The following documents the
first leg of the NAP crossing, a “catch up post” summarizing the past week that
we’ve been at sea and mostly off the grid.
We are of course able to communicate with satellite phones if needed,
and also text messages via our Garmin inReach device. Both have come in handy for occasional “ops
normal” reporting, as well as a few, mostly minor, technical assistance items
that popped up along the way (with James at Yacht Tech (LINK), who was very
responsive and helpful, as was Bob Senter, aka "Lugger Bob".)
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| Our NAP inReach Tracking Site |
We also try to post at least
a daily message to the NAP inReach tracking web site (LINK)….when you visit
there to view our track and current position, if you look in the left pane and
expand it by clicking on the arrow (>) you will see a list of the messages
we have transmitted along the way. Or in
the map display, message boxes will appear along our track – just click one those
for quick status updates when we are otherwise incommunicado.
On Tuesday morning, 16-May @ 0830 we got a weather forecast at the captain’s
briefing, and it was good enough to make launching on our planned D-Day a “go”.
Relish,
departing from Nassau 200 miles further to the southeast, sortied at 1100 on
the 16th so as to make the planned rendezvous with the fleet on the
following day at 1300. Initially seas
were mostly calm, later eventually building to 4-5 feet, but it was mostly a
downhill ride with following seas and a pushing wind.
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| The Fleet at the Rendezvous (RZ) Point |
On Wednesday (17-May) at 0800 the 5 vessels comprising the main fleet (Angela, Moxie, Aleoli, Roam and Tivoli) departed their Palm Beach Garden
marinas, headed south to the Lake Worth Inlet, then turned northeast towards
the RZ point. Just before 1300 they came
within VHF and AIS range of Relish,
and the rendezvous proceeded without issue.
While weather was generally good with sunny skies and temps in the 80’s,
wind was kicking up and the seas gradually built up (as predicted) to 6-8 feet
with nasty 6 second intervals. Everyone was holding on to something.
Roam and Tivoli throttled back a little to get a
more comfortable ride and fell back into their own two-ship formation, while
the rest of the fleet continued at their planned speed in a standard diamond
formation with spacing at one mile intervals (using two each of the VRM circles
and EBL vectors on the radar set.)
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| Our Revised Routing |
We also had modified our
planned route so as to run further north up the U.S. coast before turning east
towards Bermuda. The reason for that was
twofold: first to take advantage of the
Gulf Stream’s pushing currents for as long as we could; and secondly to find
the most comfortable route possible that still allowed all boats to make the
journey with adequate fuel. By extending
our route even further north than originally planned we added about 100 miles
to the journey but were able to minimize the time spent in that pressure
gradient that kicked up those 8 foot seas. (There was no truth to the rumor that Bernie was trying to avoid the Bermuda Triangle.)
The lumpy sea
state didn’t prevent a few of the boats from deploying their fishing lines and
the Gulf Stream produced some nice Dorados (Mahi). Relish
caught her first fish without the benefit of a fishing pole – a very unlucky
flying fish had the misfortune to launch itself at the top of one of the bigger
waves and came to a sudden stop on her fly bridge (about 20 feet above sea
level.)
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| Fishing Lines Deployed in Lumpy Water |
As the sun set
each of the boat the crews rigged for night running and settled into their
overnight watch schedules, typically rotating helm duty at 3-hour intervals to
stay fresh. All boats reported ops
normal conditions for vessel and crew.
Thursday (18-May) dawned with gradually improving sea
conditions and it didn’t take long for fishing lines to be deployed once again. Aleoli and
Moxie hooked up with several Dorados
again, as well as a couple of Marlin.
Relish also hooked into a Marlin, but with only relatively light tackle
(40-50#) that encounter eventually ended up in a break-off. Angela
had one rod & reel on board and also gave the angling a shot – but during a
span of inattention she got spooled by a clump of sea weed, and that was the
end of her fishing charter.
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| A Really Nice Dorado for Peter |
Around mid-day we
got another weather update from Commanders (LINK), confirming that conditions
would continue to improve on our revised routing. At this stage of the journey we were
averaging better than 8 knots.
While we did not
encounter significant traffic volume on any of the days we were underway given
our distance from any land mass, it wasn’t unusual to encounter the occasional
freighter with a CPA that was a little too close for comfort. In such circumstances Bernie (on board the
lead boat, Angela) would hail the
ship and coordinate a safe pass, always confirming which vessel would alter its
speed and/or course. The few we
encountered were always communicative and cooperative.
By daybreak on Friday 18-May the ride was considerably
smoother than the previous few days and we all got a chance to appreciate
relatively flat and deep blue seas, with air temps in the 70’s with mostly
clear skies as well. And that made for
even better fishing conditions. Aeoli boated a gigantic Dorado measuring
over 60 inches, Relish did almost as
well with a fat 40 incher, and Shar aboard Moxie
reeled in an acrobatic and absolutely gorgeous Marlin. The flat sea conditions
also brought out a large pod of playful bottlenose dolphins who rode Relish’s bow wave for a short while
before peeling off and speeding south.
Radio
chatter from Aleoli: Stefan is doing his best imitation of a
Russian oligarch muttering nearly incomprehensible phrases, and then…
Radio
chatter from Angela: Oxana – who speaks fluent Russian and French
– responds with a rapid litany of real Russian.
Reaction
from Aleoli: Oh sh*t.
Of course there are other
things besides fishing that require attention on such a journey – the obvious
helm and navigation duties, including station keeping on the other boats in the
formation, but also periodic engine room checks, minor maintenance here and there,
fuel management tasks, and weather routing updates just to name a few. It can be surprisingly busy at times, but
crew members also have to be diligent about getting their crew rest in advance
of their watch shift….eventually you get really good at sleeping at odd
times. Trying to do that in rough seas
in the forward stateroom is another matter entirely – seatbelts required – and at
those times crashing on the salon couch is a better option.
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| We Had a Number of These Gorgeous Sunsets |
As of Saturday morning, 20-May we had covered 570 nautical miles from Palm Beach and
770 nautical miles from Nassau, with another two and a half days to go to reach
Bermuda. Overnight watches were
completely and blissfully uneventful with light winds and seas that continued
to be smooth under mostly clear skies with temps in the low 70’s. The graveyard helm shift shared fishing stories
and tips to while away the time, and most of the boats had lines deployed once
again by 0630. Our last weather briefing
called for at least one more day of benign weather, but after that we would
likely run into the next pressure system that was forecast to kick up the winds
and seas for the last day.
Sunday 21-May
brought us another beautiful daybreak, once again greeting us with light and
variable winds and calm seas. The fishing
lines were deployed before 0600, but fishing activity was light at best. We were approaching a new time zone, although
nobody was quite sure where the line actually was; so Bernie picked an
arbitrary time and we all set our watches forward 1 hour.
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| Close Proximity Maneuvers in Thankfully Smooth Seas |
Bob’s satellite phone aboard Moxie had gone Tango Uniform, a fairly
frustrating situation since it was essentially a new unit. Stewart, crewing
aboard Aleoli, is an electronics
expert and had been in communication with Iridium about possible
solutions. One of those involved
applying a software update to the phone, requiring Aleoli and Moxie to
delicately maneuver in very close proximity to each other to transfer a thumb
drive to allow Bob to apply that update.
It was a tricky dance to bring two heavy boats within a few feet of each
other on the high seas, but Stefan and Bob handled it beautifully. Unfortunately none of this resolved the phone
problem, and ultimately Iridium suggested shipping a replacement phone to one
of our next ports.
Radio
chatter from Bob on Moxie: Hey, we just passed a floating Fedex box a
while back, do you think maybe they or Amazon will deliver out here?
Much later in the day, right
at sunset, Relish’s port side fishing
rig went off again, and this time Silvio was available to man the rod to reel
in a nice 30” Mahi – his first ever, so a great conclusion to a fine day.
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| Nice Fish Michelle! |
Our streak of glorious early
mornings came to an end early on Monday,
22-May as a line of showers appeared on radar about 12-15 miles north of us
and moving our way, along with a washboard sea surface making it feel like we
were boating on a waffle iron. We
welcomed the prospect of a free fresh water wash down, but just a couple hours
later they had dissipated considerably – all we got was some light mist, grey
skies and a freshening breeze that brought the lumpy water with it. But none of
that prevented us from deploying the fishing lines once again before
sunrise.
Radio
chatter from Michelle on Relish: Fish
on! Oh, wait…never mind…it’s a bird, not
a fish.
The fishing reel clicker went
off but Relish unfortunately had tangled
with an overly curious sea bird rather than a fish. Donning gloves and slowly pulling in the
line, we were able to capture the very unhappy gull and untangle its wing from
the fishing line without damage to the bird or the fishing rig. Relish’s
total catch count was now 2 flying fish, a seagull and 2 nicely proportioned Dorados. On the other hand, both Aleoli and Moxie were
having consistent success reeling in Dorados, so we would still have plenty of
fresh fish for our upcoming pot luck dinner in Bermuda.
By now the main fleet had
traveled 900 nautical miles on this initial leg, with Relish logging about 1100. The seas churned up further as the day
progressed, eventually getting back into the 4-5 foot range, before settling
down a bit later in the day as we neared Bermuda. As we came into sight of land our formation
fell into a single file with closer spacing in preparation for the approach to
St. George’s Channel. After waiting for
a large freighter to exit the harbor around 1730 at the request of Bermuda
Radio, we all motored over to the check-in pier and processed through
customs. It was a slow process with 4
crews in the line, but the customs personnel were courteous and professional.
A bit of a tip for other
folks who plan a sortie to Bermuda….there are several forms they ask you to
fill out in advance and forward to them via email, some reasonable (e.g., crew
information), some not (e.g., almost an entire inventory of what’s on your
boat.) We all did that. And we still had to complete the same forms
manually when we arrived for inprocessing.
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| Med Mooring is Never a Boring Exercise |
Once all that was done we
motored the short distance to the nearby St. George’s Dinghy & Sports Club marina
and “Med-moored” our vessels in a neat row just as the sun set. We were
exhausted but happy to be securely tied up in an impressive looking row of
Nordhavn yachts. After hooking up passerelles
or planks, cleaning up and then grabbing a short meal, we all crashed into our
respective bunks for some much needed – and uninterrupted – sleep.
Weather wise Tuesday 23-May was a delightful day in
Bermuda – bright sunshine, temps in the low 70’s, some fair weather cumulus and
a steady 10 knot breeze out of the east.
During the night the fleet’s other two boats, Roam and Tivoli, had
arrived and processed through customs, so now all 6 vessels were together once
again. Bernie made the rounds to each boat at the docks to hand out some very cool trinkets from PAE...shirts emblazoned with our NAP logo, and some very nice Nordhavn coffee mugs and flashlights.
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| View of the Harbor from Our Docks |
This was maintenance day and
all crews went to work giving their salt-encrusted vessels a much needed bath, as
well as oil changes for the main engine.
(The big L1276A Lugger on the N55’s and N60 take 44.1 quarts of
oil….yikes.) When Michelle and Robert took
a dinghy ride back to the wharf to offload used oil they witnessed a young mother
and father and their SIX children – 3 boys and 3 girls roughly
ages from 3 to 11 – disembarking from a 9 foot dinghy…..now that’s a hearty seagoing family.
We also made our list of needed
parts to order for delivery at our next port (Horta in the Azores) and made
re-provisioning run to the local market.
The rest of the day was spent relaxing and socializing with the other members
of the fleet. Our next door neighbor at
the dock was Cameron McColl who had piloted his gorgeous N57 Jura to Bermuda from BVI, and would now
join our NAP fleet for the journey to the Azores.
Wednesday 24-May was a holiday here: ”Bermuda Day” which is an annual celebration on the island marking the
unofficial start of the summer season. Thousands
of people crowd the streets of Hamilton to celebrate Bermuda's rich heritage
with a parade, music, dancing and other festivities that stretch long into the
night. This year it also coincides with
the 35th America’s Cup racing events, a battle for the oldest trophy
in international sport. Racing starts with the Louis Vuitton America’s Cup
Qualifiers on 26th May and the top Challenger will meet Defending
Champions in June.
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| View of Dock from the Pub's Pot Luck Dinner Event |
That evening all the crews gathered
at the marina’s tavern where we had graciously been given space to host our
first Pot luck dinner; each boat brought a couple of side dishes and Bob manned
the grill to cook up some really fresh and tasty Mahi. It was a great way to end the day.
The latest weather reports
indicate that conditions would go to hell on Friday, which was our planned
departure date; so it appears we’ll be hanging out in Bermuda for an extra day
or two. In addition to TRWs, we’ll have
winds in excess of 25 knots with gusts to 40, and when that happens here you
have to leave the dock and anchor out in the bay.
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| Tied & Rafted for the Fuel Truck at the Wharf |
So, early on Thursday morning 25-May, all boats
departed their Med-Moorings and headed to the long concrete Penno wharf to meet
the fuel truck. With the longest leg of
the crossing coming up, and with fuel priced at $0.81 per liter (about $3.07
per gallon), each boat topped off their tanks.
That took half a day, and then we headed just across the harbor to drop
the hook and wait out the approaching weather.
Aleoli took
the opportunity to have a diver clean its running gear, and Relish was hunting down a plumber to
help with reconnecting its ice maker.
(They had experienced a spectacular fresh water plumbing failure under
the galley sink the night before departing Nassau, which required plugging the
pipe feeding the freezer. But egg
cartons and muffin pans make reasonably good ice trays in a pinch.) But even with all that going on some crews
launched a dinghy and got some more quality time in St. George and Hamilton.
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| Walking to Wahoo's for Dinner |
As of Friday morning, 26-May, the local forecast read:
Marine Synopsis -
Strong winds and moderate to
rough seas persist ahead of a cold front. The front will bring showers, gale
force gusts, and a risk of thunder by noon. The front will pass early this
evening and conditions rapidly settle overnight. Light to moderate winds and
moderate seas then remain through the weekend as high pressure builds.
Winds south-southwesterly 20 to 30 knots gusts to 40 knots, with
the strongest winds in any thunderstorms... Isolated showers early
becoming scattered to widespread with a risk of thunder and fair to poor
visibility by noon... Seas inside the reef 2 to 3 ft... Outside the reef 6
to 11 ft, increasing during the afternoon... Sunrise: 6:15 am.
Yuck. Hopefully this will be
a restful down day assuming the anchors all hold well in the coming blow. We’ll
check weather forecasts fairly frequently to monitor the conditions, keep an
attentive anchor watch, and weather permitting perhaps get a final round of
shopping in. We haven’t decided yet
when we’ll depart for Horta but tomorrow afternoon is looking more promising.
