Passage from Bermuda to Antigua - Port Tack Reach the Whole Way (11/10/21 - 11/15/21)

Bermuda was so wonderful, we were a little bit sad to leave. We had made some new friends, John and Judy, and I felt like there was so much more to see and do but we couldn't pass up the good weather window for the jump to Antigua. We left on Wednesday morning, along with several other Salty Dawgs and NARC boats, all taking advantage of the weather forecast. It was a little rough and the breeze was NE but forecast to clock around to the east as we headed out the Town Cut Channel. We had beautiful skies and close reaching all day and we were able to get some good photos of Suki (Pia's friend Bill was sailing the NARC on Suki) and Blue Pearl, as they did of us. 

The passage was the easiest passage south to the Caribbean we've had. We remained on a port tack reach the whole way with winds at 10 to 15 knots. We had visits by dolphins several times and saw lots of commercial traffic. There was plenty of time for reading and fishing; however, we didn't do any catching and lost 4 lures. We "almost caught" one nice sized Mahi but just as we had it close, the line broke. Bummer. We had two fish on at once, one on a hand line and one on the pole. As Bryan and Bob were bringing them in, there was a great thrashing and splashing about in the water and they were both gone. Huh, probably a shark or big barracuda got our dinner.

Passage Statistics - 1035 nautical miles, 129 hours 45 minutes, 8.0 knots average boat speed (whoo hooo, that's fast!), 14.5 knots max boat speed (whooo hooo, that's really fast!), 2.1 engine hours 

Books Read & Rated (1 star - I don't recommend, 2 stars - OK/good, 3 stars - good, I recommend)

Pia

The Master and His Emissary by Iain McGilchrist, about the brain and the preponderance of left brain vs right, philosophy & culture; 3 stars - "A little cerebral but good if you're twisted like me"

A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles, an historical fiction set in Moscow in the early nineteen hundreds, 3 stars (I have read this book and also rate it 3 stars)

Bob

The Tiger by John Vaillant, non-fiction about tigers killing people in Russia, 2 stars (Bryan read this and also rates it 2 stars - "Interesting but it got a little long")

Cold Oceans by Jonathan Turk, memoir about adventuring in places like the Cape Horn and the Arctic Ocean, 2.5 stars

Betsy 

The Ploughmen by Kim Zupan, novel about a serial killer finally jailed at the age of 70 and his prison-keeper set in Montana, 3 stars - "I liked it but it is NOT an uplifting story"

From Where We Sail by Dianne Lane, a memoir about a family who sailed around the world in a C&C 61 (YES! Sorcery, a sister ship to Joli), 2 stars - "Good, but it got a little repetitive"

An Embarassment of Mangoes by Ann Vanderhoof about a Canadian couple who take a 2-year sabbatical to sail to the Caribbean with recipes, 3 stars - "Enchanting and very well written"

Bryan 

Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, a romance novel with a lot of sex, 2 stars - "I'm not a romance novel kind of person"

Daylight by David Baldacci, an easy, popcorn crime/murder mystery, 2 stars - "I would give it 2.5 if it had more sex"

Polly

Final Cut by S.J. Watson, psychological thriller, 1 star - "Plot is confusing and I didn't like the characters"

Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout, a Pulitzer Prize winning novel made up of a series of stories involving Olive in a coastal Maine town, 2.5 stars - "I know life isn't always sunshine and sailing, but some of the stories are downers"

Joli sailing east from Bermuda, photo credit Brian on Suki

Bryan and Pia like reaching!

Out the Town Cut Channel

Bob & Bryan with Bermuda in the background

The Town Cut Channel from St. George's Harbour was opened on January 1, 1917.

Sunsets and sunrises on the ocean are my favorite part of passages.

Suki, sailing east out of Bermuda as part of the North Atlantic Rally to the Caribbean (NARC).

There were some big swells on the first day - Blue Pearl is hidden behind this one.

Suki and Joli, photo credit Ruud on Blue Pearl

Blue Pearl, a fellow Salty Dawg

One morning when Betsy & I were on watch, two tankers going opposite directions crossed behind us. Ethane Chrystal (left) and Delma (right)

Delma approached within 1.7 nm of us. The AIS is very helpful out on the ocean.

The sailing conditions made it comfortable for reading.

Betsy doing her "boat aerobics"

French toast, sausage, eggs and bagels for our last breakfast at sea

FISH ON!! We had a fish on the pole and one on the hand line at the same time! Unfortunately, a shark or big barracuda got them both. 

We were thankful to have beautiful sailing conditions the whole way.

The Joli crew at the Admirals Inn, English Harbour, Antigua

Wonderful, Lovely Bermuda 11/3/21 - 11/10/21

From our first contact with Bermuda Radio as we approached Bermuda, to our exit from St. George’s Harbor through the Town Cut Channel, Bermuda was WONDERFUL! We arrived at St. George’s around 5 pm on Wednesday, November 3 and were directed by Bermuda Radio to the Customs Dock. Check in was very quick and efficient and we took advantage of the dock to put our dinghy in the water and get the anchor back on the bow. The Health Department was on the dock Thursday afternoon to test us for Covid and again, it was organized and efficient. We remained quarantined to the boat until negative Covid test results were received by all on Friday around noon. Time to go ashore! 

Pia had talked with a sailor from Antigua on the VHF radio earlier this summer, during an impromptu match race off of Virginia Beach. John asked her to contact him if she ever happened to be in Bermuda, so Pia emailed him as we approached Bermuda. He and his wife Judy were kind enough to take some photos as Joli approached the Customs Dock. He also picked up our MT propane tanks (yes, big mistake in the passage preps - forgot to get the tanks filled even though it was on the list) and got them filled for us. They hosted us all for dinner at their house on Friday night. They have a 200+ year old home and they have recently completed an addition and update. John is an architect and Judy is an artist and the house and yard were fabulous, dinner was delicious and our hosts were so lovely.  It really made our Bermuda visit extra special.

We did some hiking with friends and fellow Salty Dawgers Dan and Lori from BeBe and with Bill from Suki. Suki participated in the NARC from Newport and had arrived in St. George’s the day after we had.  Bill had sailed with Pia and John on Jack, a Hanse 57, in the 2019 Salty Dawg Rally to the Caribbean so it was a nice reunion for them. We hiked up Mount Hill to Fort George, where Bermuda Radio, part of the Maritime Operations Center, is housed. Fort George was built in 1612 and although not a large fort, it has an impressive dry moat surrounding the tall building. We happened to meet one of the pilots on his way into the building, Mario Thompson, as we were admiring the views from the fort. Mario invited us up the stairs and spent about half an hour with us, explaining the history and culture of Bermuda. What a delightful happenstance!

Other highlights in Bermuda were a visit to Hamilton, a bus ride from one end of the island to the opposite end to see the National Museum of Bermuda, and the pink sand beaches. Hamilton, the capital of Bermuda, has a population of only 1800 people but about 13,500 people work in the city; Bermuda’s total population is about 71,000. The city is very neat, clean and orderly with fresh paint on most of the buildings. Fort Hamilton was so cool and has a 30-foot wide, 40-foot deep moat encircling it.  The moat is now a botanical garden and is spectacular.  There is also a tunnel on three sides where ammunitions were replenished. We all especially enjoyed this fort. The weather was not the greatest while we were in Bermuda, so the bus ride and visit to the National Museum was a good rainy day activity. The museum is on the grounds of The Keep in The Royal Naval Dockyard and there are many interesting displays in the Commissioners House. The lawn and ramparts offer great views of the big, blue ocean and the Dockyard. 

And, YES, the sand really is pink! 

The moat at Fort George, home of Bermuda Radio

The view from Gates Fort on the north east end of The Town Cut Channel

Pia, Bill (on Suki), Dan & Lori (on BeBe), Bryan, Betsy, Bob

View of St. George's Harbor

St. Peter's Church in St. George's, built in 1612

Bermuda Radio/Maritime Operations Center communications tower at Fort George

Delightful dinner at John & Judy's

City of Hamilton Arts Center

Looking down from the small drawbridge crossing the moat

Lots of beautiful, old churches in Hamilton

The moat was like a rain forest.

Tunnel around Fort Hamilton

The clocktower at the Royal Navy Dockyard

View from the Commissioner's House

Rampart at The Keep - lots of big guns here!

Royal Navy Officers' Meeting Room in the Commissioner's House

Pink sand beaches and interesting rock formations line the south east side of the island

From Hampton, VA to St. George's, Bermuda 10/30/21 - 11/3/21

We had 4 wonderful days sailing from Hampton to St. George's, Bermuda with several visits by dolphins and a submarine surfacing on the way out of Hampton. After last year's VERY ROUGH passage from Hampton to St. Thomas, we decided to try a stop in Bermuda on the way to the Caribbean. Although the first day was a little rough crossing the Gulf Stream, we had 4 days of reaching with the breeze between 8 to 15 knots on the same tack the whole way. It was even calm enough for the girls to have pedicures on the 2nd day. By the way, the girls outnumbered the boys on this passage - we had Betsy & Bob and Pia along with me and Bryan. Very fun! Betsy won the arrival pool with her passage time estimate of 95 hours. 

Passage Statistics - 690 nautical miles, 95 hours for 7.3 average boat speed, 24.7 motoring hours

The Joli Biker Gang at the Salty Dawg party prior to departure from Bluewater Yachting Center

Betsy & Bob, Bryan & Polly, Pia

More Salty Dawgs in Hampton, VA

Submarine and escort off of Norfolk

Very cool to see the sub!

It was a little chilly for our 5 pm departure from Hampton

Bob having the good juju departure beer

Happy Captain!

Our new autopilot did a great job steering.

There were storms around us a couple times but we only had a little bit of rain.

More rain on the horizon

The nights were dark as the moon was waning and we only had a small crescent moon the first couple of nights.

Plenty of time for reading

Joli arriving at the Customs Dock in St. George's, photo credit John Gardner

Customs Dock - photo credit to our new Bermuda friend John Gardner

Waiting for our arrival Covid tests - the Bermuda Health Department and Customs were very efficient, friendly and helpful.