Back in Wi Fi Hell

I am renourished and packing away those pounds like a bear getting ready to hibernate for the winter. Just in case there are anymore of those pesky lows wandering around, I figure I will need a few fat pads for the jump to Ireland. That's my excuse anyway.

We took a public bus around the island yesterday. Took about 2 hours. Wow what scenery!

Today was laundry day on Ostinato. There was not an inch of deck space that didn't have laundry hanging above it. The little machine works pretty good. I just have to keep myself from cramming too much in.....and that makes for a long day.

The chair for the helmsman was redesigned and is already back on board ready for installation. They did a beautiful job with the repairs. It will be good to have it back in place. King worked on the salon table today. We learned it was simply attached with 5200. This afternoon it was screwed down. We will all be a bit more comfortable knowing that. Last but not least, Ed installed and hooked up the water so we can take it directly from the dock vs the water tanks. No slackers today!

We all looked forward to Horta for many reasons, one of which was wifi in the marina. No hanging out beside restaurant windows searching for a stray connection the marina has Not one but 2! Neither of which has enough band width to send a 5 word email more less get on line.....gerrrrrrr.

Tried some 3.50€ local wine tonight. Not bad! Will be stocking the bilge with a few bottles. Ivor, the white is much better than the red.

Fixing the jumping table

Ed chores

Sue chores

Horta

King chores

Riding the bus around the island

Arrived!!

We arrived about 11:00 this morning. Took a Much needed shower. Straightened my hair. Going out to eat.

The Dreaded Front

Monday June 25

At 7:55 this morning, the dreaded, much talked about, quietly cursed front finally stopped by to say hello. By the time it reached us the bag of wind had apparently just tuckered itself out as it moseyed about the mid Atlantic. As it crossed Ostinato's bow the winds stayed steady at 18-20. It was a little like going through a much needed car wash. If not for the ugly black sky, rain and the immediate wind shift to the SW, we would of missed the event entirely. The pictures below we're taken within seconds of each other one from starboard, the other from port.

Besides the fact that we don't have the front to malign anymore, it also suck up all of the wind as it strolled by leaving us wallowing in lumpy seas. Not to be beaten, King turned on the engine. We WILL be in Horta in the morning.

view to port

View to Starboard

Birthday At Sea

June 23. Log 32.20 N, lat 33.38 W

We huddled around the radio last night hoping Herb would deliver those words we all wanted to hear, "you can turn North East now". It didn't happen. We are beginning to have a dilemma. The front has yet to pass us, it's packing 30+ k winds and the furthering we go N the more wind it will have. At the same time if we go much further E we will end up beating to Horta or worse, tacking.

The three reefs have remained in. All morning and afternoon the sky has been clear and blue, no signs of convection anywhere. We all want to believe that the front has passed us during the night. King is not convinced but after much discussion, He eases Ostinato a little toward the North and lets out more of the jib to make the ride a bit more comfortable.

Again, tonight we pour over the weather faxes that arrive just before the "Herb Show". The damn low pressure system has barely moved. However the frontal line has eased to a more NE direction. The front has still not passed us! With our 3 days of reading weather faxes all aboard have become weather forecasters and we each strongly want to believe there is an opening there that will allow Ostinato to scoot up to Horta. But what will Herb say?

Propagation was poor tonight during Herb's reports with boats going up the US east coast and to and from Bermuda. The fear is losing him just as your boat is called. Ostinato continues being the one of the furtherest E so is usually one of the last up. This means we get to hear the other 5 boats that are sailing this same route give their updates and in return get new directions for the next 24hr. My heart begins to sink when I hear that only one has gone through the frontal line. All are told to continue E until that occurs and then turn N, still off their rhumb line. You can hear the disappointment in some of their voices as they say a disheartened "roger, roger" and sign off. What can this possibly mean for us? It's my birthday! Please Herb give us a break!

At last, Ostinato is called. Herb makes a quick noncommittal note that we have already begun to turn some to the N. We hold our breath....Herb will scold at times if you don't follow his recommendations, especially if you have put yourself at risk of high winds. He quickly advises that we should move to 31 E before we cross 34N. Once we move past that waypoint we should take the rhumb line into Horta. Yea! Wahoo! Big smiles all around the table. Attention quickly moves to determining the course and our projected arrival time.

As dinner was in its last stages of preparation, I headed to bed. A birthday card with a small box laid on my pillow waiting to be unwrapped. He hadn't forgotten after all. Cake and champagne will have to be saved for Horta.

Weather Fax

June 20
We downloaded and printed our first weather fax yesterday afternoon. It's actually pretty amazing that we are able to copy a weather chart from the SSB radio. It really helped visualize what Herb is talking about during his nightly discussion.

Ostinato continues to lead a pack of 5 boats heading for the Azores. Herb advised that the storm continues to move due east and we should expect increased winds by Friday. While our outlook continues to be better than the others, we all know that could change depending on where this thing decides to go. The extra distance appears to have been a good decision for now. Also received an email from Bob Parker providing more specific coordinates and detailed discussion of the system. We began night watch feeling much better informed than we had begun the day.

The weather continues to be clear with mild winds. Ivor reported the night sky was spectacular on his watch.

Ivor enjoying the sunset

Mr Toads Wild Ride

Thursday June 21

I awoke at 4:45, 15 minutes before I was due on watch. The first thing I noticed was the boat was riding much nicer than it had all night. Hmmmm "nice" I thought. Less than 5 minutes later the boat began to rock and roll. Ivor called into the cabin. For me? My watch? No... He wanted King. I hunkered down under the sheets while King was digging for his clothes. As he moved to leave the cabin he announced it was my watch; time to crawl out.

In the cock pit Ivor and King took care of bringing in the jib a bit. We already had one reef in the main and did not want to go on deck in the dark unless absolutely necessary. The weather had turned stormy and we had just been hit by a frontal line packing 30 k winds. The shortened jib seemed to do the trick.

The remainder of the day was dreary and rainy. The barometer has been falling like a stone since last night. Winds inched into the low 20s but were mainly 17-19 from the S. Herb's instructions from last night indicated winds would build during the late afternoon. Tomorrow we are expecting 20-25 k all day as the storm finally passes us. With luck, we will finally be able to turn N on Saturday to begin our turn toward the Azores.

The crew is holding up well but we are all ready to have this system get past us. Lots of sleeping and reading. Even King has put his To Do list aside and put his headphones on to listen to an audio book.

Friday June 22
Herb's report for us last night was straight and to the point. We would have gale force winds on Friday. He wished we were further S. where the winds would be in the 25 k range but nothing we can do about that at this point.

We added a 2nd reef to the main. Everyone had retuned to the safety of the cockpit and Ivor just shut off the engines. One minute he is sitting at the wheel then in a slow motion tilt he, along with the captain's chair, fell through the air and crash to the floor at the bottom of the steps leading into the door. Miraculously he was not seriously hurt. A small cut on his ankle and a few bruises he will no doubt feel in the morning. The chair, well another story. It is now strapped to the back of the cockpit for lack of a better place. It appears the weld holding the chair to the deck gave. Fixable in Horta but in the meantime standing at the wheel becomes a bit awkward.

The night saw 25-30k winds as promised. Ostinato did well. I continue to spend a lot of time in the horizontal position. The wind fell to 20K out of the SE during the morning but began to build again around 11:00. Ostinato was doing 8 K so it was decided to add the third reef to the main to make the ride a bit more comfortable. Following this effort, I threw turkey sandwiches at the guys and went back to bed.

Where the captains chair used to be

The chair has been strapped in until we reach Horta for repairs

Tropical Storm

June 18-19 Winds from the SE 4-7 k. Seas calm. On Monday we put up the spinnaker right after breakfast and flew it all day. Top speed was about 4.5 k. By Tuesday morning the seas were glassy and the wind indicator was doing circles.

Monday, the nightly "Herb Show" informed us the disturbance we had been staying S for had intensified and appeared to be developing into a tropical storm. The forecast for the 4 boats behind us was not good to hear. Some would be experiencing 30-40 k winds during the week. We are the last of the group to be called up. We are ahead of the group so appear to be in a better position as of today. Our winds will Increase but could be in the 25-30 k range from the NW. That is as long as we remain at our current latitude. We are well off our rhumb line now, adding several more days to the crossing. While always a stretch, a zbirthday arrival is no longer a possibility.

To give us additional distance between us and the storm we discussed with Herb the benefit to motoring for 24 hrs. He agreed that it was a good strategy so the light air sail came down and we turned on the starboard engine. It's anticipated that the wind will fill in from the NW Tuesday afternoon.

There's a bit of tension about the boat this morning and I'm feeling a bit anxious. I'm just getting my sea legs and fear a storm will have me incapacitated again. Still casseroles in the freezer and the guys are certainly able to fend for themselves but I hate not being able to do my share. King has drafted an email to go out to let folks know we are aware of the storm and we are attempting to download a weather fax to try to get a visual of what's happening.

On a lighter note, we had pancakes and bacon for breakfast. King's favorite breakfast. Might as well eat while we can. Beautiful sailing all day.

Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner

Day 5, June 16.
32.36 lat. 53.38 long.
Rain, wind ESE 10-15. Expect WSW later this afternoon.

I go to bed thinking about what I will make for breakfast. As soon as the breakfast dishes are cleared, I begin thinking about lunch and so the day goes thru dinner, ready to start the cycle over again. Overall, we have
eaten well. The menus I prepared before leaving have been really helpful. I don't follow them precisely but they remind me what I have on board and I cross each meal off as its completed.

Each crew eats differently. King eats like a bird. Ed is a big eater. And Cliff was dieting so you never knew what he would eat. Ivor is also a big eater so I've had to adjust to make sure there is enough to go around. My biggest mistake so far is coffee. Ivor likes his strong enough that you don't need a cup. King....more like dish water and then he adds cream and sugar. In fear that we would run out and I would have a caffeine melt down aboard, we made coffee compromises. The coffee will be a bit strong for King and a little mild for Ivor. Ivor also has a stash that he can raid if he needs a caffeine jolt. Day one of the trial worked well. King didn't notice and Ivor gave a thumbs up to the brew. If all the worlds problems were so easy.

One of the hardest things about being on a crossing like this is the lack of information about what's going on in the world. We have not been able to pick up BBC or VOA on the radio so all of us are clueless to what's happening in the world. Its only been 5 days But it gives you a very detached feeling. We have decided that as long as things are good on this small patch of the ocean, things are good.

Scribbles from the middle of the Atlantic

June 14
Today is day 3 of the ride to the Azores. We are at 32 degrees 38 minutes N and 58 degrees 59 minutes W. Thanks to Herb's forecasting we have skirted the nasty weather and still had enough wind to average 7 to 8 knots in 15 - 20 k winds from the NW. We are taking the Southerly route heading of 90 degrees. Tomorrow we plan to begin our northward turn. The forecast for today is more of the same with occasional rain. Its turned cool so we have all moved out of our island clothes to our Florida winter attire. The new canvas has us snug and dry. The top bench seat continues to be the choice seating.

Winds have lightened this morning to 10-15. This has helped my seasickness which has gotten progressively worse. I have not been able to do much more than dump the food out of the refrigerator and throw it at the stove. At that point Ed has taken over and I run for the bed (or the head). The guys have been great cleaning up too. The down side is our speed is down to 5.5 k and I haven't had dinner for 3 nights.

I have included pics of the morning activities. With the lighter winds, we shook the reef out of the main and Ivor and Ed gave the back porch a much needed wash down.

Halfway

Sunday June 17
Sunny, winds SW 10-15, lat 32.58 and long. 50.22.

Happy Fathers Day dad.

The GPS says we have about 150 more hrs to go. I have to admit the thought of being halfway does not bring great joy. Half means another half yet to go. Negative thinking but honest. Downwind is much easier on the stomach so I'm thankful for that.

A few of the trampoline bungee cords pulled loose last night as the result of wave action. The canvas cover for the dinghy also attempted to make a great escape but was captured in the nick of time. Unfortunately, there is no where to stop and fix these things properly so you do the best you can do to hog tie them on to the boat.

Azores ready or not

June 11
Last minute preparations have been underway all day in anticipation of our departure. Ivor arrived this afternoon. Yea! How lucky are we to have such great friends!

Clair and Bill sent me a few pics so a bit out of sequence but wanted to share.

This will be the last Blog for a few weeks. Everyone is doing last minute emails and Skype calls. I'll have plenty ready to upload when we arrive but in the mean time think good thoughts and westerly breezes in the 15 - 20 k range.

Haircut day.

June 10
Not mine! The guys. I haven't completely lost it. King and Ed lined up this morning for haircuts and beard trimmings. What trusting souls. The good news is there are only 2 small mirrors on Ostinato and they aint too great. I sat out the stool on the sugar scoops, they wrapped themselves in the plastic cape and I buzzed away. Honestly, the two were a bit fussy. You would of thought they were going back to the RBYC for dinner the way they kept checking themselves in the head mirror and coming back asking for "just a bit more here".

In addition to haircuts, and in honor of Ivor's eminent arrival, we decided to use the clothes washer on board for the first time and take advantage of the sunshine. We seem to have reoccurring incidents of ocean slipping in through open port holes and depositing itself across crew bedding. Everyone starts out with 2 sets of clean linen. After that, your on your own. And yes....here is the place I am required to say "King what a great idea it was to put a washer on board!"

Claire and Bill departed this afternoon but not until the three of us hiked completely around St George. What were we thinking. We can officially say we have seen it all including the dairy and goat farms (beach front of course - those are some contented cows) 2 forts and several secluded beaches. Bill finally commandeered a bus and the driver took pity on us accepting the last 2 bus tickets for the 3 of us. Thanks guys! We really enjoyed your visit. See you in Ireland!

Royal Bermuda Yacht Club

June 9
Yesterday was sightseeing day. The group climbed on the bus and rode into Hamilton. King rates a city by the number of Marine stores it has. Hamilton has 3 so it was right up there. Of course, we had to visit them all. Ed and Cliff wisely pealed off from us early in the marine store quest. Claire and Bill stuck it out to the end. Exhausted, we arrived at the prearranged meeting point 1 1/2 hrs early. After lounging around the waterfront benches for awhile waiting for Ed and Cliff, I spotted the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club. We decided to be a bit bold and see if they would accept our ABYC membership. Bill and I ventured in. Claire and King had decided they didn't want to be embarrassed by us and stayed outside. 5 minutes later we were in the bar ordering drinks! Sweet reward.

We received the following note from a fellow SSCA member who was on the radio the night Herb told us the Coast Guard was searching for us.

"Kingsley just wanted to remind you to NOT have anyone on shore looking for daily /regular position reports from your SPOT device....as they will be disappointed (and could become concerned)

SPOT uses the Globalstar satellites and as such is limited to having only occassional / very sporadic coverage when further than a couple hundred miles offshore.....and NO coverage at all in the middle of the ocean)

This usually works out to be 15-20 mins of coverage during any one hour, max....and/or a few minutes of coverage every 15-20 minutes.....

The BEST that can written about this is on the SPOT website.... http://www.findmespot.com/en/index.php?cid=109 And, to say that they down-play things is an understatement..."

The same goes for the AIS system. It continues to work very well for us ship to ship but unless there is a transmitter available it will not show up on line. Sorry, wish we could do better.

On a more fun note, today was provisioning day. Instead of traveling by bus I received a generous offer of a ride from a lady we met last night setting at a near by table at dinner. Truly unbelievable. We continue to be blown away by the generosity of the people in Bermuda. To date, I have been shopping in the market in St George. Imagine trying to do your weekly shopping at the 7 Eleven....and then triple the price. Needless to say, I have kept the shopping to a minimum. But today! Oh my, I was in supermarket heaven! We are not talking Publix but maybe a small Winn Dixie. Prices on most items were about a 1/4 to a 1/3 higher. Some higher but considering everything is shipped in, not too bad. And, not only did my new friend take me to and from the grocery but she then insisted that she take Cliff to the airport. I have promised her to play it forward.

Company comes to visit !!!

June 7
The high winds and rain have stalled over Bermuda so it was clean-up fix-up day on Ostinato. First chore was to replenish the fuel and then we tied up to the quay in anticipation of the Harris' arrival and the goodies they are bringing......including home made chocolate cookies. While King took care of dealing with the Harbor Master, Ed, Cliff and I, with laundry bags thrown over our backs, weaved thru the hordes of tourists descending off the cruise ship making our way to the laundromat. 75 cents for 5 minutes of dry time. Yikes! $40 lighter and 2 hrs later we returned with clean, albeit
somewhat damp clothes and linen.

Kings eyes lit up when he saw the big red suitcase Bill was dragging down the street. For Me?! It was Christmas in Bermuda. All the "stuff" We didn't know we needed but really have to have was delivered by Claire and Bill. Thank you to everyone that contributed in this project! No mean feat to pull everything together in such a short time! Claire is our new heroine. Lights, wires, metal pieces of all shapes and, of course, the chocolate chip cookies from Barbara for her dad. Helen sent a surprise fruit cake to Ed who was generous enough to share it with all. Thank you Helen. For me, I raided the house one more time for 2 more sets of pillow cases AND, most important, my tiny magnifying mirror so I can tweeze my eyebrows. What can i say. It's a girl thing. Thank you Martha and Scott for being so accommodating.

By the way, I would be remiss if I didn't mention dinner tonight. Ed was the chef. He cooked squid and fried rice that was to die for! Of course this bought up the question of how many fish we had caught so far. The answer is none, nada, 0..... That would be zip. Bill thought the picture below explained the problem and made me promise to include it.

Searching for wifi

June 5
The crew is spending the day cleaning, rearranging, stowing and connecting lights that have never been connected .....we now have lights on the back porch and on the sugar scoops!! Really cool.

We are dealing with sad news today. King's brother, Cliff, advised us this morning that he had made the decision not to continue on for the remainder of the trip. We will all miss him, especially King who really enjoyed having big brother along with him on this adventure.

At the same time, we also have good news. Claire and Bill Harris will fly into Bermuda on Thursday to spend a few days with us and deliver some additional boat "stuff" that King and Ed can't live without. Good grief I have two of them making lists! King even tried to order up chocolate chip cookies from his daughter Barbara.

So here's the deal on communications and the blog postings to date. We have only been able to eek out a few emails along the way and currently have no wifi connection in the harbor. I write most days but so far can only upload with wifi. Hopefully that will change but till then I will simply load them as I can. To that end I have started dating them as I have noted a few have shown up out of sequence. Sorry bout that. Please bear with me as i discover these new skills.

Racing toward Bermuda

June 4
Overnight winds continued to lighten so we were up several times to shake out the reefs. As the winds die our chance of making landfall tonight become smaller. The worst part is that it will only be by a couple of hours that means either spending the night tacking outside the harbor entrance or hove to. Herb indicated the wind would increase tonight as a cold front passes over the island so neither sound attractive. Soooo, one more time we turn on the engines to add to our speed. As of 1 pm we have 28 miles to reach the southern end of the island before nightfall.
.........

Made it! King connected with Herb to advise him of our safe arrival just as we reached the channel marker for Bermuda Harbor and was tied up at the Customs Dock by 6:30 pm. We snuggled up in the NW corner of the anchorage in anticipation of tomorrow's winds and had the anchor down just before sunset. The crew celebrated our safe arrival with a champagne toast......what else?!

Missing?

Sunday June 3
Today started off with gusty winds blowing 20-25k. They are finally starting to swing around to the SW as promised so it was time to rearrange the sails. That decision was made just as breakfast was being served. So much for hot food. We had a great sleigh ride doing 7-8k most of the morning.

Just before lunch Ed saw a ship on AIS (our first for 3 days). We spotted it heading just off our bow several miles ahead. Much to our surprise the ship, Narova, contacted us to advise that we had been reported missing and the Coast Guard was searching
for us since yesterday morning. Well, what can one say. How does one define missing? We don't feel like we are missing. We have talked to Herb. We have sent a few emails. We've reported in 2x a day on Spot and been careful not to hit any of the emergency buttons but something has obviously gone wrong.

As it now stands, we have not been able to contact the Coast Guard or Bermuda Harbor Radio to advise the that we are alive and well, a bit thinner than when we started but otherwise in pretty good shape. Will continue to call. I'm guessing there will be more to this saga.

Aha.....mystery solved. After giving our forecast tonight Herb advised us that the Coast Guard had contacted him to see if he had heard from us. Sweet daughter did not see us on Spot and reported her concern. Herb will report all OK to Coast Guard. Unfortunately, the sat phone is not working so reassurances will have to wait until tomorrow night unless King can get an email out tonight and Email has Not been as simple as we had hoped.

We put a 2nd reef in the main. Still doing 7+ k. I went to bed early and let Ed finish the stew i was making. As I lay here, I hear dishes crashing all about the main saloon. My imagination runs wild.

Put The Pedal To The Metal!

May 31
For the past 2 days we have had little to no wind. Top speed 4 k but avg. was more like 3 k. I could walk to Bermuda faster!

Day 2 continued with light 5 k winds with the barometer stuck on 30. We put up the light air sail early and picked up a little speed. By mid afternoon we were moving around 5 k. Yea! Getting the sail up went pretty smoothly considering it was the first time for the crew.

Tonight's update from Herb was that we needed to reach Bermuda by Tuesday as gale force winds are expected on Wed. At our current speed Weds was the estimated arrival date. Herb asked if we had fuel and didn't mince words about the need to move the boat along quickly, staying south of 29. King signed off and everyone went into high activity getting the light air sail down, adding our extra fuel to the tanks and powering up the engines. The plan is to run with engines for 24 hrs or until we find wind to run at least 6 k, which ever comes first. King estimates we have a min of 3 days of fuel. Next steps will be decided following the 5 pm weather update from Herb. The gps arrival time, based on speed, quickly went from 6 days to 3!

STILL battling sea sickness. Not the hanging over the rails type but just want to go lay down kind. Will it ever stop? Very boring.

I finished reading Ruth's Sunshine Hwy last night. What fun.