Chapter 1.

The Delivery

I had just come out of the Department of surgery meeting. It was about 5:45 PM and I was getting ready to go home. I am currently chief of surgery at a community hospital in Toronto and the meeting had just wrapped up. The familiar ring of my cell phone went off and I glanced down at the caller ID. It was Pat Sturgeon. “There is a rescue going off of the coast of Nova Scotia” he said. “Do you think it’s your boat?” I stopped dead in my tracks as my heart dropped. This kind of news was my worst nightmare. The story began about six months earlier. There was no wind on Lake Ontario and my 35 foot C&C sailboat was bobbing around in no wind. The bright sun was burning the top of my head in the mid-afternoon. The temperature was 30°C. The Wind Finder app on my phone was predicting no wind for the next 24 hours. There was no way that the boat was going to finish the Lake Ontario 300 sailing race before my self-imposed curfew of Wednesday morning. I had a full list of operating booked and I had to be back to work. The boat was 60 miles from the finish line and I made the decision to abandon the race. I started the engine and headed back to the club. The boat was on autohelm and the lake was as smooth as glass as I motored west. There was not a ripple in the smooth water. This ride home was going to take 10 hours. As I lay back on the cushions in the cockpit, I had plenty of time to reflect. I am 62 years old and dreaming of spending the winters in the Caribbean on a 50 foot boat outfitted to go off the grid for months at a time. I figured that I had between 3-5 years left to work before I would have enough money saved up to be able to do this. The key obstacle in the plan was to have a sailboat that would be able to meet the needs of both myself and Ileana. I must have drifted off because I saw myself on the deck of a beautiful boat anchored in turquoise water with the outline of coconut trees on an island that was close by. When I woke up, I knew what I had to do. I needed to get the boat so I would have 3-4 years to get used to it and prepare for the trip south. Pat Sturgeon of Pat Sturgeon yacht brokers met with me and we spent about an hour discussing what I was looking for in boat and we formulated a plan. I had spent the last five years surfing the Internet looking for the perfect boat, but Pat was able to direct me to the best choice. He has been in business for 30 years and sold my C&C 35 sailboat to me 20 years earlier. The search began. It took about two or three weeks to narrow down the options and while flipping through the pages of the Internet, Ileana pointed out the boat she wanted and I agreed. Makena was a beauty. She had hardly been used and was kept immaculate. She had everything that you would need to live comfortably at anchor for months at a time. There were freezers, fridges, hot and cold running water for showers, washing machine, solar panels, generator, and the list goes on.

The Hanse 495 was in Greece. An offer was made, marine survey completed, and the purchase was finalized. Once in motion, everything seemed to happen so quickly. I was surprised that there were no questions asked by the bank when I dipped into my line of credit so deeply. There was a snag however, with insurance. I called my insurance company and explained situation. I had a sailboat in Greece that I wanted insurance. After a week or so, the response was they would not insure the boat and had no idea how it could be insured. Pat Sturgeon put me in touch with a Marine insurance broker and within several days, for a substantial fee, Lloyd’s of London came to the rescue. I had a lot of discussion with Pat Sturgeon how to get the boat to Toronto. We looked at the option of keeping the boat in Greece and sailing it in the summers. This however presented some VAT tax issues, and some other problems, so we looked at the option of getting the boat shipped. We would have to sail the boat to Genoa Italy, load it on a ship, and have it delivered Newport. From Newport, it would have to be shipped or sailed to Toronto. There were some concerns about whether the 10% export tax would apply to a boat that was passing through United States, and the overall shipping cost was going to be about C$50,000 which was beyond what I was willing to pay. We looked at the option of having the boat sailed across by a delivery skipper. We came across Rupert. Rupert has done over 150 deliveries all over the world. He has sailed up the St. Lawrence Seaway three times and had been to Panama Canal, across the Atlantic, across the Pacific, and had come very highly recommended. He was well known in the industry as a dependable, reliable, delivery skipper. I contacted Rupert and he was willing to do the job. He flew to Greece and spent a week making certain that the boat was up to the task of sailing across the North Atlantic after the hurricane season in the fall. He commented that the boat was immaculate. It had hardly been used and was designed for this type of crossing. It was a beautiful boat, and he could find no flaws. He had his bag of tools and explained that he could handle almost any failure. He had sailed in more dangerous waters with less seaworthy boats on many occasions. He had no doubt that he could sail the 5000 nautical miles and deliver the boat to Toronto before the St. Lawrence Seaway closed on December 23, 2018. His fee was $200 a day which included the two crew and a cook. He estimated it would take 39 days. He would need to stop for fuel and supplies in Gibraltar, the Azores, Port Hawkesbury in Nova Scotia, and then Toronto. The boat had AIS tracking system and he had satellite phone and would communicate with me. Rupert set off from Greece on Saturday, October 13, 2018 on a beautiful sunny day with 10 kn of wind. The first problem began about a day later. The autohelm stop working. The auto helm is a key safety feature for a boat of this size. It is very difficult to hand steer a boat for long periods of time safely. A sailor must be able to move around the boat to adjust sails, check the rigging, and have access to the VHF radio for weather reports and to know about Marine boat traffic to avoid collisions. Rupert pulled in to Messina, Italy. He was able to fix the problem easily by changing the wiring directly to the auto helm. A permanent repair would be done when the boat arrived in Toronto. He felt that this was safe, and practical. A week or so later, Rupert arrived in Gibraltar. The weather had taken a turn for the worse and he had to spend several days in Gibraltar waiting for a weather window to sailed to the Azores. The boat had behaved beautifully during this first crossing of over a thousand nautical miles. Rupert explained to me that there was no doubt the boat was up to traversing the North Atlantic at this time a year. On Sunday, October 28, Rupert planned to set off for the Azores. His plan was to head south of the rhumb line and then head north when the weather allowed. Unfortunately, hurricane Oscar was pummeling the United Kingdom and was disturbing the weather systems making it impossible to leave the Azores until Wednesday, November 2. I was able to follow Rupert on the AIS signal on my smart phone and he arrived in the Azores on November 10, 2018. This plan was to refuel, resupply some food, and then depart as soon as possible. However, the weather took a turn for the worse and he had to stay in the Azores until November 17, 2018. At one point, he did leave but had to return because a fishing rope was wrapped around the propeller.

On Monday, November 19, Rupert set off for Nova Scotia. His plan was to go south and dodge any weather systems that were rolling through the North Atlantic this time of year. As it was November, the hurricane season had passed but there would be winter storms.

Rupert’s AIS position as he is leaving the Azores going 7.2 kn I was able to follow Rupert’s progress and noted that he was heading south to avoid weather.

One of those triangles belong to Rupert as he heads southwest off the coast of Africa, November 19. There were low-pressure systems rolling through every few days but Rupert was able to avoid them by going north or south depending on which direction the weather systems were moving. On December 13, the plan was to hit the Northwest corner of a system as it was circulating to the south. The plan was made on weather predictions that were downloaded from the satellite phone. The weather predictions were four hours old and felt to be very accurate. However, despite taking all the precautions and calculations, Rupert found himself at the wrong end of the hurricane…..

The purple and brown colours represent hurricane force winds. You can tell from the AIS positioning that he was facing the southeast running with the wind with the boat laying a hull. The tiller was lashed to the side so the boat was rolling safely with the waves. This whole time, there was a huge deafening roar from the waves, the wind tearing through the rigging, and the rolling of the boat. Lisa, the cook was in the forward cabin cushioning herself with sleeping bags and terrified. Rupert and the crew were hanging on in the main salon trying to avoid getting battered waiting for the winds to blow through. This lasted about 24 hours and the winds reached the peak of 73 kn. After the wind settled down to a dull roar of 35 kn, Rupert went out to assess the damage. There was a buckling to the floor of the cockpit and it was apparent that the rudder had rotated 180°. The steering cable had snapped. I received a text message from Rupert updating me that there was a problem with the steering. I sent him a text message back asking if he needed assistance….although I had no idea how I could possibly assist him while he was in the middle of the North Atlantic and I lay awake in my cozy bed worried that I might never hear from him again. Lisa sent me a text back saying not to worry that Rupert was working on a solution and she had no doubt was going to come through. Rupert indeed did come through. He was able to cobble the steering back together again using a combination of spanners and wrenches. He took the steering mechanism off and turned it upside down so that it would function. After two hours, the boat was up and running again.

Rupert was heading directly for Halifax 500 miles to the west. The steering system was working very well. It appeared that there was going to be a direct run to the coast of Nova Scotia. Rupert received constant updates of weather from the satellite phone. There was a low-pressure system, and through and it was expected that winds blew come from the northeast but the maximum winds would be 35 kn. This was the last text message that I received from Rupert on December 16.

One day later on December 17, at 5:45 PM after my Department of Surgery meeting I received the first phone call from Pat Sturgeon. I explained that the boat was equipped with an emergency beacon that would go off the case of emergency. My cell phone number was the contact number and I had not been contacted so my first reaction was this could not possibly be my boat that was getting rescued. The second phone call five minutes later from Pat confirmed that I was wrong. This was my boat that was in distress in the North Atlantic but all four sailors that were on board had been successfully rescued from the boat safely. The boat was abandoned. My first reaction was disbelief and then shock. I was at my desk in the hospital when the news hit me. Although I always knew there is risk with sailing, I believed that my boat would make it safely to Toronto. Rupert was 240 miles off Halifax and been at sea for 34 days. He would have been safely in the harbour two days later. I wept. Six months of dreaming had ended with the boat being abandoned in the unforgiving north Atlantic. I rationalized the disaster with the comfort that nobody was injured and no one died. This reality has provided huge comfort and has allowed me to put things in perspective. It has allowed me to feel empathy for the mental anguish that Rupert has been going through having to abandon the boat he was meant to deliver safely. It has allowed me to understand the terror that the crew and Lisa the cook went through. It has once again reminded me of the tenuous attachment we all have to everyday living that I take for granted.

The Makena abandoned in 55 kn of wind with a Navy boat standing by. Rupert first contacted me five hours after the ordeal. He was devastated. He explained he has never lost a boat. He told me he felt so ashamed. He said that he got to the point where he was worried about the safety of the crew and that is when he made the decision to abandon the boat. Rupert knew there was a weather system approaching from the northeast. He was getting constant updates from the satellite phone. The maximum winds were going to be 35 kn which he felt he could handle safely. The boat was sailing well and there was no problem with the steering. When the winds hit 55 kn, the boat was hit with a huge wave. The auto helm shattered. There is a solid metal bar about three quarters of an inch thick and 4 inches long that snapped like a twig. The emergency tiller could not be used because the waves and the winds were so strong, it would have killed anybody who was handling it. There was no way to control the boat against the tempest and that huge waves. The weather was predicted to worsen over the course of the night. The system was predicted to bring stronger winds and bigger waves over the next 24 hours. There were two Canadian Navy boats that were nearby and were returning from naval exercises in Europe. Rupert had been in contact with them. At 2 PM, Rupert explained that he was in trouble and had no steering. He realized that there was no fix to the shattered steering system, but if he could drift safely and get close enough to Nova Scotia, he could get towed to safety. The Navy vessels said they were coming to assist and it took 1 ½ hours to cover the 8 nautical miles because of the rough weather. At 3 PM, as the winds were getting stronger and the waves getting larger, Rupert came to the realization that the crew were in danger and the only safe and rational option was to abandon ship. The Navy ship could not launch their lifeboat because the waves and the wind were ferocious. Rupert was instructed to deploy the emergency life raft, get everyone safely inside, and then the navy ship could get them easily on the ship. When the life raft was deployed, it flipped upside down and could not be righted. The securely lashed line from the life raft to the transom tore the transom from the stern of the boat as the force of the waves and wind strengthened. Rupert and the crew were left stranded on the disabled sailing vessel as the life raft flipped over and over racing off with the storm and their hopes of rescue going with it. It was then that the Navy ships helped coordinate the rescue helicopter. The search and rescue team are trained to do rescues in terrible weather conditions. However, this was described as one of the most difficult rescues they have ever performed. The first step was to make sure that the crew were in emersion suits in case they went into the water. Often, it is safer to rescue sailors in the water to avoid getting the ropes and safety equipment wrapped up in the rigging of the sailboat. However, it was getting dark and the team realized that if they lost someone in the rough seas, they would never find them in the dark. The first step was to get emersion suits onto the sailboat. To do this, the Navy vessels planned to throw a rope to the sailboat and the emersion suits would be passed on to the deck. To do this, the Navy vessel had to get very close to the Makena. The Navy vessel got close enough to throw the rope and it was a success but as the Makena was in the lee of the huge Navy vessel, it stopped moving while the Navy vessel continued to get pushed by the wind. The Navy vessel drifted forcefully into my sailboat and broke the forestay and the pulpit. This caused anchor to flail around at the front of the boat and it could not be controlled. The mast was held up by the jib halyard and the mast was reverberating back and forth making a terrible racket. Rupert was worried that it would come crashing down killing the crew so they all scampered into the aft cabin for safety. In the meantime, the rescue helicopter had arrived after refuelling at an oil drilling station. A rescuer from the search and rescue team was lowered to the deck of the Makena. Rupert describes a sudden gust pulling the helicopter up and then dropping the rescuer into the cold North Atlantic. The rescuer was still attached and was pulled up and deposited back onto the deck of the Makena. He was not injured and it seemed it was just another day at work. The process of getting off the boat is to put the sling underneath the arms and in seconds, the sailor is pulled into the helicopter. Lisa went first, the two crew next, then Rupert, and the rescuer last. When the rescuer arrived on the helicopter, he was covered in blood. The search and rescue team asked him if he was injured and he patted his chest and his abdomen and said that he did not know what they’re talking about. Fortunately, he had only some minor cuts and abrasions to his face from his altercation with the North Atlantic waves and was otherwise fine. Rupert remembers looking down sadly from 500 feet in the air from helicopter at the Makena. He remembers feeling defeated. He has relived those last few hours on the Makena many times trying to come to grips whether he made the right decision by abandoning the boat. He goes over the damage to the steering to reflect on whether he could have fixed it. He relives the terror that crew and Lisa were feeling and cannot come up with any other solution. After spending the next few days in Halifax making travel arrangements, Rupert flew to Toronto and then on to Gatwick Airport in London. I met with him for dinner in Toronto. He felt that the Makena had likely sunk, but even if it gets recovered it would be a write-off because of all the damage. He recounted the rescue story, but we also reflected on the Hanse sailboat design and whether it was a good boat. He says that if it were not for the steering failure, the boat was a great boat. He described having a hot shower every night and having the freezer full of food and never worrying that it would fail. He says the boat sailed fast in light winds and when the hurricane hit, he felt safe lying a hull in the waves while the hurricane blew over. He told me that he felt that he had let me down terribly by abandoning the boat. I explained that I felt he made the right decision and that ultimately, everybody was safe. The boat was insured for exactly this kind of disaster, and my plan was to purchase a new boat the same as the Makena. When it came to deliver the boat to Toronto, I told him that he will be my first phone call.

One year later. An article in McLean’s magazine ……. Here’s a link: https://www.macleans.ca/plucked-from-peril/Edit

Chapter 2.

The new boat

  After losing the first boat in a storm 240 miles off the coast of New Brunswick, I once again approached Pat Sturgeon of Pat Sturgeon Yachts. We went through the options of looking for another used boat. There was an almost new Hanse 505 in Abu Dabi that was fully loaded and looked beautiful. Ileana and I talked of flying there to have a look but before we had booked our flight, the boat got sold. There was another Hanse 505 just outside of Boston in Providence that looked promising. I flew to Boston on a cold Saturday in January 2019 and had a look at the boat. It was definitely well used with over 8000 engine hours, and needed a lot of work. If I decided to buy it, I figured out I could get a brand new one for almost the same price, (but I would have to add all of the extra equipment… another $100,000) Pat and I went over the process of buying a brand new boat. The Hanse factory is in Dussledorf Germany. If we put the order in by February 2019, it could be built and then delivered by September. After looking at the video on YouTube, I was was convinced this was for me.

This time the boat was shipped on a contained ship and arrived in Hamilton in September 2019. Pat Sturgeon organized the process through customs an the boat was put on a transport truck and sent to Port Credit in 3 pieces, the keel, the mast, and the hull. This keel was attached to the boat, the rigging was done by Robert Rayfield. The boat was launched and ready to go on its maiden voyage. The plan was to take the boat from Port Credit Marina to Port Credit yacht club. It was about a 4 mile voyage. Imet Pat Sturgeon on September 7, 2019 with Will Shubat, who often races with me and mans the foredeck. Pat showed me some of the great features of this magnificent boat. There were electronic winches. There was a bow thruster to help with docking. The boat was equipped with all the modern navigation, radar, and other sensors on a touchscreen monitor in front of the two carbon fibre wheels. It was pure sailing engineering genius. The fuel tanks indicated about 6% fuel which was more than enough to get us to Port Credit yacht club where we could refuel. It was a brand-new boat, so nothing could possibly go wrong…… The lines were untied, the engine started, and we motored out onto Lake Ontario. The wind was strong at 22 kn. Pat explained that the Hanse 508 loved a heavy wind, and these conditions were ideal. The mainsail weighs about 200 pounds and so electronic winches were the way to go. Pat explained that the electronic winches would get the mainsail up in 15 seconds or less. The autohelm was deployed, and the mainsail was raised. Halfway up however, the electronic winch stopped working, the monitors all went black, and the auto helm disengaged. The boat started oscillating madly. Pat Sturgeon leapt into action and started the engine. The jamcleat for the mainsail halyard was released and the sail folded nicely into the sail cover on the boom. Pat disappeared into the cabin and tore up the floorboards to see why the electronic had failed. All the electronic wires were in the correct position. It was not clear what the problem was. The mainsail was hoisted again and as Pat predicted, it took less than 15 seconds using the electric winch. The jib was unfurled and the sails caught the wind and pulled us 9 kn in the 22 kn wind. It was as if the boat was saying she was made for this as she gracefully healed over and effortlessly and smoothly sliced through the waters. It was one of those moments in life where everything made sense and seemed worthwhile. It was one of those moments where it felt great to be alive. I was overcome with bliss and happiness. It is the same feeling that you get when you received that letter saying you have passed your exams, or when your daughter introduces you to your new grandson for the first time, or when as a child you see your first rainbow. The feeling of such happiness is indescribable. It was as I was wallowing in these delightful sensations when the electronic monitors went blank, and the auto helm disengaged. The bow started oscillating like crazy. Pat leaped in the action and press the start button for the engine. Nothing happened. He ran to the main cabin and tore up the floorboards again and once again, the wires seemed all intact. Pat, Will, and I had a quick conference on the deck. This was serious but not fatal. We formulated a plan to sail into the gas dock at Port credit yacht club. We would use only the jib. I had full confidence in Pat, as he was an excellent sailor. My only hesitation was that I have tried this on one occasion many years earlier when the engine did not work. Things did not work out well. This was back in my younger days. We were sailing off the Scarborough Bluffs when the engine died. One of my not so savoury friends had spent the day plying me with tequila which pretty much eliminated any possibility of critical thinking. We ended up on the rocks……but that is another story. As we approach the entrance of the Port credit yacht club, we release the mainsail. Pat suggested that to be safe we should have the anchor ready to be deployed. I was the man for the job. I went to the bow and released the pin holding the anchor in place and to my horror, the anchor dropped into the water with 10 feet of chain. We were screaming along at 6 kn and if the anchor caught hold of the bottom, it would cause serious damage to the boat. The wind was howling and so neither Pat nor Will could hear my cries for help so I was on my own. Using Herculean strength, I was able to pull the 75 pound anchor along with the heavy chain back onto the deck and avert disaster. As I walked back to the cockpit, I could tell that both Pat and Will were in deep conversation planning how we were going to pull this off without tearing out the gas dock from its mooring. Now was not the time to regale them with tales of heroism about how I averted disaster by getting the anchor back on board. The plan was to sail in with just the jib. We would approach the dock downwind and just before contact, luff the jib and allow the momentum of the 34,000 pound sailboat to float against the side of the dock before the wind pushed us away. We had called the gas jockey on the VHF to give us a hand and he agreed. As we approached the dock, we could see the gas jockey in his little cabin watching something on TV to avoid the unpleasant weather. The docking, as good fortune would have it, went just as planned. As we approached, Will leapt off and tied up the bow, I leapt off the stern and tied the stern lines. We filled the tanks with diesel. We had realized what had happened was that when the boat was healed over, the engine sucked air into the gas line as the tanks were nearly empty. We were able to bleed this air out of the gas line and pump the fuel into the engine. The engine started. We later determine that the ground terminal of the battery was loose and this is what led to the electrical problem. Once this was tightened, there have not been any further problems. When we got to the dock and tied up, Pat and Will had a well-deserved beer. We sat at the table and told sailing stories and we all agreed that it had been a great experience. To this day, I will always remember that feeling of indescribable happiness that occurred the first time that the sails filled with wind and I felt as one with the elements.

Edit My fair weather sailor has turned into a master sailing story teller. So far the plans to head south are still proceeding….

Chapter 3

The Fair Weather Sailor

The image of sailing in a warm breeze with the sun gently bathing bikini clad beauties lounging on the foredeck listening to sailing songs and sipping on margaritas while reading romance novels may have occurred on someone’s sailboat, but I must confess rarely seems to happen on mine….. However, I keep bringing up these images when I am trying to convince my wife to sail across the lake for a weekend sailing getaway.

The forecast for the August long weekend 2020 look perfect. Sunshine all weekend, gentle breeze of 8 knots coming from the West, perfect conditions to sail right across the lake to Port Dalhousie. It was the summer of the pandemic but the number of cases had dropped dramatically and things were back almost to normal. Sarah, our daughter and her boyfriend Ryan agreed house sit to look after the dogs and cats. We would leave the house on Friday night, spend the night on the boat at Port credit Yacht Club, and then sail across the lake in the morning, arriving in the early afternoon. The plan went as expected and we left the house on Friday night and spent the night on the sailboat at the Port credit yacht club. We then sailed across the lake to Port Dalhousie on Saturday morning and arrived in the early afternoon. The plan was to have a nice dinner at the boat on Saturday. We had booked a tour in the wine district for Sunday afternoon and we would plan to have a romantic dinner in Niagara-on-the-Lake on Sunday night. We would then have a pleasant sail back to Port credit yacht club on the Monday. There was very light winds on Saturday and we motored most of the way across the lake. It was a beautiful day, warm and sunny, just as I had imagined this would be. It was perfect. When we arrived at Fort Dalhousie, we tied up the boat. I went for a run through the lovely town getting back just in time to prepare dinner. We had salmon cooked in white wine sauce, roasted asparagus, and Basmatti Rice. It was perfect.  It felt so great to be alive. The salmon cooked to perfection

The next morning it was raining. I turned on the VHF radio and learned that there was a small craft warning on western lake Ontario and the weather was going to get worse. Ileana and I had some discussion over coffee and decided that we better head back home before we got stuck on the wrong side of the lake when the storm hit with all it’s fury the following day. I was kicking myself thinking how could the weather forecast be so wrong. So much for the image of sunbathing on the foredeck. So much for the wine tour and romantic dinner in Niagara on the Lake. Even worse, will my fairweather sailor be forever traumatized dashing my plans to take the sailboat down south?

We headed out into the windy dark lake.

The wind was blowing 25 knots with gusts over 30 knots. It was pouring with rain and we got soaked. We got out the foulweather gear, but for some reason Ileana had difficulty getting into her gear beause she was sopping wet and kept on falling over in the rough weather. We flying along at 8.5 knots. The boat was overpowered in the gusty winds but I was able to reef the main sail from the cockpit. We had the small jib flying and we crossed the lake in about 3 hours. When we arrived at Port Credit Yacht Club, the staff were able to help us dock the beast with minimal damage to the dock. We called Sarah and Ryan and invited them to come to the boat for dinner and drinks

My fair weather sailor has turned into a master sailing story teller. So far the plans to head south are still proceeding….

Chapter 4

Heading South

A sailor’s dream is to sail south to Paradise. Images of swinging in a hammock in a gentle breeze while watching the sunset from the front of the sailboat gently bobbing at anchor in a secluded harbour surrounded by palm trees is what appears near the surface of my mind. This is how any journey starts, with imagery of contentment, happiness, and fulfilment. Getting there, of course is the story. Getting a 51 foot sailboat there from Toronto during the tail end of hurricane season having never done it before is where the story starts.

Going south

There are several ways of getting south from Toronto. In good times, one option would be to sail across the lake to Oswega, New York. The plan is to go down the Erie Canal to the Hudson River and then sail to New York City. From New York City, you could sail to Bermuda and then from Bermuda go south to the Caribbean. From New York, there is also the intercoastal waterway where you can motor all the way down to Florida. If the option to sail across the lake to Oswega is taken, the mast would need to come off and put on top of the sailboat. There are 13 locks that need to be navigated and it takes about six days to get to New York City. The mast would need be rigged once on the Hudson River. There may be a couple of logistical problems such as constructing a stand for the mast on the boat given the mast weighs about a thousand pounds. It is also 72 feet from the water line and to get down the intercoastal waterway, the maximum height must be less than 64 feet so as to clear the bridges. There is also the concern that the mast hangs over the boat and could easily be damaged in the turbulence of the lock system. Because of the Covid-19 pandemic the Canadian/US border is closed and entry by private boat is not permitted so this really is not an option in 2021.

Options

However, this did not stop me from suggesting this option to my group of general surgeons when I took them sailing on a warm August evening. The wind was 10 knots out of the southwest, it was a spectacular night. The 11 of us were hanging out on the deck, telling stories, drinking beer and thinking about how great life is. I told them it could be like this every day for the rest of our lives. We could sail across to Oswega, through the Erie Canal, head into the Atlantic ocean at New York City and then down to Paradise. It could be sunny and warm for the rest of our lives. We can leave all the stresses that come with being a surgeon behind us forever.

I think that a few of my less sensible colleagues were actually considering this as a viable option but then, the wind died. We were also getting hungry. So sadly we pushed the sultry images into the back of our minds and took the sails down, turned on the engine, and headed back to Port Credit Yacht Club for dinner. Another option is to have the boat put on a truck and delivered to the East Coast. To do this, the mast needs to come off, the pulpit from the front of the boat and stanchions need to be removed as does the Bimini and dodger. The entire height of the boat must be less than 13’4” to clear the bridges that lay over top of the highway. The next step is to find a marina on the East Coast that will accept the boat, rig the mast, and reassemble the pulpit, stanchions, Bimini, and dodger.

Hurricane season

Determining when is the best time of year to go down south can be challenging. Hurricane season is typically from mid June until mid November. If the boat is taken south in the summer or early fall, the sailor will very likely run into a hurricane. Hurricanes and sailboats have a long history which never ends favourably for the sailor. If a sailor waits until December the winter storms arrive on the East Coast. My previous experience would suggest December may not be the best time to go…… Surfing on the Internet landed me on the Salty Dawg Sailor page. https://www.saltydawgsailing.org/ This is a group of sailors on the East Coast that take their boats south every winter and bring them back in the spring. They have a rally going to the Bahamas which leaves on November 1. They offer advice for weather routing, safety equipment, and of course unlimited partying before leaving and upon arrival in the Bahamas. They didn’t seem particularly fussed that technically November is still in the hurricane season. Having met some of the salty dawgs on Zoom and phone calls, they seem like a good group of sailors. That is not to say that any of them would fit into a “normal” category by any stretch of the imagination, but they are all bound by their love of sailing and the adventure and subsequent stories that follow. I signed up to join the Salty Dawg Sailing Association. After filling in all the information and hitting the enter button, it must’ve taken all of 30 seconds before I received a phone call from one of the salty dawg organizers. It was almost as if he was waiting by his computer and was somewhat shocked that someone would actually want to join this crazy bunch of sailors. I got the sense that he wanted to make sure it wasn’t a mistake or possibly some kind of computer error/ransomware attack gone awry. It turns out he was quite knowledgeable and suggested that I go south with at least two people that have open ocean sailing experience. He also suggested that there be two forms of communication while at sea and suggested I get a satellite phone, and possibly Garmin in reach. There were a few other great recommendations such as getting predictwind installed on the boat.

Finding crew

My original plan was to enlist two of my most trusted friends that I went to school with 50 years ago in South Wales, UK. We had spent a great deal of time kayaking as teenagers in the inhospitable Bristol Channel of South Wales through all kinds of hostile marine conditions. They are both accomplished sailors and it would be great to reconnect after all these years. Unfortunately, Covid 19 prevented Arnaud from leaving Australia, and the United States would not permit entry to Auke for nonessential trips. Sailing, for some is defined as nonessential…

Pat Sturgeon from Pat Sturgeon Yachts continues to be a great source of advice. He recommended 2 sailors, Michael Sandwell and Doug Rourke that have had ocean water experience. One of them, Michael Sandwell was telling me that his first crossing from Halifax to Bermuda was before the days of GPS. The sailing was done by dead reckoning and by using the sextant to plot where you were on the ocean. Bermuda unfortunately is surrounded by reefs and there are no shortages of wrecks where navigation issues have arisen. It is very tricky getting into the safe harbours of Bermuda. You need to know exactly where you are at all times. To put things in perspective, GPS tracking would put you within a few inches of where you actually are located, whereas if you were good with sextant, you might get within 6 miles…. Michael explained to me that they arrived where they felt they were close to Bermuda but it was pitch black in the middle of the night. He couldn’t tell with certainty where they were so they stayed out on the ocean until daylight. Michael and the crew were confident they were close because they could smell the land. From my understanding of navigation, I think it was lucky for them that the wind was blowing in the right direction…… I welcome Michael as a trusted crewmember but nonetheless, being unwilling to rest my fate in his lifesaving olfactory prowess, I got a backup GPS.

Final touches

There were other modifications to the boat that were made such as installing a generator, water maker, iridium go satellite antenna for the satellite phone. I had to find an insurance company that would be willing to cover me given my past history…… Andrew’s trucking is booked for October 12, 2021 to take the boat to Deltaville Virginia. Zimmerman’s Marine has agreed to put the boat back together. Michael, Doug, and myself have booked flights down to Virginia in late October. The plan will be to sail the 40 miles to Hampton Virginia a few days ahead of November 1, 2021. My lovely wife has agreed to meet me at the Abaco beach resort sometime during the first week or two of November. The best is yet to come.

Chapter 5

South to Annapolis

Getting a 34,000 pound 51 foot sailboat transported to the east coast is no easy task. The first question that comes to mind might be why would anybody want to do this? I have spent hours dreaming about the warm blue waters of the Bahamas. Imagine a warm breeze filling the sails with dolphins playfully jumping off the bow wake and thinking to yourself this is the way to live.

Getting ready

My initial plan of sailing across Lake to Oswega, taking the mast off, going through the Erie Canal New York City, and then leisurely taking my time sailing south over the autumn months fell apart. There were three major reasons. First of all, United States was closed to land and water crossings because of COVID 19. Had I turned up there full of wonder and adventure, I would have been turned away. The second reason was that my plans for retirement took a slight shift. I had been a practising surgeon for 36 years. I made the commitment to retire at age 65 which sadly occurred this year. I retired from surgery in August, 2021. Understanding that it would be difficult to stop working as a surgeon after so many years, I made a project out of planning to go sailing. About one year ago I took up a temporary position as Chief of Staff at the Hospital where I work until they could find someone more suitable after the one that was there left suddenly. Unfortunately, I enjoyed working in the chief of staf f role and given that it is not a full-time job, I convinced myself it would be good to stay on. The third reason that I had to alter my plans to head south was that I had no idea what I was doing. I have found that the best way to assure success with anything in life is to surround yourself with people that know what they’re doing. In the spring of 2021, Pat Sturgeon from Pat Sturgeon Yachts sat me down with a big map of the Bahamas and pointed to where I needed to go. He says this spot will ensure happiness, safety, and luxury. That spot was the Grand Bahama Yacht Club in Lucaya. I was able to become WhatsApp friends with Fabian, who is the dock master there. After much negotiation, we hassled about the price for docking over the winter and settled on a price. He explained that it was an extra hundred dollars a month for water. I had just spent $13,000 putting in a water maker into the boat specifically to avoid issues with getting water down south. This water maker produces enough water for showers, cooking, cleaning, washing the boat and any other water related activities you can think of. I have been told that when you go down south, there are many aspects of life that are viewed differently. Fabian explained to me this hundred dollars a month for water would include things like using the swimming pool, washing the dishes in the restaurant, flushing the toilets in the clubhouse and he listed off a few other water related activities that really had nothing to do with me that he felt justified his additional fee of hundred dollars a month. I felt it was just safer to agree…..

Getting good advice

A number of very experience sailing friends gave me advice that the safest way to get down to the Bahamas is with the Salty Dawg Rally. This is a volunteer organization of sailors who go down together to either Antigua or Bahamas every fall. Part of the safety plan is to track you as you make your way south. They also give free advice as to what is needed on a sailboat should problems occur in the middle of the ocean hundreds of miles away from land. I made a list that included satellite phone, Garmin in reach tracker, emergency liferaft, AIS transponder, predictwind subscription, and many other bits of safety equipment. It took several months to get all of this organized because each of those items required registration, a subscription, and then hours spent on YouTube trying to understand how it all works. The departure date is November 1, 2021……. depending on the weather. I also had to upgrade my insurance. It’s a little bit difficult because many insurance companies are refusing to ensure sailboats. What happened during the pandemic was that there were many sailboats left either at anchor or left unattended because of Covid 19. The owners were unable to get to their boats because of border closures and many of these boats ended up on the wrong end of a hurricane. The insurance companies want a hurricane plan should you leave the boat for more than 14 days unattended. This hurricane plan must include a marina that is willing to fetch the boat should a named hurricane come into the neighbourhood, and haul the boat out of the water and secure it safely to land. Trying to explain to them that hurricane season in the Bahamas is over on December 1, did not hold much water…… I found a very pleasant gentleman at Bradford Marine Bahamas who agreed to do this hurricane plan for $1200. The cost of hauling out the boat, transport, and strapping the boat down to land should that named hurricane miraculously appear outside of the hurricane season…… would be extra. The next project was putting in an auxiliary generator. The reason an auxillary generator is a good idea is so there would be 110 V electricity while off of the grid. It can also be used to recharge the batteries, watch Netflix films on TV, use the washer and dryer, and is an extra source of power should the solar panels fail. I ordered this generator about a year before my planned voyage so there would be plenty of time to install it. I also wanted time to understand how it worked and felt secure knowing that I would have all summer to use this so there would not be any surprises on the trip down south. Unfortunately because of supply chain issues related to the pandemic, The generator didn’t actually arrive until May, 2021. This is a busy time for anybody who is involved with the Marine business and so the project started about mid-September. It turned out it was a little bit more difficult than they had initially anticipated and they were madly connecting the last of the wires as the truck appeared in the parking lot to load the boat. I have been repeatedly assured that it is working perfectly and that there is nothing to fear but nonetheless I have crossed my fingers……. I had organized a Marina on the East Coast to accept the boat, put the mast back on the boat, attach the stanchions, Bimini and dodger only to find that the truck did not think it would be able to get into that Marina because of low bridges. This is what led to the change of destination to Annapolis. Annapolis is a huge sailing community but it is about 140 miles away from Hampton, Virginia where the rally was set to depart from. It would be a two day sail to Hampton. The other logistical problem was that the Annapolis boat show was going on and many of the vendors and Marine operators were tied up with that boatshow, making them unavailable to help put my boat back together and launch my boat. Luckily, I was able to find that Bert Jabin Yacht Yard was very keen to help me. The other concern was that the entire height of the truck needed to be below 14 feet so as to clear the bridges. My rough calculation suggested it would be close but likely possible but we did not actually confirm this was the case until the boat was firmly on the truck and accurately measured. It was a huge relief. Plan B would have been to have the boat transported by state police escort at $250 an hour but there would have been a risk of getting stuck underneath a bridge…..

Getting Ileana on the truck

The next step in the plan was to get the boat ready for loading on the truck. The mast was removed, the stanchions removed, and all the rigging, Bimini, and dodger were taking off. The boat was pulled out of the water, and the bottom was washed of all the algae and debris. When the height of the boat was measured, it was still not clear whether it would meet the requirements of being under 14 feet and we would have to wait until the boat was loaded on the truck. Another concern was having the appropriate bottom paint. There are different bottom paints for freshwater and saltwater. If the incorrect bottom paint is applied, within days, there will be barnacles hanging off the boat making it very slow. To get some advice, I spoke to one of the more colorful marine supply store owners that I know. I explained that I have BottomKote and what would he advise. He said that I was going to need to get this sandblasted to get rid of all that useless freshwater bottom paint, and then apply three coats of bottom paint specific for the ocean. He said it would take about two months to do this project…… I explained that I was leaving in less than a week. He explained that I was truly #!*&!!*. Once again, Pat Sturgeon rescued me and in anticipation of taking the boat south in the fall, the paint that was applied in the spring was good for saltwater.

Chapter 6

It’s All About The Weather

It is said that the pessimist complains about the wind, an optimist hopes it’ll change, and a sailor adjusts the sails. It’s actually a little more complicated than that as you might expect for the sailor. It is the weather that is the most important factor when sailing south. Several months ago I subscribed to Chris Parker’s daily forecast on weather in the Bahamas and southern United States. My plan was to have a better understanding of what to expect while sailing my boat Ileana to the Bahamas. I also subscribed to the predict wind app which gives up-to-date predictions on what the weather is likely to do over the next five days. This app actually tells you when the best day to leave the port and arrive at a destination. It tells you how much time you might be motoring and how much time you might be sailing and the strength and direction of the wind. It uses the up-to-date meteorological technology and analyses billions of data to come up with a plan suited just for you. As a forecast might change over those five days of predictions, by using satellite phone technology, it’s possible to get up-to-date weather forecasting as the weather predictions are changing during your journey south. With all this redundancy and expertise, what could possibly go wrong?

On October 28, 2021, I stopped and got a rapid COVID 19 antigen test on the way to work. My flight was leaving at around noon to Baltimore and the test is necessary to gain entrance United States. Additionally, the Bahamas customs and immigration would accept a test that was done five days ahead of arrival to the Bahamas, but would not include the days spent at sea as part of the five days. I expected it would probably take six days to sail to the Bahamas from Annapolis. The Salty Dawg rally was planning on leaving Hampton on November 1, 2021 which would mean the test would be four days old and I would easily fall within the window of five days upon my arrival to the Bahamas. I met Doug Roarke at the airport. He was one of the two other sailors that was coming to the Bahamas with me. Michael Sandwell was planning on meeting us in Hampton, Virginia where the rally would depart. The plan was for Doug and myself to take the boat from Annapolis to Hampton which was a journey of about 120 miles or so. The predicted wind app suggested there would be strong winds out at sea, up to 30 kn but in the Chesapeake Bay, the winds would be 15 kn on a beam reach which would be absolutely perfect for achieving our maximum speed down to Hampton. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect when I arrived at the boatyard. Although I had communicated with the riggers and the boat launchers ahead of time, I half expected the boat to be in bits and pieces with the mast still laying on the tarmac waiting to be installed. We arrived at the boat around 7 PM and to my great relief the boat was completely rigged including the outboard engines for the dinghies strapped to the side of the sternrails of the boat, the Bimini and dodger were all installed, and the boat was ready to head out to sea. After provisioning and getting a great night sleep, we decided to head out at around noon which would bring us into Hampton in daylight according to our predict wind app. There were a few clues that should have alerted us that things were not developing as I had predicted. There was a nice sailor on the adjacent dock offered to help cast us off our dock. He asked us if we knew about the weather? We explained that now we have satellite phone, we have predict wind app, and we have Chris Parker giving us regular weather updates updates. He kind of shrugged his shoulders and smiled and said well good luck then. Another clue that things were not as they seemed was that the dock that he was coming from was completely submerged in water. There appeared to be a wall of water being pushed up into the harbour. The wind indicator from our boat suggested that the winds were only about 15 kn which is what we were expecting, but in retrospect this was because it was quite sheltered in the harbour. As we headed out into the Chesapeake Bay, we passed a small yacht club where the docks were getting bounced around in steep waves and many of the boats were laying on their side on the shore. As we turned south to go down the Chesapeake Bay, we started to battle waves the size of elephants. They were short and steep waves because the Chesapeake Bay is only about 30 feet deep in much of the bay. The winds here were 35 kn with gusts up to 40 kn. At this point, we knew there was no option of turning around to go back into the harbour and decided to battle the strong winds and the merciless waves. Fortunately, the strong winds were coming from the beam but what this meant was that the rain was coming horizontally and pelting any exposed skin with painful bullet sized droplets. We were hanging on for dear life.

Battling the waves The predict wind app was not totally wrong insofar as this nasty weather really only lasted about five hours. When things settle down, we were able to put up the sails although the waves were still very large. The other issue that came up was our auto helm was not functioning. There was a message that said the auto helm computer was not working. Although there was limited cell phone service I was able to contact Pat Sturgeon, who had me run through a series of analytics on the instrument panel which determined that the instruments were not recognizing the auto helm. What this meant was we had to hand steer the boat all night but I suspect the weather was such that we would have had to do this even if the auto helm had been working. The wind shifted south and once again peaked at around 30 kn. What this meant was we were slamming into these massive waves. The bow of the boat would come right out of the water and then would slam into the ocean. The noise of the boat slamming into these huge waves must be what it is like having your head stuck in a drum and a rock concert. Inside the boat it was like being in a blender. This went on all night but by six in the morning, the wind had subsided. By eight in the morning, the wind had died and we were motoring into Hampton at the Bluewater Marina.

Arriving in Hampton on the bright Saturday morning was like arriving in a different world. It was sunny and warm. People were walking around in shorts totally oblivious as to the maelstrom that had occurred the day and night before. We filled up our fuel tanks and then docked the boat. Michael Sandwell was there waiting for us. We had a discussion about the autohelm. It was lucky for us that Michael knew a thing or two about electronics and he took apart the autohelm computer but was unable to pinpoint the problem. We were able to find a marine electronic technician who came to the boat as well and once again took apart the autohelm computer. He too was unable to pinpoint the problem but suspected that we needed a new NAC-3…….. whatever that is. It certainly was not something that we are likely going to be able to find at the local corner store……. We had a discussion whether we should wait until the Monday and see if we could get this particular part shipped in and replaced so that we would have auto helm. It is said that the most dangerous thing on any sailboat is a schedule. It really is all about the weather. In Hampton, we were having regular updates by Chris Parker our weather router who suggested that the best time to head out to the Bahamas would be on Saturday night. If we left at 8 PM, we would be on the outgoing tide and the prediction was that that we would be arriving in the Bahamas on Wednesday or Thursday after five days of sailing. This would put us in front of a system that was coming through on the following Friday that would result in strong winds from the south. If we had decided to delay and leave on Monday or Tuesday, we would have missed our weather window and Chris Parker suspected that it would not be until 7-10 days later when another window would open up. Feeling somewhat beaten up by our own attempt at weather routing the night before, the three of us felt that the best advice would be to leave on Saturday night at 8 PM as suggested by someone who actually knew what they were talking about. This meant that we would probably need to have two of us on deck at all times, one steering and the other one available to help out in case of a problem. The third person would be sleeping inside the boat. We would change shifts every two hours. We found it somewhat difficult to steer at night because the best thing is to use a star as a guide to keep the boat in the straight line. Most nights, there were clouds in the horizon and a few times we ended up going around in circles…… We departed Hamptom at exactly 8 PM on Saturday night and headed out towards the ocean. It was beautiful night. The winds were blowing at about 15 kn from the west which made our southern journey very pleasant. We were going at our maximum boat speed of about 8.5 kn. The plan was to head south along the coast of the eastern United States until Cape Hatteras. At Cape Hatteras the plan was to cross the Gulfstream. Crossing the Gulfstream is probably the trickiest part of the entire journey. If the wind is coming from the north and is strong it will make very sharp and dangerous waves because the Gulf Stream moves north at about 3 kn. There are frequent eddies and whirlpools to negotiate. The best advice is to cross the Gulfstream perpendicular and accept the northern drift from the current as part of the process. The weather prediction told us that the optimal time to cross in this weather window would be at around noon on Sunday. It would probably take most of the rest of the day to cross the Gulfstream because it is about 50 miles across.

It is easy to know when you are in the gulfstream. The temperature goes up 10 degrees and off come the winter clothes. Shorts and T-shirts become the usual attire on deck. The wind is warm, and in this case the seas were gentle. There was a combination on sailing, motor sailing and when the wind shifted to the stern, we took the sails down and motored. The gentle waves and calmness were what every sailor hopes for in a crossing. In short it was paradise. In the evenings we would experience epic sunsets, and in the mornings glorious sunrises to begin yet another beautiful day. The days melted into each other.

Michael at the helm in perfect sailing conditions

We first saw the grand Bahamas Thursday morning, 5 days after we left Hamptom after a wonderfully satisfying journey. We were all looking forward to a swim in the pool at the Grand Bahama Yacht Club, the perhaps a tasty dinner in the restaurant. Little did we know that we were to be placed in strict quarantine for over 24 hours. The customs and immigrationn officials were not impressed that our COVID 19 antigen test expired the 5 day window while we were at sea. They threatened deportation……but thats for another story…….

Chapter 7

Covid-19 and the Bahamas- “You are under strict quarantine!”

After ariving at the Grand Bahamas Yacht club the first thing that I did was raise our quarantine yellow flag. What this meant was that we had to go through the customs and immigration process, purchase a cruising permit for the Bahamas, and make sure that we had a valid health certificate. Before we left the United States by sailboat, we had to have a negative covid-19 antigen test that was done five days before we set sail. The time spent at sea was not included as part of the five days because it had taken us six days to arrive in the Bahamas. However, we were to have filled in the click2clear health visa certificate prior to leaving. None of the three of us sailors had done that…….. We each had our own excuses for not having done so but in retrospect, this did not elicit much sympathy from the Bohemian immigration and customs department. Michael Sandwell, one of my crew indicated that he had been in similar circumstances in the past and suggested the best approach was to play the dumb but gentle Canadian ….. This approach landed us was an immediate quarantine on the boat. We were taken to a slip at the end of the dock and told not to leave under any circumstances.

Our next step as we sat there in the cockpit was to figure out what to do. We congratulated ourselves that we were not in jail but were somewhat worried that we were in the Bahamas illegally. Because we did not have a valid negative COVID-19 test, there was little chance, or so we thought that we would be deported back to Canada or even the United States as nobody else would take us without a recent negative covid-19 test. Later that evening we noticed a contingent of about 15 uniformed officers from a variety of different agencies come marching down the dock towards our boat. There was representation from the police department, immigration, customs, and border services, and someone from the Covid-19 roving task force. We were informed that we were in the country illegally and could not stay until we had a valid health certificate. We were told not to leave the boat under any circumstances otherwise we would be fined heavily. We were given a short lecture on what would be considered our rights but the take away message that we got was they really had no idea what to do with us. It was as though we were the first visitors that had landed in Bahamas since they adopted this new system and did not have a great contingency plan as to how to manage us.

The next day, we got a visit from the Covid-19 roving task Force who did antigen testing which later came back negative. We then tried to fill in all the online forms again but once again were denied entry. The rest of that day was spent with COVID-19 task force calling the Ministry of tourism and explaining our situation. After numerous phone calls and emails, we were finally allowed entry but the whole process took about 36 hours. We felt lucky because we were the only visitors at this point of entry so we had their full attention.

Getting the Bahamas health visa allowed us unrestricted entry into the Bahamas. The border services were then very happy to take my $600 for the cruising permit for the year and we were able to go to the grocery store and get supplies. I was also able to go to the airport and pick up my wife Ileana who arrived the day after we had. To take advantage of the weather window that occurred, we had sailed to the Grand Bahamas earlier than expected. In anticipation of Ileana waiting for several days, I had booked a few days at the Grand Lucayan Hotel so that she would have somewhere to stay while waiting for us to arrive by sailboat. Fabian, the kind and gentle dock master at the Grand Bahama yacht club drove me to the airport and took Ileana and me to the hotel. This hotel in better times would accommodate about 1500 guests, had a casino, seven different restaurants, two separate golf courses, and it was huge employer for the island of Grand Bahama. In these times, there were only 19 guests including us…… To say that the island was undergoing rough times would be a gross understatement and it was unimaginable how tough things are for the islanders. Hurricane Dorian had pretty much flattened the island in 2020 and the western end of the island including the resort was under 8 feet of water as the hurricane passed through. Covid-19 finished off the rest of the damage.

I met the owner of the Grand Bahama yacht club who also owned several other properties in Grand Bahamas. He had originally moved to Grand Bahama was after retiring from his business in Florida in 2006. He so much enjoyed the marine business, he bought the Grand Bahama yacht club, and the Lucayan yacht club. Here is a video link describing the devastation that Covid-19 has wrought on the Bahamas

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=639902170280321

The rest of the visit was amazing. The weather was perfect usually around 27°C every day. There were a few episodes of heavy rain but for the most part, it was a lovely experience. Ileana wanted to go up for sail one evening so we left the dock and headed out.

When it was time to leave, Preben drove us to the airport. On the way, he told us many stories about the grand Bahamas and how much he loved living on the island. I am looking forward to hearing more of his stories when we return. Our plans are to come back in January and spend a few weeks in the Abacos. This would be an overnight passage heading south from Grand Bahamas and then sailing up the east coast of Great Abaco Island to Marsh Harbor. There are great areas to explore and more adventures to come.

Chapter 8

The Red In My Father’s Beard

It was sunrise in early November, 2021. I knew we were close to Grand Bahama Island because of the GPS tracking but actually seen it in the distance as the sun rose after six days at sea was indescribable. I had been at the helm for the last 2 hours while the other two sailors were sleeping. We had departed from Annapolis six days earlier, battled a storm of 40 kn of wind, successfully crossed the Gulfstream near Cape Hatteras, and we were approaching the end of our journey. Out of nowhere, I was overwhelmed with a sense of peace and happiness. There was a gentle breeze blowing from the northeast, and the seas were mild. The breeze was warm and the sun felt gentle on my skin. I was flooded with a sense of accomplishment and joy as I have only experienced while on the water. The quiet lapping of the water against the hull of the boat, the gentle rocking and the solitude added to the peace and contentment that spilled over into my mind. It was one of those moments that is experienced only a few times in one’s life. Total peace of mind, joy and happiness.

Over the past few years I have wondered why is it that I am so drawn to the sea? I was born in Aklavik, Northwest Territories.

At the age of two we moved south to Edmonton where the closest ocean was over a thousand miles away. I have fond memories of my childhood building model sailing boats with my father. My childhood bedroom was adorned with posters of old sailing vessels with captions such as “Adventure rides the waves”. I’ve been obsessed the ocean and sailing for as long as I can remember. The first thing I did when I started my practice in surgery in 1985 was to buy a sailboat even before I bought a house. What is it about the ocean that drives a seemingly sensible and rational person to be so captivated?

In 2002, I was sailing with Gerry Docherty in the double-handed Lake Ontario 300 race. The race goes from Oakville to Niagara and then down the length of the lake to main duck Island and then back to Oakville. The race is about 300 miles and typically takes about three days. Initially, the winds were mild but within a few hours, a storm blew in from the east. This was the same direction as we were heading. There were huge waves and we had two reefs in the mainsail and the smallest jib flying. In spite of this, the winds were knocking us over and we were getting hammered by the huge waves which would throw gallons of water at us in the cockpit while we were trying to hang on to the wheel. We were sopping wet and cold. It was pure misery. The inside of the boat was full of water and our bilge pump was continually pumping water out the side of the boat. It wasn’t safe to go inside for fear of getting injured because it was like being in a blender as the seas were so rough. The weather was like this for three days and three nights. It wasn’t possible to sleep and we had to keep ourselves tied onto the boat so as not to go overboard. After three days of this, I have to admit that I was starting to hallucinate. Near the end of the race, I remember seeing the lights of a freighter ship and thinking it was an island. When I could not find the island on the GPS, the ship blew his horn to warn me not to get any closer. When we finally got back to the Oakville Yacht Squadron, someone was there to greet us and tied us up to the dock. He said “you are the only ones to finish the race. Everybody else quit!” The shocking part about this story is that it never even crossed our minds that quitting was an option. There had been no discussions to the effect like “maybe this wasn’t such a good idea” or “why don’t we turn around and go back?”

I did a little bit of research on Internet. My name Hagen is a Scandinavian name. My father was a Scot from Dunfermline, which is near Edinburgh in Scotland. It turns out that in the 8th-12th century, the Vikings sailed to Scotland and when they landed they would rape and pillage as vikings were prone to do. Some settled in the country and remained.

Vikings had absolutely no fear of the open water and this is why they dominated the seas for so long. It is a genetic quality that the vikings possessed when other more sensible civilizations would avoid the water to prevent certain death. Some people have the genetic quality having no fear of heights. Put me at the top of the ladder and I am certain to have an anxiety attack. Put me on a sailboat in the middle of a storm and I am at peace. I suspect that genetically I am a descendent from the Vikings. This would explain why I am so drawn to the ocean. Thank goodness I’ve lost the rape and pillaging gene (at least after my teenage years………)

My father was drawn to the water as well. He died in an unfortunate accident when he was 52 years old. I was 19 years old. He spent his final summer camping in a tent with my mother on the water’s edge of Lake Wabumun sailing club. https://wabamunsailingclub.com/. Every day he would drive an hour into Edmonton to go to work and drive an hour to get back to the lake at the end of the day. My mother and father would spend the evenings sailing or just hanging out at the water’s edge. My father told me that these were some of the happiest moments of their lives. They spent the entire summer at the sailing club in a tent and sailing, all the while soaking up the pure happiness and contentment that being on the water brings.

My father had jet black hair but when he grew a beard there was red. The Vikings were known for their flaming red hair which added to their prowess. Everyone has heard of Eric the red, one of the more famous Vikings. He was called this because of the red in his hair and beard. I was always drawn to the red in my father’s beard and I think of this as the genetic connection to explain my lack of fear of water and oceans, and the pure happiness that being on the water brings.

My plan was to spend 2 Weeks in January in the Bahamas on my sailing vessel Ileana. It has been resting patiently at the Grand Bahama yacht club waiting for my return. I was to arrive on January 2, 2022 and sail to Nassau where I would pick up my wife and we were planning on sailing to the Exumas. Unfortunately, Omicron has thrown a wrench into my plans. The case numbers are reaching record levels. Currently I am Chief of Staff and I recommended all physicians not to go away and holidays for fear they may not be able to make it back and we will be short of physicians to run the hospital. I felt it was only prudent I cancel my plans……

I have been Chief of Staff for the past 1 1/2 years. Originally, I agreed to do this as a temporary manoeuvre in August 2020 so as to allow the Board of Directors to find someone to take on the permanent role. When the second and third wave of covid hit, this was not the time to start looking for a new chief so I continued in the role. I found that I thoroughly enjoy working as chief of staff. The rest of the doctors at the hospital would look to me to find answers to problems for which there were no easy solutions. I did my best to maintain calmness in the face of a sea of chaos. I enjoyed working with the uncertainty and the challenges of the constantly changing covid fueled environment while maintaining the highest possible quality of medical care in the hospital. The Chief of Staff is a Board of Directors appointment and candidates need to go through a formal process to get selected. This involves three interviews and presentations. After much discussion, amongst themselves, The Board of Directors chose someone else…… To say I was disappointed is a huge understatement. Although they conceded that I have been doing a great job, they were concerned about my age and felt someone younger and more digitally inclined would be better suited to be Chief of Staff in North America’s first fully digital hospital….. As I climbed over the hill of disappointment, when I reached the top, I was able to reflect upon the red in my father’s beard. I reflected upon the day I saw Grand Bahama Island in the sunrise. I reflected upon the peace and contentment I feel on my boat. I realize now that the Board of Directors has handed me the most perfect gift. The new chief takes over on April 1, 2022 and as if by some coincidence, that is exactly the same day my flight takes off to Nassau…..

Chapter9

Getting ready…. B.O.A.T (break out another thousand)

The last wave of the pandemic has been the worst of all of the waves this far. The omicron variant was far easier to catch and spread more quickly throughout. At our hospital, surgery was cancelled for most of the month of January and February and it was not possible to come down to the Bahamas for fear of getting stuck with a positive covid test, and not being able to get back. All of the countries were demanding testing of Covid-19 coming into and out of the country. It was not possible for me to get down to the Bahamas until March. I needed to make sure that everything was working before executing my plan to spend the month of April in the Bahamas and then sail the boat back to Toronto in May.

Perhaps it is only a sailor that will understand that stuff breaks on a sailboat….. even when you’re not using it. I wanted to spend time on the boat make sure everything was working before going further south. I flew into Nassau on March 15, 2022 and then took a commuter flight to Freeport. When I arrived at the sailboat, the batteries were totally dead. There was a terrible storm that occurred in February and it blew the solar panels off the boat and they were flapping in the breeze. Someone had strapped it to the boat so it wouldn’t get blown away completely. As a result, the batteries did not get charged and were completely drained. I was not able to start the engine. Fortunately, I was able to plug the boat into the 50 amp power source and after a period of time the batteries would charge but would not hold the charge. I was thinking that it is a lucky thing I came down ahead of time. I replaced the engine battery. When I sailed the boat from Annapolis, the auto helm was broken. It’s difficult to steer the boat at night without a functioning auto helm and the tendency is to go in circles when it is cloudy as there are no visual clues such as stars to aim for. There were three of us that took turns at the helm but we found we could only manage about two hours at a time before we would start to run into problems. The issue was a broken computer that drove the auto helm, and Ricardo from Bradford Marine in Freeport was able to get a new one and installed it in early January. To make sure the auto helm was fuctioning properly it needed a sea trial in the open ocean. Ricardo was up to the task and agreed to meet me at the boat. However, a mega-yacht pulled up in front of me and partially blocked me in. There were no flags on the boat and as there had been a lot in the media about these kind of boats and the link to Russians, I did not want to take the chance of starting a war by asking the boat to backup or dock somewhere else…..

There might have been enough space for me to get out of my slip and onto the ocean to test my auto helm, but I would need to use my bow thruster. When I lowered the bow thruster, the lights started flashing and I was unable to push the bow thruster back up. I jumped into the water with my fins and mask and inspected the bow thruster. I wanted to make sure that the hinge was not jammed with a piece of rope or fishing line. I have always found it interesting that random thoughts come to your mind at the most inopportune times. One thought that slipped into mind was that very morning, one of the fishermen had caught a 40 pound beautiful tuna right off of the very dock on which I was moored. About 1/4 of the tuna was missing as a shark had taken a chunk of it while the fisherman was pulling it in. Why I would start thinking of this at the very moment when I was more than 50 feet from my swim platform, and totally immersed in the water I have no idea. It is said that sharks have very poor vision and I could not escape from the thought that one of my thighs or my butt might be mistaken for delicious tuna. I must’ve walked on the water with my fins to the swim platform in less than three or four seconds…. Ricardo arrived at around 1 PM for the 9 AM appointment. This is pretty typical in the islands. I felt lucky that he would even arrive…… It is sometimes very difficult finding good help so I gave him a beer and let him get to work. Unfortunately for him, I found a number of other problems. The testing of the auto helm was the least of the issues, and to test it meant leaving the dock. By this time I was very nervous about colliding with the megayacht (that in my mind I was certain was Russian), so I did not want to take a chance leaving the dock without my bow thruster to keep me clear. The Bow thruster is at the very front of the boat at the bottom of the sail locker. Ricardo offered to go down there. It was very hot and stuffy

Ricardo spent most of the day at the bottom of the sail locker trying to figure out the problem. We connected with the support team of the bow thruster and after many hours, we were unable to correct the problem. It was still blinking and we could not get the bow thruster to work. Ultimately, we decided to fix the bowthruster door in the closed position and when I get back to Toronto, I’ll pull the boat out and have it repaired. I never did take the boat for the sea trial but the support team for the autohelm convinced me that it is going to work perfectly and nothing can possibly go wrong……

Ileana and Lauren were arriving later in the week and were planning on staying several days after I left to go back to Toronto. Lauren is Ileana’s God daughter, and she is very close to us. Lauren is finishing a one year maternity leave and needs to go back to teaching so this was her last chance for an escape before the rigours of life set in. I met them at the airport and the next day we went exploring.

Have you ever wondered where the idea of solo sailor came from? I recently finished a book about the first solo nonstop circumnavigation in a sailboat that was done in 1968 by Robin Knox-Johnson. You must remember that in those days, there were no GPS satellites. All navigation was done using a sextant and dead reckoning and, in those days, when there was lousy weather and you could not get a reading, there was no way of knowing where the heck you were. You were at the total mercy of the wind and the waves. Robin talks about the challenge, he talks about the glory of being the first sailor to do such a thing and the pride of Great Britain and so forth. His story is titled “A world of my own”. I have a different theory of where the solo sailor came from. I learned at a very early stage in life that you must never leave a woman stranded anywhere without running water……. especially a sailboat. I headed back to Toronto two days before Ileana and Lauren were leaving so I filled up the water tanks. Things seem to be going well but the day before they were leaving, when I called them to see how they were doing, there was no running water. The bilges were full of water and the water tanks were empty. Clearly there was a leak in our water system. Although they were leaving the next day, they could not wash their hair or have a shower and how is it possible something like this could happen…. Once again, after an urgent call, Ricardo came to the rescue. He identified there was a leak at the hot water tank and was able to fix it. Although this is another example of B.O.A.T, in my view it is money well spent as I’m not yet ready to do a solo sailing circumnavigation of the planet. Do you believe in coincidences? Are some things just meant to be? Perhaps it means nothing? Most sailors believe in folklore and won’t leave on a long voyage on a Friday…. or bring bananas on board…and would never eat an albatross. How is it possible that a boat named Lauren is moored right next to Ileana?

On my way home checking into Air Canada in Nassau, I heard “hey John”. It was Carol Anne Moulton one of the loveliest surgeons at UHN. She had just finished a 10 day charter on a catamaran with her three teenage sons, her sister and brother in law, and Steve Gallinger, one of the most famous hepatobiliary surgeons in the country. Steve is also an accomplished sailor and we often connect on Lake Ontario in the summertime. I was discussing my plans on going to the Exumas in April. They had just come from there and felt that I was unlikely to find a more beautiful place on the earth. The warm waters are crystal clear. The seas are gentle. Many of the islands are deserted. The beaches are spectacular. They said you could throw an anchor and stay there for weeks or months and be perfectly satisfied. They were sad they were on their way home but encouraged me to make my way down there. My job as chief of staff finishes on March 31, 2022 and my flight leaves at 10:00 o’clock in the morning on April 1, 2022. My plan will be to sail to Chubb Cay in the Berry islands on April 2nd and Nassau on April 3rd. Then to the Exumas from there, ending up in Georgetown. Keep in mind, that the most dangerous thing on a sailboat is a schedule so everything will depend on the weather……

Chapter 10

Stuck on a sandbar….

It is starting to get dark and somewhere near Compass Cay in the central Exumas and as we were trying to escape a falling tide, we were about half an hour too late and stuck on a sandbar. I have a Shoal draft keel and when we looked with fins and mask, the keel was wedged into a wall of sand. It would be another hour before the tide would begin to shift and with any luck, we would start to float. The tide is about four feet in the Bahamas and my draft is 6 foot 3 inches. There were a few other boats anchored about half a mile away in deeper water but otherwise, we were on our own. The wind was blowing about 15 knots and one of the concerns I had was once we started floating, we could get blown into another sandbar which was shallower than the one we were stuck on. The week before, Ileana and I left Toronto and flew directly to Nassau. We caught a connecting flight to Freeport, Grand Bahamas and arrived at our sailboat Ileana at around 6:00 PM. I made a quick trip to the local grocery store on my electric bicycle to pick up fresh vegetables and other supplies. Our plan was to leave for Chub Cay on the South end of the Berry islands. It was an 88 mile trip so I wanted to leave very early in the morning. It was absolutely essential that we arrived in daylight hours as the Bahamas is very shallow and it is very easy to run aground. You can tell how deep the water is by the colour of the blue. The deep blue means there is deeper water, but the very light turquoise means you are running into shallow water. Visual view is essential for coming into an unfamailiar port. Unfortunately the wind was blowing directly from the South which was exactly the direction we were planning on going. This created large waves and we had to barrel through these waves using the engine. After about 12 hours of this, we pretty much had enough. We could not eat or drink for fear of seasickness. It was pure misery. Arriving in Chub Cay, the dockmaster directed us to the fuel dock and filled up our fuel tanks and then to our slip. Ileana and I just sat and looked at each other for about an hour trying to determine whether out stomachs were up to going for dinner in the restaurant. Hunger won as our stomachs recovered. We slept well.

Our plan was to leave for Nassau the following day to pick up our friends Shelley and Sam who were arriving from Toronto. The plan was for them to meet us in Atlantis, on Paradise Island as we had a slip booked at the Marina there. We had already prepared them for the eventuality that we would not arrive because when it comes to sailing, it is not always possible to follow a schedule. As I have said before, the most dangerous thing on a sailboat is a schedule. However, we threw caution to the wind and things were looking favorable for a passage to Nassau which would take about five hours from Chub Cay. The following day as we left, the winds were light and we had to motor but the passage was very comfortable. We arrived at the Marina in the early afternoon and Sam and Shelly were there to greet us and help tie up the boat.

The next day we left Paradise Island and headed around the West part of the island. We had to start our navigation from an ominous place called Porgee Rocks. It was a 30 mile passage and again we were going dead into the wind so we had to motor all the way. While sailing in the Bahamas I relied heavily on some charts from Explorer Chartbooks. These were detailed maps of all of the islands in the Bahamas advice how to approach them without ending up running aground. Our first landing in the exumas was a place called Allan’s Cay. This is a deserted place with some iguanas but the island and beach were spectacular. We threw out the anchor and went exploring. Allan’s key is famous for the iguanas but the advice is not to bring them any food for fear of getting bitten. We never actually saw any iguanas but we found a beautiful beach. We spent the afternnoon swimming and snorkelling.

The next stop was Shroud Cay further down the Exuma chain. This is another deserted island but is well known because there are mangrove channels of water that take you to the other side of the island. We pulled up the anchor in Allan’s Cay and headed off to Shroud Cay a short 2 hour sail away. Sam was getting the hang of pulling up the anchor using the windlass without falling off the front of the boat. The windlass is a motorized winch to pull up the anchor. After the anchor is all the way up, Sam would have to crawl to the end of the bow spit to secure the anchor so it would not inadvertently fall in the water. Sometimes it would get difficult because of the waves and it is a lucky thing that Sam has very good sense of balance and strong legs that would wrap around the forestay to keep him on the boat. On Shroud Cay, we were able to find a mooring. Shroud Cay is in a Land and Sea National park. Moorings are permanent floating balls that will hold a boat of my size even when the weather is rough. It is a very secure way to spend a night. We had a great sail there. 12 kts of wind, flat seas. It was paradise.

Using the dingy to go up through the mangroves of Shroud Cay, we saw a lot of turtles and fish. It is quite a special place. There were very few boats there. There was no cellphone coverage, internet or access to news. Maybe we should have stayed longer…..

We set sail for Compass Cay which was about 15 miles further south. We originally were going to try and get a mooring ball in the Exuma park north mooring field at Waderick Wells, but they were all taken. We then made a decision to head out to Compass Cay a little further south. Compass Cay is a unique Island known for tame nurse sharks that you can swim with if you’re crazy. It seems there are a lot of crazy people that come sailing. The place had many people swimming with the sharks. Apparently, very few people get bitten but they do mention that you should enter at your own risk……

I guess you’re wondering at this point how we got stuck on a sandbar as the sun was setting and the tide was going out. We had set the anchor in about 8 feet of water in front of the entrance to Compass Cay Marina planning to spend the night. However, at around 4:30 PM, we started hitting the bottom as the tide was going out. Low tide was around 6:45 PM. Where we had decided to anchor for the night which which was at high tide would leave us high and dry at low tide so we made a decision to leave and head for Staniel Cay before we got permanently stuck. Sam did an underwater survey and confirmed that we would be in trouble if we stayed. As we pulled up the engine on the dingy and got a surprise visitor.

Sam seemed unusually relaxed about the entire encounter. Had I just come out of the water I think I would have freaked out ….. at least a bit. For me it was a second reason for getting out of that anchorage. For Sam he was as concerned if he was walking down Bay street in Toronto. When I asked him if he was worried about getting attacked by a shark (not one of the tame ones) he said no. I guess the old joke about a lawyer and a shark running into each other is true. Something about professional courtesy? We were able to get off that sandbar but only just in time. Had it been another half hour we would have been stuck. We were congratulating ourselves while following the well marked channel out of Compass Cay into deeper water. We were exactly in the middle of the green and red channel markers when we ran aground. And I mean really ran aground. We could not go backwards or forwards. We got lucky though. One of those powerboats with two 175 horsepower engines on the back offered to try and pull us off. No success. One of his passengers, a young boy, jumped off to look under the boat and said that we were really jammed in. However, deeper water was less than six feet away. They were camping on the beach opposite the channel in tents. There was a group of about 12 and they were with some kind of eco tourist adventure. We decided we would have to wait the rising tide to get us off. We had to wait another 45 minutes for low tide and I estimated that we would be floating by around 9:00 PM at night. Unfortunately, it would be pitch black by then. We saw that there was a good place to anchor on the map about half a mile away if we could reach it in the dark. In the meantime, we had an amazing dinner, had a few laughs and waited for the rising tide. I gently put the engine in reverse with the thought that when we were free we would reverse into the channel. Surprisingly, we drifted free at about 9 PM. I shouted out to my fellow sailors that we were free and received hoots and congratulatory hollers from  the group on the beach! We were able to navigate in pitch blackness to the place where we could anchor in deep enough water and after 3 tries we were secured for the night. Whew!!! The next morning, Sam and I got up early and planned to set sail while the ladies were still sleeping. We had the system down pat by then and felt pretty confident that we could pull the anchor up and navigate through the narrow channel. However, when we pulled the anchor up, there was a bit of a current and the anchor went underneath the boat. When the anchor finally came up, it was upside down would not rest on the bow spit properly. The jumping around of the anchor caused it to jump off the track at the front of the bow spit. Between Sam and myself, we were able to man handle that anchor back onto the deck of the boat but it was very heavy. We were in grave danger of running aground again as the wind was pushing us back towards a sand bank. When the chain jumped out of the sprocket that is used to winch up the anchor and the anchor plunged freely into the water we knew that we were truly screwed. The chain was free rolling out at an alarming speed and I was not sure how to stop it without severing all of my fingers. Fortunately….. we ran aground again and the boat stopped moving. The chain stopped running free and in that moment I grabbed a loop of the chain and wrapped it around the sprocket. We were then able to winch the chain using the windlass and for some reason in doing this, it pulled us off the sandbank as if the whole fiasco was a carefully orchestrated and brilliant maritime maneuver…… We headed off to Staniel Cay. Staniel Cay is known for the swimming pigs. No one really knows how the pigs came to the island but it was suspected that someone brought them and planned to raise a pig farm but it was just too difficult as there was no water or enough vegetation to feed them. They were abandoned. Now they are a huge attraction.

We also visited athe amazing grotto where the James Bond movie Thunderball was filmed. Sam went inside…..

For my birthday, Sam and Shelley took us out for dinner at the Staniel Cay Marina.

And of course the amazing sunsets, often the highlight of the day…..

The following day Sam had to fly back to Toronto from Staniel Cay. I took him by Dinghy to within 50 feet of the airport terminal where he caught Flamingo Air to Nassau and then Air Canada to Toronto.

Ileana and I are going to make our way to Georgetown….but there is a cold front coming through with strong north winds, so our schedule may have to be altered………

Chapter 11

End of the line….. Georgetown

Georgetown is generally the end of the line for many cruisers. The reason for this is that the predominant winds are from the east and to get south to the Caribbean, it is necessary to head east before you can head south. Sailors wishing to do this need to wait for a weather window and it is called the “thorny path” because they are battling the winds and the currents the wrong way. To stay away from the hurricanes, you need to be south of 8° north or north of 40° so there is a push to get to Granada, or head back to North America out of the hurricane belt before hurricane season. We are heading north. Hurricane season begins on June 1 and I plan to be back in Toronto at that time.

Easter Sunday Brunch at the Peace and Plenty Restaurant in Georgetown

Bottomless Mimosas on Easter Sunday with Jeff and Valerie.

When it was time to leave Staniel Cay I checked with my weather router Chris Parker. There was a cold front coming through with brisk winds from the north. Therefore I didn’t want to be with caught out on the open ocean in Exuma Sound in dangerous conditions. Chris sent me an email telling me when was the best time to go. He also told me the best headings given that wind was going to shift part way through the day and with his instructions, we were on beam reach for the entire 60 mile trip to Georgetown. He gave instructions to take a heading of 120° until around noon and then alter course for Georgetown at around 140° which would leave me on a beam reach the whole time. The instructions were perfect. It was a perfect sail in the warm wind.

In my sailor’s guide to the Exuma’s it says “You are now approaching the one cut that so many cruisers dread the most. It is the entrance to Georgetown. Conch Cay cut has one of the worst reputations as it is indeed a dangerous cut because of the reefs.” I entered all of the appropriate waypoints that would have me slaloming through the reefs and miraculously, we missed them all…… My plan was to pick up a mooring ball Stocking Island.

Picking up a mooring ball in 20 kn of wind in a 51 foot sailboat is challenging at best. The plan was to have Ileana grab the mooring ball with a boat hook and I would run up to the bow of the boat and tie this to our mooring lines. However, after three tries, we were not successful. This is when we first met Jeff. He pulled up in his dinghy and offered to help us. He hooked the mooring line around the mooring ball and give it back to us and we were tied up. He then had some good news and some bad news. He gave us the bad news first. These mooring balls were the property of St. Francis resorts. Jeff had been moored about two weeks when in the middle of the night, the attachment of the mooring ball to the anchoring broke free and he found he was drifting aimlessly in the harbour. He smashed into another boat but fortunately the other boat had fenders on their side for such an eventuality and no damage was done to either boat. This was the fifth time this has happened this season for St. Francis moorings and some of the boats that broke free were damaged significantly. But the good news was the harbour master sent divers down to make sure the rest of the Moorings were secure….but Jeff had no confidence…… Shortly afterwards, another dinghy came up to us. He told us he had been anchored out in Elizabeth Harbor for a few months and had seen these five boats break free of these moorings. He suggested we move. With the help of Jeff, we moved to a more secure spot with a different company managing the moorings. In this spot, we were able to tolerate a 43 knot gust without any damage or breaking free of the mooring. We definitely felt more secure.

To explain how we ended up at the Peace and Plenty Restaurant drinking bottomless mimosa while the rest of island was in church for Easter Sunday you have to need to have some background information. Ileana is from Guatemala. Her great, great grandfather was the president of Guatemala. From the website https://www.encyclopedia.com/ “Barrios quickly forged a strong dictatorship, eliminating the Conservative opposition and greatly strengthening the power of the state. He represented the coming to power in Guatemala of the liberal-positivist philosophy that would remain dominant until at least 1944. Barrios promoted strongly anticlerical legislation, suppressed the tithe, abolished the regular orders, expropriated church property, and greatly reduced the number of priests in the country; he also established religious liberty, civil marriage and divorce, and state collection of vital statistics. He launched a public education system at all levels and took the University of San Carlos out of the control of the church, making it the state university and establishing other secondary and normal schools. His educational reforms, however, benefited primarily the upper and middle classes of Guatemala City and Quetzaltenango. Most rural Guatemalans continued to have little access to education and often now lost their village priests, who formerly had provided some education to parishioners. Barrios’s restructuring of the university emphasized professional and technical education at the expense of the humanities and liberal arts, another reflection of positivist thinking.”

Up until Ileana’s great great grandfather took control of Guatemala, the Roman Catholic Church was firmly embedded in the running of the country. They were involved in the school, the laws, and the government. Justo Rufino Barrios separated the church from the state and this greatly upset the pope, Leo XIII. In fact, the Pope was so pissed off, he excommunicated Justo from the Roman Catholic Church. When this did not have the desired effect, Pope Leo XIII went a step further and excommunicated the next seven generations of Justo’s offspring. Ileana is the fourth generation and so she is still under the excommunication order. We are not quite sure exactly what this means or what the deleterious effect might be should we walk into a Roman Catholic Church. We have however, been to Notre Dame in Paris and were not struck by lightning or any such drama but nonetheless, we do not wish to tempt fate. Therefore, having bottomless mimosa with our new found sailor friends Jeff and Valerie seemed like a safer option on Easter Sunday. It was a wonderful way to spend the afternoon.

Later that afternoon, Ileana and I caught a flight to Nassau. The flight back to Toronto for Ileana was leaving the next day and I wouldn’t be seen her for at least two or three weeks until I arrived in New York with the sailboat, so I wanted to spend as much time with her as possible. When she flew back to Toronto, I flew back to Georgetown. Jeff was kind enough to keep an eye on my boat and recharge the batteries with my generator while I was gone.

Tropic of Cancer Beachwhere Pirates of the Caribbean was filmed

The sunsets are always the highlight of the day!

The sailors that are helping me bring my boat back to Toronto, Marlo, Doug, and Auke are arriving later this week and we will wait for our weather window before heading north hopefully around April 28th.

Chapter12

A day in the life of a sailor ……. waiting for a weather window

The wind is blowing 20-25 kn and I am tied up to a mooring ball off of Stocking Island, opposite Chat ‘n’ Chill beach. It is supposed to be like this all week with the wind settling down perhaps by next Wednesday or Thursday according to my PredictWind app. I’ve been here almost 3 weeks and the plan is to take my sailboat S/V Ileana back to Toronto before hurricane season which begins on June 1, 2022. The locals say it has been an unusually windy season in the Bahamas this year. Usually by April, the winds have settled. It would take a week to get to New York City under favourable conditions and then another week or so to get up the Hudson River, through the Erie Canal, and then across Lake Ontario back to Toronto. The Erie Canal is not going to open up until May 20, 2022 so there is plenty of time to wait for ideal conditions to sail to New York City.

Typically I will wake up around 0600 in the morning…. It is very hard to break old habits but this is one of the nicest times of the day watching the sun come up over Stocking Island. I sit in the cockpit of my sailboat and have coffee. Ileana, (my wife not the boat) flew back to Toronto about a week ago so I’ve been spending time by myself. Usually I will recharge the batteries by starting the generator and let it run for for a couple hours. At 8 AM, there is a cruisers net on VHF channel 72. Here there is an update about the weather and any activities that are happening in and around Georgetown for cruisers. It turns out that there is a regatta this weekend. Since 1954, this annual event of traditional Bahamian sloop sailing takes place in George Town’s Elizabeth Harbour during the last full week of April each year. It is the oldest and largest wooden boat racing in The Bahamas and attracts the best sailors from all of the islands to compete to be the best in their class. The boats are made of wood and must be built by a Bahamian. They must follow strict rules such as no instruments onboard no tell tails on the sails and each boat must be inspected by the race committee and to make sure they are compliant.

To me, the boats seem a little bit flimsy. In fact while I was watching in the Georgetown harbor I saw one of these vessels leave and perhaps the wind was a little bit too strong and the boat flipped over. It sank…… but fortunately was rescued by a power boat and pulled ashore. I guess that’s all part of the excitement. People come from all across Bahamas to race in this regatta and I suspect that many of the boats never actually leave the harbor and remain strewn across the bottom of Elizabeth harbor. Another helpful reminder for me to wait for a good weather window before leaving Georgetown to head north…….

After getting updated with all the local news on the cruisers net, and a second cup of coffee, I then hop into my dinghy and motor to Georgetown which is about one mile away across the Elizabeth harbor. A dinghy is an integral part of their cruising life. It is like having a car at your home that takes you wherever you need to go but on the water. To go to the beach, take away the garbage or go to Georgetown where the grocery store is found, where I replenish my diesel supply for my engine, and pick up any parts that I might need to do various repairs of the boat. To get into Georgetown by dinghy, you need to enter through a small passage This takes you to the dinghy dock where you can tie up the dinghy and head to the grocery store or local bar depending on the time of day.

I then go on a 10 kilometre run. Although it is fairly hot, usually around 27 degrees Celsius there is a brisk wind which keeps me cool. I tend to run quite slowly so it is a very pleasant experience. I’ve almost been rundown a few times because I keep forgetting that they drive on the wrong side of the road here.  I suspect the drivers don’t pay much attention because they seem to listen to loud music and runners are pretty infrequent but so far I have been managing without getting picked off.

After getting my supplies of groceries, I then hop on my dinghy and head back to the boat. By this time it is often lunchtime. I then find it impossible not to have a nap. Usually this is in the cockpit under the Dodger and Bimini protecting me from the wind and the sun. The gentle motion of the boat puts me to sleep within a few minutes. After 45 minutes, I wake up refreshed and head out on the dinghy again to the local beach and tie up to a tree to prevent it from getting swept away on a rising tide. I then walk across Stocking island to the Atlantic side. It is here that the beach is totally deserted and goes on for miles. I spend at least 2 hours a day walking on the beach with my feet in the water. I have been doing this every day for the past two weeks and it never gets old. Because the winds have been so strong, the waves are huge and I can watch them for hours.The Atlantic side …… while waiting for a weather window

I then hike back to the dinghy and go to the sailboat. The highlight of the day though is watching the sun go down. Every night it is different. Sometimes there are some clouds and sometimes the whole sky lights up. It is always a surprise as to what it is going to look like.

It’s easy to get used to this lifestyle. I expect tomorrow, the next day, and the day after will be the same…….

Chapter 13

A Fishing tale….

It was definitely the highlight of the day for me when I realized that there was a fish on the end of the hook. I could see him jumping 300 feet behind the boat, gracefully arching in the air and tugging on the 300 lb. test line. New at catching fish meant that I had to research this beforehand so that I would be ready for this momentous event. I imagined myself free of the chains of domestic urban grocery shopping and living on the delicacies of the sea. At this point I had been on my 51 foot sailboat Ileana in the Bahamas for about a month and was settling in nicely to the relaxed lifestyle, the glorious sunsets and the endless deserted beaches. All that was missing for me was the freedom I imagined that comes with successfully negotiating with nature and living off the plentiful sea in perfect harmony with mighty sea.

While researhing this back in October, one of the Salty Dawg Sailors gave me advice on how to fish while sailing. When he said that you need 300 lb. test line I have to admit I was a little shocked. I could not imagine what a 300 lb. fish would look like and whether it would be worth risk damaging the sailboat landing something that big while at sea perhaps hundreds of miles away from the closest emergency room. The massive size of the hooks and lures looked ridiculous to me….. I’d be happy with a 2 lb. Mahi Mahi, or a delicious grouper. The Salty Dawg Sailors had given me great advice up until then, so I was reluctant to question their wisdom so I went to Pro Bass in Vaugan Mills to get the necessary fishing supplies. When I mentioned to the fishing expert in sales what I needed….300 lb. test line…. he said “you’re joking!” When I started down the convoluted path of my proposed sailing trip to the Bahamas, the advice of the Salty Dawgs, the size of hooks I needed, he burst into laughter and started calling over to his friends. They all started laughing and making jokes about my fishing aspirations slapping each other on the back. I slipped out of the side door hoping that no one would recognized me…..

I emailed my fishing contact from Salty Dawgs and he confirmed that yes indeed I needed 300 lb. test line and all of the lures and hooks even though they might look huge. He reassured me that the size of fish would be between 2-40 lbs and that I should trail the line behind the sailboat tied to the cleat at the stern of the boat. He gave me the contacts in the USA where I could buy the supplies and they would send them to me. The supplies arrived on November 3, 2021. The online fishing supply store thanked me for their business. There were no snide comments or disparaging remarks, just the usual friendly banter that fishermen talk among themselves such as wishes for good luck. I felt like one of the group! Unfortunately the supplies arrive 3 days after I left to sail from Annapolis to the Grand Bahamas last fall, so I did not get the opportunity to try my luck on the open ocean until a yesterday.

 

Having done some research ahead of this momentous event, we were prepared. If alcohol is administered directly into the gills of the fish, the fish becomes immobilized. Auke was up to the task of administering 40% rum directly into the gills of the beast. It was not as easy as you might think because the fish was flopping around and had huge teeth. After using up 1/2 a bottle of the Bacardi and the fish was still madly flailing in the cockpit Auke took the immobilization tactic to a new level that had not been described on the internet. He used the bottle to beat the head of the fish until he stopped moving. This was quite effective if you ever find yourselves in the same position…..

Not sure what exactly we caught and out of internet range for a google seach, we thought that we should check it out before we fried it. We put it in the freezer. We were on our way to Staniel Cay from Georgetown and when we were in internet range it turns out that we caught a baracuda! Marlo did a google search on how to cook Barracuda. He came across this article….

Bahamas Wellness Health Systems president says the time to fear barracuda is when it is on your plate

NASSAU, BAHAMAS — A leading doctor is urging folks in Nassau and the Family Islands to stop eating barracuda, warning that a moment’s sweet taste can turn into a year-long sour battle to recover.

Dr Arlington Lightbourne, president of Bahamas Wellness Health Systems, with three clinics on Eleuthera and one on New Providence, said: “Every summer, we see an increase in large fish consumption with more people going boating and fishing.

“This year, the boating scene has been particularly active with people looking for things to do when many places are off limits and events canceled due to COVID restrictions.”

According to Lightbourne, barracuda is the most common source in this region of a neurotoxin called ciguatera, though any large fish, including grouper, can contain it. It is caused by eating fish contaminated with ciguatoxins which are produced by dinoflagellates – small marine organisms living on or near coral reefs – belonging to the species Gambierdiscus toxicus.

According to Lightbourne, barracuda is the most common source in this region of a neurotoxin called ciguatera, though any large fish, including grouper, can contain it.

“At best, the symptoms can involve extreme discomfort, a day or two of gastrointestinal pain with vomiting, diarrhea, a low heart rate, low blood pressure, but if the symptoms are not treated right away, they can lead to far worse, long-lasting conditions,” he said.

“We’ve had patients who had to be hospitalized and end up in ICU (Intensive Care Unit) because their blood pressure is so low it becomes life-threatening. You can suffer from neurological impact, experiencing dizziness, numbness, loss of feeling in the fingertips, itchiness in feet.

“It can literally change your life and these symptoms can last up to six months or even a year.”

I think that we all agreed that we would use the perfect filet that we had so skillfully harvested from the ocean as bait for our next attempt at living in harmony with nature……

Marlo, Auke and Doug all arrived this week to help me sail the boat back to Toronto. Although we considered trying to live on only what we caught in the ocean we recognized early on that this might be a risky way feed ourselves on our way back to New York and then to Toronto. We made plans to feed ouselves for 2 weeks, made a menu and the went shopping to Georgetown. The plan was to head up the Exuma chain to Staniel Cay (they had all heard stories about the swimming pigs but wanted to experience this Bahamian cultural event themselves….)

We had a bit of time on our hands so we trekked across Stocking Island and up to Monument peak.

At some point after snorkelling with Marlo I realized that my cellphone was gone. I had no idea to where it had disappeared. I had been using it as my conduit for the satelite phone, checking the emails from the hospital, checking the weather. Doug was kind enough to let me use his phone so I could call Ileana and let her know that it was probably at the bottom of Elizabeth Harbor so she would understand if she was having difficulty getting a hold of me. Her response was understandable. “You moron! The longer you spend in the Bahamas, the dumber you get. By the time I meet up with you in New York you will have the intellect of a chimpanzee!” When I told Doug, Marlo and Auke her response upon learning that I had lost my cellphone we were rolling around the cockpit laughing and laughing perhaps not because it was so funny but because it is true! I was not particularly fussed that I had lost a $1500 phone and that my connection to the real world was severed. There is little to worry about after a month in the Bahamas….. except perhaps eating the wrong kind of fish. We went to the Chat ‘n’ chill and had dinner before heading off to Staniel Cay in the morning.

Chapter14

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.

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. SpectacularPreparing for an approaching squall

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….

Chapter15

Waiting out the Storm

It was 2:00 AM on Tuesday morning, May 10, 2022 when I felt the boat heel to about 15 degrees. It woke me from my sleep. I was by myself on my 51 foot sailboat. There was a terrible racket outside and I could hear the wind howling. I was tied up at the end of B dock at Little Creek Marina in Norfolk, Virginia, but the heeling of the boat was alarming. I jumped out of my warm bed and went out into the blistering wind and cold to make sure that the lines holding the boat onto the dock were intact. I was able to tighten a few of the lines and I quickly ascertained that there was no danger to me or the boat. It was then that I realized I was stark naked but being 2:00 o’clock in the morning, thank goodness I did not have do any explaining there as were no other unstable sailors around in this howling gale. My wind instruments registered 45 knots of wind and it was a consistent wind with gusts up to 50 knots. This was the weather we were fearing and the reason S/V Ileana was in Norfolk Virginia and not in New York as originally planned.

The original plan was for the 4 of us, Marlo, Doug, Auke and myself to sail from the Bahamas directly to New York City. We had been advised of a potential storm that would arrive on the east coast by Friday May 6. As we approached Virginia Beach, we realized there was no way that we would make the 250 miles to New York City before hitting the full fury of the storm. It looked like we would be off Atlantic City when we would get the brunt of it. We collectively made the decision to head for the shelter of Norfolk, Virginia to wait this out. I have talked about the difficulties in making schedules while on a sailing voyage and this is another example. Although our weather routing app had predicted that we would be in New York City before the storm hit, we had hit some light winds, and then there was that issue with code zero getting stuck at the top of the mast which delayed us for 1/2 a day. The end result was that we were not going to get to New York City in time to meet the wives and other activities. My wife Ileana had booked a flight to New York City on Thursday, May 11, and we were planning on having a lovely romantic weekend going to expensive restaurants and checking out a few museums. Auke was meeting up with his wife in NYC and she was planning on arriving from Amsterdam on May 9, 2022. Marlo’s son and daughter-in-law, both accomplished musicians, were performing in concerts in France and he was hoping to leave for Paris to see them perform once we arrived in New York City. Doug’s wife Sue was flying into New York city and Doug also had some commitments in Toronto.

Once we found a place to dock at Little Creek Marina, we went exploring while we tried to figure out a new plan. We visited the Nauticus Naval Museum in Virginia Beach.

The weather continued to deteriorate and the following day although we went out for a short walk to the beach to experience the maelstrom, we were pretty much confined to the boat watching Netflix and trying to make plans as to how we could salvage some of the arrangements that had been made. It was clear that the weather would be nasty for at least one week. One option that we looked at was taking the boat to Annapolis, taking off the mast and pulling the boat out of the water. I would then ask Andrews Trucking to bring the boat to Toronto. When I contacted Andrews Trucking, they said they were pretty much tied up until late June perhaps even July. There was no way they could manage to bring the boat back until then……

I then received a surprise email from Jeff. You might remember Jeff, he was the one drinking bottomless mimosas on Easter Sunday in Georgetown with his wife Valerie and Ileana? He offered to fly down and give me a hand to bring the boat back to Toronto. He had recently returned from Georgetown where he left his boat. Valerie and Jeff flew back to Toronto at the end of April and he wanted to help me out. This was a huge relief for which I am extremely grateful. Jeff is flying in to Norfolk on Thursday, May 11, and we plan to head to New York City early Friday morning. The trip will likely take 36 hours and the winds are predicted to be light. This freed up the others, Auke, Marlo and Doug to fulfill their plans. Auke Flew to New York and met up with his wife yesterday, Marlo flew to Paris and met up with his wife, son and daughter in law and arrived today, and Doug flew back to Toronto.

This all explains how I ended up on B dock last night stark naked in a howling gale by myself…….

The weather has improved and I went for a 10 kilometer run this morning. About half a kilometre from the boat is an endless beach which is perfect for running. The sand is hard and the beach seems to go on forever. The fury of the storm has largely abated but there is still some strong winds.Beautiful but windy beach in Norfolk Virginia

As cruel as the ocean can be to us sailors, it is also cruel to the inhabitants of the sea. While I was running, I came across much evidence of this. Some Beautiful Creatures were washed up on the shore. It is always sad to see this but it serves as a stark reminder of the uncertainties of life and the importance of living life to the fullest while we can!

My plan is to leave for New York City early on Friday, May 13, 2022 and we will likely arrive in New York City on Saturday evening. I’m hoping to meet up with Auke for dinner that night, but you know how it goes with schedules and sailboat, so it might be breakfast or lunch or dinner the next day…….. Jeff and I will likely head up the Hudson River early next week and plan to be at the lock on the day that it opens, May 20, 2022. We will need to take the mast off and put it on top of the sailboat. Once we get to Oswega, NY, the mast goes back on and then we sail across Lake Ontario back to Port Credit.

Chapter 16

New York, if you can make it here, you can make it anywhere

The fog was as dense as French Canadian pea soup. It was so thick that you could not see more than 50 feet in any direction.  We were approaching the major shipping lane into New York Harbor. I was startled by a loud foghorn from a freighter that was steaming towards us at 14 knots. It was so loud that the sound seemed to be coming from a few feet away. The first reaction was look around in all directions expecting to see the bow of the 333 meter vessel seconds before it split us in half. The two of us on board had been at sea for the last 36 hours and we were wet, cold and tired. We had relied heavily on our electronic charts, AIS and radar to keep clear of other ships. AIS is Automatic Identification System which transmits a ship’s position so that other ships are aware it’s position. We have this on board my boat S/V Ileana and it is mandatory to have this on cargo vessels, so we had seen this huge freighter and had slowed down to let it pass us before cutting across the shipping channel. After the initial panic, the radar showed that this vessel had a CPA or Closest Point of Approach of 500 feet so we really had nothing to worry about until the foghorn went off again, seemingly louder this time….. and I went though the entire panic process again….

I had been dodging a major weather system that had been hammering the US east coast for the past week in Norfolk Virginia and was waiting for a weather window to sail to New York City. From there, the plan was to sail up the Hudson river, take the mast off and then motor up the lock system of the Erie Canal to enter Lake Ontario at Oswega. From there it was a 20 hour sail to Port Credit where I would keep the boat for the summer. My crew of 3 other sailors who had brought the boat with me from the Bahamas had to leave for other commitments and flew off in different directions, but Jeff, a sailor I had met in Georgetown Bahamas flew in to help me sail the boat back to Toronto.

Friday May 13^th was the start of that weather window. Everyone knows that Friday the 13^th is a day of bad luck. Most sensible sailors will not leave for a voyage on any Friday because it will likely bring bad luck. As I continue with my sailing odyssey I am more inclined to follow these sailing superstitions. For example I will not allow bananas on my boat (although I like bananas). Sometimes as a sailor you need all the luck you can get, so there is little point in tempting fate. Well, many of these folklores were established before modern technology with weather prediction and the Predict Wind App, so we felt confident in having a safe passage. Throw in AIS, radar and electronic charts…… well it was an easy decision to leave.

We left the dock at Little Creek Marina at 7AM in thick fog. There was little wind, but as we headed out into the ocean we had 14 knots of wind on the beam and we set the sails. Sometimes the wind would diminish and we would motor sail. At night we would do 3 hour shifts with one of us sleeping and the other on deck looking out for other ships, checking out the sails and monitoring the chart position. We found ourselves entering the harbor of New York City in thick fog at dusk a day and a half later. Our destination was Liberty Landing Marina in New Jersey just across the river from Manhattan.

Both Jeff and I had our eyes glued to the instrument panels watching the radar to monitor the heavy ship traffic and the charts to see where we should be heading as we could not see more that 50 feet in front of us because of the fog. We had to cross the shipping channel and we saw the 333 meter Hyundai Honour freighter on the radar screen coming straight at us 2 miles away. This meant that in less than 10 minutes it would be upon us and rather than try to scoot in front of the ship, we slowed my boat down and planned to slip across the channel after she had passed us. Things were going well….until I heard the blast of the foghorn from this approaching beast and in an instant I began to question the reliability and accuracy of the electronic instruments. The sound seemed to be coming less that 100 feet away. We waited some more after checking the instrument screens confirming we were safe. When no collision occurred, we breathed a sigh of relief…. until the next blast from the foghorn and once again…. another anxiety attack. The vessel slipped by without incident, and we cautiously began to cross the shipping channels. About half way across we were hailed on channel 16….the emergency channel “ S/V Ileana this BC Berlin. We are steaming towards you at 13 knots and are 2 miles out from you. What are your intentions?” BC Belin is a 333-meter freighter that was heading out to sea. Jeff handled the call as I was was glued to the instrument panel and explained that we would be out of the shipping channel heading north when they got to our position. It was comforting that they had our well being in mind.

 

We continued motoring north into New York through the thick fog. We were about to pass under the Verrazano Bridge according to the chart and radar information when I began to question whether there were any bridge supports that we had to dodge or whether our mast was too tall. The fog was so thick we could not see the bridge and the only way we knew it was there was because of the roar of trucks and cars racing over the bridge above us. This too was unnerving but I was getting used to the anxiety of being surrounded by fog as I was becoming more confident in the reliability of the information that we were getting from the instruments. Then we started to experience the ferry traffic that would zip along at 26 knots ignoring the fog and darkness as if it wasn’t there. We spent the next hour dodging these boats. Not sure how we were able to miss them all and arrived at Liberty Landing Marina at 10 PM at night in pitch darkness. Well that perhaps is an exaggeration as New York City is never in pitch darkness, but it was still unsettling.

 

The next day I contacted person on the Hudson River who I had organized to take down the mast. I spoke with Mike earlier in March and he felt confident that he was up to the job, although it was a big mast, 72 feet high. However, when I called him from Liberty Landing Marina he said that he was pretty busy and maybe the mast was too big for him and perhaps I should try somewhere else. Well, somewhere else meant Liberty Landing. They had a 2 week wait and could not do this until early June. With $400 per night docking fees this would add up to a huge expense. I tried Scarano Boatworks in Albany on the Hudson. The good news was that they could take the mast off and put it on to of the boat on a cradle. The bad news was they could not do this until June 2^nd, in 2 weeks time. I guess this is where the bad luck piece of the story comes into play and perhaps a little more thought should have gone into this leaving on a Friday.

 

We are currently docked at Shady Harbour Marina and the plan is to fly back to Toronto. I will come back to Albany June 1^st and the mast comes off at 8AM June 2^nd. I will be needing a couple of sailors to help me bring Ileana home, so any of you out there reading this who can free up 5 or 6 days in early June…… please contact me. If you like adventure and all of the uncertainties that come with being a sailor you might just have the adventure of a lifetime!

 

Chapter 17

The last leg of the Trip Home

I found myself alone on my sailboat ILEANA in pitch darkness. It was 4 AM. This was the last leg of the the 1500 nautical mile voyage from Bahamas back to Port credit on Lake Ontario. The wind was blowing 23 kn from the stern of the boat. There were massive waves making the boat pitch from side to side. It was raining. For the second time on this trip, the auto helm was not working. This meant it was going to be a long 20 hours from Oswega New York to Port Credit hand steering the boat by myself in the darkness. During the day, often you can keep the boat straight by using visual clues such as clouds to go in a straight line, but at night in the pitch blackness, without auto helm, it is easy to head off in the wrong direction and go around in circles. It was cold and miserable. The voyage had taken longer than expected. After leaving the Bahamas, it became obvious we would hit a terrible storm before we got to New York City and so we made a decision to hunker down in Norfolk Virginia while the storm passed. Getting from Norfolk to New York City was uneventful, but once we arrived on the Hudson River, we had difficulties finding someone to take down our heavy mast. To traverse the Erie Canal and go up through the lock system to Oswega and onto Lake Ontario, it is necessary to remove the mast and transport this on a cradle on top of the deck so that the boat fits underneath the bridges. I found someone at Scarano boatworks in Albany who was up to the job but it would not be for two weeks. What this meant was that I needed to leave the boat at Shady Harbor Marina, near Albany, New York. I flew home for these two weeks to recruit crew to help me take sailing vessel ILEANA through the Erie Canal and the lock system back to Lake Ontario so I could bring her home. Much to my surprise, my wife Ileana wanted to come on this adventure. Also to my surprise, my long time sailing friend Steve-a surgeon at UHN-wanted to come as well. It is quite the nautical feat to guide a 51 foot sailboat that weighs 35,000 pounds through the 30 lock Erie Canal without doing irreparable damage to the sailboat and to the mast. There’s a great deal of turbulence that occurs as the lock fills with water and this can bounce the boat on the concrete walls of the locks with a great deal of force and destruction. It was comforting to know that two seasoned sailors were helping to guide her through. Steve arrived on a morning flight to Albany. However, by afternoon there were terrible thunderstorms and Ileana’s flight kept on getting delayed. Finally the flights were cancelled but there was a single flight to New York City that was arriving at around midnight. I sent the local Uber driver who lives on a trawler at the same marina on the 2 1/2 road trip to LaGuardia Airport in New York City. Vince arrived, Ileana did not. Sometime after midnight it was obvious that all flights were cancelled, so Ileana left the airport and went home…… leaving Steve and I to manage the treacherous journey by ourselves. We left the Shady Harbor Marina at 6 AM and headed towards Scarano boat works in the Albany about a 10 mile journey.

Heavy 72 foot mast geting loaded on the supports on the deck of the ILEANA Lake Ontario is 283 feet above sea level. To get there from New York, it is necessay to go through a seies of locks and canal system known as the Erie Canal. Getting through the locks required that we place many rubberized fenders along the side of the boat that would be against the concrete wall so as not to damage the hull. We chose the starboard side to place the fenders because the mast was not positioned in the centre of the boat. We deliberately placed the mast on the port side so that we would have more room to get around the cockpit as we motored up the 200 mile lock system. This resulted in the aluminum spreaders of the mast hanging over the port side of the boat by about 2 feet. The plan was to always tie up on the starboard side of the boat going up the locks, so we would not damage the spreaders or the mast. Never having done this before, I was a little bit anxious. Steve had been through the Welland Canal on his sailboat so he had some experience about the turbulence and the difficulties. We were told ahead of time that there will be ropes that we can hold onto. The plan was for Steve to hold a rope close to the bow of the boat and I was to grab a rope close to the stern. The mast hung over the bow of the boat by about 8 feet so it was my job to keep the stern close to the wall to avoid the boat from pivoting and smashing the mast into the concrete wall causing damage. Here is a video of Steve getting ready as we enter the first lock and us discussing a plan preparing for all possible contingencies…. John’s helpful suggestion- ” I dunno, I guess we’ll find out eh”

After the first three locks, we were feeling pretty confident that we had the system down pat. We hadn’t done any damage to the boat or the mast and I will say we were actually at the point where we were pretty cocky about the whole experience. We felt that we really had nothing to worry about and would take on any of the locks and come out unscathed. As we were entering the next lock, we were told “you must tie up on the port side”. We had not prepared for this. We were able to move the fenders over to the port side but as you recall, the spreaders were hanging over the port side and the concern was that we would damage them. However, at this point, the lock was starting to fill up with water and we did our best to try and protect the spreaders from hitting the wall which for a 35,000 pound sailboat is pretty much impossible. The boat is going to go where the water pushes it and even though Steve and I were strong, we had met our match…… There was a lot of cursing and swearing and astonished looks from the skippers in other sailboats that were going up in the same lock. After we got to the top, surprisingly, the only damage was a small plastic boot covering the shrouds at the top spreader was knocked off but the spreader itself was not damage. I am not sure how we got so lucky. This changed our cocky attitude towards the locks and we assumed a more respectful manner as we went through the rest of the locks….. The Erie canal is quite beautiful. As the canal is man-made, parts of it are completely straight. The weather was absolutely perfect, with the sun and a cool breeze to keep us from getting too hot.

At night we would stop and tie up at a dock. Many of the docks are free, as the towns like to attract sailor tourists to come and eat in their restaurants and ice cream parlours.

One of the best parts about a journey are the people you meet. For example, we met Paul and Ed. Ed is a delivery skipper and was bringing a trawler from Newport to Etobicoke Yacht Club in Toronto. The owner was keen to get the boat as soon as possible so as to enjoy the summer boating season. Ed has made the journey up the Erie canal previously and was giving us great advice on the way up. We would talk to each other using the VHF radio and Ed and Paul would often prepare us for the next lock so we would not have any more surprises. Paul and Ed were full of stories. Ed owned a 40 foot sailboat that he originally kept at the Port credit yacht club. He sold the boat to Paul who now kept it in the Bahamas for the past 6 years. One of the stories they tell is when it was predicted that hurricane Dorian was going to flatten the Bahamas in 2020. They both flew down to the Bahamas, motored the sailboat over to Florida which took about 18 hours, and then hunkered down there. The hurricane hit 12 hours later and pretty much destroyed much of the Bahamas where there sailboat had been. The sailboat was safe thanks to their quick actions. As I reflect on this, I’m not sure I would have the courage to take my sailboat out onto the ocean knowing there is a hurricane coming in a few hours…… Ed tells the story of another time when he was off the eastern coast of the US trying to get to Newport and Rhode Island for an America’s Cup race. There was a hurricane that he was trying to avoid but in doing so he kept on getting pushed out further to sea. There were huge waves and up to 50 kn of wind. He was getting blown towards Europe. He was running out of fuel and the only way he would be able to make it back to Newport would be to motor. He called his wife on his satellite phone who then contacted the US Coast Guard. There was a Russian container ship nearby who came to the rescue. By using the huge sides of the Russian ship, they were able to blanket the wind and they launched a zipline, which Ed shackled to the side of the sailboat. The line was tensioned, but just before the Gerry cans full of diesel hit the side of the sailboat and smash into the hull, they would relax the lines. The Russians seem to know what they were doing. They were able to transfer enough containers of diesel to fill up the fuel tanks. The captain of the ship was not so interested in getting the empty Gerry cans back, but wanted the shackles that were used to tie the ziplines to the sailboat. The shackles were placed in a Nike waterproof sports bag, along with a bottle of rum and a note thanking them for their lifesaving assistance and the bag was transferred back to the Russian ship. Ed was expecting an excited response about the bottle of rum, but the Russians were more excited about the Nike sports bag…….. so much for stereotypes…..

The Oswega Marina was very accommodating and able to step our mast without any difficulties. The mast had to be lifted off the supports on the deck of ILEANA with a huge crane, and then positioned very carefully on the step. The wire shrouds were tightened so to keep the mast in place. From there, it is a matter of rigging the rest of the lines and attaching the electronics. The wooden frames that were used to secure the mast on the deck were dismantled. This took the rest of the day.

This was now Monday. Steve had hastily made plans to come on this trip with me and was supposed to be on call for the acute care surgical service at his hospital. He had convinced a colleague to cover him but was fielding many phone calls. Steve was trying to manage problems at the hospital and at the same time rig the sailboat to get ready for the voyage from Oswega to Port Credit Yacht Club. This would be a 131 miles trip, about 20 hours. This was the last leg of the 1500 mile trip from the Bahamas and the plan was to get started as soon as possible. I have pretty much retired from the Humber River hospital where I spent 37 years as a surgeon. As a surgeon, you can never be free of your responsibilities to the patients and to the hospital, until you retire. I understand the difficulties that a surgeon faces when trying to balance work with the other activities of life. There is a constant tug which will always pull the surgeon back to the hospital in spite of making plans that should free up time to do other activities. This was the case with Steve. I suggested that he get back to Toronto as soon as possible. It was 5:00 o’clock in the afternoon and as the Acute Care Surgeon, he had been assigned to help a gynecologist in the operating room at 9 AM the following morning for an urgent procedure that required his expertise. We spent the next two hours planning how to get him back to Toronto. It’s not possible to rent a car and drive across the border and there are no flights from Oswega to Toronto. However, there was a taxi driver who was willing to take him to Niagara Falls. From there, he could walk across the Peace Bridge and be picked up by someone to drive him back to Toronto. The taxi driver, after hearing Steve’s story decided to drive like a maniac through the pouring rain and Steve felt lucky to have arrived at the Peace Bridge in Niagara Falls alive. He then walked across the bridge sopping wet in the darkness and pouring rain lugging his huge bag full of sailing gear expecting to be turned away by the customs officers fearing he was a refugee…… Fortunately, they believed his story and he was able to get to work on time for the following morning. This left me at 4:00 in the morning on Lake Ontario in the pitch blackness. The autohelm was broken and I had to steer by hand the entire way. This can be challenging especially when trying to manage bathroom breaks…… I eventually figured out it was easier to stop the boat and float with the wind and waves. This would free me up so I could make a sandwich or get a drink…. and safely take a bathroom break.

I arrived at the Port Credit Yacht Club at around midnight on June 7, 2022. S/V ILEANA had been away for the past 6 months and she has been through some amazing adventures. I have discovered many new things about life and living at sea. I will spend the summer getting ILEANA ready for her next chapter……….