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November 15th, Tuesday - Tortola, British
Virgin Islands
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As
we sailed the last few hours of our passage to the
Caribbean, with the sunrise peeking through the mostly
cloudy sky and the warm breeze blowing forcefully and
steadily, I kept thinking in astonishment "We did it!"
Our family and our boat have successfully completed a
long passage across the ocean in pursuit of a dream.
It is overwhelming, even as I write this. I am
filled with pride and awe at our accomplishment.
The challenge is far from over, but I have renewed
confidence in our ability to face it, and thrive on it.
The boat, the captain, the kids, and I all passed with
flying colors. For that, we are immeasurably
grateful.
Boats from the Caribbean 1500 Rally continue to stagger
into the marina. Our friends Paul and Michelle on
Blueprint Match haven't arrived yet. They actually
turned around yesterday to assist another rally boat
whose mast failed (yeah, that's a really big problem on
a sailboat). I don't have the details (they will
most likely be on the
website)
but that is why these rally's are successful. The
safety net of fifty-one boats traveling together is well
worth the fee.
Below are some thoughts I wrote the last night of our
passage. I look forward to putting together a more
coherent narrative of the adventure soon.
11/13/05 -
5pm - As
I write, we are about 150 miles northwest of Tortola.
We should arrive sometime Monday morning. We've
had plenty of wind since it started building on Thursday
and we haven't motored since then. Last night was
quite boisterous, with a few squalls and fairly big
seas, at least to us novices. We sailed from about
3am until about 8:30am with three reefs in the main (the
smallest we can make it) and the staysail, the smallest
of our headsails. We did manage to
shred our spinnaker on Thursday afternoon, but, unlike
what was reported on the website, it was not in a
squall. It was just a tired old sail, the original
one from 20,000 miles ago, and it was it's time to go.
We
are all thrilled with the way the boat is handling and
the way the crew is getting along and working together.
The kids have been truly amazing. Only last night
did they wake up and complain about the motion of the
boat. They moved back into our cabin, which is
much more stable than theirs in the front of the boat.
They have had a few nauseous moments, but few and far
between. We have been giving them a half a
Dramamine in the morning and another in the evening,
just for good luck. I know they are very excited
to arrive at the marina. They are already planning
their first trip to the swimming pool and asking about
the color and depth of the water there. Lew's
wife, Florrie, is an artist and is bringing some art
supplies down with her when she visits on Tuesday.
She has promised an art lesson and I know they will be
very eager students. Cassie has taken to teaching
her sister different subjects, including cursive and
multiplication. It is pretty amazing to watch them
together. Juliana eats it up and Cassie is very
helpful and encouraging.
For the rest of the crew, the watch schedule has worked
out well. At least everyone seems to be happy with
it, although I will be the first to admit that I have
the cushy job. My night watch is from 6pm until
9pm, and my day watch is 6am to 9am. Although it
is still dark when I get on in the morning, it lightens
up very quickly. I always have company during my
night watch. Night watches are much more intense
than day watches. The ocean just looks so much
more ominous in the dark. The waves, which Gregg
tells me are no more than 6 feet, seem to tower over the
boat. The noises seem much louder. Actually,
the most noise comes from all the stuff in the cupboards
and cabinets rattling around when the waves hit the
boat. It is much quieter and calmer when you are
sitting outside at the helm. You get a really good
feeling about how well the boat travels through the
lumpy waters when you sit up there and can watch the
waves coming up and sliding under the boat.
9:30pm - I just got off my last night watch of the trip.
The moon is nearly full and it is a beautiful night.
It is still blowing nicely, about 30 knots, and we are
booking along towards the finish line at 9.5 knots or
so. We have two reefs in the main and the full
genoa out. The wind is out of the northeast now,
so the majority of the waves are hitting us on the side,
lifting the port hull up and sliding under the boat.
There are plenty of waves, however, that come at us from
a slightly different angle. The boat reacts to
each one differently. I spent a long time trying
to figure out how to predict what effect a wave was
going to have the boat. "We should surf down this
one really fast," I would think. Naturally, I
never quite got it right. Some waves would catch
the boat just right and she would go gliding down as you
watched the speedometer climb steadily from 8.5 to 9.2
to 9.7 to 10.2, 10.5, 11, and so on. The highest
we have seen so far this trip was 19, right before we
put the third reef in last night. We have seen
plenty of 12s and 13s and the occasional one higher than
that. Sometimes this ride would be so quiet you
would hardly know it was happening. Other times
the whole boat would vibrate with the force of the boat
slicing through the water. It can be kind of
scary, but after a while you come to realize that these
are all normal boat noises and you relax a little more.
Going below and actually sleeping is another story.
Although we all got good sleep on the first part of the
trip when it was nice and calm and we were motoring, you
can't really get uninterrupted sleep when it is rocking
and rolling like this. I caught a cat nap today
for about an hour and a half, so I'm feeling pretty
good. I was up helping reef sails when Joe got off
watch and Gregg came on watch at 3am last night.
At that point the girls went down into our cabin and I
crashed in the salon in case Gregg needed someone to
help with the boat. Joe had been up with Lew on
his watch and needed to get some sleep so it worked out
well.
Much love,
Christy, Joe, Cassie and Juliana
Next entry
>>>>>>>
Many thanks to our
friend Craig Homenko for his assistance in setting up
the website.
We also would like
to thank our buddy Scott Brunner who has been kind
enough to host the website on his server.
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