Bermuda Bound Oct 17, 2010

Bacchus


Latitude:32.3806

Longitude:-64.67554

GPS location Date/Time:10/17/2010 08:24:07 EDT



Message:Devante's Dream has arrived in Bermuda. Mike, Eric & Bill !!!!!!!
The passage was 2 days longer than Eric planned, so I have a feeling that they have a lot of sleep to catch up on.
Jane

Bermuda Bound Oct 16, 2010

Bacchus


Latitude:33.6594

Longitude:-64.32825

GPS location Date/Time:10/16/2010 16:36:20 EDT

Bermuda Bound Oct 16, 2010

Bacchus


Latitude:34.91315

Longitude:-64.06357

GPS location Date/Time:10/16/2010 04:32:24 EDT

Bermuda Bound Oct 14, 2010 12:47pm

285NM NOR OF BMD FOUL CURRENT SUNDY ARU LIKEKLY

Bermuda Bound Oct 14, 2010

Bacchus


Latitude:37.24711

Longitude:-65.66876

GPS location Date/Time:10/14/2010 07:58:41 EDT



Message: Bermuda Bound on Devante's Dream. Everything is going well. Mike, Eric & Bill

Bermuda Bound Oct 13,2010

Bacchus

Latitude:38.99701

Longitude:-67.46213

GPS location Date/Time:10/13/2010 07:12:40 EDT



Message: Bermuda Bound on Devante's Dream. Everything is going well. Mike, Eric & Bill



I have to admit that the findmespot.com is pretty awesome stuff. A good back up to the Epirb and if there is that dreaded emergency, I can actually speak coherently to the coast guard. We actually heard a guy on the radio in Maine that had an emergency and could not explain the type of boat he was on, never mind his location.
 
Jane

Bermuda Bound Oct 12, 2010

GPS location Date/Time:10/12/2010 16:14:42 EDT

Bacchus


Latitude:40.20621

Longitude:-68.29413

Passage to Bermuda Fall 2010

We're just about ready!

Here's the link to Mike's SPOT GPS location unit. It tracks our location every few hours.

http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0L8Yp8SFTpKceqlQLusy5TRGkJOaqYNaA

Passage to Bermuda Fall 2010

Devante's Dream is ready for the passage to Bermuda. She'll be departing Columbus Day, Monday October 11th in the early morning.

On board for this passage are returning crew Bill Spratt (my brother-in-law) and local New England sailor Mike Crawford. Bill has been onboard for a previous passage from Key West to Nassau Bahamas. This is Mike's first time aboard.

Why Bermuda? We had a great passage up from Key West at the end of May beginning of June. It took nine sailing days and 12 days overall. Going back to Key West takes longer, probably twelve sailing days and two to two and a half weeks and a general slog against the Gulf Stream. Not as much fun as coming up.

Next year I plan on being back in New England so Bermuda is an option. It's a lot closer, the passage will take about 4.5 days and it's a world class destination. Never been there but they tell me its nice. Coming back to New England is even easier than going down. Go a little bit to the Northwest and pick up the Gulf Stream, could make it to Marblehead in under four days.

So, there we are heading to Bermuda. Our destination is St. Georges Harbour and the town of St. Georges.

Eric

2010 Summer Cruise - Marblehead and Maine

Devante's Dream cruise in New England exceeded my wildest expecations. The weather was epic. Even in Maine, where we had 20 days of 75 degrees and sunshine out of 23. One of the days was foggy. Jane and I both said "Thank God, we can rest!". We hadn't stopped to catch our breath.

Stories coming soon and pictures like this one!

Isle au Haut
Cliff Trail lunch spot

2010 Summer Cruise - Passage to New England - Marblehead Landfall

Devante’s Dream has completed the off-shore passage from Key West to Marblehead, taking a little more than 9 days to cover 1400+ nautical miles. There were two stops, in Beaufort/Morehead City North Carolina, for two days and Edgartown Martha's Vineyard for two days.

Here are some passage notes.

Getting ready for an extended off-shore passage is a massive amount of work. I relished every moment of it. We were still putting the final touches on repairs the night before departure but everything came together.

Depart Key West FL Thursday May 27th 2010 at 1015.

Arrive Beaufort NC Monday May 31st 2010 at 0430
For this first leg Eric Sr. Vladimir and Gary were on board. Eric and Gary were sick for the first day. Gary did not really eat anything the entire trip. Vlad acted as cook for the most part and is an excellent one at that, making scrumptious meals out of our provisions.
Right outside Oceanside Marina in Key West we had dolphins. Although I am not superstitious it was a pleasant site. We initially had calm conditions with no wind so we took the time to “swing the boat” to adjust the computerized compass and auto-helm.
Interestingly, with the auto-helm we rarely manually steer the boat with the wheel. It is just too tedious to do for long periods of time, plus the auto-helm can do it far better than any human can. So for the most part the crew can sit back and enjoy the scenery and keep a watch out.

Speaking of watches, we stood standard 4 hour watches starting at 0800. Eric took the first watch, Vlad the second and Gary the third. This schedule meant that each crew always had the same watch. As Gary was a novice sailor Eric shadowed his watches or slept lightly in the cockpit which made for a slightly tiring total leg.

Gary practiced knots… Cooking the first meal Eric dumped and entire pan of onion and peppers behind the stove and had to clean it up… Motor sailing (smotering) for the most part as winds are light or slightly on the nose. However, what wind there is helps the motor to operate at very low RPM’s so we sip fuel yet still make good time.
Devante’s Dream holds 36 gallons of diesel in her single fuel tank. At full power she can motor for around 30 hours so 36 gallons is not enough for extended off-shore passages. I added six 5 gallon yellow plastic diesel jugs to the rails to extend the range. When she’s smotering we can burn as little as 1/3 gallon an hour and go a really long way. We ended up with plenty of fuel to spare at the end of the first leg.

You settle in to a routine pretty quickly on an off-shore passage. Once I got my sea legs under me I was good to go. After 36 hours I could comfortably eat and my performance improved. I think next time I’ll do some more day sailing before a long passage to cut down the acclimation time. Sitting here writing it is blustery and we’re rocking quite a bit at the mooring but it does not bother me at all now that I have been on board for 10 days.
The end of the first leg entails entering Beaufort Inlet. It’s wide and well marked however we were arriving at the peak of the ebb (outgoing) tide. This meant that we would be bucking a significant current. It was almost more than I bargain for.
Entering straight into the main channel it was around 0200 in the morning, the sky was clear with good visibility. We could easily spot the series of buoys leading to the inlet. I had the engine RPM slightly reduced and was using the auto-helm by the time we reached the 2nd buoy from the entrance.
The current in the location began to twist, spin and drag Devante’s Dream towards one of the marks. The auto-helm could not compensate. Plus, just at that time, a power boat was overtaking us from the rear, reducing my maneuvering room. I had to take manual control of the helm and increase engine RPM’s to avoid hitting the mark and the power boat that was also being spun and dragged. Yikes!
We continued on and the tidal rip subsided as we entered the main channel. The marina I selected to stay at was on a broad deep channel for easy access as night. However, fate is always out there waiting for you. Maneuvering near the marina I put the engine at idle speed and it promptly died. I restarted it and looked up. Just then Vlad noted that there was a channel marker to our right. Too late we bumped into the bar at very slow speed.
The rudder was free and I tried to wiggle off with no success. I left the engine in reverse while we discussed our options. It was 0300 so too early to hail Boat U.S. who would come out and help us. We needed to self-rescue.

How many doctors does it take to wash a boat?

Eventually we inflated the dinghy on deck, dropped it in the water and planned to skeg an anchor off the port quarter stern. Vlad was in the dingy and I was getting the anchor line untangled when Vlad called out something that something was wrong. We were drifting in the middle of the channel! Evidently the dinghy and Vlad weighed enough to lift the boat off the bar.

We motored over to the dock and tied up and promptly went to bed. We completed the Key West to Beaufort passage in 90 hours and 15 minutes, right at the best possible time that I had predicted prior to departing.

Depart Beaufort NC Wednesday June 2nd, 2010 at 0510

Arrive Edgartown Martha’s Vineyard MA Saturday June 5th 2010 at 11:45

For this leg crew consisted on Eric Sr., Vlad and new crew member Bob. Bob’s from Alabama, more on that later. Prior to departing we used Bob’s car to check out downtown Beaufort NC. We were docked in Morehead City just over the bridge.

It’s a quaint town with small cape cod style homes with picket fences and a great waterfront area with a lot of docks. It’s a popular stop over for sailing cruisers due to it’s entrance to the intra coastal waterway and ocean access for going around Cape Hatteras.

Vlad and I got out of the car to check out the waterfront area and left Bob and Gary in the car. After walking down the length of the dock for a while I spotted a couple washing their sailboat. I figured they would know what the transient dockage situation was. I couldn’t see any signs for a dock office or even the marina’s name.

I called over to the husband asking questions and he immediately stopped what he was doing to talk with me. He explained the dockage and where the office was. I inquired about his passage. He said that there engine had become disabled and that they had to be towed into the slip they where in. His wife came over and we talked some more.

My stomach was growling so I was thinking lunch. Since we were enjoying our conversation on the dock I invited them to have lunch with us. “Sure”, they said, “We’ll clean up and meet you in a few minutes.

Vlad and I checked out the dock office and got the brochure. We’ll stop there next time through. We also went back to the car and got Bob and Gary.

Our lunch and conversation was great. If you didn’t already guess by Vlad’s name he is from Russia, having immigrated to the States 20 years ago. He’s also a professional musician, playing the viola, as well as a music teacher. In our conversation with Linda and Dan music came up.

One discussion thread led to another and eventually they realized that they had hosted a family emigrating from Russia that played in an orchestra that Vlad had sponsored to come into the country. Wow. It really is a small world. We exchanged contact info and went on our way.

Vlad, Bob and I made the obligatory stop at the West Marine and the provisioning (super market) store. We planned for a 0500 departure to make the best of the ebbing tide in the morning of Wednesday the 2nd of June.

Bob had a tough day the first day out. He said he wasn’t feeling well even before he got on the boat and he, like Gary, did not really eat anything the entire trip. He was a trooper though.

Leaving Beaufort NC going north means a choice between going inside via the Intracoastal Waterway or outside at sea around Cape Hatteras. Since we wanted to actually get north in a reasonable amount of time we choose outside. Let me tell you it takes a long time to get around Cape Hatteras! Like all day, but we did make it.by smotering most of the way around.

Later that night we got our only bad weather of the trip. It didn’t last too long but it was on the nose and kinda wet. The next day the sun shown and the wind was on our tail, time to put up the kite (spinnaker).

I can count on one hand the number of times we had preciously used the spinnaker. It’s a bit of a bear due to it’s size. Vladimir and I worked on getting it setup. It has a long bag that it lives with a snuffing mechanism at the bottom. We raise the entire bag to the top of the mast and then pull the bag up to deploy the sail.

That’s the easy part, taking it down is another thing altogether.

We got the sail up and needed to make some rigging adjustments to the tack so we took it right back down again. Once those changes were made the sail was hoisted and off we flew, able to make the rhumb line towards Edgartown Martha’s Vineyard.

Downwind cooking (and eating) is easier

We shut the engine down. You have never seen three happier men, Vlad at the helm, Bob watching the chart plotter and Eric chilling in a lounge chair. We were making 7 knots flying the chute.

Later that evening the wind slacked off a little and we didn’t want to fly the chute at night so we took it down. Despite the snuffer it’s still quite a job. I need to rig up a snap shackle so that we can blow the tack, which is the guy on an asymmetrical spinnaker, which would make it easier to take down.

Without this aid we had to rely on easing the spin sheet so that the snuffer could come down. This works, with light air, be we had 20 knots so we had to muscle the snuffer down.

Easing the sheet puts it in the water once the sail is down. After easing the sheet I went forward to help Vlad put the sail away. When I was done with that I went to look for the sheet. It was under the boat.

Bummer.

Bob felt a tug on the engine and put it in neutral. I pulled on the sheet. It wouldn’t budge, double bummer. Vlad and I both pulled. Same result. We could see that it went forward around the keel which made sense since the sheet was on the starboard side. We pulled it back around to the starboard side and back towards the stern.

We shut the engine off. We couldn’t motor with the sheet wrapped up in the prop. We still had 18 to 20 knots of wind so I couldn’t dive on the prop for fear of hitting my head on the bottom of the boat.

We settled in for a long night going downwind with just the main. It was painfully slow at 4.5 to 5.5 knots and very lumpy. I slept very little.

In the morning I could feel the seas easing a little as the wind died down. I got out of bed and came on deck. Over the next hour or so the wind died completely and the seas went flat, time to get in the water.

I had all of my dive gear on board for just such and event. I suited up and used my pony bottle instead of a full size dive tank. Vlad took videos as I went in the water to but the line away. It was a brisk entry in the cold water but not too bad.

I could unwrap some of the line by hand but about two wraps were melted to the drive shaft. I cut those three and came aboard with the fragments of rope. There were only about 10 inches of line on the shaft.

Bob keeps watch on the downwind run

About 30 minutes after I got out of the water the wind came back up to 18-20 knots and we put the chute back up for another day of glorious downwind running. Can you believe it?

On our third day out of Beaufort NC we had heavy fog and light wind so we motored. I could see no vessels that posed a threat on the AIS (ship ID system) but not all ships are transmitting as we noted when we went by parked fishing vessel and several large buoys marking underwater fishing nets. We still needed to keep a sharp eye out.

I looked at the sky at around 0830 and told Bob that the fog would burn off at 11:30. By 11:45 we had clear visibility and within a few hours we had more breeze, again from the southwest, so we put the chute up again. We ran the chute until sunset.

Unfortunately our landfall timing was less than perfect. We were going to be entering the channel off Wasque Point during a full ebb tide. At one point, while in the narrowest part of the channel, we were doing 2.9 knots over the ground. It seemed like it took forever to get past that channel marker!

As we continued on the current slackened and we eventually had a favorable current taking us into Edgartown harbor. We arrived at 11:45 PM and promptly went to bed.

Edgartown Martha’s Vineyard

A lonely Devante's Dream in Edgartown Harbor

The next day was Sunday June 6th. We took the launch into Edgartown and ate at the Seafood Shanty, which has an amazing view of the Edgartown harbor. Amazingly, Devante’s Dream was one of only a few boats in the mooring field. I guess the season starts later here.

Bob, as I mentioned before, is from Alabama. He looks like an Alabamian should look. But he doesn’t fit the mold. For one he owns a sailboat and an airplane. Well actually that is two but that’s beside the point.

Downtown Edgartown

Our waitress came over to take our order. I ordered first, then Bob. Bob asked a question. The waitress just stared at him with her mouth open. Vladimir and I burst out laughing. She couldn’t comprehend his southern accent. Now Vladimir has a thick Russian but we joked that Vlad was going to need to translate for Bob.

Bob was a good sport about the whole thing. He states that that is the way we talk in the country I am from. The three of us toured Edgartown, which doesn't take long.

Brightly colored Gay Head

The next day Vlad and I took a bus tour of the island, stopping at Gay Head, which is so named because of the colorful cliffs. I had the absolute best lobster roll I have ever had there. At the end of the tour we got a chance to walk around Oak Bluffs, with its colorful cottages and buy t-shirts.












Marblehead


Later that afternoon we set off for Marblehead, catching a favorable current to the Monomoy Point channel. This last leg took just 16 hours. We arrived in Marblehead on Tuesday June 8th at 0830. No orchestra was there to greet us at Tuckers Wharf but we had high fives all around.
 
We walked up to Foodies restaurant on Washington Street and met the coffee cup gang that meets there regularly, including Margot, Tom, Jim and Paul. Bob and Vlad were able to regale them with stories of the sea.
 

Vlad setting up Goldeneye's rigging

Before we even had a chance to clean Devante’s Dream Peter Engle had all three of us on Goldeneye, his Jeanneau 37 which I race on, to setup the rig. She had just been put in the water the day before. We enjoyed a nice dinner at the Dolphin Yacht Club with a spectacular sunset.
 
The next night was a Wednesday night race so Peter invited Vlad and Bob to come along. They were a little hesitant but Chris Caldwell was to be onboard to check on a new main sail that Peter had ordered so they relented.


Before the race we went to Marblehead Lobster Company and purchased some beautiful local scallops and veggies which Vladimir expertly prepared at Peter and Diane’s home in Old Town. Then Vladimir serenaded us with music on Peter’s Steinway piano in the living room. What an afternoon.

The race was enjoyable and we got to hang out at Boston Yacht Club afterwards. Vladimir purchased t-shirts.

The next day I took Vladimir and Bob to the airport. Our trip was over.

2010 Summer Cruise - Passage to New England, Landfall

We arrived in Marblehead harbor at 0845 on Tuesday June 8th. I was sad to see the passage come to an end but also excited to enter my hometown area sailing grounds on Devante's Dream.

We docked at Tuckers Wharf town docks and soaked up the moment. It was a beautiful early summer day with the brightest blue sky I and my crew mates Vlad and Bob had ever seen.

Later that day we all helped my sailboat racing friend Peter Engel setup the rig on Goldeneye and ate a lunch at Dolphin Yacht Club looking out over the harbor, again with the bluest sky we'd ever seen. On Wednesday night we all raced on Goldeneye and had a blast taking 2nd out of the 12 boat class.

I'll be writing up the passage notes when I get time, which may be a litle while as I am racing in Boston harbor on Saturday and off Marblehead on Sunday.

Eric

ERIC WAS 70 NM SW MVY @ 12:17pm today
j.

2010 Summer Cruise

Eric text 12:30am:
130 NM MVY SW DOVE TO CLR LINE ON PROP IN CALM SEA, SPIN FLY 2 DAY MTRG NOW

Wow, I'm impressed, he will make it to MV before I leave for France!
j.

2010 Summer Cruise

Message from Eric today:
send wx 4MVY 150 NM SE ATL City.
He has been using the spinnaker the past 2 days! they're making time. I've texted 26 weather updates to Eric since he left Morehead City NC.

2010 Summer Cruise - Passage to New England - Beaufort to Edgartown

Vlad, Bob and Eric have departed Beaufort NC heading for Edgartown MA on Martha's Vineyard. Weather window looks great.

2010 Summer Cruise - Passage to New England

test!

2010 Summer Cruise - Passage to New England - Key West to Beaufort

Devante's Dream is safely at the marina in Morehead City NC. Thank you Vlad and Gary for a great job in helping get her here safely. More on the passage later.

Eric

2010 Summer Cruise - Passage to New England - Final Preparations

Devante's Dream is ready. The main sail and stackpack are back on the boom.

Vlad and Gary are onboard finishing the final rigging of gear. Water has been topped off.

We are casting off. It is now 1015 May 27th 2010.

Hasta Manana!

2010 Summer Cruise - Passage to New England - Preparations 05-26-10

Preparations update

Heads

Replaced the plunger mechanisms and valves on both heads with the new locking style. Yucky job.

AIS
The AIS (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_Identification_System) receiver is working. Now we can see (and avoid) the big ships, their course, speed, name right on the computer. Cool.

Rigging

Checked all of the rigging and installed several new sheets and halyards (ropes for the landlubbers).

Took the main sail and lazy jack cover off and brought it to the sailmaker for repairs. We'll put that back on this afternoon.

Charts
We now have GPS and paper charts for the entire eastern seaboard. There are three separate GPS systems, the "built-in" chart plotter at the helm (RayMarine RL70C Plus), the laptop running Cap'n software and my iPhone running Navionics charts. Amazingly the iPhone is the easiest of the three to use. Each system is also running a completely different set of charts.

Navigating
We're not totally relying on the GPS though. We'll be recording our position in the log book at the start of the each watch and we plot our course on paper charts as well. We also have four compasses on board, two built-in and two hand-held, plus my iPhone even has one.

Safety
The satellite phone is onboard and working properly. It's pretty cool. In addition to normal voice calls I can sent text messages to both cell phones and email addresses as well as recieve text messages. A nice feature is that receiving text messages is free. Using this feature I'll be able to get (brief) weather updates at sea.

The running lights have been checked and replaced where necessary and spares are on board. The safety equipment has been checked and updated where necessary.

Flag
A small victory today was installing the new flag pole and flag.

Eric

2010 Summer Cruise - Passage to New England

Eric is in Key West getting Devante's Dream ready for the passage to New England. The scheduled departure date is Thursday May 27th.

Yesterday, Monday May 24, was punch list day. Figure out what things need to be repaired or adjusted prior to departure. It's amazing how many little details there are. Charts, fuel, sails, filters, emergency gear, spare parts, creature comforts, blah, blah, blah.

Jane did some initial shopping to get the provisioning started that I brought down in the car from Peachtree City. Finally got all that stowed away last night. Then had a nice dockside dinner with my live aboard neighbors going away party. They are heading back to Canada for the summer. There are probably around 10 -15 live aboard couples here at Oceanside Marina.

Today is more punch list work and also looking at the all important weather. The wind has been easting here unusally late in the season. Right now the forcast on http://www.passageweather.com/ calls for the wind out of the Northwest for the start of our trip, clocking west and utimately south/south west. Sou'-sou'-west is the prevailing summer wind here. If that forecast holds out that would be ideal for the first leg of the passage to Beaufort. We'll see.

"In my late forties I started to forget things. I'd tell you what they were but I can't remember."

Eric Langley, Sr.

This is Tinkers Island in the background. We'll be sailing right by it on our way to Marblehead. The children in the photo are my neices and nephew. Can't wait to have them onboard!

2010 Summer Cruise - Passage to New England

The gear is all laid out in the rec room and ready to load into the car. I am doing a one-way car rental with Enterprise to Key West so I can leave the car there. Heading out on Sunday morning.

2010 Summer Cruise - Passage to New England

After going far too long without a decent offshore passage Devante's Dream is heading to New England for the summer of 2010. Fresh off a complete bottom job and survey she's ready to go. This will be her second time up the coast with this one planned to go all the way to Maine.

But before we get to Maine though there's some ocean miles to cover.

Here's the initial passage plans;

Intinerary;
Key West to Beaufort NC
715NM on the rhumb line
7.5kts average (with the Gulf Stream and motor sailing when necessary)
3.7 days (best case)
Depart Key West: 05/27/10
Arrive Beaufort NC: 06/01/10 + - (allowing for six transit days)

Beaufort NC to Marblehead MA
675NM on the rhumb line
6kts average (motor sailing when necessary not much stream help after Beaufort NC)
4.7 days (best case)
Depart Beaufort NC: 06/04/10 + - (earlier if possible)
Arrive Marblehead MA: 06/10/10 + - (allowing for 6-7 transit days)
Landfall and layover in Martha's Vineyard then on to Marblehead MA which will be "Home Base"while in New England

Crew on board include;
Eric, Vladimir, Gary and Bob