by Judy Handley | Dec 5, 2005 | Passage To Caribbean, Sailing Logs Year 1 |
Day 49, Year 1: Changes in Latitude
Date: Monday, December 5, 2005
Weather: Moderate Winds
Air Temperature: 74 degrees F
Latitude: N 27 degrees 58.62 minutes
Longitude: W 65 degrees 09.54 minutes
Location: Passage from Norfolk to St. Martin, Day 9
Yesterday our latitude was 30 degrees North. Today it is 28 degrees North. We are making progress. It is 1640 (4:20 pm Eastern Standard Time) and the sun is dipping below the horizon. I find it interesting that out here there are always clouds on the horizon in all directions, but not overhead. We had a beautiful day and a nice surprise with the wind. Around 1100 the winds picked up and we have been able to sail since then. Because of the wind direction, we are having to travel further south than we would like at this point, so we will probably use the engine tonight at some point to help us get further east. We have used all of one of our three tanks of fuel and part of a second, so we have to choose the times carefully when we do use the motor. All in all, things are looking positive for a weekend arrival in St. Martin.
Mark spotted dolphins today swimming along side, but by the time I came up from the cabin they were gone. The only other sign of life today was a beautiful white bird with a very long tail and black wing tips. Since all of the books are still in disarray, I can’t easily find my bird guide, but hopefully I can dig through the books tomorrow and find out what kind of bird we were seeing. I baked bread today and Mark is currently working on one of our bilge pumps. We have a monster bilge pump but right now it is bringing more water into the bilge than it is taking out. Because of the tack we are on, the through-hull (hole in the boat) that transports water out of the bilge is under water and that is what allows the water to come back in. We thought we had fixed this problem but obviously not. We have two additional smaller bilge pumps, but one of them has stopped working. None of this is serious problem, but since the seas have calmed down it seemed like a good time to work on this.
It is amazing to be out here and see nothing but ocean in all directions hour after hour. The water is so blue. The temperature today was 74 degrees and I am finally wearing shorts and a tank top. I’ll still have to layer for the night watches, but last night was much warmer than the night before. That change in latitude is starting to make a real difference. And the even more amazing thing is that even though it looks like we are alone, we know there are other boats within 30 to 60 miles. At 1430 every day, we turn on the Ham radio and check in with Southbound II. That’s the weather net. Everyone that checks in gives there current latitude and longitude and that’s how we know where they are. You feel like you know these people. I’m looking forward to meeting some of them once we reach St. Martin.
The crescent moon is out already and twilight is here. It is time to start the night watches, so until tomorrow this is Windbird standing by.
by Judy Handley | Dec 4, 2005 | Passage To Caribbean, Sailing Logs Year 1 |
Day 48, Year 1: Feast or Famine
Date: Sunday, December 4, 2005
Weather: Little to No Wind, Counter Current
Air Temperature: 72 degrees F
Water Temperature: 72 degrees F
Latitude: N 30 degrees 08.32 minutes
Longitude: W 66.degrees 02.35 minutes
Location: Passage from Norfolk to St. Martin, Day 8
Is there really any such thing as a happy medium in life? Maybe. But I’m not sure there is out here on the high seas. It seems we are always getting way too much wind from the wrong direction, or not enough wind from the right direction. It is feast or famine, often not “just right”. Early this morning, I think we were as close to a happy medium as we might get. The sun rose just after 0600 and the moderate winds we had during the night decreased to five to twelve knots. The winds were light, but they were allowing us to move slowly in the right direction at around five knots. That’s not as good as the seven knots, but at least we were moving in the right direction.. I guess that is a happy medium. And then around 0930, the winds just died and we had to start the engine so that we could reach the ridge Herb had encouraged us to cross today. We are currently in front of that ridge and our new challenge will be to stay on the west side of a cold eddy sitting at N24 degrees by W64 degrees. We will continue to motor through the night and into tomorrow and Tuesday, unless the winds increase, and that should bring us to the west side of the eddy. We will then use the current on the western edge of the eddy to give us a boost south and east.
The temperature differentiation out here from morning through the night is fairly consistent. The air temperature at sunrise has been about 64 degrees the past couple of days and the temperature at sundown is usually 70 or 72 if it is a sunny day and 68 if it is a cloudy day. With the north winds pushing us along from behind, we get a fair amount of wind in the cockpit at night even with the enclosure, so on night watch we continue to wear layers of clothes. During the day the layers come off and we put on the day attire, which is a short sleeved shirt and a pair of lightweight pants. For night watch, I will put on a turtle neck over the cotton top I wear during the day, my trusty LL Bean wool sweater, a polar fleece vest, and finally a light jacket. The wool socks and wool sweaters were retired the first night we spent in the Gulf Stream, but when the wind shift came to bring winds from the north, the wool sweaters were resurrected. There is a story that goes along with that sweater that I would like to share with you. During the summer of 1985 we were living in Salisbury, Maryland. Mark volunteered to go along on a Salisbury University freshman orientation trip to Hurricane Island in Maine. The orientation was to complete an Outward Bound experience. The group had stopped in South Freeport at LL Bean on the way up and Mark bought us both wool sweaters. When he brought the gift home and the temperatures in Salisbury were hovering around 92 degrees with about 100 per cent humidity, I thought he had lost his mind. Why would I ever need that wool sweater? Well, now I can list about a thousand needs and will be very sad indeed when that wool sweater gets too worn to continue to be useful. It is now in its twentieth year and going strong.
A little side note: We caught our first fish during the night last night. Flying fish somehow jump up out of the water and “fly”, sometimes landing on the deck. We caught one last night. Let’s see if we collect more tonight.
by Judy Handley | Dec 3, 2005 | Passage To Caribbean, Sailing Logs Year 1 |
Day 47, Year 1: Let’s Go Surfin’
Date: Saturday, December 3, 2005
Weather: Heavy Wind and Big Seas from Behind
Air Temperature: 68 degrees F
Water Temperature: 72 degrees F
Latitude: N 31degrees 30.81 minutes
Longitude: W 66 degrees 32.50 minutes
Location: Passage from Norfolk to St. Martin, Day 7
For the first four days out of the Chesapeake we were bashing into the waves as the strong winds were directly on our nose. We knew we needed to get across the Gulf Stream before the wind shifted to come from the north, so we plodded on using the motor to help us. We made it out of the Gulf Stream but the wind and waves were still coming from the direction in which we needed to travel, so we continued the bucking bronco ride. Then the wind shift came and for the past three days we have been surfing the waves as the wind is coming from behind us. And there has been plenty of wind and ten to twelve foot waves-great surfing conditions! The surfing is much easier on both us and the boat, but as long as the waves are as big as they are now, we do a bit of rock ‘n roll with the surfing.
We just finished listening to the weather net, and Herb told us to get as far south as we can by tomorrow. We need to get across a ridge lying off Bermuda by tomorrow evening. So we have just headed south and it is a bit rougher than the easterly course we had been on all day. A couple of the boats that had been heading from New England to Bermuda made it there today, but Herb’s suggestion was for them to leave ASAP and get south of that ridge. I guess we made the right decision about not going to Bermuda. We have 828 miles to go and if we can get across that ridge tomorrow, we will then have a day or so of light winds and then by Tuesday we should pick up the trade winds that will take us to St. Martin. As you can see, it’s all about the weather.
Today we spotted a large ship on the horizon. It was a Navy war ship, #44, at least that is what we understood them to say. They called on Channel 16 to let us know they were going behind us. At that point in the day, the waves were so high we could sometimes not see the ship when it dipped below a wave. Those waves have calmed considerably and we just hope it stays that way. We’ll check in tomorrow afternoon.
by Judy Handley | Dec 2, 2005 | Passage To Caribbean, Sailing Logs Year 1 |
Day 46, Year 1: Settling In
Date: Friday, December 2, 2005
Weather: Rain, Winds 20-30 knots
Air Temperature: 68 degrees F
Water Temperature: 72 degrees F
Latitude: N 33 degrees 15.00 minutes
Longitude: W 68 degrees 09.79 minutes
Location: Passage from Norfolk to St. Martin, Day 6
One indication that we are finally settling into this crossing to St. Martin is that we have absolutely no idea what day of the week it is until we check a calendar or look back at previous logs. Is it really Friday, and have we really been out here six days? Is it really December? It doesn’t feel like it out here, but the calendar tells me it is so. Since we have only ten hours of daylight, the days go by very quickly. Last night and all of day today, we have been working our way through a weather front with rain and periods of high winds mixed with periods of more moderate winds. We have also had periods of sunshine accompanied by rainbows. Today’s primary front has given us winds in the twenty to thirty knot range and another front tomorrow will continue to send us the heavy winds. As long as they are behind us, and they are supposed to be, we are fine. It would be more comfortable is the seas weren’t so high, probably ten to twelve feet, but Windbird has been handling the wind and the seas nicely. Our main sail and our head sail are both double reefed and we continue to move at about six to seven knots in the heavy winds. There are periods when the winds slow down and then we make about five knots.
Unless something changes our minds and we stop in Bermuda, we still have about eight days to go to reach St. Martin. I hope the next eight or so days go as quickly as the six days so far. And what is it we do to pass the time so quickly? Mark and I are both reading a lot. I gave Mark a copy of Jimmy Buffett’s Tales of Margaritaville to read as we left the Chesapeake. I decided that he needed some light reading after the month of engine work and he really enjoyed it. I think his favorite part was a list of six lessons from Freddy and the Fishsticks. Lesson #6: “If you decide to run with the ball, just count on fumbling and getting the #&@! knocked out of you.a lot, but never forgot how much fun it is just to be able to run with the ball.” A little piece of American philosophy brought to us by Jimmy Buffett. My niece, Lynn, back in Boston gave me the book a couple of years ago. Thanks, Lynn. I read The Secret Lives of Bees while Mark was reading Margaritaville. It is a great book and Mark is now reading that. That book was first given to my by Linda Stuart back in the Concord School district. She had encouraged me to read it for the past couple of years, but there just wasn’t time. Now there is time. Thanks, Linda. And I am just about the finish Kite Runner-another great book. This book was given to me by Leslie Kole. I taught with Leslie in Concord and she has always been able to recommend books that I love reading. I’m not sure what I will start reading tonight during the night watches, but reading definitely helps the nights pass more quickly.
We continue to check in with the weather net each afternoon. It is wonderful to hear where other sailors are located and to get Herb’s personal suggestions for the course we should take next.
by Judy Handley | Dec 1, 2005 | Passage To Caribbean, Sailing Logs Year 1 |
Day 45, Year 1: Starry, Starry Nights
Date: Thursday, December 1, 2005
Weather: Heavy Rain Overnight, Clearing with Windshift in the PM
Air Temperature: 72 degrees F
Water Temperature: 72 degrees F
Latitude: N 34 degrees 26.15 minutes
Longitude: W 70 degrees 10.07 minutes
Location: Passage from Norfolk to St. Martin, Day 5
We are making progress. The first three days of this crossing took us much longer than expected and was much rougher than expected, but this afternoon things are looking up. We had high winds and some rain during the night and on into the morning. A couple of times I thought the sky was falling, but then the rain would stop as abruptly as it started. Around 1130 this morning, the sun started to try to peek through and by this afternoon we had full sunshine and the wind direction shift we had anticipated. The wind is now out of the west and will eventually come around to the northwest. When Mark joined the weather net with Herb this afternoon, he gave us advice to just keep moving instead of making the previously hoped for stop in Bermuda. Herb thinks we have a good window for heading on the St. Martin, so that is what we will do. By the way, our built-in water thermometer still reads 96.1, but that seems absurd. Mark dropped a different thermometer over the side of the boat this afternoon and it read 72 degrees F. That sounds much more reasonable. The thing we can’t figure out is why we were getting good readings prior to the Gulf Stream, but coming out it looks like it is perpetually stuck in the 90 degree range. Strange.
>From joining the weather net at 1500 every afternoon, we have gotten to know the names of boats out here with us heading to Bermuda and St. Martin. There are at least two sailboats within 60 to 100 miles of us, so even though we don’t see them, it is nice to know that they are out here.
Now that we are not bouncing in high seas, I am feeling much better. I caved in last night and put on one of the transderm scop patches and that seemed to help a little, but it was the quieting seas that had the most effect. I actually stayed below long enough today to fix a potato-cabbage soup for lunch and with Mark’s help, got all of the books picked up out the floor. Tomorrow we will work on a better way of securing the books and put them back on the shelves. I will say one thing for the rough weather we have had . . . Mark and I have both lost weight. I think maybe we could patent the “rough seas” weight loss plan. The rough sailing would also be a way of helping those who smoke or drink too much. You just can’t do those things when you feel so lousy. It sure would be a cheap way of solving these social problems!
It is only 1625, 4:25 pm Eastern Standard time right now, but the sun just slipped below the horizon. I have been on watch the past couple of mornings for sunrise and there have been red sails every morning. There are a few red sails tonight, so hopefully tomorrow will be a sailor’s delight. We must be in a different time zone by now, so we should probably set one of our clocks on universal time. We need to find something in one of our books that gives us the time zones around the world, but I will continue to use Eastern Standard time in these logs reported as “marine time”.
The one thing I look forward to during night watch is sky watching. The first three nights we were out here, the sky was so full of stars that I thought it might burst. Last night was overcast, so no stars, but it looks like we will have the stars again tonight. As the boat stirs up the water when we move forward during the nighttime, there are also thousands of dots of light in the water all around us. This is the phosphorescence and it looks like the stars in the sky reflected in the water.
It looks like life will be a little more normal in the next few days although the reports indicate that we will have high winds tomorrow. I’m hoping we will still be sailing smoothly since it will be downwind and that I will get a chance to answer e-mails from many of you that have sent good wishes. We miss you and really look forward to your messages.
