December sail to USVI

[Ted Gaidelis]

DECEMBER PASSAGE


The chill of the December night remained as we climbed out of our sleeping bags to make final preparations for our 1500 mile passage from Annapolis to St Johns, USVI. We were late in moving Gorgeous Girl (G/G) to the Eastern Caribbean and we knew the Winter Atlantic storms would create an adventurous ten to twelve day passage. The high temperature for the next two days was forecast at 40 degrees Fahrenheit with night readings being in the low twenties. Our plan was to simply grin and bear it until we crossed the Gulf Stream which would take about 48 hours.

G/G is a 1998 cutter rigged Pacific Seacraft 40. She is outfitted for offshore passage making and had made this trip last year as a part of the Caribbean 1500 Rally. But this time she was making the passage alone and with a smaller crew. I had somehow managed to convince a good friend of mine, Ted Giadelis and his son to accompany me to St. Johns in the US Virgin Islands. Ted is a veteran of six Marion Bermuda races, one Newport Bermuda race and one Atlantic crossing. Ted Jr. has been sailing since he was six months old and when not working at his day job, crews on an Andrews 70 racing sled. While Teddy was gentleman enough not to say anything, I can only imagine his thoughts as he contemplated the ten-twelve day passage on G/G versus the same trip on the Andrews 70. As for me, I have only been sailing blue water for about fours years so I was the neophyte of the team.

Within five minutes of departing the Port Annapolis Marina, we encountered our first weather related problem. We needed both fuel and water and the fuel dock in Back Creek was on seasonal hours and closed. After a few calls on channel 16, we found fuel but no water. With only 43 gallons of water aboard, we needed to fill our two other tanks to ensure a safe, comfortable and a non odorous passage. A quick call to Ian at the Blue Water Sailing Center provided the assurance of water and so we departed Annapolis for Hampton Roads, one hundred twenty one miles away.

Twenty hours later, we were taking on water and fuel after a day of motor sailing down the Chesapeake Bay. We departed Hampton Roads with the assurance from Locus Weather that we had a good weather window for crossing the Gulf Stream. As we made our way to the Atlantic, an Ohio class submarine appeared on the surface returning to Norfolk and it was a very impressive sight indeed. Even more frightening and reassuring than the “boomer” was the Homeland Security vessel that turned our way as we ventured a little too close to the nuclear submarine. Teddy quickly snapped a few pictures and we departed the area.

By 1600 on our second day out of Annapolis, we were sailing under a reef main, full yankee and staysail with 19-24 knot winds and G/G was turning 6.6 to 7.3 knots over the bottom. Gorgeous Girl and the crew were performing flawlessly but it was still incredibly cold. Where was that Gulf Stream anyway?

Since Ted and I had made two other passages together, we all feel into a natural rhythm from the outset of the passage. While I tend to prefer a two person watch system, particularly at night, we opted for a watch scheme of three hours on and six hours off.

The third day was uneventful as we entered the Gulf Stream and the temperatures began to rise. The Gulf Stream crossing continued to be fast and uneventful but as I checked my e-mail, I had a message to call Locus Weather for a weather update. We placed a call to Ken McKinley of Locus Weather who informed us that we were sailing into a fresh gale with winds in excess of 40 knots and seas that could build to 22 feet. Ken’s opinion was that we should proceed due south versus our rhumb line as fast as possible to minimize the duration of our exposure to Force 8 winds. The intent was to get G/G below 30 degrees North Latitude before Monday evening December, 20, an optimistic task for this 16 ton offshore cruiser. By 1425 hours on Monday, our position was N29 20 W070 19. While we had sailed 310 nautical miles in 45 hours, we knew we going to feel the full weight of this storm for at least 24 hours. Therefore, we continued preparing for the upcoming challenge by Mother Nature. We replaced the staysail with the storm jib and debated deploying the trysail with the final decision being that we would stick with our double reef main. This decision was based on previous passages where I discovered that the boat hove too under a double reef main and a storm jib better than a trysail and storm jib. In the event we had to adopt survival tactics, I wanted the best combination possible as quickly as possible, therefore the double reef main. Jack lines had been rigged prior to departure from Annapolis and all lockers to include the refrigerator, freezer and floorboards were locked. Reinforced netting was placed over the book rack on the port side of the vessel because we could not find the starboard side net. I later found it after the gale had passed. The storm door board was moved from its storage position and placed in close proximity in the event it was needed.

At 1923 hours, the anemometer hit 32 knots and within two hours it was above 42 with seas approaching if not exceeding 22 feet. I had never seen seas of this size and they were truly magnificent. The sunlight pierced the top of almost every wave transforming the wave cap from turquoise blue to a pale crystal blue color. While the beauty was spectacular, these were boarding seas and the cockpit filled up to our ankles again and again. Despite the boarding seas, the cockpit drained relatively quickly thanks to the generous scuppers. However, they would have drained even faster had I not installed screens over the scuppers to preclude foreign material from being lodged in them.

About three hours into the gale I went below to inspect the bilges. We were taking on more water than I had ever seen in G/G and I discovered that both my high water alarm and automatic bilge pump were in the “off” position. Water had intruded into the battery compartment and in all the lockers aft of the galley. I immediately turned on the automatic bilge pump and augmented that system with the cabin manual bilge pump. We also made ready the manual cockpit bilge pump in the cockpit in the event we could not quickly excavate the bilges. Within 15 minutes, the boat was cleared of the water but we would soon realize the price we would all pay due to my negligence. About one hour later we lost our auto pilot and then within ten minutes we lost the GPS, anemometer, depth sounder and knot meter. I shut the system down and attempted to restart the electronics package but it was a pointless effort. The primary navigational suite aboard Gorgeous Girl is fully integrated and if one data port is lost, the entire system fails. However, I was pleased to discover that the radar was still fully functional since it was a standalone system and could be counted on to identify traffic and squalls as we continued our passage. When I began sailing offshore, the concept of redundancy was a constant theme that has been drilled into me. Accordingly, G/G carries a fixed redundant GPS antenna hard-wired to a stand-alone laptop running Nobletec VNS software. This system can operate on the ship’s house battery bank, internal batteries or on a separate emergency AGM battery.

Truly, within minutes we had our position, planned waypoints, speed, velocity made good and course over ground displayed on the laptop at the navigation station. Therefore, the only remaining question was whether three people could hand steer this vessel through this storm. Again, we called Ken at Locus weather and he reconfirmed that we were in for not only continued high winds and seas for the next 20 hours but high seas 15-17 feet for an additional 24 -36 hours. As I mentioned earlier, neither Teddy nor myself had ever seen seas of this magnitude and they were both magnificent and threatening. Several items were discussed specifically, the need to change our watch schedule, the feasibility of a ninety degree course change in order to run with the Easterly moving storm and heaving to. After a surprisingly short conversation we opted to remain on our existing South, South Easterly course with a Westerly wind but to alter the watch schedule to two up and one down with only 90 minutes on the helm. Sleep would be at a premium but safety was my primary concern during the next 20-24 hours.

During the next twenty-four hours we covered 181 nautical miles under a double reefed main and a storm jib. Despite a great effort, the next day from Teddy and John Levelle of Merke Marine in Annapolis (via Sat Phone) we were not able to reengage the auto pilot.

I have often heard experienced sailors say that successful passages through gales and/or worst weather conditions are down payments on glorious days. After being underway for seven days and through the biggest seas this sailor has seen, I came on deck, for my watch in shorts, a tee shirt, no socks and most importantly no foul weather gear. It was a simply a breath taking day with an incredible sunrise and a cloudless sky that stretched to the horizon. Perhaps more importantly, my experience threshold had been raised significantly due to the past thirty-six hours and I like to think I am a better sailor because of it.

The night before, we had junk food for dinner and so a great meal was due and undertaken. We had spinach salad, broiled sea bass, broccoli, corn and lemonade. It was clear, based on our collective moods that we were in Caribbean waters, in fact and in thought. The day was capped off with a sunset that ranked right up there on the unbeatable beauty scale. By the eighth day, the winds had declined to 15-23 knots using a manual wind instrument with 7-10 seas. Additionally, as predicted by Ken, the winds clocked Northeast with a strong Northern component which permitted the much needed easting if we were going to make St Johns versus Hispaniola. It was decided that we could return to our previous watch schedule and we all began to get some well deserved rest. By Christmas Eve, we were under full sail with East winds between 16-23 knots which would result in a 155 mile day. On Christmas Day, we had one more test as we moved through a series of severe and turbulent squalls with wide wind shifts that remained with us throughout the early morning hours. By 0600 hours, the squalls were but a recent wet memory and we were under full sail with an East wind between 15-18 knots. By 1330 hours we were on a mooring in Maho Bay, USVI., after an exhilarating sail on another breath taking day which saw Gorgeous Girl cover 50 miles in 7 hours.

We had sailed 1517 miles in 237 hours through 6-25 foot seas, 8-40+ knot winds, 20 degree temperatures, an impaired electronics suite and no auto pilot for the last 4 ½ days. The wonder of it all was that Ted and Teddy were still talking to me. What can be better than FRIENDS, a great boat and an exhilarating passage.