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Tuesday, June 13th - St. Georges, Bermuda
After a whirlwind day
today, it is looking very promising for us to depart
Bermuda for the Azores tomorrow. Our biggest
concern, hurricane Alberto, is forecast to stay well
west and north of our projected course. This
should generate some good winds in the right direction
for our passage. We are thrilled to have our crew,
Glenn Harmon with us for the trip. He has two
trans Atlantic passages and one Pacific passage on his
sailing resume, as well as numerous trips down to the
Caribbean and back. He is a welcome addition to
the crew.
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Our rigging issue was
successfully resolved today. We needed to replace
the roller on the block where the spinnaker halyard
comes out of the mast. Despite many promises to
have the new block installed a week ago, we didn't see
our rigger until about 9:30 this morning. Up the
mast he went to installed the new part, only to realize
that it was too big to fit into the hole in the mast.
With guarded optimism, we smiled and nodded when he
promised to return before 4:30pm with a modified part.
Unlike our mental state nearly a year ago when we first
moved aboard, we were totally unstressed about meeting
any deadline for starting our passage. If the
rigger didn't come through, we'd just have to wait
another day and that wasn't going to make a big
difference either way. It sure is nice to have a
little experience under out belts!
The issue of
provisioning was also resolved today, to the tune of
$526. Just about everything is expensive in
Bermuda, and the local grocery store was no exception.
Joe dropped me and my shopping bags (I remembered them
this time!) off at the ferry dock, for the trek down to
the grocery store on Front Street. The cruise ship
passengers waiting for the ferry got a hoot out of
seeing us whizzing by in the dinghy and tried to flag us
down for a ride. They asked if we were locals but
we didn't get a chance to talk to them. It made me
wonder how we appeared to other tourists on the island.
Most of the time we question how the locals perceive us
and try to put forth our best image. The clerks at
the grocery store knew something was up when I presented
my cart full of food for check out and were warm and
friendly, asking about our trip and helping to hail a
cab and load up the groceries. I often feel that
we get a much warmer reception from locals because we
are traveling with kids, but even without them we find
kindness and curiosity more often than not. Ours
is a unique perspective and I was again reminded of our
great fortune and the imperative to enjoy every aspect
of it.
Before our 1800 mile
passage, we also needed to refuel after our long
motor-sail from the Bahamas. We had learned about
the duty-free fuel dock from some Caribbean 1500 friends
who stopped here on their way back up to Canada.
At $2.75 a gallon versus $6, it was worth the extra
logistics required. We motored over from our spot
at the Royal Hamilton Amateur Dinghy Club and took on 88
gallons of diesel. We met a couple of monohulls
who are making the passage to the Azores as well.
My initial reaction was to see about buddying up with
them for the passage but Joe's scowl made me realize
that it is logistically impossible as we travel almost
twice as fast as they do. Sorry mom and dad!
Our last issue to deal
with was laundry. Something went haywire in our
little onboard washing machine the last time Joe tried
to use it, so all the dirty clothes the girls and I
brought back from Annapolis needed a wash. Our
favorite way to do laundry is to drop it off in the
morning and pick it up in the afternoon, clean and
folded. Of course, this is not in a typical
cruiser's budget, but we have spoiled ourselves on this
issue to date so why change now? Joe had dropped
it off in the morning and I took off in the dinghy to
pick it up just as the riggers showed up with our
modified part. Things were really coming together.
On the dock behind us,
a Sportfisher from North Carolina had pulled in last
night. As I watched them rig up their eight or ten
huge rods and reels, I pounced on the opportunity to get
assistance with my new fancy, top of the line reel that
I had bought in Annapolis. After 33 hours of
motoring to get here, the crew were very kind to come
over and check out our tackle and help us set it up
properly to maximize our chances of success. They
checked out the rod that came with the boat when we
bought it and approved it for use with my new reel.
I had originally thought I would just mount it on the
rail of our boat but it is much better to have it on a
rod. These guys are here for two weeks to go
fishing for big game fish in the deep waters surrounding
Bermuda. They came back to the dock today having
caught three White Marlin. They were happy.
We moved over to St.
Georges, where we will clear out of customs in the
morning and make one last stop at the grocery store for
more snack food and various odds and ends that I missed
on my first trip. Chris Parker, our weather guy,
gave us a great forecast for departing on the 14th.
I posted it on a
separate
page for those who are interested. We are very
excited to be heading out. We will update as we
can on the way.
See you in Europe!
Love,
Christy, Joe, Cassie
and Juliana
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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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