Cruising World – August 2019

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70

dealing with the conditions.

Before darkness closed in,

we’d doused the main, rolled

up the jib and set the hank-on

heavy staysail/storm jib on

an inner forestay. We jogged

along with the wind at about

60 degrees apparent doing 4

or 5 knots of boatspeed, wait-

ing for the wind shift we knew

was coming from listening

to the high-seas forecast on

the single-sideband radio. We

knew this gale presaged a cold

front and that by sunrise we’d

be loving life as we ran toward

Bermuda in a clear 25-knot

northwesterly.

We later learned that the

Coast Guard had pulled all

fi ve people off a well-built,

50-foot double-headsail-rigged

cruising ketch about 80

nautical miles from our

position. Its crew had tried to

cope with the deteriorating

conditions by dousing all sail

and motoring into the wind. In

those conditions, they’d ended

up rolling the gunwales under.

Then the engine quit. As they

drifted, the deck was leaking,

and every member of the crew

was seasick, cold, wet, scared

and exhausted. Calling the

Coasties for rescue seemed

like a no-brainer, and the

decision was unanimous. With

that call, the owners of the

boat gave up on the cruising

dream they’d been working

toward for many years.

It didn’t have to happen

that way.

PRACTICING PATIENCE

Every November, the

southbound routes from the

East Coast are furrowed with

sailboat wakes as cruisers

abandon the rapidly approach-

ing icy winter weather and

set sail for the tropics. Some

head for Florida, others for

the Bahamas, and still others

for the Caribbean. Some crews

prefer to buddy-boat their

way, some like to join rallies,

and others prefer to sail by

themselves. In more than

three decades of sailing other

people’s yachts (and lately my

own boat) south in the fall, if

there is one piece of advice

I’d give anyone contemplating

this voyage it would be: Throw

away your calendar. The

weather is what it is, and your

schedule matters not a whit.

On a recent passage with a

couple starting their dream of

cruising the world on a well-

found heavy-displacement

cutter, we ended up stuck in

Beaufort, North Carolina, for

a full month as one system af-

ter another pounded through

at 36 - to 60-hour intervals.

There was just no way we

could pick a decent window to

get across the Gulf Stream and

far enough along the track to

Tortola in the British Virgins

to make it clear of the storm

paths rolling through.

A couple of professional

delivery crews passed through

town and made a break for it,

but they later reported very

miserable passages and told

me I’d done the right thing in

waiting with my inexperienced

crew. In the end, we had a

delightful passage in near-ideal

conditions. After completing

that trip, I returned to

Beaufort to get my own,

much faster boat with a more

experienced crew. I ended

up waiting for another week

for a weather window before

we left. The point is you have

to be patient. Good—or at

least reasonable—conditions

will roll around sooner or

later. I tell my clients, “You’re

cruising; you’re already home,

so what’s your rush?”

I usually leave sometime

in November from Newport,

Rhode Island, bound for

Bermuda. If you have a good

boat capable of making the

650-mile passage in fi ve days

or less, except in rare years,

you should be able to pick a

good weather window, if you’re

patient. Note how many times

I qualifi ed that statement.

We have much better weather

information nowadays than

when I started delivering boats,

but bear in mind that weather

forecasting is not perfect, nor

are professional weather rout-

ers. You, your crew and your

boat should be prepared to get

clobbered. Just as important,

you should be prepared to

motor if your boatspeed drops

below about 5 knots; save the

purity of sailing for when you’re

south of Bermuda. That piece

of North Atlantic water on the

way to Bermuda bears a justi-

fi ed fi erce reputation. It’s not a

place to lollygag. For forecasts

and Gulf Stream info, I use the

excellent GFS forecast models

from passageweather.com.

PLANNING

AND PREPARATION

Before I leave on a passage, I

have my sails professionally

inspected and any defects re-

paired. I have them pay special

attention to batten pockets

and sail slides. Sailmakers

will do this for you for at a

surprisingly reasonable price.

Another thing I do is

load up the boat with spare

fuel fi lters. I get a couple of

5-micron elements for the

engine and at least half a

dozen 30-micron elements for

the Racor fi lter. You might run

for years along the coast on

the same fi lter, but once you

get offshore and the seas start

The Swan 62 Aphrodite reaches down the Old Bahama Channel near the end of a passage from Acapulco, Mexico, to Flori-

da. The barrels near the shrouds contained an extra hundred gallons of diesel for the long motor down the coast of Central

America to the Panama Canal (left). Green Brett contemplates life on a delivery from New England to Florida (right).

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