At Sea En Route To New York: Slow And Steady Wins The Race, Or At Least Eventually Gets You There.

I got the celebs photo from my crewmate Sarah, so here is some of the crew, the captain, Kathryn Zeta Jones (spelling?), Michael Douglas and family.

 

Monday June 15th

We awoke to find out our ship was arranged to leave earlier than expected so we got to work getting everything put away and lashed down, sea stowed as we call it. The Pilot came on board and after the monstrous Russian ship Kruchenstern got under way a couple of tug boats pulled us right off the dock. We quickly flashed out our staysails and once the got into a fair breeze and out of Hamilton we dropped some squares.

One by one all of the ships got off the dock and began the parade of sail down the North side of Bermuda. What an incredible sight! All those tall ships and schooners, plus small sailboats and pleasure craft; a joyful armada. Boats came by shouting greetings or blaring reggae. From the mizzen topsail yard I watched one big catamaran came in very close and as I said aloud “what is this joker doing” I noticed it was Michael Douglas at the helm with his family giving us a goodbye. When all of the immediate work was done I climbed to the Main Mast Crosstrees and took in the breathtaking view.

At the North East corner of the island we saluted with cannon and parted from the fleet. For this transit our watch has the 12-4 am/pm watched with a short work party from breakfast until lunch. So,I did my best to go to sleep right after dinner. Two of our mates have left the ship for a couple months vacation and so we have two new temporary mates. One of them being the new mate for B watch, my watch.

Tuesday June 16th

I came on deck at midnight for our watch and was greeted by a mostly overcast  black night. So dark were our surroundings that the bioluminescent plankton stood out like little green flickering candles. Every so often the sky would clear a bit and reveal for a moment a shotgun blast of stars.

I was on seasickness medication most of the trip to Bermuda and it was my hope that I had acclimated to being at sea. A heavy confused wind swell we sailed in that night did away with that idea very quickly and I spent a decent part of the night hugging the leeward rail. The way seasickness knocks all of the fight out of me is amazing. I cam on deck loving the scenery and happy as can be, but halfway through the watch I couldn’t focus my eyes and I would have given my right hand to be anywhere but on this ship. I put on a seasickness patch and stuck it out the rest of my watch.  During the last 5 minutes of the watch a storm passed with such heavy rain and wind I could not see the compass to steer by and my face stung from the driving rain. Got rid of my seasickness for a bit. It was fun.

By the morning the medicine had taken effect and I was again on the top of the world. Man, do I hate being seasick. Morning work party went well and during our watch in the afternoon we did man overboard drills and safety talks. As the whole crew stood around the capstan something caught my eye: a sea spout 15-30 miles to our stern. A sea spout is basically a tornado, but at sea. Though we were in no danger at that distance it was a very sobering moment and stories of sea spouts ripping ships to shreds floated to my mind. I think it was the first tornado I’ve ever seen. A reminder of how precarious our little wooden city is I suppose.

That evening I spliced a new lanyard for my harness. Dan taught me the official Bounty way of splicing and it looks strong enough to hold 5 of me.

Wednesday June 17th

Woke early for watch in a dark night with scattered showers. The nights are starting to get cold as we sail north, I’ve busted out my cold foul weather gear. For our morning work party we tuned the rigging, the foremast backstays to be specific. An interesting and yet simple process. Afternoon watch went well and I saw a few Portuguese Man O’ War in the water, so cool! The afternoon saw wonderful weather, but light winds. At the helm I spotted a little sloop rigged sailboat way off to starboard. It is really neat for two sailing vessels to run across each other in the vastness of the North Atlantic. Seeing that boat served to remind me how we really are in the middle of nowhere. We’re on our own and I love it.

(Me in the rig photos courtesy of Sarah)

Thursday June 18th

I have officially been on board for 3 weeks! In some respects it feels as though I have been here for ages and yet as there is so much to learn it still feels as though I just got here. In either case I do feel at home on the ship and with the crew.

Midnight to 4am watch went nicely. We had beautiful weather, the clouds broke a few times revealing the stars. At around 3 am the harvest crescent moon rose and it was hands down the most vibrant red/orange I have ever seen the moon. I absolutely loved watching the moon rise over the horizon contrasted with the scattered deep black rain clouds around it. I wish I had been able to capture and share the image and colors, it was incredible.

I am so excited for New York! We moved from the Bermuda/lots of ocean chart to the East Coast chart today. Captain said we are only 300 miles out. We are averaging a a little under 5 knots, so roughly 60 hours, so only a few more days and I get to sail past the Statue of Liberty!

Afternoon watch was uneventful. We discussed abandon ship scenarios and did a fire drill.

Friday June 19th

Night watch was uneventful. We are sailing on a run with a following swell so the boat is rocking quite a bit. My cabin apparently does not like this swell and is complaining so loudly I had trouble sleeping. In the four hours between the end of the watch and our 8am work party I slept so hard that the watch that was to wake me said I didn’t wake even after they shook me. I suppose with all the cabin groaning and my roommate snoring I must have gone into hibernation. I was very deeply asleep apparently.

Tensioned more stays today and I took a chunk of skin out of my hand and later in the day when we reefed sails for practice it opened up again and I bled all over the main topsail. I suppose I have officially made my mark on the ship! We also did an abandon ship drill and put on our “gumby” survival suits; the drill went well. During the afternoon the captain turned off the navigation equipment and we navigated by dead reckoning, compass, and floating objects down the side of the ship to gauge our speed. It was pretty cool.

Apparently we are farther away from New York than was originally anticipated adding to our slower speeds yesterday we will still be a several more days at sea. Also a rain storm caught up to us and just hovered over us and we saw quite a bit of rain, I rather enjoyed it.

Saturday June 20th

Night watch went well and we got some clear sky to see the stars, and what a view!  I saw a few constellations I know as well as the milky way. To make the night even better for my time on bow watch there was a big thunderstorm off to the east that gave me quite a fireworks show.

Woke up four hours later to a beautiful day at sea. Work party went by quickly and Shane caught a huge Dorado. Afternoon watch went by quickly and easily, especially after the captain told us tomorrow would be a “Sunday”. Although it technically will be Sunday, the term refers to the sailing tradition of the crew getting Sunday off from their normal work. They would attend a church service in the morning and have the rest of the day to mend clothes and relax. “Sundays” were also traditionally coupled with special foods.

This will be our first chance for down time since we left Bermuda on Monday. I am both excited for a a chance for a full nights sleep and time in the evening to do something other than go to sleep! Sarah on my watch has also made some pudding for us to eat on our 12-4 watch tonight, simple things in themselves but at this point our “Sunday” seems like quite a holiday to me.

We have been sailing North Northeast for the last couple days which has us sailing parallel to the coast and a bit away from shore. We were supposed to get a Southwest wind today but it hasn’t materialized. If we do get our wind it will be a straight shot for NY. We had absolutely beautiful conditions today. I have been having a lot of fun doing the dead reckoning and other old school navigating, too.

Sunday June 21st

What a night! I was awaken for my watch and told that it was cool and there was some rain. Man, they were not kidding. We were plowing our way into a huge thunderstorm that lasted 3 and a half hours of our 4 hour watch.  Our radar just showed a blig red blob dead ahead of us. The wind was shifting all sorts of directions and howling one minute only to coyly whisper the next. The rain came in all shapes and sizes and from all directions; while lightning and thunder gave us one hell of a show.

I stood the first turn at the helm. She steered pretty easily for a while, but as the wind began to get unruly the forces of the sails became exaggerated and I had to throw my legs into it to turn her over. When the wind really came on we fell off downwind of our course so a sudden wind shift would not take us aback. We were still only still supposed to be using historical navigation, but we cheated and found our speed at over 9 knots. I could feel the power in the helm, it was pretty incredible.

Sarah’s key lime pudding was ready and during my navigation watch I had a bowl. What a treat to be sailing in a storm, water streaming down my foul weather gear, and walk to the fridge for some pudding! Bow watch was pretty ridiculous as it was so dark I could barely make out the horizon. The bioluminescence was pretty vibrant that night.

During my bow watch the lightning got pretty close. At one point the night was so dark  and a pure white flash of lighting so bright and close that I couldn’t see a damn thing for over a minute. More interesting still was the loud crackling thunder that lasted literally over 10 seconds.

Of course as the next watch came on deck the storm hadn’t passed, it simply dissipated!  The rain had quit and the stars were starting to come out.  When our watch was officially relieved I damn near skipped to my bunk to sleep  for another 7 hours since work party was canceled. I woke up feeling so refreshed and ready for some more sailing!

Afternoon watch went by without much of interest, but we did have some dolphins come and play with us for a while. I came on deck to get my water bottle for dinner and got drafted to work as we were changing up our sails and tack to throw on the motor for the first time this trip. We’ve been just kind of hovering in the same area, not making much ground for NY, and the breeze died down quite a bit, so on goes the motor.

Monday June 22nd

Of course since we put on the motor we got a gale warning and when we came on watch we had the main topsail and the fore course up with wind gusting up to 30 knots at its highest. By no means anything scary, but enough to keep things interesting and everyone on their toes.

The most interesting aspect of the night were the whitecaps. They were glowing white from the bioluminescence. They were so numerous and the sky was so dark that it looked as though the world had flipped and we were sailing upon the stars. It really did. I shared this idea with my watch and they agreed. Minds were blown.

The helm was being a bear to keep on course and I definitely got a workout. When the watch was over we were all cold, covered in salt spray and very ready for sleep.

Work party in the morning went quickly and the afternoon found little change from the night before except that our sails had been struck and we were under motor power. For the last several days we had been hoping for better winds and trying to work out way northwest, but eventually our schedule took precedence and were had to kick on the motors to hold our ground until the weather subsided. I slept poorly that night wit the A/C out on this tack, the rolls, and the cabin creaking. The afternoon watch was a long one and we decided that no one had given Poseidon his drink when we left Bermuda, so I offered up some of my own libations.

Dinner was pretty interesting with the seas we were getting. The ham made a bid for freedom as well as numerous crew dishes. Like a good sailor, however, I kept my elbows on the table and therefore my food on the table rather than in my neighbor’s lap. See Mom, there is a reason I always have my elbows on the table, it just never came in handy until now.

This storm has basically just kept us sitting a few hundred miles out from NY. We’re basically treading water, doing our best not to loose ground. We will get there, slowly, but surely.

 

Tuesday June 23rd

The night watch was much the same as the previous night, stormy and fairly miserable. As always, however, the company on watch helped the time go bye.  As our watch was getting toward its end the breeze was noticeably down and the seas were less confused.

In the morning the weather was definitely calmer and after breakfast I joined some of the crew on watch to enjoy the fresh air. Someone spotted a big sea turtle floating bye, we all looked at him and he stuck his head out of the water and stared right back.

Afternoon watch was great, things have really calmed down and warmed up. Slowly but surely we are getting closer. Despite having the engines on and no sail the captain is still having us use old school navigation. On my dead reckoning plot I was excited to see we were about 70 miles from the mouth of the Hudson River! I was on bow watch near the end of our watch time. Out of the corner of my eye I caught movement and turned to see a whale surface not 30 feet from out bow! We were traveling at over 6 knots and I turned and shouted to the helm, even though there was nothing he could have done. The whale, I’m not sure yet what it was although I am leaning towards a Fin whale, of course avoided us and we watched it spout in the distance as it swam away. I felt lucky to be the only one to see her so close.

I can feel the land looming. Lots of seagulls and other birds now. I think we are all excited for NY. I’ll be keeping my ears open this evening for the cry “Land Ho!”. We will probably get close tonight and anchor or slow down and get there in the morning.

Other exciting news. For the last four days I have been completely free of seasickness medication as well as seasickness. This includes during the weather we experienced, some of that time I spent below doing thing like sanding and painting. I am very excited to be acclimated!

Wednesday June 24th

I was awoken for watch and told that we had sighted land. I came on deck to find the understatement of the the century when I was met with the light filled Jersey shore to port and Brooklyn backlit by Manhattan shining to starboard. The ship was navigating the channel and we were heading for an anchorage just outside of the mouth of the Hudson River called Sandy Hook. We had trouble picking out the channel marker lights from the near christmas display on shore behind them.

We were all very tired from our journey, but everyone was buzzing with excitement. For most of the crew including myself this would be our first time to New York; and what an entrance! We settled up in the hook and dropped our 400 lb anchor and set an anchor watch for the remainder of our watch period. I spent most of that watch just looking out at the city lights. I could definitely make out the Statue of Liberty, bright green, looking like a figurine in the distance. Sleep was sweet.

I was awoken with the phrase “sorry Grant” and was told to dress to get dirty. I wasn’t phased, in fact I had been expecting the unenviable job of crawling in the tiny forepeak and flaking the muddy anchor chain by hand so that it ran free the next time we dropped anchor. Gabe went down with me and I thanked god for being the bigger of the two of us so Gabe had to crawl down low to flake the chain while I guided it down to him. I don’t think it was as bad as everyone made it out to be, but the mud smoked on our hands, which is probably not a good thing.

After we slung our hook (weighed anchor) we motored towards NY. My watch went below to our work party and at noon we were sent on deck. I lucked out at got the first hour at the helm, so I got to take the ship into the Hudson through the narrows and all the way past the statue of liberty. There was a lot of traffic making it a little stressful, but what a way to come to New York!

We motored up the Hudson until we came to our dock at Pier 66, near the Chealsea Piers. We found out we were to side tie to a historic fire boat, built in the 1930’s I believe and but back into service to aid during 9/11. We had a heck of a time with the current, wind, and tight angles, but on our second try we slid right in backwards. After we got settled down the captain stood down the crew and the owner of the very hip bar built on a barge on pier 66 bought the crew a couple rounds. We all went to bed exhausted, but very excited to be in New York. We made it!