Let me start off by saying that I did not approve of the trips slogan from the instant I heard it. My brain immediately goes to a place I do not like but Gib said that was the point. The trip was from Bridgeport, CT to the island of Bermuda and back. My Dad and Scott Smith went both ways. Gib and my brother Tom sailed the outbound leg while Gregg Gallatin and I sailed the return voyage. During the planning stages Gib's wife jokingly worried about what we would do for milk and suggested taking along a goat. The idea was quickly latched onto and became a running joke. On the outbound leg of the trip besides one day of calm they had excellent weather and winds, both in wind speed and direction. This got them to Bermuda in just over 5 days. The goat jokes kept escalating during that time so that when they arrived in Bermuda and were asked by customs whether they were importing any livestock they were barely able to keep from cracking up and getting the boat quarantined. After I arrived while on a run I discovered some loose goats so Tom and I considered getting drunk and stealing one. We decided not to for three good reasons (and if you can think of three reasons not to do something maybe that is a sign that you shouldn't do it). 1) While we thought that Dad would see the humor in our stunt he would probably not be happy with it being tied to the mast, scuffing the deck with its hooves and shitting/pissing on it. 2) We were going to have to cut a fence into a military installation to extract the goat. And 3) It's wrong to steal things that don't belong to you.
I flew into Bermuda on Saturday, got through customs, and found the boat without too much difficulty. This was the week of the biennial Newport, RI to Bermuda race with 165 boats entered so Bermuda customs was very prepared for a bunch of sailors to be flying in and out as crews changed. The types of boats range from normal cruising yachts like ours to the most absolute cutting edge technology open ocean racing boats on the planet. The fastest boat, The Rambler, was able to do the crossing in 39 hours 39 minutes (shattering the previous record) but due to the handicapping system only earned 2nd place in its division. These boats would be approaching Bermuda as we were leaving. After hanging out in the town of Hamilton for a couple of days and exploring the island some we had a favorable weather forecast so it was time to put to sea and see what Neptune had in store for us. Here is the breakdown of the main events of each day during the 8 days it took us to get back.
Leaving Bermuda behind
Day 2: Tuesday, 19 June 2012: By morning the winds had stopped or if there was a little bit of wind it was dead ahead so we had to tack. Minimal forward progress was made. There is a limited amount of fuel on board and this was needed to charge the batteries a few times a day. When the motor was on to do this we would be able to grab some miles homeward but this only helped a little. In the summer what is known as the Bermuda High tends to set up in this area. High pressure makes for wonderful weather but piss poor sailing.
Day 2: Tuesday, 19 June 2012: By morning the winds had stopped or if there was a little bit of wind it was dead ahead so we had to tack. Minimal forward progress was made. There is a limited amount of fuel on board and this was needed to charge the batteries a few times a day. When the motor was on to do this we would be able to grab some miles homeward but this only helped a little. In the summer what is known as the Bermuda High tends to set up in this area. High pressure makes for wonderful weather but piss poor sailing.
Nighttime can be the scariest of times on a boat when you can't see the waves or what is going on in the rigging or it can be the most magical of times. This night was one of those magical times. It was a new moon and being in the middle of the ocean there are absolutely no lights except the dim glow of the instruments and navigation lights. When there were clouds on the horizon you could not tell where the ocean stopped and the sky began. We were just floating in a dark bubble but since mostly it was clear out the amount of stars and the intensity of the Milky Way was breath taking. I hadn't seen a sky like that since living in Vermont on those crystal clear 30 below zero nights but now there were no trees or hills on the horizon. Constellations, planets, shooting stars, and satellites were all readily visible in a slowly spinning dance around the North Star which basically was where our heading was. The dance of light continued into the water around the boat and in its wake from the phosphorescent bioluminescence twinkling like the fireflies I used to see as a kid. If I stared too deeply into the flashing lights I would lose my sense of depth perception and have the feeling that I was falling into it. Between the 3 miles of water underneath the boat and the sky above I felt pretty small and insignificant. In fact the entire solar system felt pretty small and insignificant.
Day 3: Wednesday, 20 June 2012: The complete lack of wind continued through the morning. It is amazing how flat the middle of an ocean can be. Barely any swell and no wind waves at all. At this point we realized that we needed to be aware of food, water, and fuel consumption because we were going nowhere fast. In fact we were drifting at 0.4 knots/hour deeper into the Atlantic Ocean. Wildlife to this point had been Greater Shearwaters, White Tailed Tropicbirds, flying fish, lots of Portugese Man-O-War jellyfish, and then midmorning were visited by our first of several pods of porpoise jumping around and playing off the front of the boat. Around 9pm the wind finally picked up and we started moving again.
Day 4: Thursday, 21 June 2012: Steady 20 to 23 knot winds from a good direction made for some fast sailing but for the biggest waves and swells of the trip (10-15 feet). It was a very bumpy herky jerky ride. A couple of times a minute the waves would set up so that the front of the boat would come slamming down into a wave. This would stop a lot of the forward motion and if you were below decks it was like someone was outside periodically beating on the side of the boat with a baseball bat. I can sleep through a lot but even I had trouble that day.
Day 7: Sunday, 24 June 2012: My watch that night began at 0400. Coming on deck we are informed that there are two fishing vessels ahead (presumed fishing vessels it turns out) on either side of us that have been there awhile. We have been trying to save electricity (and therefore fuel) for the last several days and since noone has been around we had the radios turned off. Just as it was becoming light out one of the boats crossed in front of us, circled around, and then came charging directly at us with all its lights on and blaring its horn. At this point my Dad turns on the VHF radio to see what is going on and we are informed that we are in the middle of a live fire naval exercise and that they have been trying to hail us for hours. An entire ocean out there and the US Navy has decided that they need to blow up that little section of water at exactly the time we need to cross it. We are told to go immediately South (ie: back towards Bermuda). We decide to turn East which is still in the totally wrong direction for us but beter then due South. At this point the other boat (USS Ryan T. Miller) is shadowing us off the port side and then a naval spotter airplane starts making passes over us at 500 feet. They hail us again. "Sailing vessel Sierra Hotel. Declare your intentions!". We explain that we are overdue by 2 days and low on fuel needing to go Northwest. Eventually they compromise and allow us to skirt the edge of the exercise area but both the ship and plane escorted us until we were out of the area. Who knows but we probably wasted several 100s of thousands of tax payer dollars and pissed off an admiral by delaying their exercise for a few hours. By the afternoon we were close enough to the mainland to pick up FM radio stations and chatter on the VHF radio (which was now left on all the time). Being a weekend there was a fair amount of chatter and being off of New York some of it was quite foul mouthed. At 7:48pm "Land Ho!!!" could be cried as Montauk (the eastern edge of Long Island) was spotted.
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