Jost Van Dyke, British Virgin Islands - an island named after a Dutch planter who inhabited the island long ago now inhabits about 175 people on a surface of 3 square miles with only one small road. We anchored in Great Harbour because there were no swells rolling in and also because from there, we were able to hike different trails. Nous voilà sur Jost van Dyke, une île réputée à cause de ses plages, où habitent 175 personnes sur une surface de 3 milles carrés. Nous avons choisi Great Harbour pour mouiller car c’était la baie la plus calme - sans roulis malgré les vents du nord-est qui causaient une houle assez dérangeante dans les autres baies adjacentes!






First, Heiner had the idea of climbing the hill to the top which we did...long and hot hike despite the morning hours. The path as the road and was a terrain fit for goats and sheeps , which abound in the area! We were rewarded with magnificent views of the caribbean sea and of our anchorage at Great Harbour.

Là aussi, nous avons aimé marcher..Heiner a choisi le sommet de la montagne comme première randonnée. Ouf, pas d’ombre! Très chaud même en matinée. Heureusement qu’il y avait du vent surtout en arrivant au sommet où la brise de l’Atlantique était plus vive!







One day later, we hiked to a bay west of Great Harbour called "White Bay". The reward, besides the white sand beach, was the "Painkiller" doused with fresh nutmeg that we had at the Soggy Dollar Beach Bar. These Painkiller drinks give pain management a whole new meaning !

Quelques jours plus tard, nous avons traversé les collines jusqu’à White Bay, nommée ainsi à cause de sa plage de sable blanc évidemment! Notre récompense pour cette marche ardue fut deux Painkiller, punchs au rum saupoudrés de muscade fraîche! Mium, ce traitement anti-douleur pourrait devenir dangereusement populaire....
On our way back, we were met by a hord of goats that crossed the road...there was a youngster that just did not have legs long enough to reach the rest of the family...








Sur le chemin du retour, une scène attendrissante: alors qu’un troupeau de chèvre se dépêche a traverser la route, petit bébé chèvre trouve qu’il a les pattes trop courtes pour grimper les rochers et appelle sa maman chèvre...cris lancinants! Pov tite bête!

La première île que nous avons visitée fut supposement nommée ainsi a cause de sa relation avec les pirates. Mais tout ici dans les Iles vierges autant britanniques qu’américaines est mis en relation avec ce gang de truands qu’étaient les pirates! Tous les bateaux loués arborent un drapeau blanc et noir à la tête de mort...çà devient un peu tannant à la fin! Voila notre voilier sans drapeau de pirate!


Norman Island - on the Sir Francis Drake Channel - often referred by the locals as "Treasure Island", is purported to be named after the pirates and legends of buried treasures. Sailboats Charter companies must have bought hundreds of pirate flags as every boat of their fleet harbour the typical back and white pirate head flag...everything is related to pirates...after a while it gets a little too much. Here is our La Buena Vida seen in the Norman anchorage - without Pirate flag...



Nous avons aime notre séjour sur cette île à cause des sentiers qui la traversent et qui nous permettent d’avoir des vues superbes du côté de la mer des Caraïbes ou de l’Atlantique! Parfois il nous est difficile de croire que nous avons vraiment traversé des Bermudes jusqu’ici!


We quite liked Norman for the good swimming, hiking and yes, happy hours that the island offers. The hike that we liked best was one that lead us to the top of the hill from where we had magnificent views of the Atlantic waters and surrounding anchorages. Looking at the Atlantic, it is sometimes difficult to believe that we actually have crossed from Bermuda to here!!!






This hike also offered us our first glimpse of the island’s plant life. Although there are frequent rain showers, the terrain is rocky and does not appear to retain water. What is striking about hillsides are the abundant greyish green Pipe Organ Cactus sticking out the bushes and the ochre brown cliffs. Other trees that we encountered were the Tamarind tree, West Indian Locust tree, sea grapes and humongous century plants. The only animal life encountered during that hike was the soldier crab, who lives in abandoned shells, mostly the West Indian Top Shell referred to as Whelk. They migrate in thousands during the month of August, laying their eggs on the beach and are found everywhere in the Virgin Islands.
As for snorkeling, there are caves at the edge of the anchorage that offers really good snorkeling. Many colourful tropical fishes, parrot fishes, sergeant majors, grunts, and groupers. We also saw squids and southern stingrays...all this in an underwater landscape composed of various corals.












Ces randonnées sur Norman nous ont donne un bon aperçu de la flore des Iles britanniques - terrain très rocailleux, peu propice a l’agriculture bien que bananes, plantains, papaye et autres fruits tropicaux y poussent. Il y a plusieurs arbres dont le plus commun sur cette île était bien le tamarinier! Dont les fruits sont souvent utilises dans la cuisine des îles! Quant à la faune, le bernard-l'hermite est la seule créature que nous ayons rencontré lors de nos promenades...





Après de si dures journées, nous avions le choix d’aller prendre l’apéro sur le William Thornton, un cargo danois de 1915 qui fut converti en...bar ou d’aller au resto Pirates (!) sur la plage.

Of course, after such outdoors adventures, one gets thirsty...anchored at Norman is The William Thornton, a 1915 black Danish Baltic trader sailing vessel that has been converted into a bar restaurant with a dinghy dock.

The other possibility is at the restaurant-pub Pirates (!) Located on the beach....both with different styles and atmospheres!

This is the sea playground of the British Virgin Islands...several islands and protected waters between most of them! We left Road Town and then sailied to Norman Island, (across the Sir Francis Drake Channel), went back to Tortola but this time to the West end or Sopers Hole and made it to Jost Van Dyke . We sailed across the Anagada Bank when we first arrived t the Virgin Islands from Bermuda.

US Virgin Islands - We left Jost Van Dyke with a light rain shower and made it in one hour to Cruz Bay, on St-John, US Virgin Island Another rainbow...we can not keep count anymore! There was a drastic difference between the pace when we arrived in Cruz Bay: traffic jams, American tempo, several liveabords boats rundown and scatered in the waters of the bay to the point that there is no space for transient boaters like us. Yes, many Americans of the mainland US have just moved here and do not have the money and the will to look after their boats - often looking like wrecks! After our check-in with US authorities, we sailed towards Christmas Cove on the west coast of St-John for a couple of nights. We did some very good snorkeling there, sighting a young southern ray, turtles, and enjoying the very clear waters. Our next destination was Water Island, just a few miles from Charlotte-Amalie Harbour where we were lucky to find a place to anchor , as once again, there is a good number of liveabords occupying the waters.

Next stop was at Sopers Hole which is a very deep harbour at Tortola’s west end....when we visited our friend Peter on Aquataurus in march 2003, the place was beaming with sailors and cruisers. We had enjoyed the Pussers’Pub atmosphere and longed to go back. This time, however, it was dramatically empty, and this can be very probably attributed to the economical situation faced by many Americans...no cash to play! Well, as you can see, some still have enough! We nevertheless spent three nights there and had a surprise encounter with a couple who, like us, had made the passage from the USA to Virgin Islands. Their boat, Liebchen, was part of the Cruisers rally that left Norfolk with 80 other boats. It was fun to exchange our stories ..we had easier passages than they had, with several days heading in south easterly winds of 35 knots! Ouch! We left Sopers Hole on Sunday morning with a special greeting from a feather friend...

We are in Road Town Harbour, capital of BVI...Christmas spirit! We replenished our water, fuel, rum and food, did massive laundry (lots of socks????) and are ready to sail to other islands ....

We hav been very busy "sommerizing" the boat - put all winter stuff away - and get those bathing suits out of cupboards!!! An dpreparing our 2 years cruise...

Depuis notre retour, nous sommes occuppes ...a nous preparer ainsi que le bateau pour notre periple tropical!

Technical Summary: In both our passages from Beaufort to Bermuda and Bermuda to Virgin Gorda, we were overall very pleased with the boat’s behaviour in rough seas. This boat is made for that stuff! The only problem we encountered was the furler profile (which was half-way furled) becoming undone from the lower drum which required us to drop the sail completely on deck. Of course, this happened at night with 20 knots of winds...Heiner knew right away what the problem was and next morning, in a 12 knots breeze, we were able to fit the sail back in the aluminium profile and hoist the sail back up. Otherwise, no other sail-related problem occured!
We made use of the engine much more than anticipated: our Volvo Penta MD11D (25HP) was put to a real test. It overheated between Beaufort and Bermuda and Heiner changed both impellers, raw water and antifreeze impeller. Of course, he had to do this in heavy seas...thank God for Gravol which allowed him to be in the engine compartment without being sea sick!
A couple of days after leaving Beaufort, our marine head did not seem as efficient anymore and too much effort was needed to rinse it clean so Marleyne, who is in charge of changing valves, did just that... and everybody was relieved to see it fonction properly. In our second leg, Heiner had to clean the pump for overboard discharge...An essential piece of equipment the marine head!
Vibrations: amazing what motoring for days at a time will do to a boat and its parts. Our stove problem was in part due to vibrations! The stove burner probably became untight and leaked thus imbibing the asbestos plate under the burner. After 20 minutes of burning, the whole thing ignited!
In summary, it is in most part due to the captain’s vigilance and good maintenance schedule that we have had so few material breakdowns during this rather demanding passage.
From Beaufort to Bermuda (November 9th to 16th ), these were 704 nautical miles that we did in 8 days. We ran the engine for 58 hours. From Bermuda to Virgin Gorda (November 23th to November 30th ) , these were 870 miles and we ran the engine for 93 hours; our Volvo Penta was super economical with a consumption of ca.1.54 litre per hour! Oh, I forgot, Marleyne smoked 4 packs of Marlboro light between November 2nd and November 29th!!!! She is now cigarette smoke free and only smoking cigars....with Cruzan rum! As for Heiner, he is now off Gravol and had noticed that after 3 days or so, he began having auditory hallucinations...like voices talking on the SSB. He was somewhat amused by them but this impaired his sleep at times...When he switched to Sturgeron, this did not happen but he noticed some queasiness near the 7th or 8th hours if conditions were rough. He took medications for the complete duration of both passages.
We would like to conclude by saying that this passage is not, as Don Street once wrote in Cruising World’s magazine, a straightforward passage. He had insinuated that you had to sail east and when the butter started melting, you had to go south...well, it ain’t that way and it was not a Cruising World’s passage. If we take into account all the written and experienced testimonies of sailors, it looks like conditions are very different for each passage and that one will have to be prepared for all types of weather and seas when undertaking this trip. Ideally, we would have done Beaufort - Virgin Gorda in one stretch and in about 11 days...ideally.
Bilan
Cette partie est difficile a écrire en français à cause des termes techniques que j’ignore malheureusement...mais l’important c’est que nous avons eu très peu de difficultés techniques et cela est dû, en grande partie, au zèle du capitaine qui a toujours veillé à inspecter le matériel aussi souvent que possible avant et pendant chacune des deux traversées.

Arrival: as the miles to go click rapidly down on our GPS, we feel a certain euphory and the heavy seas do not seem to matter anymore...we’ll get there! We don’t quite make it to Anegada way point before nightfalls, but we have our navigation program on the laptop which indicates to us that we are safely away from the reef and heading in the right direction. The wind is still 20+ but seas have diminished and make sailing easier. We have 15 miles to The Dogs, rocky islands north of Virgin Gorda...between which we must sail before coming to the anchorage. It is a bit eery to sail between these dark and ominous shapes...Thank God for the GPS without which such endeavour would not be recommended! When we are in sight of the Spans Town anchorage, I must go to the bow and prepare the anchor. First remove the plasticine which had been place on the hole of the chain well, then untie the anchor and last but not least, disentangle the chain in the anchor well (the rolling of the last days has tied knots in those chain links). We see anchored boats, some with anchor lights others without...we let the anchor and 160 feet of chain drop in a 35 feet deep spot. We have arrived! There are some cold beers in the fridge and we celebrate the conclusion of our second passage and our arrival in the Virgin Islands.
Dernière étape, l’arrivée. Nous avons des conditions assez sportives depuis dimanche matin mais la ligne d’arrivée nous donne une nouvelle énergie. On est prêts du but! Nous ne réussiront pas a arriver a notre GPS waypoint du récif d’Anegada avant l’obscurité mais...mais note GPS nous permet de naviguer sûrement ces 15 milles qui séparent Anegada de Virgin Gorda. Nous devons naviguer entre des îles rocheuses surnommées The Dogs et leur silhouettes sombres qui se profilent autour de nous nous rappelle de rester vigilants...Nous arrivons un peu a tâtons au mouillage de Spanish Town ou il y a des voiliers qui mouillent, certains avec une lumière de mouillage mais d’autres sans...nous trouvons une endroit de 35 pieds de profondeur et y laissons tomber l’ancre... Nous sommes enfin arrives! Quel bonheur..nous célébrons avec de bonnes bières froides cette fin du passage!

The last three days of the passage focused on gaining speed and easting. We were determined to get to the Virgins on Sunday, even if this meant arriving at night, in order to avoid the 25 knots winds forecasted for Monday. The winds were still light and from the southeast...There was a bit more cargo traffic, from west to east, which made us more vigilant...we had seen nothing for the first 5 days of the passage! Saturday morning, the wind is strong enough that we shut down the engine: unfortunately, still from a mostly southeasterly direction. We decided that we have no choice of directly aiming at our way point, which is just north f the Anegada reef and that we will then head to Virgin Gorda in order to have the shortest distance to our landfall. We are extremely pleased to see that the wind is going more easterly and enables us to reach with a speed between 5 and 6.5 knots, depending on gusts. By Sunday early morning, the wind speed has increased and seas are as predicted: 5 to 6 foot swells with a 3 to 4 chop on top..we need the 20+ wind speed to sail through that mess. The seas are very different from those we experienced arriving to Bermuda although the wind speed is the same: these choppy 4 feet waves remind us of Lake Ontario! We get no water in the cockpit but some spray comes in the dodger or hits us on the side; as we have weather clothes, however, we do not get wet!
Emmanuelle et La Buena Vida: trouvez une similarité!!!! Comme nous avions decidé d’arriver coûte que coûte aux Iles dimanche, même dans la nuit, nous devions aller vite et droit sur le waypoint GPS au nord du récif d’Anegada...le vent étant encore de l’est, il nous était impossible d’aller plus vers le sud-est et nous devions être en mesure de composer avec les conditions (vents de l’est 20-25 noeuds avec houle de 6 pieds plus vagues de 3-4 pieds dessus) qui étaient annoncées pour dimanche. Alors...comme être à la barre est quand même fatiguant et que nous voulions éviter le plus possible, nous devions faire appel à notre Pilote automatique où à notre régulateur d’allure au lieu de barrer nous-même...mais dans les conditions difficiles, ni l’un ni l‘autre ne faisant l’affaire, Heiner décida d’utiliser les deux en même temps, méthode assez peu orthodoxe mais qui me fit penser que La Buena Vida, comme Emmanuelle, aime les Intellectuels et les Manuels.........

Fire and Water, this could describe well our 5th day at sea. On Thursday after contacting our weather man, I was ready to put two loaves of bread in the oven. We were motoring and the seas were calm enough to prepare bread. It was important to have bread today because sandwiches were our evening and night meals...it’s unbelievable how hungry we are when on night watch! Anyhow, 20 minutes or so after the loaves are in the hot oven, my eyes begin to tear and burn. Nothing seems wrong except the strong vapours...until I notice flames in the oven, rapidly growing! Heiner who is in the cockpit removes the fire extinguisher and one little spray takes care of the fire. But what a mess...the 20 second long fire has sent sooth everywhere and the smell is overpowering. I removed the bread dough from the pans and put it in a plastic container... and then, it’s cleaning time. In the mean time, the wind has come up and we can sail a bit.(We are concerned with our amount of fuel and must sail whenever there is wind). We put all sails up and sail on a close reach for a while (which makes cleaning the galley a little more demanding...) until Heiner notices a water spout under a dark cloud at our back. The water spout is creating a pretty powerful stir in the water that we can easily see from our position. We try to guess its movement...it seems to be getting closer to us and not wanting to take any chance, we lower all the sails. (Waterspout are like tornadoes at sea...you want to avoid being in one!). The following minutes are very stressful; we are finally relieved to see the thing vanish but we keep a watchful eye on this huge dark cloud which will stay behind us until sunset...while we know how strong the forces of nature are, in moment like this, we feel it even more. That evening, the skies cleared up and it was the greatest of nights with clear skies, millions of stars illuminating the indigo coloured skydome over us...I felt, for the first time in the entire passage, at peace enough to take out my MP3 and listen to music for hours. (Oh! I forgot: after Heiner repaired the leaky burner we baked the 2 loaves of bread successfully!)
Le feu et l’eau! On avait déja gouté à l’Air...et en ce Vendredi on allait être en contact avec deux autres éléments! Comme on faisait du moteur, j’avais préparé mes deux miches de pain et j’étais tout heureuse de m’être prise de si bon matin, petite boulangère que je suis...Après 20 minutes de cuisson, mes yeux piquaient et brûlaient; tout semblait normal mais les sensations empiraient! Horreur: j’ouvre la porte du four pour constater que cà brule là-dedans et que le feu grossit. Je crie Au Feu (je garde mon originalité en tout temps) à Heiner qui est dans le cockpit et un petit coup d’extincteur chimique et le tout est sous contrôle! Mais quelle cochonnerie ce petit feu de 20 secondes a créé: de la suie partout! Et mes beaux pains? Je les enlève des formes et les remets ds un bac en plastique. Entretemps, le vent s’est levé un peu et nous devons mettre les voiles - bien que nous ayons beaucoup de diesel à bord, nous voulons le conserver au cas où... alors toutes voiles dehors même si le vent est dans le nez...çà rend le nettoyage un peu difficile!). Peu de temps après, Heiner apercoit une trombe marine à l’horizon, sous un immense nuage noir. La trombe marine: nous essayons de voir dans quelle direction elle se dirige...vers nous? Nous voyons l’eau blanche tourbilloner dessous et la peur nous prend: nous descendons toutes les voiles car on ne veut pas être pris dans une tornade, et encore moins avec toutes les voiles dehors!!! Quel soulagement lorsqu’elle disparaît! Nous restons vigilants pour le reste de l’après-midi car le nuage noir ne se dissipe qu’en début de soirée! Comme récompense, d’abord nous sommes en mesure de cuire ces deux miches de pain (!) et la nuit qui succédera à cette drôle de journée sera magnifique avec une voûte étoilée incomparable! Pour la première fois depuis le début du voyage, je me sens en paix et j’écoute ma musique sur mon MP3: Guelfucci, Vollenweider, tout va tellement bien avec cette atmosphère. J’écoute aussi MarieJo et la chanson Celle qui va, une chanson qui me donne du courage et de l’énergie...car le voyage est loin d’être terminé!

Day one and night one are as predicted: rough seas, high winds, squalls all night long, which means very very little sleep for both of us. Day two, only one or two squalls and 20 knots East-Southeasterly winds. Our weather guru announces that we will probably have North winds very soon and that, as the front approaches our area, the winds will clock towards the west, giving us a real good sail in the Southeasterly direction towards the Islands. Great. But they do not come the westerlies...nope, the winds remain Southeasterly, may be Easterly, but not West and not North. This means that we have the wind on the nose which slows us down, even when motoring as on the next following days. The swells from the Northeast are huge at times because of the gales north of us and this brings the boat to roll for hours at a time. Thursday, we are informed that in the time frame when we approach the Eastern Carribean, the trade winds will have gained strength and that we should try to head more southeasterly in order to have a better angle to cope with the choppy seas. More easterly???????? We’ll be in Africa in no time! But we follow the advice and this will prove to have been to our advantage because the winds will remain southeasterly up to the last 24 hrs before our arrival in the Virgins.
Les premiers 24 heures en mer furent comme annoncés: mer très forte, vents forts et grains (coups de vents violents avec pluie) fréquents ce qui ne nous permis pas de dormir...le lendemain, les prédictions météo annonçaient une diminution de tous les facteurs et notre moral fut à la hausse. Malheureusement, pour les prochains jours, les vents ne vinrent pas du nord ou de l’ouest comme promis...seulement de la direction où nous allions, soit le sud-est...nous nous devions quand même de faire un effort de rester à l’est pour pouvoir approcher les Iles comfortablement malgre les Alizés qui souffleraient assez fort pendant le prochain weekend...du stress en perspective.

The time had come to leave the stormy weather of Bermuda. In one week since our arrival here, it has been one gale after another and quite cool. The North Atlantic has been claiming several casualties : since we got here, there have been 4 large sailboats abandoned at sea. Then there are the others which have made it to Bermuda but just barely: like the crew of a sloop "Rolling Stone" who was caught off Cape Hatteras and had their boat half full of water when they arrived here in St-George! Basically, it looks like nobody really wanted to be here in Bermuda but had to...and now, everybody is talking about weather window..just ready to leave this place asap!
And so are we...We needed the week to adjust to be just the two of us as our crew member had to return to Canada. There was a weather window...not a great one...for Sunday November 23, with a forecast of North-Northwest winds between 20 and 25 knots and seas between 9 and 16 feet. Over the next days, seas and winds were supposed to diminish to the point that we might have to motor one day or two waiting for the trade winds to kick in.
And so we left.......
Bien que notre arrivée aux Bermudes ait été salutaire et nous ait permis de nous reposer, elle fût stressante car les vents forts et tempêtes se succédaient, nous laissant présager les conditions de notre prochain passage en mer ..en effet, notre météorologiste attitré nous annonçait un départ des Bermudes avec 20-25 noeuds de vent et une mer agitée avec houle entre 9 et 16 pieds...Ah! Qu’on avait hâte! Surtout que pendant la semaine aux Bermudes, nous avions été exposés aux victimes de cet Atlantique nord: il y avait 4 voiliers au large de l’île qui avaient été abandonnés par leur équipage et qui flottaient comme des vaisseaux fantôme sur l’océan. Puis il y avait les autres qui avaient réussi, tant bien que mal, à atteindre les Bermudes mais dematés ou avec leur voilier rempli d’eau...Rien de bien rassurant. Mais nous nous ne pouvions pas rester ici et devions prendre notre courage à deux mains pour notre départ dimanche le 23 novembre.

At last those 35 knot winds have ceased...yesterday evening, we just could not stand the noise anymore: we put our favorite MP3 stick on and played it loudly while reading and doing cross words...it just gets on your nerves after 24 hours! In the squalls, the winds peaked to 40-45 knots and sent the boat vibrations that were very unsettling. Right now, we still have some squalls but with sunshine and calm in between...It looks like we will be here a while longer. For our next leg of 830 miles which we will probably do just the two of us, we want a weather "window" not a weather "Peep hole" !

As the winds were howling, we both could feel what we now call "Post-traumatic storm disorder"...how could we have sailed in such winds just three days ago???? I guess, when you are out there, you do what you have to do...focus on the job! The anxiety comes after...and before the next trip! Now, that reminds me so much about my job...and it makes so much sense.

Today, as we timidly think about leaving again, we have to invest energy to make the boat ready: reprovisioning, refilling fuel and water tanks, and when the departure day arrives, folding up the dinghy and putting in on deck. As nice as it is to be stopping somewhere, it also means getting ready once again...I wish we were as carefree as these white-tailed tropic birds (that were trying to land on top of our mast during the crossing...)!

Thanks to all those who comment and write to us...we really enjoy and need your support!

More pretty pictures of StGeorges!

Monday November 17th was spent cleaning the boat and relaxing. Our crew Lindsay was getting ready to leave us as the weather window to leave for the Virgin Islands was not in sight and he had to return to work! He was successful at finding an Air Canada flight for the next day and we were sad to see him leave as we had been a great team during the two weeks that he spent with us!

After Lindsay's departure on Tuesday November 18th, we decided to spent the sunny hours before the forecasted gale on Wednesday in St_Georges. What a beautiful site. Interestingly, it will celebrate its 400th foundation anniversary in 2009 just like Quebec city did this year. The New World...St_Georges inhabitants are friendly and speak with a variety of accents, sounding at times british, scottish, or with a caribbean touch.

After having established contact with Bermuda Harbour Radio, we proceeded carefully towards St-Georges harbour. We had successfully managed the big seas behind us gradually sailing from 1000 to 200 to 60 fathoms of water and the channel was the last challenge. With the combination of tiredness, strong winds and an array of sea buoys in our path, it was dompting. We cranked up the engine to 3000rpm in order to avoid shallows and made it safely to the Customs dock. Once on land, oh! joy! our legs were very woobly but we did not suffer "land sickness" ! While waiting to fill out forms etc...we chatted with the Captain of "Eight Bells" who recommended an anchorage with protection from the southwestern winds which were forecasted at 35 knots that night. We were in need of a shower but alas, no luck on Sunday. We decided to go to the anchorage and swimm/wash in salt water before taking a refreshing shower on deck! Wonderful! And then, we had a beer and chips, and rhum...the enjoyment of these little pleasures that we had not had for a week. That night, we slept very well and had no knowledge of 35 knots wind! We were safely anchored! Thanks St-Georges!

November 13: much of the same story. Winds are on the nose. On Day 6, the advise of the weather guru C.Parker is to go to Bermuda as the winds will seem to stay easterly for a long time and also to seek refuge from a nasty cold front system...and so, after reflexion and verification that we do have charts for entering Bermuda, we set allsails up and start the engine in order to make it o Bermuda. Not far, says Parker, only 150 miles. Yes, but with southeasterly between 12 and 25 knots on the nose! And, on Day 7, we are sure that we will not make it before the cold front and that we will have a nice welcome in Bermuda with winds of 25 to 30 knots (luckily from the South) and squalls. We can't wait!
The real challenge is to make it south-east enough to go around the shallow banks (from 2000 fathoms to fathoms) without endangering our safety. Such a drop in water depth will create huge waves that send us banging all over the boat. Our legs and arms can proove it: we look pretty abused and beaten up. It is a great feeling when we manage to finally round the Plantagenet Bank (submerged mountains) and begin to sail parallel the Bermuda island...now , we are too fast and must reduce the size of the jib as we do not wish to enter the island's narrows in the darkness. The wind is gusting up to 27 knots, the seas are big, but the boat is just behaving wonderfully.

November 12: the Easterlies continue!This is really on the nose and slows us down although we really try to motor sail in order to do as much easting as possible. There seems to be no perspective of winds changing for a better course. At times, it is really difficult to know how to set sails: the winds will vary between 8 and 16 knots...so we have too little or too much sail up! At night, we have a rule of double reefing our main sail in order to avoir having to go on deck ..but it slows uns down. Night skies do remain beautiful, however, and we have moon light every night...as well as guiding stars!

November 11: Veterans day at sea. Yes, even though I (Marleyne ) am not working anymore, I have special thoughts for my former colleagues and clients in the military work environment. Today is Veterans Day, at sea. While the winds are calm to start off the morning, they increase to N-NE 10-20 as the daylight fades - pretty early in the day, i.e. 17h00. Unfortunately, we have some current against us (at times as much as 1 knot) which brings our speed around 4.5 mph. Later that evening, East winds at 20+ knots begin to make our life a little harder.

November 10: we begin this Day #2 by contacting Chris Parker and get a forecast for the day. He suggests to stay in the Stream and ride it as long as we can. Winds are N-Ne variable and we must start the engine to make headway. Our speed varies (4-5 nots) depending on the seas but we must maintain at least 4 knots. Only 83 miles today...We have not seen any dolphins or whales; just a little brown bird which came to rest on the boat before flying away (he felt our speed was not fast enough!!!).

November 9, 2008: we leave Beaufort at last! It would seem that we will have westerly winds to push us across the Gulf Stream. We ;eave at 9am but there are 20 miles in very choppy seas before we can clear Cape Lookout and head in direction of the Stream. This day will be marked by good speed across confused seas and rolling violently although the west wind is only 10 to 15 knots. What a first day!

Tomorrow, Sunday november 8th we will leave Beaufort for our great 10-12 days sailing adventure to the Caribbean. Paloma will stay in Cuba and it seems that we will have westerly winds to cross the Gulf Stream...we will depart with the ebb tide tomorrow morning. Of course, this blog will not be updated while we are at sea! No internet cafe out there (I wish!). We will update our position on a daily basis (please see instructions at the top of our blog) or you can type directly http://www.findu.com/cgi-bin/winlink.cgi?call=VE3ZKB.

Le grand depart sera demain, dimanche le 8 novembre...une grande aventure sur la mer d'une duree d'environ 10 a 12 jours qui nous menera dans les Antilles. L'ouragan Paloma semble vouloir rester a Cuba. Nous devrions avoir des vents de l'ouest favorables pour traverser le Gulf Stream. Ce blog ne sera evidemment pas mis a jour pendant la traversee...pas de cafe internet sur la mer! Mais nous mettrons notre position a jour et vous trouverez les instructions a droite de notre page blog ou en allant directement au lien http://www.findu.com/cgi-bin/winlink.cgi?call=VE3ZKB

Au revoir, bye bye, hasta luego!

Still in Beaufort...still waiting...and wondering what Pamela, the storm and hurricane, will do and when...We are trying to be as peaceful and relaxed as the ponies but it is challenging. So much easier to talk about this kind of issues when you sit in an armchair or a a dock somewhere! Anyhow, we are making the last preparations, listened to weather news on SSB, plot our tracks and try to take a calculated risk...The Caribbean Rally of 80 boats left Norfolk today at 11h00! We on the other hand have calculated that departing on Sunday may be our best option. But our plans can change...Are you tired of reading always similar entries in the last days? Well, we are too!

Nous sommes encore ici a attendre..on se prepare tout en gardant un oeil et nos oreilles sur les six milles (!) modeles de prediction du passage de Paloma apres qu'elle aura traverse les Bahamas. C'est vraiment pas evident et tres stressant de planifier un passage de cette longueur la...enfin, nous partirons peut-etre dimanche, tout dependemment des nouvelles meteo. Ca vous ennuie de toujours lire la meme chose depuis quelques jours? Et bien, nous aussi!

Visitor from Kingston!! Alan on Excalibur XII paid us a surprise visit yesterday! His Tartan 42 is at the Beaufort Dock marina!