get that done in a week, and then, again, be on our way for the rest of the summer.
The past couple weeks have been a travel scramble as various customer projects have moved up to their place on the schedule.
Travels in the last month, and upcoming. Red paths complete.
A C-drive Install
After dashing south from Brunswick, GA, USA to Le Marin, Martinique, I quickly hopped on a plane back to the states. My destination was Annapolis, Maryland where I supervised the installation of a new C-drive into an Amel 55.
This was a large and complex project that took about a week. Several unexpected issues were encountered, but all were resolved, and the boat has been launched and test run successfully.
Trans Atlantic Delivery
As soon as I return to Karen and Harmonie back in Martinique, it’s time to jump on an Amel 54, and begin a delivery to Virgo, Spain. This is a long trip, about 25 days. We are just into our second 24 hours, and passing north of Guadeloupe.
Any voyage crossing the North Atlantic is a serious undertaking requiring the boat to be autonomous for about three weeks. This boat is well found, and the owner has done an excellent job chasing down issues.
Unusually, this delivery is being done with a total crew of four. A watch schedule of 4 on / 12 off seems a positive luxury.
The Home Front
Karen is on Harmonie in Marina du Marin organizing the projects we have running with the local mechanics. Almost as soon as I get back, we will need to be underway northbound away from the approaching summer hurricanes.
Last night we dropped anchor off Sainte Anne in Martinique after a long, but relatively uneventful trip. No gales, no pounding close hauled sailing. In 7 1/2 days we covered 1158 nautical miles at an average speed of 6.5 knots.
Coming down from Bermuda the prevailing winds allow the trip to be done pretty much all on a close reach. Once you get a bit south out of Bermuda, the chances of a cold front dropping down low enough to affect the trip get pretty small. What we expected, was exactly what we found. Right out of Bermuda, we had a period of light wind which had us motoring for a bit, but the rest of the trip was entirely on port tack, with winds that were fresh, and kept us moving at a good speed. Once we got further south into warmer water, we did run into a few tradewind squalls, but nothing too serious.
In my last post I complained about the amount of sargasum weed that was making normal trolling for fish impossible. That continued for the whole trip, and in fact got progressively worse as we moved south. By the time we got the east coast of Martinique, I’d estimate that about 2% of the ocean’s surface was covered with weed. I hinted in the previous post that I had a plan to catch some fish despite this.
As you can see, my plan was a success. The larger fish is a young yellowfin tuna (ahi), the smaller one is a blackfin tuna. So, how did I catch these fish when I could not troll a lure behind the boat? The key is finding where the fish are. Anything floating in the open ocean attracts fish. These fish were caught courtesy of the NOAA Weather Buoy 41049 which is anchored in 16,000 feet of water (!) pretty much right on the rhumb line track from Bermuda to the eastern Caribbean. As we approached the buoy, we dropped lines behind the boat, and as the lures came up to the mark, we had fish on two of the three lines. We lost a large mahi-mahi when he jumped and threw the hook, but were really happy with the addition of high quality tuna sushi to the freezer.
The Ahi in particular was an extremely fatty fish. There was actually a layer of white fat under the skin, which I have never seen before. If you are at all familiar with sushi, you know this is a highly valued trait. I can report that this was an amazingly yummy fish. Melt in your mouth buttery and smooth.
But Not All is Roses.
This was a good sail. We did not break much. Only one thing.
While dealing with one of those squalls, the wind climbed into the mid 20’s. As we released the main sheet to reef the sail, the piece that the French call a “saddle” that attaches the main sheet blocks to the boom ripped out of the boom. If I had seen this failure on any other boat I would have assumed it was due to an accidental gybe. We are going to turn this problem over to the Amel staff here in Martinique to fix.
Overall, it was a great trip. We caught fish. The boat performed well. We did not add to the injuries we ourselves suffered on the passage to Bermuda. Other than the few miles departing from and arriving at the islands, the entire trip was one long port tack reach.
Lessons Learned
The primary lesson I took away from this whole experience is: If you are leaving from the east coast of the USA for the eastern Caribbean, just suck it up and go to Bermuda. Yes, it can add two or three days to the underway passage time, but it ends up being a MUCH better trip. Sometimes the conventional wisdom is exactly spot one. Add to the fact that Bermuda is a delightful place, and you have a no-brainer.
It has been about 24 hours since anchor up in St George, Bermuda. We are making good progress in light winds, certainly a much more pleasant experience than we had last week!
One of the things I forgot about this trip, it is essentially crossing the Sargasso Sea. So floating weed is very common. Not an issue for the boat, but it is for fishing. Any lures trolled behind the boat quickly become fouled. Without a mate dedicated full time to keeping the lines clear, it is an extremely frustrating experience. So, for now, we’ll defer. But, we have a plan…
The weather forecast for the trip is quite benign, and we hope it stays that way.
So why exactly did we end up in Bermuda? It is certainly a nice place, but wasn’t on our sailing plan.
The Gulden Leeuw, a top-sail schooner gets under way.You don’t see post boxes ike this every day.
The sum of the story is that the weather forecasts were off just far enough to force us to change our plans. For days the forecast kept saying that the wind was going to clock from the southeast, to the south and then the west. But that just never happened. Combined with winds stronger than expected, we just could not get either south or east. And we were getting beat up. Bermuda was two days out of our way, and it was an easy decision to head in there and take a few days to put things on the boat back to proper shape.
Ah, Sailing! So quiet and peaceful!
Why were the forecasts off? Well, a couple reasons. First, they were not THAT far off, but enough that it had a large impact. So Lesson #1 is if small changes between the forecast and reality can make a big difference, be sure to be aware of that, and have alternate plans. Also, the weather systems were extremely complex. There were multiple low pressure systems that were predicted to combine into one large storm in the Eastern Atlantic. That’s what happened, so the grand picture was right, but the details were less precise than usual.
By the time we got to the island with the lovely pastel colored buildings, we had a number of things on the boat that needed attention.
Some stripped threads meant our rudder packing was leaking. Not anything near enough to sink the boat, but it was sure making a mess even with regular mopping up. A bit of fiberglass work to build up new threads and we should be off and leak free for the foreseeable future.
We had our wind instrument break and fall off the top of the mast, probably at one of the pounding impacts the boat took when it fell off a wave. When 18 tons of boat fall several feet down onto the water, the g-forces are large, and at the top of the mast they must be enormous. Even so, this kind of force should be expected and designed for. We have contacted the maker and gave them the details. We’ll see what they can do. Fortunately, we had a spare in stock, so a trip up the mast put us back in business.
As the worst of the weather past us, Karen was looking to the back of the boat, and said, “I’m sure you have already noticed, but…”
Actually, I had not looked that way, so it was news to me that one of our solar planelss had gone walkabout. I guess having 40+ knots of wind hit it from the bottom when we were heeled over was more than the frame of the panel could take. That repair will have to wait a bit. At least the frame I built is still there, it was the panel itself that failed.
We have a good weather window tomorrow to get back underway, hopefully we can get the boat picked up and put back in shape in time. to catch that. Next stop, Martinique!
The forecast had the wind clocking to the South, and then Southwest. Didn’t happen. Left us close hauled in winds of 20 to 25 knots, and building. Boat and us getting beat up pretty hard.
So a consensus decision was reached, and we peeled off and are now head for Bermuda, which is now about 175 miles to the northeast.
Once the weather settles and we recover a bit we’ll be off again. Probably 2 or three days.
The route we are on is frequently called “Route-65” because you head east from the cost of the US and then when you get to 65W longitude, you turn south. On average, that puts you on a comfortable track. There are a couple of caveats to that.
It only Route-65 only works if you are far enough north to avoid the tradewinds in the first part of your voyage. If you try leaving from Florida, or the Bahamas there is no on ramp to Route-65. The other catch is that it assumes that weather will be “average”. One thing pretty much everybody knows is that weather is not often exactly average.
With modern weather forecasting tools we can pretty easily get details about what to expect for the next few days. Our forecasts are telling us that Tuesday morning we can expect a strong front to overtake us, which will pull the wind around to the Northwest as it goes by. At that point we will only be at Longitude 68W or so, about 180 miles east of the expected turn. But it makes little sense to blindly follow the “rule” when we will have a straight downwind shot toward our destination for several hundred miles.
The good news is that we will have winds from a favorable direction. The bad news is we will probably have two days of more wind and bigger waves than we might like, making for a “sporty” sail, albeit almost straight downwind.
fetchinketch 