Sarah's Atlantic Circle
| Bermuda to the Chesapeake Bay |
| While in Bermuda we were joined by Christie McGue, Bob's wife, who would join us for the final leg of the journey from Bermuda to the Chesapeake Bay |
 After
two nights on the hook in St. Georges Harbor we moved Sarah to Capt.
Smokes Marina to make it easier to prepare for departure.Capt. Smokes uses a Med-style mooring and I did my usual exciting berthing in this marina. As usual no damage to Sarah or the other boats, but we did have everyone's attention. A few days later a 70' ketch and a 90' sloop berthed upwind of Sarah, with the 90 footer right next to Sarah. These boats were too long to use the marina moorings, so they dropped their own anchors. During this period the winds were blowing 15 - 20 kts out of the west due to a low pressure system to the north of Bermuda. We were waiting for that low pressure system to move off so we could depart. Before that happened the low pressure system actually drifted south, closer to Bermuda and a cold front associated with that low dragged through the island. This brought significantly higher winds with it. On a 40+ knot gust the 90 footer's anchor started to drag and suddenly Sarah's mooring lines and deck cleats were supporting both boats. In an effort to get the 90 footer under control the crew of the 70 footer allowed them to use the marina mooring line they had picked up in addition to their anchor. Of course that meant the 70 footer's anchor began to drag as well. It took most of the day until the larger boats' anchors were reset and the boats were again under control. |
 Capt.
Smokes is next to one of the cruise ship docks in St. Georges. We
noticed the strange contraption on the upper deck of this ship. |
 On
closer inspection we realized it was a climbing wall - part of the
onboard exercise facilities on the ship. From the looks of the cruise
ship passengers we observed in and around St. Georges we doubted this
was got much use on this cruise. We never saw anyone attempt a climb. |
 Finally
on June 11 the low pressure system had moved sufficiently north of
Bermuda to eliminate the strong westerly winds.Now we had little or no wind; however, we were anxious to get underway and since I had nearly enough fuel on board to motor all the way to the Chesapeake we departed that evening. |
 Bermuda
and the St. Davids Lighthouse disappeared that evening, after dark. |
 Christie
and Bob relax in the cockpit as motoring does not require a lot of crew
activity. |
 For
the next 24 hours we motored on the rhumb line course from Bermuda to
the Chesapeake. During the second day it became apparent that we were
encountering a strong counter current, reducing our speed over the
ground by more than a knot.;That evening Herb Helgenberg told us that we between a cold eddy to the north and warm eddy to the south, both bringing a counter current. Herb advised us to head more westerly to get out of the current. |
 On
this leg was saw a lot more commercial shipping than on either the Lagos
to Madeira or Madeira to Bermuda legs. |
 It
took nearly two days, heading west for us to finally break free of the
counter current. By this time we had been almost continually motoring
for 4 days. We needed to cover at least 50 miles under sail to give us
a reasonable margin of fuel for the remainder of the trip.Fortunately about the time we broke loose from the current, we also picked up a NE wind that allowed us to reach under sail to the NW and kill the engine for awhile. |
 The
wind lasted less than12 hours, but it was sufficient to move us close
enough to the Chesapeake that our fuel reserves would allow us to motor
all the way to the Chesapeake.We were able to sail for brief periods afterwards, but for the most part we motored all the way to Little Creek, VA where we checked in with U.S. Customs, topped off Sarah's fuel tank and then headed up the bay to the Patuxtent River. We arrived at Town Creek Landing, just across the Patuxent River from Solomons, MD, a little after 2:00 AM. |