Crossing the Bermuda Triangle - Dominican Republic to Bermuda

“32:22.80N 64:40.53W”

7008 Miles since leaving Sandwich.

23^rd  May 2023

 

At last, we are on the move again.

Mon May 15 2023

After a stopover in the Dominican Republic due to bad fuel and engine problems we are ready to set out again. Tony, Jake and Sara have joined us for the next stage of our adventure as we travel from here to Bermuda and ever onwards North.

 

Goodbye from the fuel dock.

 

We are off.

Day 1 Wed May 17 2023

O700 engine started, and we are ready to go. Next stop the fuel pontoon to load up a couple of hundred litres of diesel and then next stop Bermuda. (fingers crossed a million times)

 

Goodbye to the Saman peninsular.

 

24 hours out and all going well.

Day 2 Thu May 18 2023

We departed Bahai Marina at 0830 after filling up the fuel tanks. It is now 0900 on the following day and we have had a cracking sail so far. Currently maintaining a steady 6 knots under main mizzen and cruising chute. Fishing is promising if not fulfilling. We had five hits in under an hour as we passed close to the Navidad bank all big game fish and all of them got away. We lost two lures and all of the line from one reel as it just screamed out and then snapped with a bang.

Three cruise liners passed close by in the night which broke the monotony as did a spectacular lightning storm behind us that went on for over 6 hours. Tony got absolutely soaked in a rain squall and apart from that it was a very hot and muggy night for all…

This morning everyone is in good spirits and Spectra is loving being at sea again and is romping along.

That it so far.

 

The Milky Way in all of its glory

 

23 18.568n 67 54.290w

Day 3 and we cross the Tropic of Cancer

Fri May 19 2023

Today we will leave the tropics for this season as we bravely run away from the hurricane season. All is going well. we have completed two-night shifts now and both Sara and Jake have taken a turn in the night with Norma and myself shadowing them. From here on in they will be on watch alone, with me sleeping in the saloon on call if needed of course. The weather yesterday went light on us necessitating the deployment of our big cruising spinnaker. It pulled us along amazingly well and with only 5 to 8 knots of wind we still averaged just under 4 knots for the 9 hours that we had it up. The wind finally strengthened as night approached so down came the colourful sails and back out came our trusty Yankee foresail. 0400 in the morning with the boat speed regularly hitting 8 knots and the head wind at 17 knots I pulled a reef in the main on the shift changeover with Tony and that’s how we have been ever since. So far we have covered 265 miles all in the right direction. Both Jake and Sara have done a mummy watch each, producing very nice evening meals of beef curry and meatballs respectively. Today Norma is on Mummy watch and the bar has been set high.

Jake is a bit of a star watcher which led to us spending an interesting hour on our shared watch last night as he pointed out the different constellations. I still think those biblical shepherds were smoking herbal cigarettes as I couldn’t make a Scorpion out of Scorpio for love or money. I will be digging the sextant out later as Jake is keen to play.

All is well onboard Spectra the weather reports remain favourable, and we are barrelling along at 6+ knots at the moment, memories of broken diesel engines are fading as I type.

Until next time Spectra out…

 

That’s one way to sort a bad back out.

 

25 34.144n 67 24.105w

Day 4 A lumpy night and flatbreads for breakfast

Sat May 20 2023

 

Good morning Melody my number one American follower (Sara’s Mum)

Good day yesterday, we kept more or less in the right direction and I won the chocolate bar for the predicted 24 hour distance measurement. Sara won it for the first 24 hours by the way.

Last night we were hit by our first squall which got a bit emotional for a while. Just as it was getting dark we were hit and the boat had a good lean onto her elbow. The Port rail actually went under for a short time which is a rarity for Spectra. This resulted in a cascade of water running the length of the side deck, hitting the step and jetting through the ventilation fan and depositing a bucket of salty water on poor old Norma who was cooking in the galley at the time.

 

Big squall ahead as we power through the sea towards it.    (We missed this one)

 

Sara happy in the rain

 

On deck we let the main go to allow Spectra to pop back upright before pulling a reef into the main and then the foresail. All of this in driving rain of course. As always, no sooner had we got the reefs in than the rain stopped, Spectra gathered her skirts and proceeded on course like the gracious lady that she is while the rest of us shook ourselves dry like shaggy dogs.

The wind remained boisterous but easily manageable for the rest of the night. As this was Sara and Jakes first night of watchkeeping solo I decided to sleep in the cockpit and sleep I did as we bounded along without a single hiccup for the rest of the night.

Everyone is awake now and Tony is making flat breads for breakfast as he is our designated Mummy for today.

Noon to noon runs so far have been:

Day 1 132 Sara

Day 2 136 Paul

Today it will be in the 140’s I think.

We have crossed the 500 miles to go mark and will be over halfway before the end of the day if we keep to the current pace.

 

If you like these updates read the account of our first adventure; Share the Dream by Paul Russell, you can find it by searching on Amazon.

 

Frigate birds keep us company 200 miles out at sea.

 

27 34.604n 66 24.833w

Wind is up.

Sun May 21 2023

Lowlight of yesterday was the foresail track ripping up from the port side deck near to the cockpit. We spent a couple of hours removing the galley ceiling drilling out two of the old bolts and then clamping everything back down again. Lucky that we decided to fix it properly at sea as we are currently sailing along in a force 7 with that sheet under load. All is well. Norma is on watch, I am on Mummy and everyone else is asleep. We have just dipped under the 300 miles to go so the likelihood is that we will be in Bermuda sometime on Tuesday.

 

Surgery inside the galley ceiling

 

The bent sail track. If we hadn’t spotted it there was a very good chance that it would have zippered back and taken the solar panels and rails with it.

 

That’s it I need to go cook for a hungry crew, if they wake up that is.

 

Ships that you pass in the night.

 

And shoes – wonder where the other one is?

 

30.11.435n 65 26.084w

Day 6 A very wet and lumpy night

Mon May 22 2023

 

For my sins I was on Mummy watch yesterday, it was blowing a force 6-7 all day with a very confused sea and of course it was a Sunday. By tradition we always cook a full Sunday roast when we are on passage, and yesterday was no exception. Pork chops marinated in pineapple with roast potatoes, peas, carrots, Yorkshire puddings and of course gravy, was cooked with no little effort on my part in a galley that attained every angle except completely upside down. As always, the real trick was getting it to the table still on the plates. With Jake Norma and Tony in the relay while Sara held everything down we managed it and all had a proper sit down dinner with knives and forks while sitting below around the saloon table. Tradition well and truly upkept and ‘Gawd bless us one and all’, as Tiny Tim would say…

 

Sunday lunch underway. Note everyone has a hand saving a plate.

 

It looks like I lucked in with the night to be sleeping over after mummy watch as the girls and guys had a pretty wet and miserable time of it. 30 knot gusts were a regular occurrence throughout the night along with driving rain of course and the occasional big wave sweeping the deck just to keep us on our toes. I was up a couple of times to check everything was ok but with a double reefed main, no staysail, full mizzen and half of the foresail, Spectra bounded along hitting 8.9 knots at one point. The tale of the tape proved the point this lunchtime when I calculated the last 24 hour run at 163 Miles and for the second day Jake has won the chocolate bar challenge. American over competitiveness I call it.

 

Rain clouds ahead

 

It is lunchtime now and we are still making very good progress but definitely leaning on our elbow. In fact, the lean is so much that with an extra shove from a passing wave the generator gets starved of fuel and cuts out. To remedy this, I spent a happy half hour in the rain and salt spray on the aft deck stuffing a rope under the downhill edge of the generator and then tying it into position so that it sits at 45 degrees to the deck. This keeps it more or less level with the heel of the boat and it has managed to fill our batteries up again with those lovely wiggly amps.

We have 138 miles to go so an early morning arrival at George Town is predicted for tomorrow.

The second big cargo ship of the morning has popped up on AIS, this one will miss us by 4 miles which is jolly decent of him I say. The rain has abated enough to warrant me putting on my second set of foul weather gear of the morning as the first one was soaked right through. Jake is Mummy today and I can smell the jacket potatoes cooking so my next big job of the day is to watch him like a starving cat looking through the kitchen window for the next 20 minutes.

That’s it, next update from Bermuda hopefully.

 

30 59.851n 65 05.846w

Day 7 Arriving in Bermuda

Tue May 23 2023

 

I am writing this last passage post while we are still 20 miles out from Bermuda. All is well apart from the horrible drizzly rain which has made everything down below damp, the generator started first time and we are already flying our Bermuda courtesy flag and the yellow Q flag.

Sara is on watch; Norma has gone back to bed to catch some sleep before the arrivals fun starts and Tony has risen from his pit while Jake is due on shift in an hour.

This will be my last update at this location the arrival will be on the normal blog where I will also update all of these notes along with pictures for the journey over here.

That’s it, next update on the link below.

http://blog.mailasail.com/spectra

Arrived 1120 in the pouring rain. The engine died when I put it in reverse to moor up at the customs quay which caused some excitement on the docks. We got the engine going again and parked up without denting anything except my pride. It appears that the idle on the throttle was set too low which caused the engine to stall when I went from forward to reverse. Tony, good lad that he is, has adjusted it already. We moved into a berth directly opposite the customs berth. I didn’t even need to touch the throttle as the wind blew us sideways straight into the vacant slot. We are now moored up and sitting below listening to the driving rain which was not what we expected at all.

Anyway, we are here 836 miles in 6 nights and an early morning. 9 hours under spinnaker and the rest mostly beating at 60 degrees which is a pretty amazing performance for Spectra fat lass that she is.

Now for hot showers and stable toilets.