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.