Into the Ocean

BOC 2001: Into the Ocean: June 25 - 30, 2001

After topping off the tanks in Little Creek we motored through the Bay Bridge Tunnel Complex and into the ocean. The winds continued very light, but we were able to set the spinnaker and set up on a SE course.
	This part of the ocean pretty much belongs to the Navy. For the first day in the ocean we always had one or more warships within sight.
The 00Z surface chart for June 26, 2001 showed that the frontal system had moved off shore and dissipated into a weak low pressure trough. The weather pattern was dominated by a weak high pressure system NE of Bermuda. This brought SE winds to our southern course strategy. We probably should have stayed with this plan, but we decided we had a better chance to get favorable winds along the rhumb line course. By staying on the rhumb line we ran a greater risk of encountering unfavorable currents around the cold water eddies that lay over the entire distance from the Gulf Stream to Bermuda.
	Over the next several days we continued to encounter light winds or calm conditions. Whenever possible we sailed under spinnaker. More often we had to motor.
While we were still on the western side of the Gulf Stream we had repeated encounters with schools of dolphins. We encountered no dolphins and saw very little sea life on the eastern side of the Gulf Stream.
	On the second night in the ocean the spinnaker halyard shackle open while we were trying to resume sailing. We retrieved and re-packed the spinnaker after it fell in the water, but the spinnaker halyard was still at the mast head. The next morning Liz volunteered to be hauled up the mast and she retrieved the halyard.
Light winds prevailed for the remainder of the trip. We motored much more than I had planned and we were all concerned whether we would have either enough fuel or wind to get to Bermuda. The 00Z surface chart for June 30, 2001 showed a very weak pressure gradient that provided little hope for wind. 24 hours later we picked up the Gibbs Hill light on Bermuda. We were motoring with about 35 miles to go with the fuel gauge below the 1/8 mark. I had no idea at what point the fuel pick up would start to suck in air and shut down the engine, but I knew we were pretty close to that point. I couldn't sleep worrying about our fuel situation, and remained on deck throughout the night. Sometime before midnight we encountered a land breeze off Bermuda and were able to turn off the engine and resume sailing. This breeze carried us all the way past the Kitchen Shoals light, where we dropped sails and motored into St. George's harbor.