FROM U.S.A TO BERMUDA

We are pleased to have reached Bermuda on our travels. The island of the limitless horizon and mostly balmy winds and sunshine. We are lucky to be the house guests of Dick and Neil Kempe, who we first met 25 years ago whilst IOD sailing here. They are also hosting Atlantia, who is floating gently at a finger berth within feet of the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club veranda.

It is good to be so cosseted after some of the weather and trials and tribulations since we left Oyster Bay on Long Island. Before departure however we visited the Sewanhanka Yacht Club with Timmy Larr.

After we left there, Will carried out a brief consultancy at the request of the SUNY Maritime College, and gave some advice on floating breakwaters and pontoon fixings, which seemed to be of assistance. He nearly wanted to go back to work again, but New York beckoned and we moored at the 79th Street Marina in the dark, losing two boat hooks on the buoy with non existing pennants, trying to hook a half metre loop in a three knot tide! Margaret eventually hooked us to the last available buoy, by the use of the brush to pick up the pennant and bring it aboard!

We met Kevin and Lynne for lunch and went to Sardi’s in the theatre district. It is a little like Cosmo’s in Edinburgh, only much larger. Around the walls are hundreds of ten inch square caricatures of famous actors, actresses and T.V. personalities. In the theatre world of New York, if you haven’t got your picture in Sardi’s you don’t exist. Kevin you remember crossed the Atlantic with us a year ago and he agreed to join us again for our trip to Bermuda. We have had four or five really good crew in our sailing career. He is one of them. We agreed to meet up again when we left Norfolk, Virginia .

We tried to get a seat at the production of ‘Spamalot’, the new Terry Gwillain / Eric Idle spoof and a follow on to Monty Python. Regrettably it was sold out and there was even a queue for returned tickets, so there wasn’t much joy there. We cheered ourselves up by buying two new boat hooks from West Marine, Manhattan. West Marine is a large chain chandlery group and we have found them to be close by almost everywhere that we have been on the East Coast of the United States. They are always courteous and often have the item we require in stock. If not they have it shipped in the next day by Fedex, for a large fee of course! The problem with cruising, is that we are not long enough in any one place to wait for parts, so we pay for delivery. The readouts on the new instruments are much clearer than the old ones, which is certainly good at night, especially using the depth sounder coming into strange and new harbours . . The two of us left New York and sailed down to Sandy Hook in a brisk North Wester. There were little white horses by the time we reached our anchorage at Atlantic Highlands. We anchored safely behind the harbour wall. We watched a tug set out in the evening light.

There was a strong North Easterly forecast for the following night, and since the anchorage was exposed to the North East, we took a trip of about sixty miles South to Barnegat Inlet. We had anchored there on the way up and had thought it looked similar to the scenery in the film ‘jaws’ with it’s sand dunes and flat marshes and prominent lighthouse.

We anchored in Meyers hole together with a Canadian Yacht, which had two children on board, and an American Catamaran. Although the wind blew fifty knots the anchor held well. We also had a small amount of mizzen up to keep Atlantia from yawing about in the gusts. Everything was fine until around 5.30 the next morning, when Will was keeping an anchor watch. The tide was ebbing and it is possible that the aft end of the keel touched the bottom. The result was that the bow blew away from the anchor, putting us broadside to the wind and causing the anchor to drag slightly. Since it was very dark, we had no real idea of whether we were dragging or not, but the depth sounder indicated zero depth beneath the keel. We fired the engine up and started to pull up the anchor. Regrettably the engine decided at that moment to cut out. Something it hadn’t done for over a year. Will tried it again, and again it died. We put the anchor back down and Margaret wondered why we were heading for the beach. Nothing could be heard above the wind noise, so she hadn’t heard the motor stop, just the order to put the anchor back down again! The result was that we sailed up the beach., with the mizzen still set, driving us on. We stayed like that until late morning, bumping gently on soft sand with the occasional wave breaking over us. Fortunately we were far enough away from the catamaran, which had also dragged her anchor and landed on the beach. The inlet is very shallow and usually only ruffled by the wash from motor boats. We were amazed at how rough it became in the force ten breeze. We had prudently become members of Tow Boat US ( a sort of sea borne AA) when we were at Annapolis on our way North, and they were now able to help us in a tricky situation. They towed us off nicely and out to a better anchoring spot, but not until a slight tie up with the anchor and the towing line had been unravelled. Will discovered a great deal of dirt in the fuel line and this had caused the engine to die at the critical time. It was soon sorted and although we were storm bound for one more day, there were no more immediate problems.

We motored on a nice calm day past Atlantic City, where we had been fog bound on the way North. We motored on to Cape May and again entered the inlet to a safe anchorage off the Coastguard station. The inlets are very similar to those on the West Coast of Portugal, where the rivers are trained between rubble breakwaters well into the sea. There seem to be about the same number of small fishing boats littering the channel in our way, and only scattering just before our approach.

Although we had managed to fix the heater, the outlet had decided in the storm to detach itself from the machine itself. This caused very hot air to enter the engine room, which caused the automatic fire extinguisher to go off, spraying white powder everywhere. It was quite a mess to clean up, but we set to and spring cleaned the whole inside from stem to stern. Sparkling it looked.

Further problems occurred the following day on our way to Ocean City. The engine blew all it’s fuel filter gaskets, and we eventually had to give up trying to fix it, and once again Tow Boat US took us in tow. This time the short distance through the Ocean City inlet to the White Marlin Marina.

It took three days to have the engine fixed. The problem was a valve in the return fuel line, which had seized. The marina was most accommodating during our stay, allowing us to berth alongside the fuel berth, the whole time we were there. (for payment at $1.50 a foot per night).

Ocean City is composed of four long streets along a sand dune, covered with hotels. It stretches for about ten miles. We know the distance because we erected our folding bikes and cycled the full length of the town. Although it has a boardwalk on the beach, unlike Atlantic City it has no casinos. There are plenty of popcorn stalls though and probably the worlds ugliest building which calls itself an art gallery.

There had been a Harley Davidson convention in Ocean City the previous month with 2500 bikers attending. The town in summer is choc a block with cars and people, so we were told, but now it looked like a Victorian seaside town, with deserted streets and shut up shops, staring blank eyed at two children flying kites on the endless beach.

Fortunately the weather was kinder to us than it had been previously, and, engine fixed, we motor sailed (fingers crossed) to a deserted spot on the coast, called Wachapreague inlet. There were nothing but marshes and scrublands here. We watched skeines of geese flying South for the winter, but this time heard no wild fowlers. The location was probably too remote.

Round the corner into Chesapeake Bay the following day, we hit a hugely adverse tide going under the bridge, part of the Chesapeake bridge/tunnel, which is about four miles long and has a toll of ten dollars to cross. We had the mainsail, mizzen and genoa up on a broad reach and the engine going, but were still only making four knots over the land, but eight knots through the water!

We arrived at our destination, York River Yacht Haven about eight o’clock that night at about high tide. This was just as well, since we only had a foot of water under the keel entering the marina. The yard was extremely efficient in taking Atlantia out of the water the next day and replacing two seacocks and the dolphin striker which had been damaged in the storm. We also replaced a bolt in the sayes rig outrigger from the rudder, and scrapped off a few barnacles that had gathered on the ground plate and waterline. The hull was undamaged following the grounding in Barnegat Inlet.

We hired a car and motored 150 miles to Washington DC to pick up Kevin and also Scott Lee who had flown from Scotland to also help us to Bermuda. At last we saw the fall in the United States. The colours were spectacular with the sugar maples providing vivid reds amongst the yellows and greens. The varied colours lasted for almost the whole way to Washington, where both Kevin and Scott were outside the Smithsonian Castle at the arranged time.

The York River Yacht Haven had been recommended to us by our friends Bob and Cheryl of Calypso, who had their boat close by at Hampton Roads. We had previously met them in Washington D.C. and were delighted to meet up with them again at York River. They kindly gave us a CD of Captain Ron, which is a film about a family sailing their Formosa 51 ketch in the Caribbean. It features Kurt Russell and is very amusing.

We left York River for Norfolk at midnight and had a lovely night sail down the Chesapeake bay. We reached Norfolk, Virginia to book out of customs for our sail to Bermuda. Customs couldn’t have been nicer and wished us to return again soon.

We were very sad to leave the United States. We met so many nice people there, who were helpful, hospitable and courteous. We just hope that American sailors are received as well in Britain. Despite the wayward leadership (as in Britain), the people seem to be hard working and generally content with their lives. The church seems to play more of a part in peoples lives than in Britain, so it is surprising that the people did not have more influence on warmongers. We did not meet a single person who supported or could justify the war in Iraq and most apologised for its existence. The countryside we visited was beautiful and expansive, although there is no doubt that the car rules the American way of life. How did they cope before Henry Ford! Kevin who crews with us works as an architect in New Jersey and far prefers working in the States to Scotland. We don’t blame him. Scott has called Will a yankophile and he is probably correct. Converted like Saul on the road to Damascus.

The weather on the way to Bermuda was calm for the first two days. We watched a hundred dolphins (Atlantic spotted variety) leaping and frolicking across the calm sea to play on our bow wash.

We weren’t so fortunate for the next two days, since a cold front blew over the top of us, creating gusts of forty knots and seas of fifteen feet with breaking tops. Having said that we thoroughly enjoyed sailing down the waves with fully reefed main and no other sail. We were quite pleased though when the front went through and the wind abated slightly.

We anchored in St Georges harbour in the middle of the night, having traversed the cut in the reef using the chart plotter and the new radar, very useful tools. The anchorage is very safe and the customs man was extremely pleasant and helpful. We were pleased to meet Bill Barr there from Songbird, another friend we made during our trip to Washington D.C. He also is making his way South, probably single handedly.

We hired scooters for a trip round the island and Kevin piloted Margaret whilst Will piloted Scott.

The island is as beautiful as ever with hibiscus and oleander flowers abounding.

The sea is turquoise and inviting and we had a swim in Church Bay and watched the parrot fish playing around the reef.

There is even an occasional seahorse in Harrington Sound.

Flamingos can be found at the Zoo.

Horseshoe bay is another favourite spot for us.

Martha and Malcolm Kirkland kindly gave us dinner one night. Malcolm is the director of the Bermuda Sloop Trust. We had been fortunate enough to see the trust’s boat being constructed up in Maine whilst we were there, so it was interesting to meet the trust’s director and hear more about the boat and it’s concept.

We were sad to lose Kevin and Scott, since it looks as though it will be two of us for the voyage to Antigua. We anticipate it will take eight days, once the weather turns in our favour, which should be at the end of the week. Everybody has been very kind to us here and we are recuperating well from our voyage here and are building up for our voyage to Antigua. Bill and Linda Pollett helped to build us up very well with an excellent roast beef dinner last Sunday. Bill used to crew for us in IODs fifteen years ago, and now has a delightful wife and young family here in Bermuda.

Meantime we are still enjoying Neil and Dick’s fabulous hospitality at their hilltop home, looking both North and South over the ocean.

We enclose some more snaps taken en route. We hope you like them

The longtail is Bermuda’s national bird.

. Love Atlantia