BRITISH VIRGIN ISLANDS TO BERMUDA

Keith and I finally left for Bermuda on 13th May. It is around 850 nautical miles so we expected it would take around 7 days to get there. We didn't arrive until 30 May.

Here's what happened..........

Jost Van Dyke and Guana Island

We got fresh provisions, re-fuelled and did some essential checks in a lovely little island called Jost Van Dyke in the BVI's, then had an exhilarating sail to Guana Island were we anchored, did some snorkelling and the yacht Spruce with Sue and Andy, joined us to leave for Bermuda together the following morning.

Great Harbour Jost Van Dyke

Checking rig at top of mast in Great Harbour

Underwater at Guana Island

Rapau and Spruce alone at Guana Island, BVI's

BVI to Bermuda (first attempt)

Sea's uncomfortably confused first day out

An uncomfortable first day out with 21k winds and gust of 28-29k (force 7) on the nose with a confused sea. However we were making fast progress towards our target. During the night we could see Spruce's light a few miles away and we intended to stay within VHF rdange (within around 10 miles) all the way. Andy and Sue on Spruce aslo have the facility to get a restricted amount of e-mail and important weather information through SSB (Single side Band Radio which can tune in over thousands of miles). We have SSB but no internet facility.

Big seas first day

During my first off watch that night I was awoken (that is if you call the kind of 'dozy 'in-and-out muzzyness' on a bucking bronco sleep) by being covered in sugar (and I thought I was sweet enough). Now this was not some sort of erotic ritual, no, there was Keith with an empty sugar tub in his hand sitting on the floor with his back against the chart table next to were I was sleeping. He had been thrown across the saloon while making a cup of tea. He felt fine and not worse-for-wear and with a muttering I changed over to the starboard bunk as sleeping on sugar is not what they might tell you in a certain type of magazine!

4 hours later when Keith went to the loo his urine was the colour of red wine (and no, he hadn't touched the stuff!) This was very alarming and after taking an age to contact the US coastguard to get medical advice through the SSB radio we were finally advised to turn back by a doctor as this could be any number of things, some minor, some serious. When you are 120 uncomfortable miles and nearly 24 hours into an 850 mile passage it is a hard decision to make, especially as Spruce were insisiting on turning back with us in case Keith took a turn for the worse and I would be left looking after him and the boat.

So, almost 24 more unfomfortable hours later (and no symptoms other than the bood from Keith) we arrived back in Tortolla with Spruce. Keith got prompt and excellent treatment from the hospital that day with an ultra sound scan and other investigation pronouncing that he has burst a cyst on his kidney when he landed against the chart table, but this was not a worry and they gave him antibiotics and sent him on his way with a clean bill of health.

The walking wounded at the hospital in Tortolla



Thanking Andy and Sue from Spruce in Tortolla


The weather was not right the next day so the following day (Monday 17 May) we set sail for Bermuda once again in tandem with the admirable Sprucettes in anticipation of arriving 7 days later at our specified destination.

BVI to Bermuda (2nd Attempt)

Day 1-2
Excellent weather. 20-25k winds out of the east and stonking along, the sea is much flatter than the previous attempt and we caught a fish (although again it was barracuda which liberated intself along with one of Keith's fancy lure's as we got it to the boat. Keith was annoyed but not half so annoyed as the barracuda swimming around with a big hook in its mouth and a pink fluffy lure hanging off it I'd say! Won't do anything for it's street cred I'm sure.



The lucky (or unlucky) barracuda


Our first 24 hours run was a whopping 142.5 miles, the most we have ever achieved. Dare we think we might even make it in less than 7 days (no, cos like they say, anything can happen at sea!)

Day 3
Winds a nice steady 18-20 knots from the the east and doing famously with Spruce around 5 miles away. Settling in nicely to our passage.

Me looking cool.......I mean keeping cool!

Every day at 1600hrs we listen in on SSB radio to a weather forecaster from Canada who is renowned for giving good weather info (his name is Herb who is something of a legend). He tells us that there is a tropical depression forming over the Bahamas and making its way towards Bermuda arriving in that vacinity on Sunday (the day we hoped to reach Bermuda). It would give us 35-45k winds (gale to storm force, not good in the open ocean).

Receiving weather information

Do we run for Bermuda and hope we can beat the depression by Sunday, or slow down and arrive when it has moved off to the northwest predicted Tuesday?? Herbs advice was to slow down as getting caught in a tropical depression is pretty nasty and will pull us further north towards Bermuda which will be a dangerous place to be in that weather. With a heavy heart we put 2 reefs in the main, reduced the gib to a handkerchief size, and slowed down from 6+ knots to 3 knots.

Came up near to Spruce and toasted the fact that we had just crossed the tropic of Cancer at 23 degrees 26 mins north, be it slower than intended (an excuse for double sundowners!)

A frustratingly slow night even with force 4-5 winds. Rapau is rolling in the swell like a pig in a barrel as we are going so slow.

Day 4
Another slow day while we wait for Herb's forecast at 1600hrs.

Herbs advice........to turn back to below 24 degrees noth (bermuda is at 32 degrees north) or we will get sucked into the edge of the tropical depression. So we have now turned around and started heading south again (for the second time in a week we have been heading in the wrong direction to Bermuda!)

Day 5
Lots of rain and pretty miserable as we make our way at about 1 knot south, still going the wrong way.

Spruce on turning back south


Listened to Herb at 1600hrs, we must get south of 23 degrees now he says. We now have a steady 21-24k of wind with gust of 28-29 and are reefed right down.

Crossed the Tropic of Cancer again (going the wrong way) so another excuse to have a double sundowner.

Day 6
Keith's birthday (another double sundowner day).

Keith and his birthday cake


During the morning watch we had incredible rain squalls with 35k (gale force) gusts followed by times of eerie quiet before the next squall came through. Conferred with Spruce on the radio and decided to heave to (stop were we are for you non nautical types). (We are now around 120 miles back from where we turned around).

Hove to in the squalls

Cooked a special breakfast and made a cake for Keiths birthday, even made a curry with a tin of ham (not quite the Indian he prefers but beggars can't be choosers as they say).

And then the toilet broke!! (nothing to do with the curry). Keith spent all afternoon trying to work out the reason/blockage/pump problem, but all efforts failed.

Herb says to stay put and maybe start to move slowly north east tomorrow afternoon to stay behind the tropical depresesion. (It's not that Rapau couldn't handle such a storm, in fact she has looked after us incredibly well. But we don't want to put ourselves through such an uncomfortable time if we can help it).

Day 7
Spent the night hove mainly to stop ourselves going back too far south before we can continue northwards. Wind seems to have died to nothing this morning. Decided to motor very slowly towards the north again.

Did a transfer at sea with Spruce.They threw over a bag on a line containing some rods for the toilet pipes (nice). Keith spent all afternoon again on the toilet (well fixing it not actually ON it). No joy, so have to bucket-and-chuck-it until Bermuda now. (This procedure is made especially difficult on a rolling boat. The bucket is in the heads, you cannot sit on the bucket as you will fall in it. So you have to hold on to stop falling over while nature takes its course. Then you have to negotiate the ladder into the cockpit with your bucket trying not to slop any of its contents as the boat rolls and jerks around. Then you have to climb out of the cockpit and make sure you throw it over the right side of the boat if you don't want to see it again!)

Listened to Herb at 1600hrs. He says we need to stay where we are and not move north till tomorrow. Hove to again for the night.

Made bread (long ran out of fresh stuff now, especially as we have no fridge except when motoring).

Day 8
A heavy rain squall went through during the night with 28-30k winds. A very overcast and drizzly day. Moving slowly north again with 1 reef and a poled out genoa (feeling the cold, can't believe how quickly the temperature has cooled since we left the Caribbean).

Lifting one's head above the parapet!

Crossed the tropic of Cancer for the 3rd time! (Going in the right direction this time. (Double sundowners).

Day 9

Very overcast day. Convection thunder storms going on all around us in the afternoon. Trying to dodge around the storm cells as we can see them ahead. Suddenly got caught in one, lightening all around and 30-35k winds under it. Battled to get a 3rd reef in the main and shorten the genoa. Put essential handheld GPS etc in a tin box in the oven in case of lightening strike which could take out all our electrics. Saw a water spout up ahead and definitely dodged that one!

Water spout in the distance (the wirlwind of water being sucked up in the centre of the picture).

Then wind died again. Back on engine.

Day 11
Saw a ship this morning, first one for about a week. Still going north towords Bermuda thankfully!

Getting the cruising chute out

Having no luck with our fishing sadly. Made bread.

Our Val's birthday, excuse for double sundowners!

Day 12

Lovely morning but not enough wind. Having bouts of sailing and motoring as have to keep up speed to make the waypoint before the winds go NW. Quite close to Spruce this morning.

Different story in afternoon. Came into area of very black ugly looking cloud and found ourselves in thunder storms again for an hour.

Had an amazing dolphin show early evening. Dozens of Atlantic spotted dolphins jumping and flipping all around the boat. Brilliant!

Dozens of dolphins

Dolphins doing tricks!

Had to leave the dolphins (who stayed with us for well over an hour) to go and reef down to 3 reefs as we came into a black hole! We were suddenly getting hit by 35-40k winds (gale to severe gale force), the sea was building into nasty huge waves breaking and hitting us. It was difficult to steer and even see so we decided to heave to while it went through. Radio'ed Spruce who were still sailing some miles ahead of us, but they had just lost there wind steering vane and they too had hove to.

Black hole ahead

It soon became clear that we were stuck in a pressure gradient caused by a high pressure coming up against a low pressure system. We made a plan to talk to Spruce every hour on SSB radio as we were moving out of VHF range as we drifted a lot faster while hove to than Spruce did. We were making over 1knot to the SE and the motion was not too bad apart from being smashed by a huge wave every now and again on the side and pushing us over (but good old Rapau looking after us admirably, we always felt safe in her).

The storm raged for quite a few hours and we dozed in full foulies and life jackets for the night checking in with Spruce (who were doing the same) every hour. In the early morning the winds seem to have moderated a little and we set sail again at 0630hrs in 25k winds (though the seas were still very big). Spruce were now 14 miles away from us.

So, 'it was a dark and stormy night' and Keith said he prefered the other 'dark and stormy night' we had at the Antigua yacht club were we drank complimetary dark and stormies (rum and ginger) during the classic yacht regatta! Must say I agree with him. We had drifted 17 miles to the South so were going BACKWARDS AGAIN!!!

Day 13
The seas were still confused and lumpy, but later in the day they flattened out and we had a quiet night sailing TOWARDS our destination. We did a transfer at sea of diesel with Spruce a few miles away from Bermuda as we were worried we might run out of diesel at a critical moment (with the reefs around Bermuda you do not want to do that).

Finally sailed into St Georges Harbour, Bermuda on a beautiful windless sunny morning 30 May 2010 at our longed for destination. The toilet did not work, the fresh water pumping stystem had stopped working (we still had water in containers though)......but we were there. We had done 1,180 nautical miles for a 850 mile passage!!

One thing it has taught us is that you must always provision for a lot longer than your anticipated passage time, and always use water very sparingly in case it needs to last you much longer than you thought (not that we ran out of any of these but a good lesson all the same).

ANTIGUA, ST MARTIN, BRITISH VIRGIN ISLANDS

Antigua (Falmouth Bay)

Keith on rainy journey

Arrived in Falmouth Bay, Antigua as the rain finally stopped after an 8 hour passage mostly in rain. Antigua turned out to be the social centre of the universe in a week which was to host the Antigua Classic Yacht Regatta (also the most hangovers no doubt!) We intended to stay only a week at the most, but the build up to Classic week was great, seeing all the beautiful classic boats arrive and also a lot of people like ourselves we had met along the way led us to extend our stay another week.

There were countless parties and events which involved free alcohol and sometimes free food that it was not to be missed. We socialised with many of the friends we had met along the way, and explored English Harbour which has a fascinating renovated area known as Nelson's dockyard which is a fine example of the dockyard during nelson's time when he was in charge here in the late 17 hundreds.

An 18th Centuary naval building turned into a hotel in Nelson's Dockyard

Old Capstan and cannon in Nelson's dockyard

View over Nelson's Dockyard from Shirley Heights

Some socialising during Classic Week

Sue and John amuse us on board Spruce


Going out to watch the classics on Alleria


On one of the 4 race days we were invited out for a sail on Alleria (Doria and Alex's 58 foot yacht) it was amazing to watch the big J Class yachts (including Velsheda that used to be rotting in Gosport some 20 years ago) now in all their spendour, and smaller classic boats all looking wonderful. One of the smaller boats was Guiding light a 1936 wooden boat skippered by a

single-hander, fellow Scouse called Roy in his 60's whom we had met in St Lucia. He cried when he won several of the trophies whithin his class including one for the best maintained and equipped boat within the class.

Some lovely classic boats

The beautiful J Class yacht Velsheda

We also had an invitation to the Antigua Royal Navy Tot club which is an organisation which commemorates the days of the tot in the Royal Navy. They meet EVERY evening and toast the queen with a tot of rum (1/8 of a pint) at 18.00hrs! Gavin (my friend at home who is a member ) got us an invitation, we had the toast plus mismusters (did it again) as one of the members had become a grandparent. This was followed by much socialising again! Can't see that we could do that every night! (They also help with community projects especially those connected to Nelson's dockyard, so not just a drinking club............well that is the theory!)

St Martin

View over Marigot Bay from Fort Louis

Finally escaped Antigua while our liver's were still alive, though with regret at leaving our friends. We sailed overnight to St Martin, or rather motored as there was no wind at all. The brisk trade winds which are such a characteristic of this area are unusually lacking this year.

We anchored in Marigot Bay on the French side (the island is split between France and Holland) and our stay was mostly a 'get jobs done' stay. We fitted new batteries, shopped for provisions for the coming Atlantic crossing and spent hours scrubbing the bottom of the boat again. We couldn't believe how many families of marine organisms had taken hold of the hull! There were massive colonies of all variety of growth.

British Virgin Islands (BVI's)

Sunset en-route to BVI's

We sailed overnight to the British Virgin Islands arriving in Spanish Town, Virgin Gorda. On the way we caught a very irrate Barracuda about 5lbs weight with the biggest teeth! There is a fish poisoning called ciguatera poisoning here and Barracuda is high on the list of probably suspects for this, so despite its big teeth Keith took his life (or his fingers) in his hands as he tried to get it off the hook and set it free!

The irrate barracuda (note it's teeth!)

Rapau and Spruce at The Baths, Virgin Gorda

Stingray at The Baths

Anagada (BVI's)

Deserted beaches of Anagada

Anagada is a little island in the north of the BVI's with a population of around 250. the beaches were deserted and there were few peoople in the anchorage (it is fringed with death defiying reefs so sailing in takes some concentration!). We were in the anchorage with our freinds Andy and Sue off the yacht Spruce so we hired a jeep together so we could get over to the north part and snorkel Lolbolly Bay renowned for its fish life. We also got to see the wild flamingo's at a salt lake in the centre of the island.

Underwater at Lolbolly Bay

Lovely corals Lolbolly Bay

Us with Andy and Sue from Spruce in Anagada


Tortolla (BVI's)

Road Town is the capital of Tortolla the largest island in the BVI's. We came here to provision for the Atlantic crossing. The original plan was that Pete, with Dan a member of our sailing club, meet us here and we leave for the 2,500 crossing to the Azores at the beginning of May.

Unfortunately Pete cannot make it till early June now which will be too late as it will take us into the hurricane season, so Keith and I will sail the 800 miles north to Bermuda were Pete and Dan will meet us for the rest of the crossing to the Azores. It is then very important that we get out of Bermuda by the end of May or very early June to escape the hurricane belt before the hurricane season begins. This year the hurricane season is predicted to be earlier and fiercer than usual becasuse of the hight sea tempereature which is one of the factors involved in the building of a hurricane.

So our plan was to leave the Caribbean this week but the weather is looking better towards the end of the week. So as I write this the plan is to leave the BVI's for the 800 mile crossing to Bermuda around 14 May so we should reach Bermuda around 8 day later.