An Ocean Passage

Many sailors dream of sailing an ocean passage.  It's been a dream of mine for years. I was fortunate enough to realize this dream recently. I thought others who have thought of taking this type of trip may appreciate a view of what to expect. This is just a short blog with the highlights of the trip.  

The opportunity arose as part of my continuing eduction with US Sailing certification. I had already achieved Basic Keelboat, Basic Cruising and Bareboat Cruising certification, and wanted to learn more.  I signed up for the Coastal Navigation and the Passage Making Certification with a school out of Portsmouth, RI and the BVI's, Rob Swain Sailing School.  I liked the options of routes they offered, and signed on to the November 7 to 13 Bermuda to Tortola leg. 

I was well prepared, having just completed joining Mike Brown on a week long Delmarva Circumnavigation on his Pearson 39, Gallivant just 3 weeks before.

I arrived in Bermuda on November 6.  It was a very windy, overcast day, and the taxi driver told me it had been like that for 2 days. I arrived at the St. Georges Dinghy and Sports Club around 2pm. The boat for the course had just arrived there that morning from Newport, RI, 2 days late, due to high seas and high winds. The other students for the trip arrived throughout the day, and we spent the day getting to know each other and familiarizing ourselves with the area and the boat.

The crew consisted of the Captain and owner of the school, Rob Swain; the owner of the boat, John; student Jon from the Czech Republic; student Sean from Michigan; student Chuck from Illinois; and me.  The boat was a beautiful 47' Beneteau, with fully enclosed cockpit (however, we never put up the enclosure around the stern). 

We were supposed to leave Bermuda Nov 7.  However, after listening to the weather forecast which called for seas of 20 to 30 feet and winds of 40 to 50 knots, and the fact that the boat had arrived late, the Captain told us we would not be leaving until Tuesday night, the 8th.  On Monday the 7th, the Captain had someone (not one of us) go up the mast to check the rigging and the mast to insure all was in order after the rough conditions they encountered on their Newport to Bermuda leg. On Tuesday the 8th, after listening to the forecast, we decided to wait until Wednesday to leave. A stubborn low was stalled south of us, causing such rough conditions. The wind in Bermuda was a steady 20 to 30 knots the entire time, and the seas were rough. To make a long story short, the low ended up turning into Tropical Storm Sean, and was headed towards Bermuda, expected to hit just west of Bermuda Thursday night.  This, of course, delayed our departure. 

We rode out the storm anchored in St. Georges harbor, standing watches through the night, and weathered the storm with no problems. The storm cleared out by Friday afternoon, and we decided to leave Bermuda Saturday morning. Seas were forcast to be 10 to 20 feet, with winds of 15 to 30 knots. We provisioned and gassed up, and slept with great anticipation of what was to come. 

We set out after breakfast, and were able to raise the mainsail and put out the jib 10 minutes out of the slip. The wind was wonderful! It blew steady at 20 knots, and once we rounded the "spit" buoy out of St. Georges harbor, we set a course for Tortola on a beam reach.  Believe it or not, we maintained either a beam reach or a broad reach for 6 days and nights straight.  The only time we ran the motor was to charge the batteries!

Once Bermuda was out of sight, it became a different world. The further south you sail, the ocean becomes a deep color of blue that is just magnificent.  I couldn't stop staring at it! We didn't see much wildlife, oddly enough.  We saw flying fish numerous times, dolphins only once, and birds only twice (once 300 miles from land!) We had a fishing line strung out the stern, and caught two mahi mahi's, a beautiful green fish.  They were too small to keep and eat, though. 

The seas were big and the wind never stopped blowing! The highest seas we experienced were 20 feet according to the Captain, and the highest winds were 39, according to our wind indicator. Very rough conditions for sleeping, cooking, eating, drinking your morning coffee, and just getting around the boat.  You constantly had to hold on! We made heavy use of our pfd's and our harnesses and tethers! Thankfully, nobody got seasick, as we all took the school's advice to bring prescription seasickness patches. They work wonderfully!

We discovered during our trip via VHF radio that 3 crews had abandoned their boats at sea and had been picked up by freighters due to the rough conditions.  Tragically, for a husband and wife sailing a 38' Island Packet, a 30' wave hit the boat, sweeping the wife overboard. Her husband threw her a life ring, but she disappeared by the time he turned the boat around, and was lost at sea.  He too abandoned his boat, and was picked up by a freighter headed for France. 

The sea at night is a very different place. It is so dark before the moon rises that you cannot see where the ocean stops and the sky starts, despite there being more stars in the sky than you can imagine. Just breathtaking.  We saw many shooting stars every night that were very vivid, and the phosphereffence in the water is magnificent.  It's pretty scary, though, when you hear the thunderous roar of a 20 foot wave moving towards your boat that you can't see, anticipating it crashing into the boat! 

We only had one problem with the boat. I had just gone on watch at 8am on Tuesday when a large wave struck the side of the boat.  As I fought the wheel to maintain course, I heard a snapping sound, and felt the wheel go free, loosing steering.  I called to the Captain, he confirmed there was no steering, and started to get the emergency tiller out of the cockpit locker.  I decided to try the other wheel (oh, did I mention that the boat had 2 wheels?), and thank goodness, it worked.  Turned out the linkage broke on the one wheel. We tried to repair it after heaving to, to no avail, but thankfully were able to use the 2nd wheel the remainder of the trip. 

We had a watch cycle of 4 hours on, 8 hours off. There were 2 crew awake and in the cockpit at all times. I had the 8am to noon watch and the 8pm to midnight watch.

We ate well - breakfasts of bacon and eggs, lunches of soup or sandwiches, dinners of lasagna; pork chops; beef stew, etc..  No alcohol was allowed once we left Bermuda until we docked in Tortola.  

On Thursday morning, Nov 17, after sailing continuously 6 days and nights at sea, as the sun arose, we were able to see the BVI's on the horizon. What a sweet sight that was! We sailed up to Immigration in Tortola at 11:30am, and were docked at Nanny Cay, Tortola by 1:00pm. We headed straight for the Tiki bar on the beach, and the ice cold beer tasted very good!

The trip met all my expectations. Due to the severe weather conditions and high seas, I probably learned more than I would have otherwise. We were exhausted at the end of the trip. I would caution anyone who might imagine an ocean passage as being just a fun adventure. It is greuling, you get little sleep, it's scary at times, you are challenged, and you ask yourself many times what you got yourself into.  However, it was a great experience, and I feel very fortunate having had the opportunity. 

Ralph Erickson