1 May 1996 Titusville Marina, Florida
We got up early because we only had the car for one more day. We went to Wal-Mart’s and did a big shop. We bought a few bits of hardware, clothes etc, but most of the money went on provisions for our Atlantic crossing. Tins of everything imaginable. In the afternoon, I picked up three “fake books”, which are compendiums of sheet music for hundreds of tunes. These were an extravagant £80.
I then went to Cocoa and picked up the rigging toggle to replace the one I have pinched off the mizzen. I then went to Innervision Inc. to ask a few more questions about becoming an ISP. Their training fees seem very high, but I shall defer judgement until I see the cost in the UK.
2 May 1996 Titusville Marina, Florida
I took the car back in the morning (after going to the book shop to buy $100 worth of computer books on Networks, TCP/IP and ISDN). Glenys spent the day removing and resealing some of her beloved hatches. I did some more jobs on the boat and found out that our starter batteries were totally flat when I tried to start the engine. More expensive batteries, I suppose. In the evening, I started to work on our Business Plan and ended up working until midnight!
3 May 1996 Titusville Marina, Florida
More jobs on the boat. I replaced a cable to the port navigation light. I had been putting this off because I was worried about not being able to pull the wire through the hole in the pulpit and thought that I would end up having to remove the pulpit. In the event, all went smoothly.
Glenys started to remove the big front hatch to reseal it and found that one of the hinge bolts had corroded and wouldn’t come out. I ended up drilling the head off the bolt and driving it though the deck with a punch – very worrying! I couldn’t find any 4” x ¼” bolts locally, so ended up ordering them through the marina. It’s a Friday so we won’t get them until Monday – it’s a real nuisance not having a car! We decided to put the hatch back with 4 bolts instead of 6. I spent the evening working on our Business Plan until midnight - I’m so single-minded (obsessional?) sometimes.
4 May 1996 Titusville Marina, Florida
Glenys had a morning “off” and went shopping. I finished cleaning and servicing the navigation lights. I found that the starter batteries had boiled dry! Our domestic batteries are maintenance free and I’ve forgotten to top up our starter batteries. I put about two pints of water into the batteries and will try to charge them up again. I put the genoa back on the forestay. The weather is very hot and muggy and we’re getting cross with each other. Brett in particular is getting more independent and stroppy.
5 May 1996 Titusville Marina, Florida
Well knock me down with a feather, Brett went to church with Daniel and his friends. Anything to join in. Craig is feeling a bit left out because Brett keeps zooming off on his bike with his mates and leaving poor Craig behind.
Glenys started to rub the topside paint stripe down while I did some more jobs. It was baking hot and by three o’clock, I was helping Glenys with the stripe – back breaking work!
6 May 1996 Titusville Marina, Florida
I tried to ring some companies in England but got nowhere – I eventually realised that it was May Day Bank Holiday. Glenys continued rubbing down the top stripe and finished at about half past five in the evening! I changed the engine oil. A pretty horrible, hard day’s work for both of us.
7 May 1996 Titusville Marina, Florida
Glenys took the morning off and went shopping. In the afternoon, she put on the first coat of paint. I carried on trying to tick jobs off my never ending list. We stopped at five o’clock, had a shower and walked over to Steamers Restaurant for dinner – splashed out on a $15 bottle of wine – great!
8 May 1996 Titusville Marina, Florida
Glenys applied the second coat of paint. Brett took some washing to the launderette and came back telling us that he had been watching “Gator Bill” trying to catch the 5ft alligator that has started to live in the marina. Gator Bill has given Brett a real alligator tooth (he later gave Craig one too).
Gator Bill stopped by our boat and told us not to worry, but the alligator was probably headed our way. He was dressed in jeans, boots and lumber jack shirt with a beard, mirror shades and a 12” sheath knife at his side – my hero! Glenys decided not to dangle her feet in the water while she was painting and I decided not to dive down and scrub the hull!
9 May 1996 Titusville Marina, Florida
It looked like it might rain today, so we didn’t bother with the 3rd coat of paint. Glenys removed all the masking tape and the stripe looks really good. We decided to hire a car tomorrow, so we had a big tidy up to make sure that we haven’t forgotten anything. We cleared the decks and gave the boat a good clean.
10 May 1996 Titusville Marina, Florida
Picked up a car first thing. I went to the mail place and picked up some faxes. The best one was from our accountant saying that the Inland Revenue has verbally confirmed that we were non- resident for 95/96. (Yahoo!). Hopefully, we will get written confirmation by the time we get to Bermuda and can then start making definite plans to return to the UK in August.
We drove down to Melbourne, Cocoa and returned to shop in Titusville, buying chandlery, hardware and food. We went to a Cuban/Mexican Restaurant for dinner which was great!
11 May 1996 Titusville Marina, Florida
Glenys went off to a Flea Market in the morning, while I finished off a few little jobs. In the afternoon, we tidied up again! I’m trying to decipher the weather. It looks like there is a cold front coming down which will disrupt the nice SW airflow that we’ve had for the last week. We went for a bottle of wine or four with Bill and Jerry on “Miss Sis III” (USA) – they are setting off for a long cruise tomorrow. I’m jealous because we’re just about to start the final leg of ours!
12 May 1996 Titusville Marina, Florida
It was a miserable overcast day. The cold front has arrived. The forecast is for the front to stall and dissipate, with a high coming from the US coast. I’m not sure what the wind will do, but we are getting ready to leave the marina tomorrow. Brett went to church again with Daniel. The church sends a bus to pick people up from the local area. It sounds like the kids have a wild time fighting and throwing rice about – Brett loved it. I spent most of the day on admin working out our finances – we now only have the boat and £27K in cash and investments. (Easy come, easy go!)
13 May 1996 Titusville Marina, Florida
I got up early, picked up a weather fax and listened to the weather forecast. The front is due to dissipate Tuesday or Wednesday and the high should move east. We have ENE winds today and the forecast is for East winds for the next few days until the high moves far enough east to give us a more southerly air flow. Hurry up and wait.
I spent all day designing our “Boat Net” web site and designing some web pages. Glenys did a bit of school work (gasp!) and then took the boys to the park. I ended up working on web pages until after midnight!
14 May 1996 Titusville Marina, Florida
The forecast is still for East winds, so we are on standby again today. We hope to leave the Marina tomorrow and sail on Thursday, 16th. We did school work in the morning.
In the afternoon, I went up the mast and removed the wind instrument sensor – the wind vane for the direction indicator has finally fallen off. I tried to make a replacement out of Formica, but the sheets I’ve got on board have warped. It took me about an hour to hit on the idea of using a PADI underwater slate as the vane - necessity is the mother of all invention...
Glenys has started to read about the Internet. She’s finding it a bit “dry”. I spent the evening working on Boat Net web pages. In the late afternoon a strong 20-25 knot ENE wind built up – I don’t think we’ll be leaving tomorrow. We foolishly opened a 1½ litre bottle of wine, to drown our sorrows!
15 May 1996 Titusville Marina, Florida
The wind dropped overnight and swung more southerly. The forecast is still for ENE winds until Friday, so we decided to stay yet another day. We did school work in the morning. Brett did some fishing with a small net and caught some little sea horses! They were only about ½” long and were cute little dudes. We were both feeling a little tender, so Glenys went to Burger King to buy us some stodge for lunch. In the afternoon, I played with Internet web pages while Glenys went for a walkabout.
16 May 1996 Titusville Marina, Florida
I listened to the weather – not ideal with ESE 10-15 but much better. I walked to the Post Office and the supermarket, Glenys filled the water tanks, I put the wind instruments back up the mast and we filled up with diesel. We paid our $450 marina bill and went out to anchor – yahoo! I dived and cleaned the propellor and hull – an odious job with only 1ft visibility. We spent the rest of the day tidying up and stowing gear. We had a wonderful evening at anchor!
17 May 1996 Titusville Marina to St Georges Harbour, Bermuda (Day 1)
There was a weird rumbling noise coming through the hull as we went to bed. It stopped at about eleven pm – I suspect they were dredging somewhere to the south of us. I listened to the weather and there’s a high pressure ridge stretching from just north of us to Bermuda. The winds are ESE, south of ridge and S/SW, north of the ridge. The ridge is forecast to move south, so we plan to head up to 30°N, using the Gulf Stream, until we pick up reasonable SW winds.
We had a final tidy up, stowing bikes and things in the front cabin. We finally managed to lift the anchor at eleven o’clock and motored down the ICW (yawn!), past Cape Canaveral where we could just make out the shape of the launch pad from where a shuttle will blast off on Sunday. It was supposed to have gone on the 15th but has been delayed – a pity to miss it.
I went to the toilet just after we entered the Canaveral Barge Canal. I had just settled down when I heard the engine revs drop followed by a sickening lurch as we went aground – my expletive was appropriate! We soon freed ourselves and carried on along the rather pretty canal. We saw a guy floating on a lilo near the shore and I commented that it looks like alligator country to me. 400 metres later we saw …… an alligator!
We had to go through a big lock to exit the Intracoastal Waterway. I made a total mess of docking at the side of the lock and then fell in while trying to adjust a front mooring line – mortifying! We managed to get to sea without further major mishap (and wasn’t I glad to be out at sea!) We had a steady E-ESE 15 wind all afternoon and evening. We picked up a north-going current but decided to hedge our bets and sailed NE instead of north – besides, it was a beam reach and very pleasant.
18 May 1996 Titusville Marina to St Georges Harbour, Bermuda (Day 2)
Very dark night, but we managed to hold onto the wind until morning, when it dropped and veered to SW 5-10. We listened to the weather forecast, which said that the ridge was at 27°N and slowly moving south. We put up the twin poled out jibs and flopped along all day in 5-10 knot winds, but mercifully calm seas. We put the awning up and had a very restful day.
Glenys lost a bucket overboard while playing at sea water showers with the boys. We motored back for it, but missed on our first attempt and it was sinking when we tried again. Glenys forbade me to dive in after it!
I spent the afternoon starting a file of companies involved in sailing, so that we can create web pages for them when we get back to the UK.
At about six o’clock, the wind backed to S10-15, so we dropped the twin running sails and went off on a reach at a blistering 4 knots! Our domestic batteries must be ruined because they were down to 23.7V this morning even though we ran the engine for 7.9 hours yesterday. We decided to start turning the fridge off at night and only keep the log and wind instruments on. I’ll only switch the GPS on when I want a fix.
19 May 1996 Titusville Marina to St Georges Harbour, Bermuda (Day 3)
We had a very pleasant and fast reach all night – it was a very dark night with only about 3 ships. Near dawn we were buzzed by an aircraft – we assume US Coastguard – nice to know they are there! The wind stayed S but dropped to 10 knots during the morning. I went to bed at half past nine until just after midday. I find that the 11-2 and 5-8 watches are harder than the 8-11, 2-5 watches. I think it’s something to do with being woken up, in the dark, twice. Either that or I’m a lazy bugger!
After lunch, Glenys cut my hair and then we had a communal sea water shower on the front deck. We put the fishing line out, but had no success. I continued building up my file of sailing industry companies (yawn!) At dusk the wind was starting to drop and we had S 5-10 most of the night. We spotted another yacht so I tried to call it on CH16 but no luck. We had a much better run today, covering 119 miles. We’ve decided to keep south of 30°N for a few days, in case the wind comes from the east. We’ll have a better tack if we’re well south of Bermuda.
20 May 1996 Titusville Marina to St Georges Harbour, Bermuda (Day 4)
The wind steadied to S10 at about three o’clock in the morning and we slipped along at 4 knots. The other sailing yacht appeared on our starboard and behind us this morning. They were in front and on our starboard at dusk last night. We obviously overtook them, but didn’t see any lights – I reckon that they didn’t have any on – very dodgy! The trip so far has been very pleasant and we’ve skipped into a good routine – I’m enjoying it.
The forecast is that the high pressure ridge will be stationary at 25°N until Friday 24th so we have started to steer 080° directly at Bermuda, rather than staying below 30°N. I changed the fishing lure and was rewarded by hooking a HUGE Dorado. It fought well, leaping out of the water, displaying its vibrant blue and yellow body. I slowly pulled it towards the back of the boat and with a final defiant leap, it got away - bugger!
We had another very pleasant day bobbing along in 5-10 knot winds. By five o’clock, the wind was blowing a steady S10-15 and off we went. The sky has a total cover of high stratus with 4/8 low cumulus – I wonder what it means?
21 May 1996 Titusville Marina to St Georges Harbour, Bermuda (Day 5)
I was woken up at four o’clock in the morning by the sails slatting and the genoa cars banging. The wind had dropped to about 5 knots, but we were left with a southerly swell. I got up at five o’clock at the start of my watch and decided to run the engine for a few hours hoping that the swell would die down – it was only 3-5ft but making us roll unmercifully! By eight o’clock, the wind had picked up enough to start sailing again – just!
The weather forecast says that a low is coming from the Gulf of Mexico and will pass to the NW of us. We may get S to SW 20-25 knot winds tonight and tomorrow. We spent the day heading east with a pleasant 15 knot wind. The sky remained overcast and the sun only peeked out a couple of times. At dinner time, we had a SSE15 wind with some darker looking clouds to our NW. The pressure has stayed constant all day, so we’re hoping that we won’t be clobbered too hard!
We've slipped into a nice routine now:
0800 Glenys and boys get up
0900 Weather check and breakfast
0930 Neville to bed
1200 Neville gets up
1300 Lunch
1400 Glenys to bed
1600 Glenys gets up and we have a cup of tea and cake
1830 Dinner
2000 Neville to bed
2300 Glenys to bed
0200 Neville to bed
0500 Glenys to bed
We had a pleasant, fast but windward sail until midnight.
22 May 1996 Titusville Marina to St Georges Harbour, Bermuda (Day 6)
We had steady 15-20 knot winds all night and managed to keep up a good six knot average. The morning went as usual, weather forecast for S to SW 20 winds. I had my morning sleep and then Glenys made lunch. An hour later, we had a 25 knot squall which drenched us with rain - we just ran downwind.
The afternoon continued to be bouncy with the odd squall. After dinner, just as I was going to bed, we had another squall with 30 knot gusts, so I stayed up to give Glenys moral support and to change the sail plan to reefed mizzen and a small amount of jib. It was as black as the ace of spades, so we decided to change to two hour watches. I went to bed at half past eight and it was miserable.
At ten o’clock, I was awoken by roaring wind and Glenys screaming for me. I scooted upstairs and released the jib sheet, so that we could bear away in the 40 knot winds. I went back below to put on my oilskins and then dropped the mizzen. I then took the wheel to relieve Glenys and we ran downwind for 15 minutes in gale-force winds and 5 metre seas. (I assume that the seas were 5 metres – I don’t know because I couldn’t see!)
I decided that it was too dangerous to keep running. We were tired, out of control, surfing down waves and, if we made a slight mistake, we would broach. In a slight lull, we tacked to starboard and backed the jib. We then gybed it and using the engine, we tacked again and left the jib backed on the starboard side. I then put up the reefed mizzen and we sat there, hove-to, listening to this howling wind and hanging on as the boat was thrown about by the big, breaking waves. Glenys went to bed at half past ten and I stayed on watch.
23 May 1996 Titusville Marina to St Georges Harbour, Bermuda (Day 7)
By midnight, I was cold and miserable. Glencora seemed to be looking after herself, even when the wind was gusting over 45 knots. I decided that we could safely close the hatches and go to bed without anyone on watch. I checked our position – 300 miles from land. I checked the radar – nothing within 24 miles, so we went to bed.
In all of our cruising, we have never been in a position where conditions were so bad that we couldn’t sail. It was very scary, lying in bed, listening to the screaming wind, driving rain and creaking ropes. I hadn’t quite set the sails correctly, so we were lying about 50 degrees off the wind. The large waves were picking us up and sometimes Glencora would slide sideways down a wave. The wave would then break over the side of the boat, tipping us over about 60 degrees and making a huge crashing sound, rattling the rigging. Glencora then shuddered, picked herself up and set off again.
The noise of the jib sheet against the starboard shroud was particularly bad – as the wind increased or decreased the sheet seemed to jump, instead of sliding smoothly, and made this awful metallic clunk just like something was slowly tearing apart. It was particularly worrying because the starboard shrouds are the ones that I fibre-glassed last June in St Lucia – had my repair held? I’m going to have to check it when we get to Bermuda.
We got up every two hours to check on the wind direction and the sails. A night of hell, dozing and worrying. At half past seven, the wind had dropped to SSW20, so we started sailing again in the horrible big seas. It was very unpleasant, but at least we were sailing again. The waves kept causing us to yaw, so we had to have one of us constantly watching the wheel – very tiring.
At half past two, I tried to avoid an evil looking black line of clouds, but failed! As the rain line approached, I reduced sail so that we only had a scrap of sail up and prepared for the worst ….. The wind dropped to 15 knots, the rain poured down, then ….. the wind veered to NW15 and it stopped raining – it was very pleasant. I gybed the jib and we plodded along. By four o’clock in the afternoon, I had put up the main and we stayed like that until dark.
24 May 1996 Titusville Marina to St Georges Harbour, Bermuda (Day 8)
During the night the wind came more northerly and picked up a bit. By daybreak, we were hard on the wind, but at least the sun was shining. The seas were about 3 metres so we couldn’t do much except complain about life at an angle. In the late afternoon, we had an overcast sky but it cleared at dusk and the wind dropped a bit. We’d spent the day keeping to the north of our Rhumb line (in case the wind came more easterly), so we had the great pleasure of easing off the sheets for the night watch.
During the afternoon, Glenys tried to call a nearby ship for a chat. They didn’t answer, but Bermuda Harbour Radio heard her and took some details from us about our boat and who was on board – nice to know that someone cares about us even though they are 100 miles away!
25 May 1996 Titusville Marina to St Georges Harbour, Bermuda (Day 8)
We had a very pleasant night drifting along and made a perfect landfall at dawn. The sight of the sun rising just at the side of the island was beautiful. We sailed to the south east side of the island and then motored the last 20 miles into St George’s Harbour. It’s a pretty harbour with a narrow, cliff-sided channel into it. We went alongside a dock to clear in. The Customs guy was really friendly - even after he found out that we were on the Cruise Ship Dock instead of the Customs dock! It cost us $60 US to clear in!
We anchored amongst the fray. “Honey Jar” and “Kelly’s Eye” are here, they are both on their way to Maine, lucky sods! We went out for a meal - £8 for fish and chips. It cost us $60US for lunch. They’ve got English beer, served in pint glasses – luxury. We had a quick stroll around, went to a supermarket and back to the boat to collapse.
26 May 1996 St Georges Harbour, Bermuda
We got up late and had bacon and egg for breakfast - it’s now a tradition... I spent the morning tidying up the chart table and making a “To Do” list. Glenys took the boys for a stroll around town. We went to St Georges Dinghy & Sailing Club during the afternoon to see the fun and games at their Open Day where we met Lister, Sheena, Tom (8) and Rebecca (4) on “Truant” (UK). Brett came second in the children’s rowing race. Tom and Rebecca came over late afternoon, and then we settled down for a quiet evening with a couple of pints of Boddington's bitter...
27 May 1996 St Georges Harbour, Bermuda
Glenys did school work in the morning, while I went on a walkabout to find things. I bought a phone card to try to ring our accountants and found out that it’s a Bank Holiday Monday! I walked to the propane gas filling station and found out that there is no butane on the island therefore I can’t get my camping gas containers filled.
In the afternoon, Glenys went to the inevitable laundrette while I settled down to do some jobs. I checked the starboard chain plates and thankfully they are as solid as a rock.
Brett went to the toilet and came out saying that it wouldn’t flush. I managed to clear the pump (by a bit of strategic poking of the blockage), but the toilet then wouldn’t flush. I changed the pump – still wouldn’t work. I twisted the sea cocks and dived under the boat and poked a screw driver up the hull fittings – still wouldn’t work. I tried pumping lots of sea water through by pouring a bucket load into the toilet – the water pumped out OK, so the problem must be on the water intake. I removed the intake pipe and blew through it (Yuk!) – it was clear.
What was the problem? I decided to change the sea and lid seals – the ones that I bought in Falmouth 4 years ago were too small. I then noticed excessive hissing when I tried to flush the toilet and upon further investigation, I noticed a hairline crack in the lid – it was stopping a vacuum being formed – a bit of Araldite and Duct tape and voila! A working toilet – phew!
We went to “Truant” for a beer and met “Muirsgian” (UK).
28 May 1996 St Georges Harbour, Bermuda
Glenys did school work - we’re nearly at Lesson 80 which will be halfway! I went into town and rang our accountants. They’ve got the letter from the Inland Revenue stating that we were non-resident for the 95/96 tax year and they faxed me a copy.
I then spent the rest of the day on admin and sending faxes. I sent one to the accountants to get them to confirm that there is nothing else we need to do prior to our return to the UK. I sent another to our house rental agents telling them to make sure that the rent is up to date and instructing them to make the house available to us from the 1st August 1996. It’s official now - we’re going home!
I rang my Mum and Dad and found out that they will fly out to see us in the Azores during the first two weeks of July. We went out in the evening to the Town’s Heritage Day Celebrations – it was like a village fete with choir singing and stalls. We treated ourselves to a pint of bitter at the pub – only £3/pint!
29 May 1996 St Georges Harbour, Bermuda
Glenys did school work in the morning. I received a reply from Keith at the housing agents – the tenants haven’t paid rent for April and May, but at least we are holding a £450 deposit and 2 months advance rent, so we’re effectively covered to the end of June. Keith says that legally we have to give 2 months notice, so he’s rushed out a Notice to Quit which his secretary will hand deliver – just made it!
I did a few jobs and then spent the afternoon working on our Business Plan. “Truant” came for a beer and they gave us some good marketing tips (they used to run a marketing agency).
30 May 1996 St Georges Harbour, Bermuda
Strong SW wind today. I checked the weather forecast and it looks like a cold front is approaching and will stall to the east of us. We’ll have to wait until the front goes away, so we probably won’t leave until 4th or 5th June – nice 40th birthday!
We took a bus into Hamilton. Bermuda is very pretty with colourful houses. The roofs are all tiered concrete (like Lego roofs) and are painted with a limestone-based whitewash. All the roofs are used to collect rain water. There is not much countryside – every available space seems to have a building or house on it. Hamilton is full of tourist shops and is incredibly expensive. There is a Marks & Spencer here but a pack of 3 men’s underpants was $25. I didn’t buy any! We found a small greasy spoon café, but it still cost us $25 for sandwiches, burgers and drinks.
We walked up to the fort which was very pretty with lots of gardens; a path around the bottom of the moat and tunnels to run through. We went to a supermarket, which wasn’t much cheaper than in St Georges. We went back on the bus and collapsed – it’s amazing how tiring it can be walking about.
We got back to find that a boat called “Lady Helen of Scarborough” had anchored very close to us. They refused to move after we politely asked them to, so we decided to move. The boat looks a lot like “Boo”. We know Neil has sold “Boo”, so I wonder if this is it with a different name and delivery crew?
31 May 1996 St Georges Harbour, Bermuda
Miserable rainy day. We did school work in the morning. We then hung around on the boat doing our own thing. I worked on the Internet and our Company Plan.