Against The Wind

Hello all! Here is the post you've all been waiting for! Sorry to all who have been waiting in suspense. Now its time for us to paint another picture in your heads!

Have you ever played that word association game? That one where somebody says a word or phrase and you're supposed to say the first words that come to mind? Well what words come to mind when you hear words like "Atlantic" or "Bermuda Triangle?" Probably something along the lines of "stormy" or "high winds" or "big waves". Our journey from Beaufort, North Carolina to St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands was in fact, quite the opposite.

Before we get to the story, we're here! We have made it to the Virgin Islands! The first leg of our journey, all 2400 miles of it, is complete! It has been one of the most amazing experiences we have ever had and we both can't wait for what is still to come. We want to thank everybody who helped make it possible and your continued support is greatly appreciated. Now, here's how it all went down.

Our course plotting was pretty easy for this trip. We decided on three coordinates that would be our "turning points", veering a little further south each time. This was the general outline to follow for our journey.

After cruising down the Intracoastal Waterway for a week, we were finally ready to hit the open ocean again. We set our date for departure from Beaufort after looking at numerous weather GRIBs and routing sites, and we decided to time our departure on the tail end of a low pressure system, basically lining our trip up in between those systems (storms) that continuously build off of Cape Hatteras. After deciding the date, we plotted the course. It was an interesting task trying to plot a course of this caliber, spanning over 1300 Nautical Miles of vast ocean and unpredictability. We came up with three separate coordinates, or what we referred to as our "turning points." These points were the general outline for us to follow when making our trek south. They weren't just random points we saw on the chart and decided would be a good points to turn at. There was careful thought and input from us, and others. We mainly looked at the wind, seeing where the tradewinds were and trying to predict what the direction was going to be 5 days out... and then a complete guess as to what it would be 10 days out (there are no forecasts that really go this far so essentially you really have to guess). We had to look at weather as well, basically having to follow on the tail end of a system leaving off of Hatteras, and trying to get as far southeast as possible before the next system would take over . It was tricky to assess, but eventually you start to figure out patterns and base your journey around those.

Though the wind was extremely light, it did create some beautiful scenery

Will and I thought we had it figured out, and for the most part we did! We knew that there was going to be this massive high pressure system moving in in between the storms. We saw average wind speeds of 5-10 knots with the occasional 15 and maybe even some 20s. We knew it would be light. That, to Will and I, meant smooth easy sailing, maybe having to turn the motor on every once in a while to charge up the batteries, and then occasionally get some semi-rough weather sailing. Well what happened was this:

This is what the oh so ferocious Atlantic was like. This was the Bermuda Triangle. Dead calm. Not a breath of wind and barely even waves to rock the boat. You could drop a penny in the water and watch the ripples for miles.  Maybe you have always heard about that certain area in the Atlantic that is dead calm with no wind. People call it the doldrums. Have you heard of it? Well, this is not that place. This shouldn't have been this way. We were crossing through one the most notoriously unpredictable spots of ocean in the world and this is what it threw at us.

Will praying to the wind gods. And waiting, just waiting.

The first few days weren't bad. We made good time getting maybe 100 miles a day. Since the sea was so calm, it made motoring straight on our course very easy. When day 4 came along, and the wind still hadn't really picked up, we started to get nervous. We had used up almost half of our diesel from what we could tell and were only a third of the way into the trip. This wasn't good. I even began planning potential back up routes to Dominican or Puerto Rico just in case. Our fuel gauge doesn’t exactly work so we had no idea exactly how much fuel we had or how much longer we could go. We decided to run the tanks dry and count the engine hours so that we knew exactly how far we could go before we refueled the main tank with the diesel tanks we store on deck. Basically, we needed that wind to fill in. After praying to the wind gods they finally threw us a bone. A small bone, but a bone nonetheless. We got a few knots of wind here and there, never from great directions but enough to shut the engine off and actually sail for a bit. The light winds eased our minds slightly allowing us to fully take in the amazing scenery around us.

The days were beautiful. The sun would reflect off the calm waters, revealing a strong, deep shade of blue unlike anything we'd ever seen. The sunrises and sunsets were surreal. Like living in a painting almost. There was one night where there wasn't a cloud in the sky or a ripple in the water with thousands of stars glimmering off of the sky and the water, creating the feeling of being in a giant snow globe. It was incredible and these photos almost couldn't capture the amazing display, but they did a pretty good job.

All in all it was great, but we still needed wind. We tried contacting any boat we saw out there for weather reports, mostly just tankers and freighters. They'd give us a report for the next day or so and we'd make our plan around it, hoping the wind would actually do what they said. The people who answered us on the radio were very nice and accommodating, but you could tell they were all wondering what such a small vessel was doing so far from shore. We talked to one that told us they were going to be in Tortola on the 29th and that they'd buy the first round when we got there! Then one day, with not much breeze and not much swell, our autopilot Jeeves' belt broke. We only had one spare belt with us so we threw it on and just prayed it wouldn't break. We saw the belt rubbing on the wheel while it turned and assumed that was the source of the break. The rotary wheel just needed to be tilted slightly so I went down to get some washers. Looking around though, the first thing I came across was a tooney (Canadian 2 dollar coin) and some quarters. Good enough for me! I brought them up to Will and we wedged them into the wheel. It worked! All in all it took $2.75 to get Jeeves back and running but I guess as far as boat fixes go that's pretty cheap.

Sam exercising his newly acquired cooking skills. Turns out he's not half bad! 

I got the opportunity to hone in in my cooking skills. Definitely had to seize the chance while the water was calm to show Will I could actually cook -things don't get quite so graceful when the seas pick up. Our two hour shopping spree for provisioning before the trip actually panned out pretty well. Our only problem, not enough beer! For some reason we thought a lonely 6 pack would last 12 days. Do the math on that one. As far as food went though, we definitely did not go hungry! Had plenty of stuff to play around with and create so delicious meals, yet sometimes we just found comfort in the good ol' ham and cheese. I will add however, before we left Nova Scotia we were equipped with many jars of various pickled goods, cooked by our great friends Rebecca, Rachel and Mev. So having things like pickled carrots and awesome sweet onion chutney definitely spiced up the sandwiches.  

Finally, after 9 days of little to no wind, the gods answered our prayers. And boy did we get what we asked for! The waves grew to 12-15 feet and the winds increased to over 20 knots with squalls hitting closer to 40-50 knots!

For the most part, the first week was completely dead calm. We got the occasional 5-10 knots, slowly pushing us along, but never in a great direction. By the second week we started to get a little more breeze. Day 9 is where it hit. The seas rose first. Wave heights quickly went from 1-3 feet to 10-15. Then the wind came. It was East South East picking up to a consistent 20 knots gusting 25-30. Sleeping became very hard below deck. The constant creaking and groaning of the boat. Wind whipping the halyards and stays. Waves smacking against the hull making a sound like hitting a rock. Eating became sporadic so we grew very tired, still trying to keep our heads high because we got what we asked for. Then Jeeves' belt broke again. The last belt we had, snapped right in half. The MacGyver instincts kicked in and we instantly started creating makeshift belts from the old broken ones we had. Some worked, some didn't. But with the right combination of zipties, paracord and electric tape we hobbled enough belts together to make it to St. Thomas. Mother nature definitely kicked our butts out there, giving us the old "ask and you shall receive" attitude, but we held our own!

When a squall hit, it was quite hard to keep your eyes open with the sideways rain hitting you in the face at 30 knots!

Jeeves, our trusty autopilot, was on his last legs by the end of the journey. Here you seem him held together with zip ties, electric tape, and para cord. To keep him positioned in the right spot, we had to use a tooney and some quarters as our spacers.

For the last few hundred miles, we were exhausted. We hadn't slept much. We hadn't really eaten anything. We were ready to hit land. The constant breeze kept us on a southeast heading pointing us straight towards the Virgin Passage, the area in between St. Thomas and Culebra. We started to see the glow of the islands on our 11th night at sea and got extremely excited. "We're so close!" We kept saying to ourselves. Like good cruising fashion though, it's never over until you drop the anchor and the sea gave us one more test before we were "allowed" to enter the islands.

Day 10. The delirium has fully set in. No longer were Will and I speaking to each other. Instead just making noises and using gibberish as our main dialect. Immersion back into society will be interesting.

Our last test was an interesting one. For those of you who have ever cruised through the Virgin Passage you might know exactly what we're talking about. That spot between the Spanish and US Virgin Islands is one of the main shipping channels for some of the largest boats in the world, cruise ships. Those lights we saw earlier that night, the ones we thought were from the islands themselves, were actually a large number of cruise ships. We dipped, dived and dodged our way through the passage coming what seemed extremely close to a lot of the ships. At night, when you're sleep and food deprived, boats that are 3 miles away look like they are right on top of you. Scary stuff for the end of our journey but we beat that test!

The journey from beginning to end. Morehead City, North Carolina to St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands totaling 1305 Nautical Miles in 12 days.

We cruised past Charlotte Amalie with the lights illuminating the water in front of us, and then across the South side of the Island towards the East end. As the sky began to get brighter we approached Current Cut where we motored through and around into Red Hook Harbour. The entire 12 days at sea Will and I envisioned our arrival in Red Hook under that hot Caribbean sun! When we finally got there though, it was pouring down rain and we were in the middle of a squall. We dropped the hook anyway, pumped up the inflatable and motored ashore right through the nastiness! 

We sailed upwind the entire way from Nova Scotia to St. Thomas! It was a long ride but despite all the trials and tribulations, it was an amazing journey and Will and I would both do it over in a second if we had the chance! Maybe just not right away…

Our home for now until the next leg. Great to be back in the VI!

Now that we are in the Virgin Islands we may not be updating you as regularly as before. We are settling in nicely and already planning the next leg of our journey through the Panama Canal and across the Pacific. Our plan is to be here until next Fall. Will has to go back to Nova Scotia this summer for work and I will remain here with the boat through the hurricane season. We will still be posting so don't forget to check in on us every once in a while to see what we're up to around here! This is an awesome place and there will surely be some great tales to tell.