Bermuda Run, Part 1

 This all started out with a plan to sail around the DelMarVa peninsula to give us a chance to experience overnight and off-shore sailing.  We had originally planned to do this in May 2012 but our plans fell through when we got an offer on our boat two weeks before we were supposed to depart.  We cancelled our vacation and after about a month of negotiation with the buyers the deal fell through.  We eventually took our boat off the market.  In November 2012 we again began making plans for the DelMarVa run and had several other boats interested in going along.  Just as we began making solid plans we heard about an Island Packet rally to Bermuda that was being planned for the same time, late May 2013.  It took us about two minutes of discussion before we dumped our plans for the DelMarVa and signed on for Bermuda.  At that time we were the twelfth boat to sign up for the rally.

Once we signed up several months went by before we heard another word.  We wrote to the organizer and offered assistance but he felt he had things under control.  In January he asked everyone to make a commitment and over half the boats dropped out.  After that we heard nothing for several more months.  I wasn't sure what the organizer had in mind but I didn't feel too comfortable with the lack of organization.  At the end of April we got an e-mail from him saying his brother and only crew member had passed away and he would have to drop out of the rally.  That left us with four boats and no organizer.  Of the four only one had been to Bermuda before and that boat quickly dropped out also.  The remaining three of us got in touch with each other and got things rolling, shared information and within days had things feeling much more organized than at any time in the previous five months.  We had at this point less than thirty days to go.  Within two weeks we were down to just two boats, La Vida Dulce and Starshine.

Starshine has a Single Side-Band radio which is essential for getting weather updates out at sea.  We signed up with Dane and Jennifer Clark for weather routing to get suggestions for the best times to go and return and also got info on how to take advantage of swirling currents of the Gulf Stream to increase our speed.  We also shared info on a life raft rental company in Hampton, VA and we each signed on with them for six-man life rafts.  Cheri spent the final weekend before we left at her brother's house making meals for 30 days in advance and freezing them.  I spent all my time getting the auto pilot and depth sounder installed.  We also picked up our safety harnesses and jacklines.  So much to do and it was getting down to the final moments.

Our original intent was to leave our marina by 5/21 but with all the preparations we decided to hold off for one more day and departed for Hampton on 5/23 around 0700. We were supposed to meet up with Starshine, IP380, and the plan was to depart on 5/25 or 5/26. We figured we had a few days to get down to Hampton and could take our time. Once out in the Bay we found a stiff breeze of about 20 knots coming straight out of the South, the direction we needed to go. We also needed to do the initial setup for the auto pilot so we decided to run under power for a while.

The procedure for setting up the auto pilot is pretty simple and starts out with "swinging the compass", which involves driving in slow circles to calibrate the fluxgate compass. It then goes into some pre-programmed maneuvers. We ran into problems with the maneuvers and it failed every time. We called the tech service for Raymarine which includes being on hold and listening to Classical Gas over and over for 45 minutes. We went through that six times before we finally got the problem straightened out. It turned out that when I installed the rudder reference I had to mount it upside down because there just wasn't any other way to get it to fit. On the sixth call I remembered this and the tech said I simply needed to swap the red and green wires from the rudder reference. That worked and we were up and running. This took about 3 hours with me in the cockpit locker for most of that time while Cheri drove the boat towards our destination.

While all this was going on we received an e-mail from Starshine saying they wanted to depart from Hampton on 5/24. Uhm, no problem. We'll just do our fist overnight run now, get it out of the way. Which we did. We ran under power the entire way, 6.5 knots, straight into the wind. We actually arrived in the area around 0230 but drove around in the dark until the sun came up before attempting the entrance into Salt Pond. We pulled into Southall Landings Marina at 0700. As we turned into the slip next to Starshine it began to rain. I mean pour.

As soon as we got the boat tied up the owner of Starshine came aboard to discuss our trip to Bermuda. We were expecting to depart within a few hours. As Bob ducked under the canvass entry to our cockpit he caught his foot on the coaming and flew across the cockpit, landing head first on the edge of the seat on the other side. I don't mean he stumbled either. He was literally completely in the air when his face came in contact with the seat. I was sure he'd be dead. I rolled him over and blood just gushed out of his nose. He said he was OK but couldn't see straight and all I could think was that he had a concussion. I took him down to the hospital where X-rays showed nothing. They were going to let him go when he mentioned that he had double vision. That got him a CT scan which showed five broken bones in his face and the doctor wanted him transferred over to a hospital in Norfolk right away for emergency surgery. Bob felt good enough, no pain, that he decided to go back to his boat first and we could take him over to Norfolk later. When he called the hospital to make arrangements they wanted him to wait until the following Tuesday for surgery and then he'd have to wait at least a week for a follow up. This all happened Friday morning, the weekend of Memorial Day. At this point it looked like the trip to Bermuda was out.

Cheri and I discussed things and decided to make the trip alone. We borrowed Bob's car and drove into Norfolk to get our rented life raft. On the way back Cheri mentioned getting someone to sign on with us to help make standing watches a little easier. I told her there were very few people I would trust with our boat, much less get along with in close quarters for extended periods of time. One person came to mind, Jeff Arnfield. Cheri had worked with him at NOAA and we had met on a trip to Asheville, North Carolina. Great guy and an avid sailor. Thinking it was too short notice and would never happen Cheri contacted him anyway with the offer and he jumped on it, drove 7 hours and arrived Saturday afternoon. This was meant to be!

In the meantime Bob had gotten in touch with another doctor and made an appointment for Tuesday. There was now a chance that he'd still be able to go but he didn't have his rented life raft and would have to wait until Tuesday to get it. We were now locked in to leave on Sunday morning because Jeff could only go for the first half and had a flight out of Bermuda on the following Monday, 6/3 to come home. Hold on, it gets even more complex.

We took off early Sunday morning and as soon as we cleared the marker for Salt Pond we attempted to set the mainsail. It jammed in the slot about 2/3 up the mast and we could not get it in or out. In our efforts we put too much tension on the roller reefing line and blew out a pad-eye holding one of the blocks at the base of the mast. We turned around and went back to the marina.

I knew right away what the problem was. I had just recently adjusted the standing rigging to factory specs and I knew this had to be the cause of the problem.  It's been my experience that whenever anything goes wrong you should always look at the most recent thing done. When I eyed up the mast I could see the top begin to bend aft slightly right near where the sail was jamming. I looked on the Internet and found a write-up done by an IP dealer who said that the factory specs were wrong and he had a procedure for doing it correctly.

I also found a good explanation for what the problem was. When there's a bend in the mast with in-mast roller reefing it causes the spool that the sail rolls onto to come in contact with the inside of the mast. Let me try that again. The mast is hollow and has this spool inside that the sail rolls onto. The spool is only connected at the top and bottom so if the mast bends the spool is still straight. Now where the mast begins to bend the spool is closer to the inside in one area and the sail will rub inside the the mast and bunch up. The mast has to be perfectly straight with this type of roller reefing.

Jeff and I went through the modified procedure of adjusting the rigging.  The standing rigging is the wires that hold up the mast fore and aft and side to side.  The rigging on the sides extend up to different heights on the mast to keep it stiff and straight over it's full height.  We found the adjustments to the forward and aft lowers on Port and Starboard to be the critical changes.  Now the mast stood perfectly straight and best of all, the sail rolled in and out better than it ever had since we bought the boat. This has always been a problem and up until now I've really hated in-mast roller reefing. Another mystery solved and I now have a much better understanding of how this all works.  We replaced the blown out pad-eye and were now ready to go again.

Leaving Sunday was no longer an option though. In the midst of all this Bob had talked with his doctor and was told that surgery wasn't necessary and that the bones would heal fine if just left alone. He wasn't in any pain and the swelling had gone down almost completely. We decided to wait until Tuesday so we could sail out together.

We departed for Bermuda Tuesday morning at 1100. We sailed past the Bay Bridge Tunnel and continued out into the Atlantic. Conditions were brisk with 22 knot winds and about a 6 foot chop. Thirty two miles out from the bridge at 1900 our mainsail blew out, torn in three places. Jeff and I went up on deck and dropped the sail and tied it down to the boom, fearing that if we tried to furl it into the mast we'd never get it back out. It was really shredded. With things secured we got on the radio and told Starshine our trip was over and we were headed back. They decided to continue on to Bermuda.

We returned to Salt Pond around 0100 with Jeff standing on deck with our mega candlepower spot light to show the way past the unlighted channel markers. This place is totally dark at night.

The next morning we called around and found a local canvas shop, Signature Canvas. The owner kept his boat at Southall Landings Marina and told us if we could get the sail to him by 1000 he'd take a look at it. We were at his door at 0959. He laid the sail out and inspected it. He felt that the stitching was in good shape and repairs would be possible. He said he could have it back to us later that day for about $400. Wow! We're saved!

Back at the boat Jeff decided he couldn't continue on the trip because of time constraints. There was no way we'd get to Bermuda in time for his return flight and he didn't think he could get any more time off from work. Understood. After a short stay and all kinds of great help on the boat he packed up and drove home. Bummer.

Around 1600 I called to see how the repair was coming along. "It's finished, come on down and pick it up". Wow! That's fast! Only problem is we now had no transportation. "No problem, we'll deliver it to the dock, no extra charge". These people are incredible.

Cheri and I got the main back up. Couldn't even tell it was patched. She wanted to take off that night but I was just too beat so we decided to wait until the next day to take off. Again.

So now it's a week after we had originally planned to go. We still have time to get there and back but we're eating into the time we have to actually be there and enjoy the place. Not only that but now we're going alone, just the two of us (and Bella), just La Vida Dulce, and we're gonna be pretty tired when we get there so that's gonna cost a day or so too.

This is pretty crazy.  We started out as a group of twelve boats, plenty of comfort in a large group.  We were now down to going it alone.  The thing is, we'd come this far and done so much to prepare for this.  It just didn't make sense to quit.  On top of that, we would eventually be doing this on our own anyway.  Might as well jump in with both feet.  Besides, all the bad stuff had already happened.  What else could go wrong?