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Trip Report: Mystic to St Thomas
Trip Report: Mystic to St Thomas Hanse 400 delivery
For the most part it was an uneventful trip. I'll post some links to pictures/video's when I get some more time. Part I was Mystic to Bermuda. I was one of a crew of four, # 2 on the boat. The last two were students --out on the ocean for the first time. We left late on 10 November and arrived on the 14th. 650 miles in ~ 4.5 days Part II was Bermuda to St Thomas. I was the skipper with a crew of two more. We left at 3:30pm on the 16th and arrived at 3:30 on the 21st of November. 870 miles in just over 5 days. Part I: The departure was delayed several times due to weather and last minute boat issues. The second time we managed to get out, and were ready to sail off, but could not get down to the swing bridge in time. A 12 hour delay would mean beating into a gale as we approached Bermuda. We opted to wait two days for a weather window. Even this looked like we would catch some big wind, but as it turned out we didn't, just the remnants of the previous low's swell. Winds were mostly from the North and pretty cold. I wasn't planning on using a sleeping bag but decided to use one as me feet got a bit cold. One of the two students brought "toasty toes" - chemical warming packs. I put one in each of my two Ugg boots. [For footwear I bought my Uggs and my Crocs.] I slept in my cloths for the first two days and started shedding cloths when we hit the Gulf Stream. The waters seemed relatively flat so I didn't take any sea-sickness medicine. I would probably have been fine, but overconfident I had half a sandwich and two cups of soup. The soup came up later on and I was fine after that on the second day, and felt progressively better as time went on. One of the students got sick but didn't want to admit it. I don't have a problem talking about it. Both students were outstanding on the boat, willing and active. I hung back and let them do many of the chores as they so obviously enjoyed it. They reefed, trimmed up the boat with wind changes and did and all around excellent job. One fellow was Polish. He was sharp as a razor, active and intelligent. Clearly and experienced sailor. The other was an American that I'd raced with in the St Thomas Invitational Regatta. He was perhaps a bit more tentative, but very capable and natural on deck. I'd welcome either one on a future trip. I set up a 1 hour watch schedule thinking we might need it going through the Gulf Stream, but we could hardly tell we were in the Gulf Stream aside from the dolphins and water temperature which read 81 in the Gulf Stream. The idea was we could double up and hang out with our relief watch. I did it anyway as the sky was remarkably clear with the new moon. I started counting shooting stars and reached 51 or more by the last night of the trip. The one hour watch schedule was actually quite nice. I liked the fact that it was over so fast. Also, we saw quite a bit of traffic, especially near the coast the first night out. In fact I've never seen so much traffic. On one watch I had to dodge two ships, sailing an S-turn to get around each. We used the auto pilot quite a bit and it didn't seem to need much attention. It was a Simrad unit--as were the instruments, albeit we used a portable Garmin GPS for navigation. Otto--the auto-pilot was tireless and quite nice when I was feeling a bit sea sick, although I hand steered a bit to help get over the initial seasickness I had. The Hanse's helm was so well balanced that the pilot needed relatively little power to operate. I later ran the unit on leg 2 for two days straight and the batteries could have easily handled much more. We also ran the dc chiller non-stop. That didn't seem to keep the ice box cold and I tossed out a lot of food on the second leg. I learned that Gulf Stream Meander rotate contrary to the way I thought they rotated. That information alone is worth the trip. This means a warm eddy formed by a meander on the North side of the Gulf Stream rotates clockwise. http://daac.gsfc.nasa.gov/oceancolor...cs_rings.shtml As we were closing on the Gulf Stream and the water temperature jumped from the 57, up to the 70's I spotted four dolphins and managed to get a few good videos of them jumping around our bow. We had been motoring in light wind to make time and I'm sure the sound of our propulsion attracted them. They stayed with the boat about 1/2 and hour. We had no luck fishing on this leg. We lost one lure. I didn't like our remaining lure much, as I prefer the pink squid type lures. Then we lost the second lure. On the third day, two 80+ foot yachts appeared behind us and overhauled us during the day. A call on the radio to one confirmed that they left the day after we did from Newport, and were en-route to Bermuda. After that we saw only one other ship, and no traffic at all going into Bermuda the last night. That was unusual also. I expected to see three or four other lights on the horizon as it was so clear. The Bermuda harbor approach might seem a little scary the first time you go in, but actually it is quite easy. While the reef is very large, it is well marked and one steered to the east and zip you are in the St Georges Cut before you know it. It is a wonderful harbor--with lots of good holding, but a bit deep in spots--40-45'. Bermuda is on top of an extinct volcano. It must have been caused by a meteor impact because there is no ridge on the bottom nearby. Depths change from quite deep to soundings in a short distance. Charted depths are ridiculously (miles) deep. Trying to estimate when we'd hit soundings I noticed one portion going from 200 meters to 30 meters. This was quite close to the reef. We knew we were close to running out of fuel, but tried to motor in with fumes and ran out of fuel just outside the harbor. An outboard motor squeeze bulb allowed us to prime the engine and get it restarted in moments. It is the best $4 you can spend! The next morning we cleared in among the many mega-yachts. Part II: All of the harbor fuel docks were closed. We found a fuel truck that came to our boat tied up at the quay. After refueling our main tanks and our one depleted backup tank, the others in the crew took off to return to the states. I picked up our other crew and now had to deal with an approaching front with Southerly winds gusting to 35 knots. I decided to tie up at the Dinghy Club so we could run some errands in town. It would have been better to tie up closer to town. With the winds picking up club members suggested I bring the boat inside the seawall. I tried but couldn't fit the boat in and had to anchor out. During the process I snagged a stanchion and bent it badly. I used the Fortress anchor located on the bow and immediately regretted it as the scope was a bit short. We got caught in a down pour and ducked inside, whereupon the rain ended. Fortunately things calmed down and checking with the weather service found the main front was not due until the next day, whereupon the winds would shift to the Northwest--my exit timing strategy. Our anchor held nicely and I only had to pop out a couple of times to check our anchor. It was nice to get a relatively uninterrupted night's sleep on the boat. I crept off to the bow when I discovered my friend Mike snores louder than a dinosaur. He wears ear plugs so he won't wake himself up! Bermuda weather radio predicted winds would swing to the Northwest. Instead the morning forecast was for west winds changing to Northwest in the afternoon. We hung around until mid afternoon, docking at the Dinghy Club, and winds picked up, pinning us there pretty well. I sent my crew off to buy a few more items and listened to the radio some more. After a while it lightened up slightly but the winds stayed in the West. I decided to leave around 3pm. Checking the engine over, I found 2/5 inches of water in the Racor water filter. Using a small cup to collect it, and the squeeze bulb to purge it took only a few minutes --very cool. I test ran the engine for ten minutes without a hiccup. We set out and hoisted the main with a single reef. I decided against setting the jib, and the winds were 20-25 with gust up to 35 knots. Leaving on a Friday is supposed to be bad luck, I told myself we left the previous Saturday. Mike immediately starting feeling nauseous. He and I had taken Stugereon. I worked for me, perhaps because I had my sea legs still. Mike asked for a second one, and I decided to take a second one. I noticed the recommended dosage was two to start and then one every 8 hours--or was it 12 hours (not sure). When he went below, he lasted about ten minutes and then spent the next hour or so in the head, being violently sick with dry heaves. I gave him water, some cough drops, and several barf bags. I moved over into James' bunk as I was afraid the smell of vomit would make me sick. This was my first use of Stugereon and I found it made my slightly sleepy. It was sort of like Ambien in that it turns your mind off slightly from thinking about feeling sick, so you can sleep. I was quite impressed with it and I've tried most sea sickness medicines. I recommend it, albeit it is not available in the US. Pick some up in Bermuda--you can find it there. So James and I did alternating watches for the next five days. Typically he'd start the night, I'd take the graveyard hours to near dawn and turn it over to him. Later on Mike stood a few watches, but once fell asleep on watch--****ing off James. After that he stood only daytime watches. The winds calmed down and finally went northwest 14 hours after expected. Still later the winds went east and stayed there for a long time, eventually going more northerly. With things calmed down, I installed a new stanchion and move the fixed jib leads forward. This boat normally used a self tending car, but for the trip, we had rigged a pad-eye on the rail to more outboard sheeting. But it was not set in the right position, so I spent some time unscrewing Allen hex screws and moving it forward. We hooked the loch ness monster! Whatever it was, it ran out 50 yards of 90# line in about 1.5 seconds, and then snapped five of the seven eyelets on the rod, before the line snapped at the reel. We later hooked another fish and lost the line and lure just at the leader. Mike is a notorious fishing jinx and he proved it again this trip. At 19 deg 50 minutes north, we crossed the Puerto Rico Trench. James was just coming on watch, so I didn't have to wake him. Together, we tossed in the bent stanchion at a depth of 8032 meters--almost 5 miles deep! I figure it took 10-12 hours for it to hit bottom. Problems: When the winds lightened up, we spotted a tear in the main. We saw this in the first leg, but it had gotten much bigger--hooking on the reefing hook when hoisted. James and I patched this and the sail held the full hoist the rest of the trip. I noticed water leaking out of the aft head. Someone had left the water pressure on. Given that I was the only one who seemed to remember to shut it off, it must have been me. It turned out the manual pump seal had been displaced by the pressure. I removed it, disassembled it, put it back together properly and reinstalled it. The only other problem was ice box which never seemed all the cold. It does have a lower side-opening door and I suspect my crew opened that way too often. James did most of the cooking and I don't think he has good ice-box discipline. Lessons learned: The outboard squeeze bulb is something every boat should have. Gulf Stream Meanders are formed by closing the loop. So the rotation in such cases is clockwise on the north side, and counter clockwise on the south side. The Hanse 400. While I did not sail it upwind in heavy weather, I found the boat handled great. One friend tells me it does not handle well in heavy weather upwind. The rudder is well balance and it has a mechanical linkage so no chain and quadrant. At a certain point there is a bit of binding which goes away if you turn it farther. I'd like to check this out in more detail if I sail the boat again. Once again I loved the auto pilot. It worked perfect and never seemed stressed, except the one time I found the brake on slightly. Aactually it just squeaked, it didn't seem labored at all. Storage was good. The hatches sealed well. I'm not a fan of single line reefing, but that worked well also. The installed Boom brake worked pretty well, but needs a few modifications to make it perfect. It chafed along the wood strip on the cabin top. The teak decks looked nice and offered good traction. The transom folds open to make a nice pass through and the wheel is not so big you cannot get around it easily. I wish the dodger extended back farther. The boat does not have a good layout for ocean sailing. I'd prefer settees that convert into bunks, with pilot berths above, like the J-44. The aft cabin was split into two sea berths with lee boards made from wire shelving material. It worked, but not that great. As a double hander I think it would be a great passage maker. For more than two people it needs a different interior. But I don't think you need more than two people with an auto-pilot. I'd rather have some spare parts and one less person on board. Bart |
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