Harmonica
39 23N 31 10W

What is it like crossing a big ocean in a small sailing vessel?...a question commonly asked. We have met a variety of people from the completely green to the highly experienced; the unconformist odd-ball to the text book conventional; from the die hard racer to the liesurely cruiser but every one has an interesting story.

Here are some notes from the dairy of our crossing from Bermuda to the Azores, a distance of 1,640 nautical miles. We allowed 21 days. We completed the crossing in 19 days. We left St Georges, Bermuda at 4pm, June 25th, 2001. We had light winds most of the way at times no wind at all. At times we had a knot of current sweeping us along.

Day 1-3 Some feelings of apprehension. Must push away all thoughts of what if....someone might get sick when we are too far from help....run out of water....run out of fuel.....Dave seen reading "The ship Captain's Medical Guide". Winds have picked up, moving at 5 knots. Daily radio contact with Tessa, Gordon and nephew, Sam on Makarma, they set off a day behind us.

Day 4 We have settled into our routine of 3 hour watches. Very rolly day. Chopping vegetables for the pressure cooker stew while sitting in the cockpit became quite a challenge. What a mess on the floor. We are now in daily contact with Herb a weather guru from Ontario. He makes his own private weather prediction each day in his basement, then spends 4 hours per day broadcasting individualised forecasts to any small craft in the N Atlantic which checks in daily at 12359 MHz. A knowledgable and dedicated man and accurate too!

Day 5 We are having a lot of problem with radio transmission. Receiving voice and email without any trouble. Radio contact becomes important to us, hope we can solve the problem soon. Just after the 2am watch change, Janet heard a loud thump in the cockpit, got out the flash light to discover a flying fish had landed on the seat and knocked itself out. A Norwegian freighter passed in the night, Dave chatted with them. They could pick up our speed and direction. Nice to know we show up well on radar. We check into the Mississauga HAM radio net every morning and give our position, but they hear a lot of noise on our transmisisons. Otto the autopilot stopped working. It is a real blow when essential equipment fails at a time like this.

Day 6 Canada Day. Good sailing all night. Visited in the middle of the night by another flying fish hitting the dodger. This one survived to tell the tale. Awoke to find two sail boats in sight of us. Trevor and crew on Kimbalina doing a yacht delivery. Fast boat and lots of fuel for motoring. The other boat called NOW has 4 people aboard. All enroute to the Azores. Seeing some sea birds, dolphins, whales in the distance, and the occasional freighter passing by. Dave worked on the autopilot, the motor needs replacing. Sally the windvane is steering, we can only use her if there is enough wind and if we are not running the motor. She cannot manage steering when the spinnaker is up. We are doing a lot of hand steering which becomes tiring and ties you to the wheel. Gordon on Makarma has fallen behind. He sounded fed up on the radio. They have torn their spinnaker and have a faulty alternator. Received email from Doug on Mississauga net who suggests how to improve our radio transimission: we unplugged the computer, broke the ground loop to the radio, and it worked perfectly.

Day 7 We are on top of the world motoring through the North end of the Azores high. Both feeling tired from hand steering day and night. No wind. Sea silky smooth. We are now far enough away from land to feel isolated. Heard via the radio of a boat West of Bermuda enroute to Newfoundland hit by a whale which broke their rudder. They are waiting for the Canadian Coast Guard to come and tow them. We have now travelled 600 miles, still 1200 to go. Seeing the occasional turtle.

Day 8 Dave worked on the autopilot and has it working. We shall keep it for night time steering as we are not sure how long it will run for. Discovered from the Mississauga net that the radio interference is from our own refrigerator which we now switch off when using the radio. The wind picked up late in the day and good sailing all night. Andy, on NOW, still within a few miles of us. They have run out of milk. They came along side and we passed over a bag of dried milk into their fish landing net. Also, we exchanged cameras and took pictures of the boats under sail. We then went on our way. Curry and rice pudding for supper.

Day 9 Gentle sailing with a current behind us. We have changed our time from Bermuda to Azores time, a 3 hour change. Amazing what the body can get used to with snatches of short sleep. Food tastes change while at sea. No desire for tea or coffee. Tangy tastes are welcome.....juice, marmite, sour soothers, sardines, strong cheese, pate etc. Trevor on Kimbalina following Wimbledon on the shortwave radio, he is giving us daily updates.

Day 10 NOW thought they only had 500 miles to go but discovered when talking to us that they had punched the lattitude & longitude the wrong way round and still have 840 miles to go. Some concerns with the amount of fuel they have left. Thoughts...what if they run out of fuel or water, how long before the wind blows again, what is our reponsibility. We need to conserve as well. Celebrated with a half way party....ginger beer and sardine/tomatoe paste on crackers.

Day 11 Motored all night. Used the autopilot which lasted for 12 hours before dying again. Everything would be perfect if the autopilot would work and we did not have to hand steer so much, it ties you to the cockpit. Found little black bugs in the pecans.

Day 12 Still not much wind. A lot of motoring at low revs. Full moon giving lots of light for night watches. Dave revived the autopilot but it only lasted 10 minutes this time. Janet baked bisquick raison scones.

Day 13 Motoring. Sea glassy. NOW saw a dead whale with masses of sea life feeding on it. The smell kept them from going too close to it. We had small tuna swimming along side Harmonica. They are not interested in our fishing line. Concern among our group of boats re fuel. Noone has enought to motor all the way. Only travelled 66 miles in the last 24 hours. Seeing the occasional large jelly fish.

Day 14 Two weeks out, 440 miles to go. Supplies good, on our second tank of water. (we have 4). Have been trying to identify little black birds with white flash, & flight like swallows; dart about as if they are catching insects; occasionally they step on the water surface. They are storm petrels which feed off floating weed & algae. We are now using the spinnaker a lot. Winds light and steady.

Day 15 Motored most of the night, hand steering. Two more boats within VHF range, SARTORI and SHELLBACK. SHELLBACK single handing from the US to Azores had not talked to anybody for 3 weeks. Saw a pod of dolphins all leaping high out of the water travelling fast. The spinnaker caught on the anchor and tore along the foot.

Day 16 Dave repaired the spinnaker. Both tired from hand steering. We are working our way NE to get round the top of the Azores high. NOW got a dolphin caught on their fishing line, its companions seemed to assist in rescuing it. Herb has asked all boats to watch out for a boat called Goose towing a boat called Lady Ada. Dominique from Lady Ada has been take off his boat for medical reasons. Goose has not been heard from for a while. Their shortwave radio has broken.

Day 17 Good wind and current. Spinnaker flying. We are now in a good position North of the high. Out of VHF range of any other boats. Still no word of Goose and Lady Ada.

Day 18 Good wind all night. Rolly sailing. Sally steering. Great break from steering for us. Today, our trip log registered 10,000 nautical miles, the distance travelled since July 2000. Reset itself to 0. Heard that Goose and Lady Ada have arrived in Flores after father and daughter on Goose towed Lady Ada 720 miles. Both small boats about 30ft long.

Day 19 Good wind. Sighted Flores in the afternoon. Steep cliffs with a patchwork of green fields coming close to the cliff tops. Small town with white washed, red tiled cottages tumbling down narrow streets to a small welcoming harbour. Harmonica still had 1/3 of her fuel, 2/3 of her water, and enough food to last for months. What a great feeling of elation and achievment.

A short walk round the town. Bought a bottle of Azorean red wine for $1. We fell into bed that evening and slept deeply for 12 hours to be woken by the crash of the still full wine bottle hitting the galley floor after a swell rocked the boat.

From Jan, Dave, & Harmonica