ADDENDUM: Bermuda Bound in Pictures
Due to wifi and other internet-related technical blah-blah I didn’t include any pictures in those journal entries…however, right now in Road Bay, Anguilla we are sitting at Roy’s on the beach of Sandy Ground having coffee and I have the time and bandwidth (literally) to share some photos of the passage from Norfolk VA to Bermuda. Enjoy!
Leaving Norfolk VA on November 4th - look at how bundled up we are! Andrew and Heidi and Bill arrived just the day before and were all ready to shove off! Great crew!
Greg’s Dad (Bill) in his prime! This salty sailor loved being out in the breeze and he would often just be staring out at the ocean with a smile on his face :) This was taken before we crossed the Gulf Stream - we shed the foul weather gear after that!
Cooking up a storm, before the storm :P At that point we still had a tidy boat! First task when our extra crew head out is to get the boat back in ship-shape!
This was a familiar sight - every 12 hours we would download the new weather from Predict Wind and hope we were still ahead of the big front following us. The look on Greg’s face shows the concentration required and the stress related to the importance of this information. Weather is everything.
This girl - seasick most of the time - it was hard to get this smile out of her but she did it. She is such a trooper - she is very happy to be in the islands and have months of day sailing (i.e. no passage anytime soon).
Layers starting to come off here - just passed the Gulf Stream and it’s early in the morning (Grandad is just finishing his watch and is still dressed for nighttime).
That look. Hand steering after that storm required some strength to fight the weather helm (hence my propped up leg) - it’s hard to see the swells and no way can the motion be captured. I had to focus really hard to keep the right course and not let the swell take me off in the wrong direction…did this for 8 hours this day.
This girl - like Liam - is a natural sailor…she LOVED being outside and also down below…she’d hang out down below for hours in crazy swell and feel fine. Really she just needs to be fed. A lot. She is a bottomless pit.
One of many many squalls we passed through. This one was was nice because it was during the day…most were at night and you can’t really see what’s ahead (so you watch the radar and give yourself a high-five when they miss you).
Another night pass time…dodging freighters. Like storms, these seemed to show up at night 90% of the time…I think we saw one, once, during the day…but every night there were at least a few and of course they would come at us like this! Great big huge ocean yet we seemed to be at the party spot! This pic was taken down below but only for lighting purposes - all night time activities were always managed by the 2 crew on night watch in the cockpit.
We had received - I am not kidding - more than 15 dozen cookies for this passage. Do the math. That’s lots of cookies. Both grandmas wanted to make sure we were well fed and didn’t have a chance to loose the typical 5-10lbs that some do on passage. No chance here! We had cookies multiple times a day. We still have a few dozen left but anything with chocolate is long gone :)
Arrival in Bermuda! We were so pleased to step on land…and Greg docked perfectly!
And after customs we sat at anchor for another full day while we waited out the front that was chasing us. MUCH rather be on the hook in the harbour for this one than be out at sea…despite our neighbour dragging toward us!
Practical storm attire - when you have to go out, wear as little as possible so you don’t have a bunch of wet clothes to hang up in the boat that is closed up tighter than a drum. Caution: this only works in warm climates :)
Finally made it to the town for a meal at Wahoo’s - thanks Bill! Oh ya, and a drink…because passages are dry (alcohol-wise, not rain wise) and that makes for a reallllly satisfying Dark and Stormy upon arrival!
We took more pictures on the next passage - which I will organize and get up shortly…probably because we didn’t have to same looming front we were out running (well we did but it was a bit further away) and probably because we didn’t go through a crazy storm that took up 1.5 days of our attention…and probably because we had a moment to look around and say, hey, this is freaking cool ;)
Much love,
M