Bermuda Passage
14 May 2018
The anchor was raised in Marsh Harbour at 1015 on Sunday 6th May and we motor-sailed to North Man O’War pass which was in benign condition as the swell and waves had eased and changed direction from East to SSE.
Then it was out with the sails in 12-18kts wind SSE, making 6.5-7.0kts but then in the afternoon something happened to our speed and even with 18kts wind we could not make over 6.0kts. This persisted overnight and it was clear that we had snagged something. With >2metres seas, going in the water with mask and snorkel would have been somewhat hairy so we decided we would stop the boat and gingerly engage astern to see if what we had caught would fall away. However, we were smiled on and by 0700 on Monday our unwanted attachment had dropped away and we were making 7.0-7.5kts on a reach.
With seas on the beam we were subject to the occasional [One person’s “occasional” is another person’s “regular”] wave splashing over and around the sprayhood into the cockpit. As we were no longer in the Tropics the temperature was low 20s so we deployed the infill between the bimini and the sprayhood and the windward side panel of the cockpit enclosure. Hm … dry …
From Monday to Thursday morning we had 100 per cent cloud cover so our world was grey. We had just one squall on Wednesday with gusts to 33kts and a period when the wind veered to SW with sustained winds of 25-28kts entailing setting up our downwind rig of poled out genoa and main with preventer. However, after three hours or so the wind backed to SSE and eased to 12-6kts. We left the pole in place and just brought the genoa across to the port side.
Thursday morning brought us blue skies and this was quite cheering. The wind veered again to the south and stayed there until we made landfall at 1130 on Friday 11t May.
We had sailed 769nm at an average speed of 6.3kts. This was about 35nm further than the rhumb line as until Wednesday we had been keen to stay south of 28degN to avoid an area of squalls and thunderstorms.
We had set up an SSB net at 0800 with the other four boats that left Abacos at the same time. This was good because we shared position and conditions information, and checked how we were all doing.
Unfortunately the crews on three of the boats had bouts of sea-sickness for the first three days, but then the sea was particularly uncomfortable as there had been three days of >20kts easterly wind before we left.
Bermuda Radio calls up every boat approaching, at 20-30nm out – we had given advance notification of our arrival so we were expected and they had all our personal and boat details. Clearance was straightforward but the authorities insist that you go alongside their berth before going to anchor. This can be fun, especially when there are several boats arriving about the same time. Out of our little flotilla, only the two catamarans got in ahead of us and the other two monohulls were a few hours behind.
Overall the trip rated OK – not a WOW and not awful. We were glad to have arrived.