Day 17: Bermuda to Maine – 30/07/12

What a difference another day makes – it’s not a saying but it should be!

It’s all change again as when the sun rises there is a thick blanket of cloud and low visibility – and it’s bloody cold!  During the night the sea has been getting rougher and rougher – totally unavoidable – as we cross the continental shelf and a cold wind is coming from the north east.  The sails are still up but the engine is going too and we are still only making 4 to 5 knots.

Amazingly I get to sleep for my morning catch up, probably because it took me so long last night to actually drop off at all and I probably lost about 2 hours trying.  But immediately I wake up and open my eyes, I know it’s going to be bad.  Crash, bang, thump, lurch, tip forwards, tip backwards – oh Jeannius is pitching all over the place and nausea starts to creep up on me.  For all the good I am I may as well stay in bed but I decide I may as well lie on the sofa and keep Mike company (take that to mean make sure he knows I am suffering) rather than lie alone in bed and complain to myself.

Not for the first time this morning, a large vessel bears down on us.  I have just sent Mike down for a little sleep and when I see AIS telling me that his course is going to take us within 0.012 of a mile of a collision, I hesitate as Mike has not told me how much tolerance I have with the amount of sail that I have.  I’m great at avoidance tactics when just powered by the engine but bring those flappy bits into the picture and I’m clueless.  I have to wake him up.  And it’s just as well.  Mike changes course and we head at 90 degrees to our previous course.  We would have had to do this at some time in the next couple of hours anyway to avoid being in the north-south shipping lane to Boston.  We end up spending 4 hours to get to 4 miles on from where we started before we had to tack.

Mike is not happy and not just because of the waste of time.  One engine is refusing to charge the house batteries and the inverter only produces charge when it wants to.  Seeing his miserable face is enough to kick me up the backside – we both can’t be pissed off at the same time – so I decide it’s my turn to be the cheerful one and shovelling sea sickness tablets down my throat, I make a start on the washing up.

Within half an hour, I feel fine.  No, it’s not the healing and restorative powers of housework, it’s just that the wind dies down and with it, the sea.  Completely.  An hour later and it is totally flat, eerily flat calm.  It’s the weirdest looking sea since the last time I saw one this weird, but it’s wonderful.

Photo:  Now this is what you call ‘dead calm’

For the third time today we see dolphins.  It is much easier to see them when the sea is this calm but they refuse to come over to the side of the boat which is in shade and I can’t film them as they are right in the line of the sun.  I’m not surprised they want to play though.  By late in the afternoon we are getting an average of 8 knots.  Although there is virtually no wind and the engines are only giving us about 4.5 knots, we have over 3 knots of current with us.  We are gliding!  However, we would have to keep this speed up all the way to Portland if we are going to make it during light tomorrow and as Mike says, that just isn’t going to happen. 

Civilisation is all around us.  There are more container ships, tankers and fishing boats than you can shake a stick at.  At one point we are surrounded by 6 boats all going in different directions.  The fishing boats mill around in no particular direction and getting past them and their nets is like being on a slalom course but then we are in shallow seas now so it is to be expected.  I just keep thinking of all that crab, lobster and shrimp I am going to eat when I hit Maine.

  Photos:  Fishing boat pulling up it’s nets

Photo:  A tanker at sunset

The trousers, socks and fleeces came out today – during the day no less – and the water temperature dropped another 3 degrees to 16 degrees.  No wonder they get so much coastal fog here.  It’s just like being in UK territorial waters – only warmer.  I’m glad I kept the blankets on board!

 

Position:  41 deg 24 min N, 69 deg 00 mins W

Distance so far:  1427 miles