Jack Sparrow arrives in Bermuda

Without so much as a thank you, Jack sparrow is gone.

We were in pretty heavy weather for the last 12 hours or so approaching
Bermuda, and I think Jack smelled land and set out on his own. We did not
see him go, but when the weather moderated and we got ourselves some food,
he was not there looking for a handout. We are pretty sure that he is
sitting at a bird bar impressing chicks (pun intended) with sea stories.

As for us, we spent much of the day recovering and catching up on sleep. I
don't have much to do in terms of fixing the boat, as most of our fixes at
sea are sufficient to be more or less permanent.

We have a space right at the town landing, but will move to a mooring
tonight to weather the gale that is coming through.

Bermuda is beautiful but pricey. We have the advantage of Uptown, a
gentleman in his 50s who took a liking to us and decided to show us around.
He took us to a club that he described as a "black establishment" but
assured us that we would be welcome, and we were. I think we are going back
tonight.

People here are very much into Obama, except for Uptown. There are a lot of
shirts with Obama and his family on them. They have a more personal, less
political look to them, like you might see the image of Che, or perhaps an
African leader. It is interesting to see a British colony have such an
interest in an American election.

I have some boat stuff to attend to; more later.

RE: Jack Sparrow has taken control of the ship

How many men does it take to kill a sparrow?

-----Original Message-----
From: caribbean-madness@googlegroups.com
[mailto:caribbean-madness@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Walterpiescik
Sent: Tuesday, November 04, 2008 7:38 AM
To: 'Caribbean Madness google group'
Cc: 'Blog'
Subject: Jack Sparrow has taken control of the ship

Friday

He seemed so innocent and vulnerable.

Any yet, he now has four grown men planning their every move based on what
Jack will do.

He started hanging out in the cabin, which was OK, despite the occasional
accident. Until we realized that birds eat, and therefore crap their own
weight every day. Plus, he seems to have perfected a natural form of super
glue.

So we started driving him out of the cabin, for our own health and safety.
He won't stay out. We have been driven to put in the insect screens, and yet
he finds his way around the edges, and through the dorades and I don't know
how.

Right now the crew votes one to three to simply kill him and be done with
it. We have to get rid of some old flares...

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Jack Sparrow has taken control of the ship

Friday

He seemed so innocent and vulnerable.

Any yet, he now has four grown men planning their every move based on what
Jack will do.

He started hanging out in the cabin, which was OK, despite the occasional
accident. Until we realized that birds eat, and therefore crap their own
weight every day. Plus, he seems to have perfected a natural form of super
glue.

So we started driving him out of the cabin, for our own health and safety.
He won't stay out. We have been driven to put in the insect screens, and yet
he finds his way around the edges, and through the dorades and I don't know
how.

Right now the crew votes one to three to simply kill him and be done with
it. We have to get rid of some old flares...

Jack Sparrow must die

Not really, but the vote was two for killing Jack and two for putting up
with him until Bermuda.

Pirates, Flare sighting, Coast guard visit, smooth sailing

14:00 Sat Afternoon

About 24 hours ago, we were boarded and subsequently by no less than Jack
Sparrow. How we merited the honor of having such a notable (or notorious)
character is beyond me, but I suspect it has something to do with our
celebrity status since the creation of this blog. I had not thought that we
would join the ranks of pirates until at least January.

OK, maybe not Jack Sparrow, but we were joined by Jack the Sparrow at least.
We suspect that he was blown offshore by the same winds that blew us
offshore to the tune of 170 miles in 24 hours. Jack looked stunned and
confused when he boarded, and did not have the energy to be wary of us...it
was all he could do to hop a few hops away if we reached for him. He has
since regained much of his vigor, but sensibly chooses to stay with the
boat, rather than try to fly on to St Martin on his own. He asked about the
movie selections, and I think that is what drove his decision.

He is pretty good crew and takes occasional turns at the wheel, but he is
easily overpowered when we are under spinnaker, so he requires some
assistance. Pansy flyboy. He is taking a bath in the galley sink as we
speak. He often alights on our heads which we found amusing at first.

We don't know if we have to declare him when we arrive in Bermuda.

About 0230 this morning, we spotted a bit of pyrotechnics that could have
been a white anti-collision flare but was probably just a shooting star. We
had seen lots of shooting stars, but this one was pretty different, and had
a pyrotechnic feel to it. A mariner in distress would fire a red flare, but
if you are out of red flares, you would use what you have. We got on the VHF
and issued a securite call, mentioned that the sighting was probably a
shooting star, but possibly a white flare and asking whether any station had
knowledge of mariners in distress. No response. Then we did the same on SSB
2182 kHz and did the same. Again, no response. Then we heard Puerto Rico
issuing an unrelated securite call. We listened for a while for reports in
case Search and Rescue authorities would want us to divert to some location.

Right at the end of the first REM sleep of the trip, about 0600, I hear a
voice clear and strong over the until-now-silent VHF radio Sailing Vessel
Madness, Sailing Vessel Madness, this is Coast Guard search and rescue 2005
C130 on postion and searching for mariners in distress. We chatted for a
minute and found out that the message had been relayed by the Canadian CG.
They were clear that it was proablay a shooting star, but scrambled anyway,
and were very thankful that we "did the right thing" and reported it. It was
pretty exciting. I wish that they had tried to reach us on 2182 before
coming out, but they might have come anyway.

We are sailing under spinnaker now, a little northerly of rhumb line to keep
the spinnaker drawing well. Very smooth sailing, and fairly fast. We are
well ahead of our posted distance goals for arriving in Bermuda before the
gale so far.

We have some good tunes on board. Right now I am being introduced to Amanda
Marshal's song "OMG, I woke up with a snake tattoo". Fun.

1:30 AM watch

We are using Her Majesty's watch schedule, courtesy of Martin. It was developed by the Royal Navy, and has been in use for about 300 years. It is the source of the expression "dog watch" which probably derived from the term "dodge watch". Once each day, a few of the crew get a 2 your watch instead of the usual 4 or more hours on, so they "dodged" the watch. The two hour watch allows everyone to get offset enough so that everyone gets a rotation through the good and bad times for a watch.

What this means to me is that I am on watch from 10 PM until 4:00 AM, but I get tomorrow off.

What it means to you is that I am all caught up at the moment, having fixed all that we know is broken, and chose to share this time with you.

It is clear and calm, with light winds out of the west. We saw a sliver of the moon for the first time this trip; it set shortly after the sun. The stars are brilliant. We are motoring at present to cool the icebox and charge the batteries. I hope that we can sail tomorrow, but have my doubts
that there will be enough wind.

We are racing a frontal system to Bermuda, and it carries gale force winds to weak storm. That is a little less menacing than it sounds, as we were sailing in near gale winds the first day and a half, and it was fast, fun and safe. But gale force we would rather avoid.

We set minimum goals for progress for the next two days, sufficient to avoid the gale. Thus far we have managed to put some "in the bank", meaning we are ahead of that schedule. At the present rate, we should achieve our 17:00 goal by 10:00, 7 hours ahead of schedule. If we are lucky, that will give us time for a nice leisurely sail tomorrow, probably under spinnaker.

Talk to you later.

P.S. Dec 20, 2009

On a 6 hour shift, you have some time to blog. We always had two on watch through the night, so it was OK for one to go below and warm up, or make some coffee, tea or soup; or blog.

This post is the first I mentioned that we might have gone to Norfolk, now that it seems clear that we are going to Bermuda. No point in getting the second crew upset for nothing.

Paul and Bruce around sunset, notice that we are warmer already, no hats! Afternoons turned out to be the best times. Everyone would be up by about 14:00, and it was a time of camaraderie and usually the big meal of the day. Then the early morning crew was off to try for some sleep, and the evening watch set to work on the deck inspection.

Deck inspection was one of the really good things we did. Each evening an hour before the sun set, and each sunrise, we went around the boat and inspected the rig, electronics, lifelines, battery condition, etc. etc. etc. I think it saved us from real trouble at least twice. One such time was finding that the pin that held the boom to the main mast was compromised. We could have lost the main sail. That would have made it difficult to make Bermuda before the gale.

Sunset

It got REALLY dark at night

Approachiing Gulf Stream

All is well with the ship and crew.

I don't know if anyone listened to the southbound herb broadcast on the internet but it was a real cliffhanger. Herb was watching 2 low pressure systems and trying to decide which was dominant. If one was dominant, we would be heading to North Carolina for shelter, and if the other was dominant, we could make it to Bermuda if we move along. So for the entire
first day we did not know whether we were headed to Bermuda or North Carolina. When we reached Herb yesterday, we had already made 3 degrees of progress south (about 180 miles) and were not about to go back to New England, because we discovered that it is warmer here.

Herb says the neither has fully established it's dominance, but even if we get a bad break and storms head to Bermuda, we should be able to get there first. We should arrive Sunday Night to Monday morning, and it would arrive Monday evening.

IF it forms, and IF it beats us there it will be bad, but not terrible. Herb says gale force to weak storm. We have been sailing through the night on a "fresh breeze" to "weak gale" which is only a little worse than the gale force to weak storm he is calling for. Still, we won't be stopping for any kiteboarding sessions on the Gulf Stream.

In a few hours we will enter the Gulf Stream. Conditions are very good for this.

Some things we learned so far:

Turns out that if you boil bagged frozen pea soup in a pressure cooker, the bag explodes inside the pressure cooker and makes a mess. Four day old underwear is not as bad as it sounds.

You get a lot more well wishes and congratulations from your google group right after you leave, and it clogs up your ability to send and receive email, even though you are just retrieving the headers It is cold in New England in November. Especially on the water. Even the
Canadians say so.

ttyl