How We’ve Fared in Antigua

Classic Race Week was such an experience. Wouldn’t have missed it for the world and probably would never do it again.

There are some marvelous photos by an insane guy named Tim Wright at PhotoAction. Check into Antigua Classic Race Week and then Maggie B. My favorite is CLAS06-2355. We are going to buy some with Covey Island to get them up on this site, but haven’t quite gotten there. Also you can see his photos of some of the other boats. Check out Endeavor, Ranger, Altair (the most beautiful schooner in the world?), and Mariella. Imagine that I had to call “STARBORD” to Altair as we were doing about 9 knots and she was doing 15 as we came simultaneously to a mark. We missed getting crushed by at least 15 feet.

Tim Wright goes out in a tiny high speed boat strapped to his feet and gets right under the action in all conditions. He also is a really nice guy.

We came in third in the single handed competition, third in the Classics and first in the gig races, men’s doubles, in the Reepicheep. But best of all were the interesting and very favorable comments from the best professionals. We had a boat parade in English Harbor after the second race, where a neat local commentator “announced” the boats as we came past. The Maggie B was described as “a wolf in sheep’s clothing.” What was a real high point was that as we passed, the crew of the Altair (which came in first in the races) lined her rail and gave us three cheers. Totally cool.

There will probably be a lot of press coverage. Boat International had two reporters on for the races and Wooden Boat is doing an article.

But all is not glory. Backing into our slot at Antigua Yacht Club Marina, we caught an anchor line in our prop, wrapped it and slashed up our rudder and king post doing it. The line fused onto the shaft and had to be chiseled off. Right now we are hauled out to fix the damage to the rudder and king post (can’t let water in under the epoxy). When we hauled we found that the huge (six inches across) pin for the centerboard had bent its restraints and was in the process of popping out. Sigh. But at least we are on it and it won’t come out in the middle of the Indian Ocean or wherever. We hope to be back in the water soon and off to other islands. The current thought is maybe St. Barts, then down to Isle des Saints, Martinique, Barbados, the reefs around Trinidad and then on to Recife.

All is well.

Antigua Classic Race Week

Antigua Classic Race Week is quite something. There are about all the coolest sailing yachts on the planet here. It is neat that the Maggie B is a little part of it. Check out their web site at Antigua Classics.

I raced the Maggie B yesterday in the single handed race and we were first through the course, but only third on corrected time. One might ask how you can handle a 62 foot gaff schooner by yourself, and the answer is “not too well.” You have to have an emergency second person aboard and I chose the designer, Nigel Irens.

You can have extra crew to get your sails up, and John Steele, Dorian Steele, Sandy MacMillian of North Sails and Paul Baskett got us going. They have to be off the boat before the ten minute gun and Paul and Dorian exited in great style with cannon balls. John and Sandy stepped off into a passing outboard. There were about 30 boats of all sizes and we got a good start and just stayed out in front.

Today was the “Old Road” race and we finally had a nice blow. Tons of huge boats like the Ranger, one of the famous J-boats. There were lots of photo boats and helicopters around, so hopefully someone got a good photo of us.

It was just marvelous to have the builder, the designer and the sail designer aboard. We all learned so much about the boat as well as seeing some of the coolest sailboats in the world banging around us. I have never participated in such a sight. And we get to do it again tomorrow!

All is well.

Location: 17° 0.52 N, 61° 45.89 W
Sunday 12:00, 04.16.2006

The Schooner Maggie B arrived safely at Nelson’s Dockyard, English Harbor, Antigua at approximately noon on 16 April. Almost exactly a week from Bermuda to here. Our position is 17° 0.52 N, 61° 45.89 W. Drill down some on the Google map and you can see that we are literally at the dock the Hero of the Nile blessed.

Last night the excitement was catching a nice small (4 foot, @ 25#) Wahoo. Almost no fight until close to the boat. Frank cranked in, Paul handled the boat with Bori, and Anne Louise handled the gaff. Not too much mess on the stern and Anne Louise only gaffed herself a bit (only a flesh wound as they say In Monty Python). The fish was cut up and sautéed in oil, butter, garlic and a bit of lemon and on the table in an hour. Absolutely delicious.

English Harbor is full of Big Dogs. Lovely hundred foot sloops with tons of brightwork and professional crews. Also lots of plastic white sloops with more biminis than sail area. We should have lots of fun. The next step is to put the Reepicheep in the water and row around to see the other boats.

All is well.

Location: 19° 49 N, 61° 29 W
Saturday 12:00, 04.15.2006

Finally we are in the pleasant NE’erly Trades, bowling down to Antigua, except that the wind is from the NW. Our noon position on April 15th was 19° 49 N, 61° 29 W. Our course is 197 degrees, right for Antigua and our speed 8.4 knots. Our ETA in English Harbor is noon tomorrow, or seven days from Bermuda.

Not much to report otherwise. We saw a swallow, the first land bird for a while, but I imagine that he was blown off course and rather glad to have us to perch on for a bit.

The trip has been good to us, but we are all rather looking forward to the land — to see pals, to explore Antigua, for the fun of Race Week, and to fix some things.

All is well.

A Little Paranoia is a Good Thing

On this leg from Bermuda to Antigua we got reminded that a little paranoia is a Good Thing.

We set out from Bermuda for the 940 mile trip to Antigua with three good pieces of weather advice: 1) the excellent four day forecast from Bermuda Weather, 2) a trip plan from Commanders Weather and 3) Advice from the marvelous Canadian Weather Sage, Herb, of Southbound II.

We also left with the expectation (Gee, it’s in all the brochures, isn’t it?) that we would quickly get into the Easterly Trades and bowl on down reading our novels and never touching a sheet for days at a time.

All three professional forecasts said that we would pick up the Easterlies at about 29 or 30 North, and we did on Tuesday, two days out.

It was just like in the brochures.

Our forecasts generally covered four days and were right on. For four days. The plan had been to give Herb a call each day at 2000 to update, but propagation was terrible and we didn’t get through.

Four days out the barometer started to fall modestly (to 1011 millibar’s from 1019 the day before and the wind picked up from the SSE.

That evening we had a Southerly gale, Beaufort 8. The boat and crew handled it fine, but we should have anticipated it better. We would not have done much different, though it would have made sense to have run East a bit more when we had an easterly to moderate the impact. I should have, when unable to contact Herb, spent more time with the difficult-to-understand USCG SSB weather reports, called Commanders Weather on the Sat phone, and gotten the weather fax working in Bermuda. All three. We’re still learning.

Now we are a day out of Antigua, bowling along in a nice 15 knot Westerly, reading our novels and improving our tans. God and Herb know where the Easterly trades are.

Dinner, Friday 4.14.2006

Dinner was scones and chocolate.

Location: 22° 07 N, 62° 27.5 W
Friday 12:00, 04.14.2006

Well, we got spanked last night.

Our noon position on April 14 was 22° 07 N, 621° 27.5 W. Antigua is 180 at 290 miles, our course is 165 degrees at 7.5 knots. The wind is 200 at 15-20. Waves are 2-3 meters and relatively sharp. We are motor sailing a bit east of our rhumb line to Antigua to have a somewhat faster, more settled passage. If we head right into the wing and waves, our SOG (speed over ground) is about four knots, if we come off 15 degrees SOG is 7.5 and the ride is much easier.

As you can see, we made good only 75 miles towards Antigua in the last 24 hours. But we sure did a lot of sailing. There is a developing low in our area and it seemingly developed right over us.

We knew we were in trouble when we saw the ABN AMRO racing boat go past us at about 20 knots with a huge spinnaker up. They reported that they were currently #1 in the Volvo Round the World Race, for the Rio to Baltimore leg. Two things can be immediately surmised by this. First that they are going in the opposite direction that we are, and second that they have sought out the worst possible, strongest weather to push them to Baltimore.

Shortly after seeing ABM AMPO, we commenced to reenact the role of Joe Bsfkick, the Little Abner character who always had a rain shower over his head. As we went into dark, we had about six hours of a southerly gale, with winds steady over 30 knots with higher gusts.

We had a 1/2 jib (nice roller reefing design by North!) and two reefs in the main. We stayed on a close reach for control, sometimes East to get clear, then back west as it seemed possible to head for the Anguilla Passage. The waves were quite sharp and 3-4 meters with occasional breaking crests. It was a long night. The Maggie B stayed controllable and steady and below was mostly dry and warm. All gear worked fine and only one glass was broken. Dinner was scones and chocolate.

We regretted not making suitable toasts to the everlasting gods on departure from Bermuda.

All is well.

Lunch, Thursday 4.13.2006

Lunch today was Lecso, a traditional Hungarian dish of eggs, tomato and mushroom. Bori is a bit cranky because no paprika was available in Bermuda, so the dish lacked full authenticity. It is a tribute to the Maggie B’s sea kindliness that we could sit down all four and have a comfortable hot lunch in these conditions.

Location: 23° 40 N, 61° 40 W
Thursday 12:00, 04.13.2006

So much for easy trade wind sailing. The Schooner Maggie B’s noon position on 13 April was 23° 40 N, 61° 40 W. The wind has veered to 150-160 degrees and increased to 25 with gusts to 30. Rain squalls come and go. We are reefed down to two reefs on the main and one on the fore. Our course is about 230 and speed 8 knots. There are moderate swells from the SE and four foot waves on top. The sea is building.

Our expectation is that the low will pass north of us and the wind will veer further. The East side of Antigua bears about 195 at 365 miles. Our plans are to tack if the wind veers much past 195. Plan B is to make for Anguilla Passage between Anguilla and BVI, but that is about a day away.

The barometer has only fallen to 1014 from 1019 yesterday.

Lunch today was Lecso, a traditional Hungarian dish of eggs, tomato and mushroom. Bori is a bit cranky because no paprika was available in Bermuda, so the dish lacked full authenticity. It is a tribute to the Maggie B’s sea kindliness that we could sit down all four and have a comfortable hot lunch in these conditions.

Last night at five AM, the second watch (Paul and Bori) woke me because we had a meeting situation with a VLS (very large ship). We had right-of-way both for being a sailing ship as well as being at their 1 o’clock, with them being at our 9 o’clock (with steady bearing angle - gulp).

We were finally able to contact them (wake them?) when they were about one mile away. When the groggy voice announced “Yes I am seeing you, I will go to your left behind but maybe I am OK crossing you” we began to reach for the flare gun. Paul dogged it, heading up and luffing and they passed about 1/4 mile ahead.

Two Tropic Birds made repeated passes to attempt to alight on the main gaff peak, but it was just too well finished. Two flying fish came aboard in the night and were hooked up as bait, but without success. Probably next time we should better appreciate our place in the food chain and just fry them up for breakfast.

All is well.

How to Send Us Snailmail

As we are headed to Barbados, you can write us at this address, good thru Monday, 5 June, 2006:

Schooner Maggie B
Hold for Arrival
The Barbados Yacht Club
St. Michael
Barbados

Breakfast, Wednesday 4.12.2006

Breakfast this morning was four minute soft boiled eggs with strips of prosciutto over and Salsa on the side, with cranberry juice and lots of French Roast coffee.

Location: 26° 16 N, 61° 15 W
Wednesday 12:00, 04.12.2006

Schooner Maggie B’s noon position on 12 April was 26° 16 N, 61° 15 W. Winds have been variable from the east from 5 to 20 knots. We have been getting occasional trade winds rain showers with wind before and calm afterward. Nice fresh water washdowns.

Yesterday we had a pod of 30 Striped Dolphin playing around our bow. The Latin name is Stenella CoeruleoAlbus. Cerulean and white. They have lovely racing stripes on their flanks. One neat trademark is a third of the pod will jump perfectly together at a time.

Today we saw our first Yellow Billed Tropic Bird, which seemed interested in our fishing lure. Not the sort of catch we had in mind.

The big excitement was seeing a whale (migrating Humpback?) doing a series of acrobatics to celebrate the arrival of a big rain shower. Lots of tail slaps and a few breaches.

We are 522 miles to Antigua, and about 1000 miles west of Miami.

All is well.

What We’re Eating, Tuesday 4.11.2006

Lunch today was “29th Parallel” sandwiches. Canned salmon doused with fresh onion and mayo, laid on a bed of snow peas (leftovers from last night) with mustard and mayo on 12 grain bread. Needless to say, Paul added a good dose of Tabasco. Delicious!

Location: 28° 58 7 N, 61° 4 5 W
Tuesday 12:00, 04.11.2006

Schooner Maggie B’s noon position on Tuesday, April 11th was 28° 58.7 N, 61° 4.5 W, or 688 NM to go to Antigua. We are motor sailing, mostly motoring, as the wind is only five knots — from the SE, which we have been hoping for, but we need a bit more pressure. At this rate, our ETA in Antigua will be April 15 at noon.

I mentioned that we had two lines out, one with a Bermuda lure and one with a Nova Scotian one. At about 0830 this morning, both were hit by very big Wahoo, who gave us a couple of lovely jumps before taking lure, leader and line. The centerboard is not exactly fixed, but it will go up and down now with some complaining. It has some sort of hang-up at full down, so we don’t use more than 75%.

What We’re Reading

Paul: 1421 — the Year the Chinese discovered the World by Gavin Menzies

Bori: Edge Seasons by Beth Powning

Anne Louise: Ocean Sea by Alessandro Baricco

Frank: Caribbean by James Michener

We are all also spending a lot of time with hot topics like the 2006 Nautical Almanac, the Furuno Operators manual and the Cruisers Guide to Fishing.

Best to all.

Location: 31° 32 4 N, 61° 32 1 W
Monday 12:00, 04.10.2006

Schooner Maggie B’s noon position on 10 April was 31° 32.4 N, 61° 32.1 W . We are about 170 miles SE of Bermuda but still 870 to Antigua. We are still chasing the Easterlies and hope to be in them by nightfall. Currently the winds are 200 degrees at 10-12 (true, not influenced by boat speed and direction). We are still making 6.5 knots SE.

Last night we put in a second reef in the main and kept the fore furled as the winds rose to about 25 knots true. We were relatively comfortable doing 7.5 to 8.5 close hauled. During the night we had Arcturus to guide us to starboard and Deneb in the Swan and Vega in Lyra to port.

At 9 AM, with the breeze lightening, we shook out the second reef of the main and set the fore with one reef. We replaced the Bermuda courtesy flag with a “BC” hoist, which is flag speak for “Full Speed Ahead.” Two fishing poles are in action with a Nova Scotia “Ballyhoo” on one side and a Bermuda “Insane Squid” on the other.

The centerboard had been making big clunking noises from time to time. We tried to raise it to see if we could stop the noise, and it is jammed down. We nominated Paul, as a representative of Covey Island, to check it out (at 7 knots), but he declined. I guess that we’ll get hauled in Antigua, though we’ll try it again when we get on the other tack.

All is well.

Location: 32° 22 0 N, 64° 29 6 W
Sunday 12:00, 04.09.2006

At noon Sunday we were at 32° 22 N, 64° 29.6 W, or about 10 miles SE of Bermuda. We got underway today at 10h30 from Capt Smokes. We probably surprised onlookers by doing two 360 degree turns right off the dock to calibrate our electronic compass.

The wind is fresh (15-25 knots) from the south. We got our main up with one reef and full jib up in the harbor and sailed out of the Town Cut for the fun of it.

We are close hauled on the starboard tack, heading about 110 degrees at seven knots. Seas are 7-8 feet and somewhat confused. Antigua is about 920 nautical miles away on a heading of about 185 degrees.

Most sailors instinct would be to tack and head more for Antigua, rather than Easting, but a glimpse at the weather pattern will show our strategy. (See www.weather.bm/maps/chart2.jpg). We are trying to stay ahead of the cold front and get east into the Easterly winds. Our plan is to stay on starboard until we are really headed and then tack for Antigua. In a day we hope to be on a comfortable beam reach on port, charging along, catching fish for our dinner!

The time in Bermuda was well spent. A very friendly town, and lots of work accomplished, both fix up and improve.

All is well.

from “Ulysses” by Alfred Lord Tennyson

 I cannot rest from travel: I will drink
Life to the lees: all times I have enjoy’d
Greatly, have suffer’d greatly, both with those
That loved me, and alone; on shore, and when
Thro’ scudding drifts the rainy Hyades
Vext the dim sea: I am become a name;
For always roaming with a hungry heart
Much have I seen and known; cities of men
And manners, climates, councils, governments,
Myself not least, but honour’d of them all;
And drunk delight of battle with my peers,
Far on the ringing plains of windy Troy.

I am a part of all that I have met;
Yet all experience is an arch wherethro’
Gleams that untravell’d world, whose margin fades
For ever and for ever when I move.
How dull it is to pause, to make an end,
To rust unburnish’d, not to shine in use!
As tho’ to breathe were life. Life piled on life
Were all too little, and of one to me
Little remains: but every hour is saved
From that eternal silence, something more,
A bringer of new things; and vile it were
For some three suns to store and hoard myself,
And this gray spirit yearning in desire
To follow knowledge like a sinking star,
Beyond the utmost bound of human thought.

This is my son, mine own Telemachus,
To whom I leave the sceptre and the isle–
Well-loved of me, discerning to fulfil
This labour, by slow prudence to make mild
A rugged people, and thro’ soft degrees
Subdue them to the useful and the good.
Most blameless is he, centred in the sphere
Of common duties, decent not to fail
In offices of tenderness, and pay
Meet adoration to my household gods,
When I am gone. He works his work, I mine.

There lies the port; the vessel puffs her sail:
There gloom the dark broad seas. My mariners,
Souls that have toil’d, and wrought, and thought with me–
That ever with a frolic welcome took
The thunder and the sunshine, and opposed
Free hearts, free foreheads–you and I are old;
Old age hath yet his honour and his toil;
Death closes all: but something ere the end,
Some work of noble note, may yet be done,
Not unbecoming men that strove with Gods.
The lights begin to twinkle from the rocks:
The long day wanes: the slow moon climbs: the deep
Moans round with many voices. Come, my friends,
’Tis not too late to seek a newer world.
Push off, and sitting well in order smite
The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds
To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths
Of all the western stars, until I die.
It may be that the gulfs will wash us down:
It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles,
And see the great Achilles, whom we knew.
Tho’ much is taken, much abides; and tho’
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.

Sailing Alone Around the World and The Voyage of the Libredade by Joshua Slocum

Here’s the book we were talking about on Friday…

St. Georges Harbor | 04.03.2006

Sorry for the delay in posting our position. Celebration of our arrival from our first blue water trip at the White Horse Tavern in St. Georges started early and ended late. The Gosling Brothers have been significantly enriched.

We arrived Town Cut — the way into St. Georges Harbor at 0800 on April First. No Joke! We had dogged it a bit Friday night to allow for a suitably safe daylight approach, and also for the fun of seeing the island appear over the horizon.

Customs were easy and quick, with only the flare gun being impounded until our departure. We are currently moored “Mediterranean Style” (bow tied to moorings, stern lashed to bollards on the wharf with a gang plank from the stern to the wharf). Captain Smokes Marina 32° 22 41.40 North, 64° 40 56.64 West is within an easy five minute walk from the center of St. Georges, and well protected by a huge fort right up the hill.

We are quite thrilled with the Maggie B’s first Blue Water leg. We averaged 6.2 knots for the 720 NM trip and were only the third sailboat to reach Bermuda this year from North America and the first two were quite damaged. We have a fast “crew friendly” ship. Even doing 10 knots crossing the Gulf Stream in March, the off watch was able to sleep comfortably below.

We have a busy week with lots of little things to fix before we depart for Antigua (about the same distance as from Lunenburg) on April 8th or 9th.

Photos from the trip will be up on the site soon.