Adventure on the High Seas- Bahamas to New York City (well almost…)

I found myself hanging at the top of a 72 foot mast 250 miles away from the closest point of land in huge swells about 500 miles directly north of the Bahamas. Although the wind had died, there were still the remaining massive swells from the previous nights storm. Every oscillation affecting the boat was magnified 10 times at the top of the mast so I was hanging on for dear life. I had visions of the force of the oscillations jettisoning my body at right angles to the mast and then propulsing me with G force into the solid aluminum structure causing unspeakable damage. It was then that I acknowleged that my fear of heights was not so irrational after all….. how was it that I ended up in such a life altering predicament?

After spending over a month on my 51 foot sailboat ILEANA in the Bahamas, it was time to head north to avoid the hurricane season which begins in June. Chris Parker our weather router emailed me with the following:

On Sun, May 1, 2022 at 7:19 AM Chris Parker <[email protected]> wrote: CWF5 – Depart: StanielCay, Bahamas – To: New York City – (s) Ileana – 51′ Hanse 508. From StanielCay to clear the S tip of Eleuthera is about 35 miles on course 035T.Wind today is about 100T, so that’s a pretty close reach. Heading to GulfStream W of Bahamas adds lots of miles, and especially at your speed you will not make up the difference with the boost in speed.So GulfStream ENTRY: 32N / 77-35W 32-35N / 77W 33-15N / 76-28W 34N / 75-50W EXIT Stream: 35-18N / 75-08W Sometime Fri6 or Fri6 night a much stronger LO / ColdFRONT emerge from midAtlanticStates with GALE FORCE WIND likely. You probably want to be in Port sometime Fri6.FORECAST: Fri6, midday position approaching SandyHook: there is a high probability of wind building rapidly from N-ENE, reaching 30g40k in the afternoon, and GALE FORCE Fri6 night. You probably want to be in Port before wind begins building, so fairly early on Fri6. ReplyForward

Seemed like great advice so we left the Bahamas to take advantage of the weather window.

Day 1, May 1, 2022

We left Staniel Cay at 7 AM. There were 27 kts of wind forward of the beam so a reef was put in the main. The wind settled throughout the day so the reef was released. Sailing at 9kts. Night time 3 hour shifts with 2 on the deck. One keeping watch, the other sleeping. The wind picked up to 25 Kts so reef put in the mainsail in the pitch dark. The boat is designed so the reefs can be made from the cockpit while sailing in the dark. Marlo and I were on 3 AM to 9AM shift. At around 4 AM Jupiter and Venus rose. Spectacular

Day 2 May 2, 2022. Big event….. generator failed. Previous experience at taking something apart to fix a leak in the water pressure system did not go well. I pulled out the dishwasher to see if the leak was there….it wasn’t. I cannot get the dishwasher to fit back in the place where it was. When the generator stopped working, I had to read the manual. “Trouble shooting when the engine overheats”. Check oil,  adjust fanbelt, replenish coolant, clean radiator, check thermostat, replace head gasket. There was a cute little map showing where all of these parts were located. The generator look different to me than the map…… I did however notice that there was no water flowing out the back which is important to cool the generator. Marlo suggested that it could be the impeller. The impeller is a rubber wheel which forces the sea water into the genrator to cool it down. This was a brand new generator, hardly used but I figured I had nothing to lose. I located the impeller plate, unscrewed it and sure enough the impeller was destroyed. I suspect that when we got stuck in the sandbar, some sand got sucked up in the impeller and tore it to ribbons. I replaced the impeller and the generator works fine now!

The winds became light and we heading downwind so I launched the Code 0 sail. Wow! The speed picked up to 9 Kts. We flew towards the way point where we enter the gulf stream.

Day 3, May 3, 2022. Half way point reached…. But the winds died to 5 kts. I furled the Code 0 and we all went on deck to pull it down. We were able to pull it down about 1 foot from the top of the mast when it was stuck. Marlo took out the image stabalizing binoculars and could see that it was extremely twisted around itself at the top of the mast. We tried all kinds of maneuvers to untwist it to no avail. One of us had to go up the mast. It couldn’t be me because I am terrified of heights. Throw in the 6 foot swells and I would be a basket case…… In preparation to pull someone up the mast there needs to be 2 halyards, one acting as a safety in case the first one fails. We took down the mainsail, hooked up the mainsail halyard and extra spinnaker halyard and before I knew it I was half way up the mast in a bosuns chair with a knife in my teeth to cut the stuck and twisted line if necessary.  The first thing that happened was that I slid slightly down the bosun’s chair and my testicles were getting crushed by the straps holding me in….. (marginally better than slipping completely through and plunging onto the deck below I suppose, but the pain was excruciating…) Then the fear set in and the pain from my crushed testicles seemed less of a concern. The boat kept on drifting to windward and I was hanging on for dear life. The swells of the ocean are magnified at the top of a 72 foot mast had I visions of the oscillations blowing me away from the mast, but oscillating back into the mast and losing all of my teeth as I came smashing back into the mast. At some point the rational problem solving part of my brain kicked in. I could not successfully untwist the halyard but I was able to remove the shackle holding the Code 0 to the halyard… the mighty sail fell from 72 feet high into the water. Using herculean strength, Marlo and Auke were able to pull the sail back into the boat. . .  In the meantime, I was hanging on to the oscillating mast while they were playing with the sail. When I was lowered to the deck, my arms and chest were covered in bruises and my testicles had migrated to the back of my throat. I did not anticipate walking straight for at least a few days….

We stuffed the huge code 0 into the sail locker and then motored/sailed heading north to New York City. Then we caught another Barracuda, perhaps 4 feet long! We successfully threw him back because of our research (see the previous post). He had huge teeth but we were able to dislodge the hook from the mouth and off he went to the deep ocean.

Day 4, May 4, 2022. We entered the gulfstream at 6AM. The water temperature went up to 27 C and we were hot wearing shorts and t-shirts. Our speed went from 7 kts to over 10 kts. But the wind died. We were surrounded by lightening and thunder and in preparation for a high velocity squall, we put a double reef in the mainsail. The high velocity winds never came, but we soaked by a deluge of water from above like is only seen in the tropics . There is a cold front coming through and we have to exit the gulf stream at Cape Hatteras before morning so we are motoring on a windless ocean.

At around 6 PM Marlo caught a 10 lb. Mahi Mahi! It was caught on the Mahi Mahi turbulator lure. When rum was poor into the gills it still was moving so I beat his head with the rum bottle. Filets were created. We’ll have fresh cerviche in the morning, filets fried in a pan tomorrow night. The wind picked up from the southwest and we were flying along the gulf stream sometimes going 13 knots with with current of 4 knots and the strong wind behind us.

Day 5, May 5, 2022. We started the night shifts of 2 hours. 2200-2400, 2400-0200, 0200-0400, 0400-0600 with 2 of us on deck at all times. One of us would sleep, the other checking for boats, adjusting the sails and keeping track of our position on the chart. The winds were 20kts, but at 3PM the winds picked up to 33kts. So in pitch darkness we put 2 reefs in the mainsail. Our speed continued usually around 10-11kts, but sometimes above 13kts. Then the wind shifted to the north. We got out of the gulfstream just before this happened. You do not want to be in the gulfstream in 33 kt north winds. The gulf stream current is hurtling along at 4 kts. and the strong winds create huge standing waves which can damage a boat. We were warned ahead of time that there was a cold front that had stall and the forecast was hard to predict because the cold front would proceed in any direction after the stall….

After squeaking by Cape Fear and then cape Hatteras, we plotted a course for New York City directly into 20 kt headwinds from the exact direction we were going…… In a sailboat you can only go 45 degrees into the wind so we prepared to do a lot of tacking and a lot of getting bounced around by the massive swells.

Day 6, May 6, 2022. By this time we started getting weather reports of an impending cold front heading for New York. I have a satellite phone on board and downloaded the weather daily. If we continued to New York, we would hit the fury of this storm around Atlantic City….. In the words of Chris Parker our weather router, “you do not want to be at sea when this cold front is coming through”. The prediction was 5 meter waves and 40-50kt winds. You must remember reading the story or perhaps you saw the movie ” A Perfect Storm”. Well, all of us on board saw it too. There was a cold front over Newfoundland that was colliding with another cold front from the west creating a huge depression. This was supported by a high over top of Bermuda and the effect resulted in huge winds from the northeast. The same thing is happening over New York City later today. We downloaded the latest winds and found that the eastern seaboard was getting some of the biggest winds and biggest waves on the planet in the next few days…..

The four of us had a group meeting and made the decision to head for Norfolk and the safety of land…. We are currently safely tied up at the docks in Little creek Marina waiting for the storm to blow through over the next 3-4 days. We will probably head for New York City in 3-4 days. In the meantime we reflect on the great trip we have had so far and of course those sunsets….