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BERMUDA ONE-TWO, by Muriel
There were no mysteries. When we moved to Bermuda and bought the POGO 8.50, it was clear that Hervé’s program would be to do the Bermuda one-two. The Wednesday night races are great, but since the Mini-Transat, Hervé is dreaming of big offshore races.
Why joining him ? Because he needed a crew for the second leg and it was the only way for me to finally spend some holidays alone with my husband ! And also because I need adventure.
I really realized the extent of the crossing when I started to learn more about the Gulf Stream. This lovely current which brings good weather in Bermuda will make me have an unforgettable moment. Waves and currents will make that I will feel like in a washing machine.
To back off my main cause of anxiety, I took 48 hours before the start some medicine against seasickness, in order to get used to the secondary effect of the pills , drowsiness, (not good at all when you are only two on the boat).
Friday morning, the alarm went on earlier than usual. Last breakfast with Robin and Julie and here there are, in front of the school which just opened its doors.
The adventure began. We were racing on the scooter towards St George as the hour of the start had been advanced. Just arrived, we jumped on a sailing boat who was just leaving and had accepted to bring us to our boat, moored in the bay.
Hervé sat at the table (to enter his GPS waypoints) and I prepared the sails.
On board his OPEN 50, Tim Kent waved to me. What an idea to do this race as he just finished 2nd during the Around Alone race. But I understand him better now that I know that he was doing that to thank his crew who helped him a lot during that last campaign.
Robin(5) and Julie (3) helped us loading the boat the day before the start.
We lifted the anchor. Headsail hoisted, we sailed in the St George bay. The start was downwind, and we thought that we would hoist the spinnaker to go through the cut, channel wide of 80 feet giving a direct access to the sea.
The 4th start was ours. It was 10 :40. Spinnaker up, we were off in first place. I was steering and Hervé set the sails. Wonderful. Unfortunately, the 2 Quests overtook us and we passed the cut in 3rd position. Then, bearing north-west for 650 miles, wind permitting. We were going pretty fast.
From the satellites charts received, there were two options possible to cross the Gulf Stream : the longuest went west and the shortest east. We went for the east one, same as the majority of the others boats.
Good bye Bermuda....
"Wildeyes" under spinnaker...but why that name?
The long waves were already here. It became difficult to hold the spinnaker so we took it down. We also decided to start the watches. It would be every two hours. I started. The day went quite fast like that. Under genoa, the yacht went at 8 knots. After my turn at the helm, I went inside and slept on the bunk where I was used as a ballast. I tried to rest. There was swell. I could not think about this because nausea started quickly. There would be no dinner. A fruit, a power bar, only for the calories. It was shaking too much.
It was during the afternoon of the second day, Saturday, that I realized the length of the race. I knew that it takes around 5 days to do 650 miles, but it was only at that moment that I realized that it would be a long crossing, my longuest one. And it is not a cruise in the Caribbean. No. It is 2 hours at the helm every 2 hours. And there was nothing that you can choose. Rain, gusts, cold, warm, good wind, current against or not, waves in your face. No choice. You are here to do with mother nature and do the best as you can of it. And no time to ask 10'000 others questions. It is a race and you have to trim the sails all thc time.
The good thing during that afternoon is that we came across 2 other boats from our category. As the sea is wide, boats are soon far away from the others. But as we all go to the same place, it happens that our roads cross. So we had a little race the 3 of us. We started to overtake Banzai and then we went near Insufferable. The wind was blowing 20 knots and had just backed a little bit. And at that moment I heard Hervé saying : »Let’s hoist the spinnaker » Oh no ! But I had no choice. The strongest point of sail of the POGO 8.50 is to sail under spinnaker in strong conditions. So if we did not do that there, we would have never done it.
I was a little reassured when I saw the sail out of the bag. I had forgotten that we had a 3rd spinnaker, the red one, who is smaller than the 2 others. So we had really nice surfs on the waves and we really took off. Our friends were left behind helplessly...
We had a warm dinner that night. And I can confirm : dehydrated food is easy and delicious. A little amount of hot water (but I put too much water the first time !!!), wait 10 minutes and taste it. We needed to take some strength before attacking the Gulf Stream.
Bad news from a SMS received via our satellite phone. Tim Kent on his OPEN 50 lost his bulb and was saved with his crew by a cruising ship. The boat was abandoned. We took the VHF to tell the news to the others. There was no danger for us as we already passed the location of the wreck. I confirm. The Gulf Stream is a current which seems like a washing machine. But not the last model from GE , which takes care of the laundry. No. The oldest on earth. And we got shacken on our small POGO . It was pitch dark. The wind went up. It raised to 32 knots (but I heard it was even more and I don’t know if our wind wane is accurate). There were squalls full of rain which fell on us. There was no moon and the sea was white. The boat plunged in the waves in front. I was hooked to the helm ( and to the boat too !) and did 14 knots. I kept an eye on the instruments and sometimes looked around. I HAVE NEVER SEEN THIS. I tried to go straight but the boat got taken by the waves. There are 3 reefs in the mainsail. BUT WHAT AM I DOING HERE ? I understand finally the sense of the name of one of our competitors « wildeyes ». Mine are crazy. They can’t believe what they see.
Everything went very well with Hervé. I was up to the job, even if I sometimes got tired on the winch... all these reefs that we took or shook!!! And even if we were wet all the time, especially in our boots, we enjoyed it very much. And every time a waves hit us in the face, we shouted : « Ah, how good it feels », thinking of the favorite expression of our son Robin when he jumps in the water.
But I have to say that the water WAS really good. More than 79 °, unbelievable, wasn’it ? Still we were waiting for the temperature to drop, as this would be the sign of the exit of the Gulf Stream. But it looked that the information received by a well known oceanographer were completely wrong. But when will we arrive if the wind continues to drop but not the current ?
why do we take always pictures when there is no wind?
The 4th day was slow. We listened to the weather forecast, which is not good for us as it is very very light. we progressed so slowly. And what about my shopping ? I was dreaming about the POSH shops from Newport ? And for the result it will be the same. We were good in strong weather and now the others will come back. What a shame. And on the top of that, it was really cold at night. I had to put a fleece on my first layer. I am saying to myself that it is better to enjoy the present moment. And I like to helm in light conditions. It was from that moment that we started to see a lot of animals. Apart from the dolphins, we saw big whales, a ray and sunfishes who are lying on the surface of the water moving a fin that looks like a shark’s !!
For the night watches, and in order to stay awake, we listened to some music. It was not tiring as there was no wind but it was cold. Our 2 hours watches were a little bit different now. We let the other sleep if we felt good and we danced to stay warm... Last sunset, last moonrise even if the croissant of moon is really tiny. We progressed at 2 , 3 knots. Oh, we could hold the spinnaker up again.
Wednesday morning.... Land. It was hidden by the fog. There was still some wind but they said it would soon die. We finally crossed the line at 9 :10 am. Our crossing took 4 days, 23 hours and 30 minutes. I thought about the others who are still on the water and who would stay for a long time (some arrived 24 hours after us !). We flicked the sails. Still no problems with Hervé (and we usually always argue about that). The welcome on the pontoons was fantastic. Everybody was here to congratulate us. I spent some unforgettable moments and am ready to start again, but please, let me go and do the sales at GAP first!!!!
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