Portuguese man of wars
A Bermudan Longtail who made us company
Wednesday the 5th of July 2006
Hello!
It's not so long ago since our last letter but we have sailed quite a lot. We did all the shopping we needed and then some in St Maarten before we headed off to Bermuda. The weather was very nice and hot and sunny but not a lot of wind. We motored slowly several days in order to not use all our diesel and we did make it. We got some wind further north along with rain and convexion so the wet weather gear was on. Under the trip we saw lots so called Portuguese man of wars, they are fistsize jellyfish with long dangerous tentacles you should stay away from. They are tacking their way around and we had fun watching them. Sometimes they broached but they came up quickly up again and continued their way. We also saw pretty birds that live all their lives at sea and only goes to land to mate. One of them is called the Bermudan Longtail and they circled around us often which made us feel less lonely.
Portuguese man of wars
A Bermudan Longtail who made us company
After 9 ½ days we reached Bermuda, an oasis in the middle of the ocean. Of course it was dark and no moon when we were going in through the narrow cut to St Georges. With the help from Cmap we managed to sneak in all the way to the Customs dock where we were met by the friendliest Customs officer we have ever met. He cleared us in without any hazzles and showed us where to shop, do our laundry, where the buses went from etc. Then he let us stay on the dock for the night so we didn't have to go out and anchor in the middle of the night. It was a wonderful approach after a long trip.
St George's Harbour, Bermuda
The day after we went out to Powder Hole and anchored, that's where we stayed for the duration of our time in Bermuda. We took the bus to Hamilton one day, another day we went by ferry to Dockyard Wharf and looked around. St Georges was also very nice to walk around among the colorful houses and discover new things. The Bermudans are very friendly, everybody say hello and have something nice to say. We think the world should be like this!
Dockyard Warf, Bermuda
When we started getting ready for our next leg north the tropical storm Alberto came by with a little bit too much wind and waves which made us sit back and wait some more days. Alberto was quite unusual as the first tropical storms are supposedly staying in the Mexican Gulf but we assume Alberto didn't know that. We got 30-35 knots of wind and lots of rain when it passed to the north of us. We listened closely to Herbs weather and when he said Alberto was gone and nothing else cooking we took the leap. We called in with him every day and got an update on the weather and even a few waypoints to go through the Gulf stream the quickest and best way. First 3 days were still hot and sunny, then we entered an eddie which gave us a push forward with several knots. The Gulf stream can be borth treacherous and calm and we were a bit nervous about it as we were going to get 20-25 knots when passing through. The wind turned out to be from the SW which was the right direction but it was a bumpy ride going through. At the edge we also went through a prefrontal boundary with a lot of convexion and we even got to see our first water spout. We got through without mishaps and got sunny and nice weather again on the other side.
We had many nice sun sets on our way north
When we were 3 Nm from USA we saw land. It took us 6 ½ days from Bermuda to Newport, RI but this time we entered before dark. A couple of Germans came over with their telephone so we could call Customs to do our clearance which was very nice of them. A Danish boatneighbor came over with a big jar of pickled herring and brown bread and said welcome to the US! Then we saw some friends we got to know in Antigua and they invited us over for a hot shower! That's something we did not say no to! When we got there we were served lobster chowder and then they gave us a big bag of fruit and a bottle of white wine from the area! We were overwhelmed with all the friendliness, this all happened during our first 3 hours in the country!
One of many nice houses in Newport, RI, USA.
We have been here for a week now and we have been taken care of by more friends in the area who's showed us around. Newport is a big yachting center and there are many boats we recognize from Antigua that are here now. The climate is very different to what we have become used to, the duvets are out again as are long pants and sweaters. The water does not have an appealing temperature to go swimming in, we thought it was cold in Bermuda with 23 degrees... I guess we have been a bit spoiled by the Caribbean. We do enjoy being here though. New England (the states from Connecticut to Maine) has lots of history and we are taking it in bit by bit. What we can't get here is not worth having! We will stay in this part of the country during the summer and hope to see some more of the New England coast.
Here we are up in Fort Hamilton, Hamilton, Bermuda
We hope you had a nice summer, Gunilla and Krilla onboard Elvina