Transatlantic: Day 1 [Day 22]

After being in Bermuda for a few days, the weather improved and we were ready to leave the island chain and venture out into the ocean once again.

Leaving Bermuda was a bit of a production. First, you have to get everything ready to go before you check out of the country. Once you clear out, you have 60 minutes to leave their waters!

The issue is we needed to raise and dismantle our anchor, deflate the dinghy, remove the outboard, as well as all the regular “setting the sails” activities to leave. To accomplish this, we set the stern anchor with its rope rode and retrieved the main bow anchor. Once the bow anchor was unbolted and disassembled (and stowed) we could then begin to get everything except the dinghy ready to go.

After everything was complete and we were laying to our stern anchor (fed around to the bow chock), i then went to shore to clear out. Upon return, I deflated Sophia in record time so that we could vacate the anchorage and avoid a hefty fine for overstaying after checking out.

It was a lot of hassle and hurry, and then we were out in the ocean sailing away without any cares. Ocean crossing is so much more relaxing once you are out there!

Talk is cheap, why pay for it?

Cruising is awesome! It takes you to new places that you never even dreamed of experiencing. You wake up in a new land every time you set sail, and you get to choose where you want to go next. This feeling of complete freedom is quite nice, until you decide you want to communicate with your family and friends from places you have long since left.

The moment you travel to a new country, every call to your homeland will be a long distance call. When you begin making friends in all the countries you visit, calling each of them will also be long distance. Long distance calls, especially when you are roaming is insanely expensive! What if you could do this all for free?

WhatsApp is a free app that uses data to do a voice call and texting. Is data free? Sometimes.

If you are on roaming data, it will be very expensive to use WhatsApp. If you get on a free WiFi, then all your interactions on WhatsApp will be free!

The calls can be long and the text messages numerous, but you won’t have to pay a cent!

When we head out to sea, we put our phones on Airplane mode and leave them there until we are back in our homeland. While out, we simply get free WiFi from cafes and restaurants. When we get online, all our messages come in and we can make calls as needed. When we leave the WiFi spot, our phones go silent once again (which is actually a very nice thing). There are no random calls in the middle of the night that could wake you from your sleep, or someone texting you early in the morning.

You are in a different country and nothing could happen that needs your immediate attention. But what if one of your new local friends wants to hang out? Well, they can always knock on the hull and talk to us like normal people would. The dinghy tied to the boat is a great clue to anyone wondering if we are on the boat or on shore. If the dinghy is with the boat, come on over because we are home, if the dinghy is not at the boat, give us a call, we might have WiFi.

WhatsApp is one of those great features of a smartphone, allowing you the connectivity to your friends and family without all the cost of these conveniences. Next time you travel overseas (by plane or boat) give this app a try and enjoy the freedom of communication!

Waking up in Bermuda

Bermuda seemed like a dream of a harbor. The high cliff walls blocked the wind and the narrow pass into the harbor kept all the seas at bay. We were anchored in a little oasis in the middle of the ocean.

Once we were anchored, I went to sleep with strict orders to everyone else not to wake me. I laid the staysail and jib over the forward hatch to completely block out any sunlight from entering the V-berth (yet another advantage of tanbark sails, they make excellent blackout curtains on a boat) and went to sleep.

A sleep that would not be interrupted by weather, watch schedules, or navigation. A sleep that would last as long as I desired, as long as I needed, as long as I wanted.

Aside from the magical sleep, was waking up to this scenery around us. For the past three weeks, the view from the cockpit when I would wake up was the image below.

Sails would be set, the sun would be out on the horizon, and we would be completely alone. All of a sudden, we are surrounded by other boat, and most of all, civilization!

Anchoring in St. George’s Harbor is exactly what we needed to give us a rest from the voyage and let us recharge our personal batteries.

Soon, the stopover in Bermuda will feel like a distant memory, for we will once again return to the vast empty horizon of the open ocean, but this time without our crew member. It will just be Maddie and me, alone on our floating home, traveling across the great blue ocean.

DAN Boater: Handling a Dental Emergency

DAN Boater contacted me to be a resource for their new article on dental emergency treatment and management.

https://danboater.org/travel-health-and-safety/how-to-be-prepared-for-dental-emergencies-at-sea.html

Check out the very in-depth article they wrote up on how to handle the a tooth situation gone awry! 

Transatlantic: Voyage to Bermuda

Overall, the trip to Bermuda was rather calm and slow. The whole voyage took 21 days, but it should only have taken 5 to 7 days.

The distance from West Palm Beach to Bermuda is about 876 nautical miles. We sailed a grand total of 1313.49 nautical miles, a full 437 additional miles, and at an average speed of 2.58 knots.

This was slow.

We left at the wrong time and missed the opportunity to use the Gulf Stream to our advantage, we hid far south as we waited for bad weather up north to clear up, then made our way up once everything normalized. We left when we did because we were trying to please our crew member. All this did was agitate him since he imagined us sailing along at a steady 4.5 knots and covering 100 nautical miles per day. Needless to say, leaving at the wrong time and then getting caught with no wind did not help his mood on the voyage.

Looking back, things we would have done differently are as follows

• Don’t have crew

• If you want to have crew, don’t ever let them call the shots because there is no going back

• Leave when the weather is good

• Enjoy where you are while you are there

Talking with other boats in Bermuda, it appears that everywhere had these problems. A power boat motored up from the Bahamas and had glass like seas and a wonderful time. A racing sailboat that planned to sail from Norfolk, VA to Bermuda in 2 days (that is correct, 2 days) left after the gales had passed and it took them 10 days of motoring!

If the weather is going to be slow, take your time and enjoy where you are while you are there!