Safely arrirved at Bermuda
12 November 2005 | Bermuda
Jo
Well, here we are at Bermuda, quite a hard work crossing.
Started with no wind. So pretty much motored across the gulf stream in flat calm, so far so good, but then a strong wind blew up from the SW, our course was ESE, so that was ok, but the Atlantic showed us it meant business, and the seas became quite huge. Wind was around 30 - 35 knots.
The worst was when it came round to the NW and these huge 15' + waves chased us along, combined with a horrible twisting motion, which made us feel pretty sick. Food wasn't really on the agenda, a bit of dry bread was all we could face, for a couple of days.
Then yesterday midnight we were just picking up Bermuda lights, and longing to get in after 4 1/2 days at sea, but at this stage we had a half amount of rolled genoa, when in the dark, whoosh, and the whole thing unfurled, leaving us severely over canvassed, the line it transpired had broken, only replaced it in august! So we were unable to furl it again, but managed with the broken end to get a few turns in in the dark, we careered on with huge following seas, somewhat unwilling to turn into them and unfurl the thing and try to get it down.
On we went, and had to come more onto the wind as we turned the corner of southern Bermuda, thinking we might get shelter in the lee of the land, by this time we had also had another drama, and our engine had stopped working, when we tried to force the boat round into the wind, so one large sail stuck out,and no engine, not a great prospect.
I have to say I was rather enjoying myself by this time, nothing like a bit of drama to get the brain cells working properly! And the sailing was fun! Giles and David were not of the same opinion, so I had to behave! Anyway we were flying along at 7 1/2 Knots. Eventually we did get into some more sheltered water, and the wind decreased enough to unravel and get the thing down.
Ah well, just as well it happened here, and we sailed into St George's under stay-sail and reefed main, the engine by that stage was sort of working but not enough to cope with 35 knots on the nose.
I'm going to catch up some sleep, we'll be here until Tuesday or Wednesday, weather dependent, the next haul is just the 2 of us and will be a week