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Land ho! FinallyWell, after several weeks of dancing around the North Atlantic Ocean with gales, storms and calms, we are finally within reach of Ireland. If you are receiving this message, then we have just come into communications range on our approach to Clew Bay. We'll anchor off Clare Island at the mouth of the Bay to straighten up a bit, hoist the Q flag, and make arrangements with customs and immigration. It will be about another 25 miles in the morning to get in to Westport.After about six days of glorious sailing out of Halifax, when it looked like we might cross in record time, we ran into the notorious north atlantic procession of lows. We sailed through the first gale with winds gusting to 45 knots comfortably on our starboard quarter. We skirted the second gale, double backing around it and losing two days of progress as it grew to a strong storm of 986 mb. We hove to for almost two days to let the third gale pass directly over us - we read, baked cookies, and otherwise tried to overcome the frustration and boredom of being stuck in a storm in relative comfort in mid-ocean travelling at the breakneck speed of two knots in the wrong direction. We avoided a couple of other gales altogether by diverting SE into flat calms when we wanted to go NE where the gales treked along... always heading east as the storms moved in parallel just north of our positions. Forget about any great circle route! Each time we lost precious days of rhumbline progress. One step forward, two steps back. Then, just as it looked like we'd be able to run north, the second system (yes the one we danced around for a couple of days) stalled off Ireland and reformed into storm force (up to 55 knots) again and stood in our way. It remained stationary for several days blocking a huge swath of ocean. Above 46N, heavy storm conditions prevailed, and the system was moving slower than we were. We needed to get to 53N. How frustrating. Just 500 miles from home and we could not get there. We tried to go around the back but hit VERY big seas and wind, which of course caused us to double back and heave to for another 36 hours waiting for the storm to step aside. There is no place to go and nothing to do but wait. Thank goodness for a well stocked library and plenty of beef jerkey, oatmeal, soup, granola bars, Dinty Moore, Hormel, chocolate, tea, etc. - the staples of voyaging souls. (Believe it or not, we've both lost a fair bit of weight regardless!) Finally, the storm moved off over Ireland and we got to push north for the first time since leaving Halifax three weeks before. And the weather gods smiled on us with reasonably good 'forecast' conditions. Of course, it would not have been fitting for us to arrive on a gentle sea breeze as predicted. Instead, we first beat upwind against a moderate low pressure in 20-25 knots. Then we beat upwind in 25-35 knots chased by yet another gale for another 15 hours and here we are approaching Clare Island as I write. We have to press on as a major storm is chasing us with 40+ knot winds so we have to make our anchorage before Sunday afternoon. But we are heading home. Yipee! We should be on our mooring by our house by noon tomorrow if all goes well with tides and winds. I have come to think of sailing the North Atlantic as my purgatory. Six gales is more than enough of a test, don't you think? Will it ever end? At least now we have a good idea about how all that rain arrives in Ireland. It starts in maritime Canada, so we'll just call Gilly in Nova Scotia for our long term weather forecasts from now on. We are grateful to Southbound II's Herb Hilgenberg and his sound weather routing advice which kept us safe and moving wherever and whenever possible the entire way. It was especially comforting to check in with someone once a day. Herb also called the coast guard in Ireland after being hailed by CG Nova Scotia who heard from CG Ireland that we were overdue (which we weren't yet but "someone" got worried and called them). He notified both CG CA and IRE of our position and ETA. It's a good system and Herb is an amazing good samaritan. Our friends in the SSB network, including Matt who is singlehanding s/v Alt and who we picked up in Nova Scotia and sailed with all the way to Ireland, made it ever more interesting. Matt sailed right through the middle of Cristobal because he couldn't stop in Nova Scotia - he did not have any Canadian charts! He was en route from Cape May to Ireland via Plymouth UK aboard a Pearson 32 that he rescued from hurricane salvage. Originally from Cleveland, he's been sailing since only 2003 and was most recently a sailmaker in Annapolis. There is an interesting story here. We have a feeling we'll 'see him' again. Actually, it's pretty amazing how many boats are out here going every which way at any point in time: criss crossing the Caribbean, passing to Bermuda and along coastal US, Europeans bound for the Azores, a couple making for Iceland, several to scotland, ireland and britain. It's like highways out here, yet we never actually saw another sailing vessel. Only fishing and cargo transports nearer the coasts and fishing banks. But none across the middle. Not a soul. We learned many things in this ordeal (oops, I meant adventure): patience, humility, endurance, and tackling large goals and small fears bits at a time (or was it small goals and large fears?) are essential. We fought off boredom and frustration and learned how smart it was to stock a good library and plenty of healthy snacks for long watches. There is no way to get off at the next stop when you don't like what's happening around you out here - so once you sign on, you are committed to seeing it all the way through. That changes how you think about things. All the insignificant things go away - and attitude becomes number one. We got into a rhythm out here that all three of us (Onyx included) adopted equally well. Most important, we learned that we still really like each other! We also learned that Aleria is all we expected of her and more. We trust her, yet we have to keep a close eye and help her when she needs it. Chafed halyards and sheets, loose shrouds, broken sail slides, lost shackles and bolts, a broken hatch lock and other repairs kept us busy between sail changes, course corrections, and trashy or historical novels (in alternating sequence). Luckily the gear worked reasonably well, especially our faithfull crew, Jolly Mon (the Monitor wind vane) and Otto (the autopilot). There were many small triumphs along the way: Dolphins visiting us almost every day, body surfing along the tops of 20 foot swells to get a better look at us inside our boat. Birds (not fish) chasing our choice fishing lures. Spectacular sunrises and sunsets. Mesmerizing swells, shooting stars, distant nebula, giant sundogs, silvery moon trails, whales, sharks, processions of evil-looking squalls avoided, gentle breezes and sun showers, swirling cauldrons of sea, eerie songs played on the rigging, and kazillions of small fish boiling at the surface in endless trails of chemiluminescence. And lots of birds, mid-ocean. Who would have thought? Well, you can't see things if you are not out there looking, and we were way out there and watching. By the way, Aleria caught a fish. We did not, although something very big ate our best lure. At least Onyx had some sushi en route. We also had some sad moments, including burial at sea of a swallow that had lost his way in one of the storms and couldn't recover. At least he had a comfortable few final hours riding aboard Aleria, with Onyx keeping a very vigilant watch over her new friend. (And, no, we're pretty sure he didn't have avian influenza, but we sterilized anyway.) So after more than 3800 miles and more than six weeks onboard - three of which were spent mid-ocean, our adventure comes to the conclusion of chapter one. We'll let you know as soon as we are settled in our home. The container with our shipment is due to arrive on or about the 20th of August. Let's hope it didn't fall off the ship! Now the unpacking begins! (What do you do with miles of paper-backed bubble wrap?) We miss you all! |
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