Days 2-3, 9-10/6/24

This is a bit rushed due to little sun today snd therefore have to limit Starlink usage, so apologies for inevitable typos...

The grib I downloaded yesterday (9/6) and Windy were in broad alignment and indicated we would encounter light winds tomorrow (11/6) to be followed by a depression forming to the west and tracking east. It showed as being narrow around a roughly north/south axis, and must be part of the reason the weather route showed such an extreme diversion to the east. The important thing is that we try and leave the centre to our west so that we benefit from southerly winds rather than the northerlies that will stream down its western flank. We therefore headed roughly NNE yesterday afternoon under goosewinged genoa and mainsail. 

Later a passing ship provided the opportunity to practise using the radar, an instrument I've hardly ever used but which hopefully will prove useful in the notoriously foggy waters off Nova Scotia.

The earlier forecast showed the wind picking up over night up to around 20 knots in the early hours of this morning (10/6). After our omelette dinner and just before nightfall, I therefore put a reef in the mainsail. The wind did indeed pick up and it wasn't long before we were scudding along at 5-6 knots. It continued to increase overnight increasing our speed to 6-7 knots. Eventually, around 0100 a series of banging noises caused by the genoa sheets flogging, emphasised the need to reduce sail further. The sheets were flogging because the genoa was collapsing and filling, which in turn was caused by the wind pressure on the mainsail forcing the bow towards the wind until the Hydrovane got the boat back on track. I already knew we were over canvassed and spent most of the first part of the night awake worrying about it, but hoping the wind would die a little. It didn't of course.

Time to reef again! First I had to shake Vince awake - he can sleep through anything - and get him strapped into the cockpit. Then I went up to the mast and strapped myself to it, and went through Tom Cuncliffe's down wind reefing routine. My goodness I'm so glad I stumbled across it. It's a game changing process. Previously I would have had to roll up the genoa, head up into the wind in a lumpy sea. Reef. Turn back down wind and then reset the genoa. A time consuming and very wet and uncomfortable process. Instead, I simply took the slack out of the topping lift to lock the boom in place against the opposing tension from the sheet and preventer, slacken the lazy lines, slacken the main halyard, haul in the reefing pennants, then the throat of the sail, and complete the reefing process as normal but from the 'comfort' of a dry foredeck. Twenty minutes later rather than an hour and a half,  I was back in the cockpit to take in a few rolls on the genoa for good measure. Then back to bed!

If anything the wind increased further over night and so it was definitely the right decision. I dozed in fits and starts throughout the rest of the night and early daylight hours until a strange engine-like noise got me up to investigate. I thought it might be an aeroplane but it was just the water pump - Vince was having a shower!

Breakfast was toast and coffee including losing a dose of freshly frothed lactose free milk for Vince down the sink. I got grumpy again!

Another ship passed giving a further  opportunity to play with the radar. I'm quite impressed with it. That made me miss recording the 1200 position by 30 minutes!  However, we had covered 129 nautical miles over the last 24.5 hours, which isn't bad given that we only started hitting 5 knots about 9 hours into the 24.

I'm hoping the next grib will not suggest the need for a big diversion like the last one did, but you won't find out until tomorrow in the next post - assuming that Starlink continues to cooperate.

Bermuda to Nova Scotia: Days 1-2, 8-9/6/24

We exited the Town Cut just after 1100 and headed north east to the "Mills" Easterly Cardinal buoy and then turned north for Lunnenberg, some 780 nautical miles to the north. 

The wind was light from the south and so while Vince steered, I spent an hour or so setting up a pole to starboard to boom out the genoa, only to find that by the time I'd finished the wind had veered south west (as forecast) which meant that I needed a pole to port not starboard and so had to spend another hour plus setting up the other pole! 

Needless to say this made me rather grumpy. However, by around 1300 we were finally rigged appropriately and making around 4 knots in the light south westerly wind.

The wind stayed reasonably constant over the following 24 hours, sometimes backing and sometimes veering, requiring the Hydrovane to be adjusted and the genoa swapped from port to starboard over the rest of the day and throughout the night.

We kept Starlink on until the solar panels couldn't keep up with the drain, which, on a cloudy afternoon, was at about 1600.

One reason was to check whether I had received a message from the Yellowbrick support team. I had discovered that the tracker was not able to receive or send messages, although it still sends position reports. It's not a major disaster given I now have Starlink, but that may prove unreliable in rough weather when the boat moves around a lot, and so I had anticipated that I would be able to communicate with Mick back at base camp via the YB to request and receive text weather reports. They have been pretty good at responding in the past and so it's rather disappointing that they haven't done so yet. Hopefully, I will get a reply later when Starlink goes on (once the batteries are fully charged).

Dinner comprised burgers, potatoes and broccoli which we managed to consume despite our bowls doing their best to slide off the table as the boat rolled from side to side. It was a bit like that famous Charlie Chaplin scene with him eating dinner on a rolling cruise liner!

Just after dusk we heard a loud bang and noticed that the preventer on the main boom was slack. I went up to the bow to investigate and found the swivel shackle attaching the block to through which the preventer line ran to the stem head, had broken apart. A good job it went then really and not at the height of a gale! It was a relatively straightforward job to replace the swivel with a standard shackle.

Given we were in a quiet part of the ocean and that I didn't expect to sleep very well on the first night I gave Vince the night off and set my alarm to 'wake' me every hour.

Rather to my surprise the AIS alarm woke me around 0100 as a tanker crossed our heading from west to east. That kept me up for a couple of hours while I made sure she would miss us. She eventually crossed our bow about a mile off which is a pretty standard 'safe distance' adopted by the more considerate of commercial vessels and so I was pretty sure she had seen us.

Then back to bed for more dozing time.

We had breakfast of muesli and fruit at around 1000 and then I dozed some more before recording our noon position which conveniently was 24 hours after taking our departure from the Mills buoy. We had covered 101 nautical miles! Perhaps this will be the first time in a long time that I follow the traditional practice of recording our noon position every day. This originated in the days when everyone navigated oceans by sextant and took a noon sight and a running fix to determine the ship's position. Local noon was chosen because that was when the sun was at its highest and so enabled a relatively easy calculation to determine one's latitude.

Vince taking cover from the midday sun...

Countdown to departure

This morning (Friday 7/6/24) I ran the weather routing software based on a departure time of 0900 tomorrow morning (Saturday 8th June). The result shown above, requires some explanation and a lot of qualification.

In theory any boat performs predictably in defined conditions. Performance is a product of the boat's vital statistics - length, depth, sail area, shape, weight etc, etc and the conditions faced at sea - relative wind direction, strength, waves and swell. 

These weather related factors are contained in 'grib' files that can be downloaded over the internet. They are created by complex computer algorithms and of course, different algorithms (models) can give different results. Sometimes these results can be very different and that's what I was finding last week. So when that happens one needs to be cautious - especially if one predicts bad weather and another doesn't. The other thing to bear in mind is that the further into the future the model looks, the less reliable the forecast. Not surprising really.

Now then, in addition to grib files, there are computerised files that predict the performance of one's boat. For many modern boats, these files have been built by professionals who, supposedly know what they're doing. However, for older, little known boats, like the Biscay 36, which is what Bonny is, they aren't available. All is not lost though. One can either use one for a similar boat, or adapt one, or build one, oneself. That's not nearly as clever as it sounds though, one just needs to populate a table with wind speed on one axis and boat speed on the other. Once one has a pretty good feeling for how the boat performs in various conditions (plus guess work for the nasty bits) it's straightforward but it's a big table and so takes ages.

That's why it was only after trying the other options and testing them out on my trusty Raspberry Pi (computer) that I finally decided to build my own. The problem with the other options was that even when based on pretty similar boats, they predicted performance that I knew Bonny would never be capable of, nor I suspected, would the original boat. For example, I don't know of any cruising boat of a similar size that's capable of sailing at 6 knots at an apparent angle of 35° in an apparent 35 knot wind! It just doesn't happen. But if your computer 'thinks' it does, it will give you some very spurious results. That's even before taking account of the weather not being as forecast and the crew being reluctant to sail like professional ocean racers!

So, as I say, I built my own using what I hoped were far more realistic performance indicators and that's what produced the result above, once it and the grib file were run through the weather routing software. 

Returning to the graphic; the thick green line and the blue arrows with feathers studded along its length, are the key features. The line is the recommended route and the blue arrows indicate the direction and strength of the wind the boat is predicted to encounter en route. There's also a clever little gizmo marker (not shown) that one can move along the route with a mouse, to see where on the route, the boat should be at any given time. Of course, one has still got to sail the boat! The computer can't do that, thank goodness!

Frankly, I still don't believe it, but we'll see. I'll run it again in the morning on the latest grib and will post the results below in case you're interested.

The advantage I have now - assuming Starlink co-operates, is that I'll be able to update the grib every day and refresh the recommended route.

Next, after days of dithering, I finally decided to de-frost the fridge. Of course I'd left it too late, but a saucepan of hot water worked wonders!

Then (about 1230) off to the supermarket to stock up for the passage $$$$$! I hope I got enough meat for Vince - he's the opposite of a vegetarian!

Then back to the boat stow the supplies and tackle the Dinghy and outboard. Gary has kindly agreed to act as dinghy chauffeur this evening and in the morning when I will need to check out. 

By tackle the Dinghy, I mean: 

1) Remove the outboard engine and stow it on its bracket on the back of the boat - great fun in a lively chop with the dinghy bouncing all over the place.

2) Haul the very heavy dinghy up on deck using a mast head halyard and the mast winch (essential). More fun.

3) Remove the floor boards and stow them under the forward berth. This was when I realised how pointless my making Vincent's bed was earlier. Everything had to come out including the mattresses! 

4) Wash all the crap off the inside and outside of the dinghy

5) Fold it up and wrap it in its cover.

6) Lash it down on deck

7) Tidy up.

The whole palava took me nearly four hours. Bermuda Customs formal requirement is for you to leave within one hour of checking out! That's why I press ganged Gary to act as chauffeur!

By the time I'd finished, Gary was over for coffee (and courtesy of Melissa's farewell present) oat chocolate chip cookies  - yum, yum, they were delicious!

Then, time to get ashore and bus it to the Airport to meet Vince - now due to land at 7.26! His bed never did get re-made!

Hopefully we'll be able to get food out somewhere in St George's later.

We did - met up with Gary for dinner in the White Horse - thanks Vince.

Tomorrow (Saturday) we are aiming for an early breakfast and then Gary will take me ashore to check out. Oh and I've got to take the cockpit table down before we leave. 

As of Friday evening, fresh south westerlies are forecast for tomorrow which is ideal.

Gary came over for breakfast at 0715 as planned then took me ashore to check out and brought me back.

I checked the weather and fought with the weather routing software and lost while Vince went for a swim (probably the ony one he'll have on the trip). Then we went over to the fuel dock to top up the water tank - I forgot to run the water maker yesterday. Then passed by Tribute to say goodbye to Melissa (Jeff was visiting relatives back in the USA).

We eventually exited the Town Cut st around 1100 rather than the planned 0900.

Well, I said I'd post the updated weather route and here it is ....

No I can hardly believe it either!  Look at that detour. It just goes to show how quicky the weather can change. There's no Report with this one because it predicts we'll take longer than the 8 day grib and so the software can't complete the route. Anyway, given it changed so much over night it's just as likely to change again, so we're not dashing off in a north easterly direction as suggested, but heading more or less directly north for Lunnenberg.

Last week in Bermuda, Next stop Nova Scotia: Partying, Walking, Kayaking, more Goodbyes and .... Skinny Dipping!

The view across Convict Bay to Saint David's Island from the road above Ocean Sails (see below) with Bonny in foreground right and Symphony centre.

Last Saturday, Steve and Suzanne, OCC Port Officers for Bermuda threw a wonderful party for visiting OCC members and of course Gary and I went along

I really enjoyed myself and it was great fun to "rub shoulders" with experienced ocean sailors. Turns out Steve is a vastly experienced sailor and ocean racer who has sailed with/worked for (he's a sailmaker), many sailing greats other 'big names' including America Cup legend Dennis O'Connor and business Tycoon James Dyson. He's also a wonderful racontuer and kept us all entertained with tales of his many sailing and other exploits including his audience with Queen Elizabeth and Prince Phillip when they visited Bermuda in 2009!

Steve and Suzanne run their sail making business in a converted warehouse on the water front at Saint George's. They've turned the ground floor into a beautiful home without losing the original character of the building and the sail loft is upstairs. Drinks were served in their waterfront garden over looking "Convict Bay" where Bonny is anchored and dinner, with lashings of excellent red wine, was served inside. Us yachties all brought our own contributions to the meal, but our hosts produced their own wonderful dishes. 

We yarned well into the night before setting off back to our boats with tummies and memories filled to the brim. So, if you're visiting Bermuda and need help with sail repairs or anything else for that matter, look out for Ocean Sails. They're in the orange building at the east end of the water front. You won't find a friendlier welcome. Except that is, in Bermuda, because everyone is so incredibly friendly; from shop assistants through bar staff to complete strangers on the street. It's a bit like walking through an English village in the 1960s when everyone passed the time of day with everyone else.

Unfortunately, I was so busy enjoying myself I forgot to take any photographs!

A couple of days later Gary and I took a hike out to the other end of Saint George's Island.

The red triangle marks Bonny's position at anchor in Convict Bay. Our walk took us from there across to the north coast and down to the south west corner of the island which ends just above Hamilton Parish on Main Island. The island'd about 3 miles long but our walk out and back probably covered 8 miles. Foolishly the only sustance we took with us was a couple of chocalate brownies and a couple of bottles of water!

We followed the old railway cutting along the north coast...

We

The remains of the Lime Kilne

We emerged from the final stretch of cutting which overlooked the remains of the now ruined rail bridge to Hamilton Parish on Main Island...

Everywhere we looked were beautiful views...

...which we soaked up from a conveniently placed seat next to a Martello Tower... 

while scoffing both of the chocalate brownies in rather short order.

We then headed for a secluded beach for a swim..

... but, disaster! We had both forgotten to bring our swim gear! We were pretty hot and sweaty by this time and looked longingly at the inviting crystal clear water and then at eachother and then a looked around. The place was deserted. To hell with it. We stripped off and waded in - delicious. Then after 10 minutes, voices! A couple hove into view with their dog. Oh that's OK, they'll be carrying on then. They stopped, sat down on the beach. The guy cracked open a beer and the woman took the dog paddling. It was soon very apparent they weren't moving off any time soon.  We went for a longer swim and returned 15 minutes later. I was now beginning to feel cold! We hung around in the shallows for another 5 minutes and then determined we would make a run for it. "I think we had better warn them first" I said to Gary. So I called out "Hello, erm, we weren't expecting company and erm so, well, it's like this.." shrieks of good natured laughter followed as they did the decent thing and averted their gaze while we made a dash for our clothes and shelter. We half expected to be scolded, but not a bit of it. We were soon engaged in conversation with, of course, a very friendly couple, and were even invited to join them for a beer!

By the time we got back to Saint George's we were famished. Dinner was combined leftovers from previous meals re-heated on board Symphony. While we were eating Gary asked if I fancied a day's Kayaking. It turned out he carried an inflatable two person Kayak on board. 

I jumped at the chance and so two days later we were both up and in his Kayak by 5 am, in time to watch the sun rise over St George's island whilst drifting in the Kayak consuming coffee and breakfast bars..

After sunrise we circumnavigated Smith's Island and inspected the 'Hurricane Hole' there, just in case Symphony needed one later in the summer. Then we headed slowly west through the inner reaches of Saint George's Harbour and in to Stokes Harbour. 

By this time we had been paddling on and off for about 4 hours. As you can see there were some significant 'offs' but despite these we were still pretty knackered and so we pulled over to the shore for a break, a pee and elevenses - coffee and more chocolate brownies! This time we had planned ahead and also had sandwiches for lunch later in the day. We happened to land next to the Airport bus stop where a local lady was waiting for the bus and of course she engaged us in friendly and protracted conversation!

We continued on all the way to the end of St George's island and paddled briefly into the Atlantic Ocean to get to the same beach we had discovered on our walk. This time we were properly prepared and could swim without blushing!

After the swim, lunch followed by dozing on the beach wishing we had more chocalate brownies!

Then back in the Kayak for the paddle back to Saint George's.

We broke our passage at the same little beach as on the way up - Gary had mislaid his glasses and hoped he'd left them there. Amazingly he found them. We also couldn't help noticing there was an ice cream parlour across the road and so treated ourselves to rather large helpings of ice cream each, before getting on our way once again.

We arrived back at the boats off Saint George's around 3 p.m.. We were so knackered that an afternoon nap beckoned both of us. 

Afterwards, Gary cooked a tasty dinner of bean stew served on toasted raisen bread - very tasty!

Yesterday I continued prepping the boat for the passage north to Nova Scotia. No nasty weather was forecast but I dusted off the storm jib and trysail to make sure everything was in order just in case the unexpected came along.

I also said goodbye to Michael and Sabine a very likeable German couple on their Halberg Rassey 31. They were also bound for Nova Scotia. We first met shortly after I arrived in Bermuda, having been introduced to eachother by Jan and Elli.

Time soon to also say goodbye to Jeff and Melissa on their impressive Catamaran, Tribute. Nick and Jonathan on board Malau left for Chesapeake a few days ago and should be there soon.

Another goodbye beckons too.  Mick and I first bumped into Gary in Madeira last August, then we met up again in Gran Canaria a few weeks later and then again in Grenada in February. We've shared a common objective to make Nova Scotia and when he turned up in Bermuda just a week after me, it looked like we could well be sailing there in company. However, his engine problems have thrown a very big spanner in those works. When Mick had to return home from Saint Martin last month and Tom was unable to do the trip in his place, Vincent offered to rearranging his leave to come instead and we agreed a schedule a couple of weeks ago. He arrives tomorrow (Friday 7th June) with only two weeks to play with and so we have to get going. We'll leave ASAP on Saturday. So it will soon be goodbye to Gary too. Hopefully, he'll make it to Nova Scotia later in the summer and we'll meet up again then, or even possibly, next year.

As far as our trip up there is concerned, rather annoyingly, the favourable winds have arrived (already), that's earlier than predicted two days ago and so we're going to miss the first 36 hours of them and will probably face a couple of days of little wind in the middle of next week. Still, that's better than a storm and we should still have plenty of time. Fortunately, I have Starlink and should therefore be able to make decisions about what course to follow and when to use the engine, based on up to date, real-time information.

Next stop, Nova Scotia! 

Bermuda: Decisions, Engines and Friends

This was not my first visit to Bermuda. I had sailed here on my own from Cuba via The Bahamas in May of 2017, on my previous boat, Arctic Smoke. Things don't seem to have changed much since then, except that as everywhere over the last few years, inflation had struck. My yardstick -  a loaf of standard supermarket - which to my horror - cost $6 in 2017 - now cost $7! 

St George's is a place to chill out and relax in, albeit that on a limited budget one has to be careful not to relax the purse strings too much. 

This visit was made particularly enjoyable by meeting up again, first, with Jan and Elli on Titti4 and then, the day after they left for Lunnenberg, Nova Scotia, with Gary on Symphony, his gorgeous Hans Christianson.

Before Jan and Elli left for Lunnenberg, the three of us took an excursion; out to island's principal town of Hamilton by bus and from there by ferry to the historic naval dock yard, before returning to Hamilton by bus and then back to Saint George's on another bus. I then spent an enjoyable few days hanging out, both with Jan and Elli and with Rob, whilst we all also tackled our inevitable 'to-do' lists in preparation for the next stage of our planned journeys. In Rob's case that was to the Azores, while for Jan & Elli and I, it's Nova Scotia.

Top of my list of boat jobs, was of course, the engine. As the saying goes.. "every cloud has a silver lining". In this case, the cloud was Rob's broken rib (which forced him to divert to Saint George's) and the silver lining was Rob himself. As soon as I told him about my engine woes, he volunteered to help sort things out. In no time at all he was up to his neck in Bonny's rather odd fuel system - a state of affairs, about which, up to this point, I had been completely oblivious about.

Having, previously 'chatted' on WhatsApp with 'Trimaran Laura', whom Mick and I had met in Bequia, and who was experiencing similar engine issues, and with Mick, I was pretty sure the problem was air in the fuel system. The question, was of course, how was air getting in? Rob tracked down two plausible sources. The fuel pump bleed mechanism had seized up which may have prevented an airtight joint from being made and the rubber gaskets that seal the primary fuel filter in its housing, had lost their elacticity, may therefore, provide a gap through which air was being sucked in. A possibility made even more likely by the fact that an electronic fuel pump had been added AFTER the primary filter, which therefore sucked, rather than pushed fuel through the filter. Air could therefore also be sucked in at the same time!

Another possible problem was that the standard, (but suspect) lift pump, which, despite the electronic pump having being fitted by previous owners, was still part of the fuel supply line, might be causing a partial barrier to the supply of fuel.

So with me acting as the mechanic's assistant, Rob got to work; he freed off the seized bleed screw, replaced the primary filter and all its rubber gaskets, replaced the secondary filter and by-passed the lift pump and bled the air out of fuel lines.

With crossed fingers I then pressed the starter button; the engine started immediately, just as it use to. I then ran for an hour and a half without it faltering.

Job successfully completed thanks to Rob. The next day he resumed his passage to the Azores. I was one very fortunate sailor.

By complete coincidence, Gary on board Symphony had been experiencing very similar problems with his engine. I had hoped that my recent experience in assisting Rob to fix my engine would help the two of us fix Gary's, but so far (30/5), after two days of tinkering and with advice from a professional mechanic over the phone, his engine has refused to return to life. It's beginning to look more and more like his fuel injector pump may be the problem and if so thats going to be an expensive and time consuming job to get completed and will probably force Symphony to stay put in Bermuda for the next couple of months. Quite apart from wrecking his cruising plans, there's the risk of Hurricanes to contend with!

But what of my own plans? Following Mick's forced departure in Saint Martin, I was hopeful that my American pal Tom, would be able to join me for the passage to Nova Scotia, but unfortunately he can't make it due to work commitments. That's left me needing to choose between going alone with a good weather window or waiting for my son son Vince to join me in early June and then go as soon as possible, providing no really nasty weather is in the offing.

The down side to the latter option is that Vince would have to cancel his planned summer holiday, cruising Nova Scotia with me in August. I'm very lucky that his employer is flexible enough to give him the option. 

So, over the few days leading up to their departure on Monday (27/5) Jan and I had been watching the weather closely hoping that a good weather window would open up for the 750 mile or so passage up to Lunnenberg. As it turned out, Jan decided there was a window good enough for his slightly faster boat with a crew of two. Bonny would probably arrive 24 hours after Tiit4, just as bad weather was predicted and so I decided it was not worth risking a potentially challenging landfall on my own. 

Since then, I've been keeping an eye on the weather whilst hanging out with Gary and helping him with his engine. Oh, and I also spent a very pleasant Wednesday evening on board Tribute, a very impressive Carbon Fibre performance Catarmaran, owned by American OCC members Jeff and Melissa. Nick, also an OCC member and his pal Jonathan, from 'Cruwys' also joined us. Technologically, Tribute is light years ahead of Bonny. To start with, virtually everything is made of carbon fibre making it immensely light and strong. Everything is powered by electricity including all the winches! She cruises comfortably at 13/14 knots and can hit speeds of 18/19 knots when sailed more aggressively. Like Gary's Symphony (a completely different type of boat) Tribute is their home!

As of today (Friday 30/5), I have contradictory weather models to 'help' my decision making. One suggests an OK passage to Nova Scotia could be had with a departure tomorrow (Saturday) evening, the other predicts that if I do leave then, I may encounter a spell of nasty weather!

Vince can take off a maximum of three weeks wef 4th June. If I don't go tomorrow/sunday on my own, the outlook of northerly and then very light winds here in Bermuda for the following few days, means there's little point in leaving before next weekend. In that event Vince would fly out on the 7th.

So, a departure decision hinges on this evening's weather update.....

After another fruitless day fighting Gary's engine, we took some R&R time and went for a walk round to the entrance of St George's Harbour - the 'Town Cut' and went for a refreshing swim....

The Town Cut entrance to Saint George's Harbour.

The update as of Saturday 1st June, is I'm going to wait for Vince to join me on the 7th. I'm still getting a confused weather picture. There is though consensus that the next few days will bring generally northerly winds, which, even if the possible bad weather doesn't materialise would make for a pretty uncomfortable passage.

By the time Vince gets here, we should have more favourable weather.

Stop Press: Gary got a mechanic out this morning who confirmed the injector pump is the problem. He'll remove it next week, but it will be at least a month before it's serviced and reinstalled. 

Breakfast in Bermuda

Actually that was desert. Breakfast itself was on board Titti4 with Jan and Elli.

The last 12 hours or so of the passage over Friday night did indeed provide perfect sailing conditions. As evening fell on Friday the wind shifted further to the west requiring yet another sail change back to the slutter configuration for a beam/close reach. We probably had the fastest 12 hour period of the entire trip with Bonny cruising comfortably at 6 knots most of the time.

I adopted my, by now usual practice of 1 hour sleeps interspersed with waking to check the course, weather and watching out for other vessels.

Now I could really take notice of our ETA predicted by the chart plotter; 0600. 

At 0430 with the smallest hint of dawn approaching and about 10 miles to go, I got up and started preparing boat for our entry into St George's. That meant starting the engine which it reluctantly did, stowing the Spinnaker pole, handing the slutter jib and stowing the temporary forestay, preparing mooring lines and fenders and generally de-cluttering the decks as much as possible. 

At 0530 with the engine having run in neutral for an hour without misbehaving, I placed the obligatory call to "Bermuda Radio" to request permission to enter the harbour in about an hour's time. Permission granted.

30 minutes later the engine coughed and died. Oh F..k, it's never actually stopped before. "Now what the hell am I going to do?" Could we tack up the narrow "Town Cut?" It's about 50 metres wide and 500 in length, boarded by hard rock on either side. No nice forgiving soft mud here! The wind was blowing directly out of it!!

The Town Cut from inside St George's Harbour

More in hope than expectation therefore I kept my finger on the starting button. Relief, eventually it ran again. What to do? Abandon entry under our own steam and call for help. How much would that cost? No friendly RNLI here just itching to mix it with the cruel sea. A tow would come at a high price, but if the engine stopped in the middle of the Town Cut we were most probably toast and would need more than just a tow! The sensible thing to do was to back off and try and arrange a tow through 'The Cut' to the anchorage. 

I pressed on!

In the event we passed through the Town Cut unscathed at 0630. 

Once through I headed for the Customs Dock, passing Titt4 at anchor on the way. The dock was jammed with boats with others waiting so I went off to anchor behind Titti4. I passed our friend Rob on the way. He had left St Martin a few days before us bound for the Azores. Later when I stopped for a chat, I found out that he had lost his balance in a blow and cracked a rib and had therfore diverted to Bermuda.

With the anchor down I was faced with a choice. Get some kip and dinghy ashore later to check in, or the opposite. It's a real faff getting the dinghy inflated and launched on your own and I really could do with a sleep, but I gritted my teeth and got on with it. Good job I did because an hour later Elli emerged on Titt4 and shouted over the invitation to breakfast.

An hour after that I was sitting in their cockpit on a pleasantly warm - not hot - morning enjoying a lovely breakfast with my now, very dear friends. I know they had been worried about me and were clearly very relieved that I had made it without mishap.

After breakfast we all went ashore to check in, with Jan and Elli stopping off to chat with other friends on the way. After check-in I went for my desert - $7! Jan and Elli joined me as I was finishing my Guinness and we then went for lunch.

I stopped off to chat with Rob on the way back. He told me his story over a cup of tea and offered to help me fix the engine tomorrow; an offer I gratefully accepted. 

So not a quick passage. 10 days to cover the straight line distance of 867 miles (including two spells of motoring for about 6 hours each). That's an average of 87 miles a day at an average speed of 3.6 knots. 

No matter - the main thing is, the Tortoises arrived!

To Bermuda 8: A cross dressing Tortoise and other tales

You'll remember I went on about boat characteristics a little while ago - why a longer boat is faster than a shorter one, but that Bonny, the smaller boat was still keeping up with Titti4; both of course slow when compared with modern planning boats. Well overnight in the stronger winds, Titti4 cast off her Tortoise persona and became a Hare. 

It seemed that she was able to maintain a steady 7 knots, whereas on Bonny, to maintain full control of the boat I needed to reduce sail and plod on at 5-6 knots. Additionally, because the forecast was for pretty consistent 25 knot winds I set the sails with that in mind; 2 reefs in the mainsail and about a quarter of the polled out genoa rolled away. The wind, right from behind, was though anything but consistent; sometimes blowing at 25 knots (and chucking it down with rain) and at others no more than 15. In those winds we needed all sail set to maintain a decent speed but there was no way I was going to spend the night reefing and un-reefing the mainsail. I did though adjust the size of the genoa from time to time. I could do that from the cockpit. The sea too was pretty variable, sometimes pretty smooth and at others very lumpy.

Titti4 disappeared from my AIS screen around 0200. We had scheduled a call at 0900 this morning, but whilst I could hear Elli, she could not hear me.

It was a pretty crappy night sleepwise; the boat was sometimes rolling violently and anxiety about whether I might have to put a third reef in kept sleep at bay. To make matters worse, the AIS alarm kept going off as various ARC boats caught us up and passed us.

By lunchtime it was clear the blow had blown itself out and so I shook out the reefs. Then as the winds died further, I swapped the main for the cruising chute with the Genoa polled out to port. However, the wind veered further west and pushed us further east off our course for Bermuda. To sail closer to the wind meant dumping the chute, re-hoisting the mainsail and re-deploying the slutter jib. By the time all that was finished it was 1700.

As of 1750 we have 66 miles to run, are making 5-6 knots in exactly the right direction and should therefore be in tomorrow morning.

Weather and position wise, that's how things look now; the yellow/orange area to the right is the blow we got last night. The red dot is Bonny with the dashed line showing her heading. The dark green smudge is Bermuda. The patch of yellow top left is another little blow but it's due to drift north of Bermuda by the time we arrive. The bluey area in the middle has wind speeds of 12-15 knots coming from the West. Perfect conditions for the last 12 or so hours of the passage.