Hampton Virginia --June 16, 2002

Upon arriving in Hampton, VA. with Bran, we sailed directly to Salt Ponds Marina where the Bermuda Cup was scheduled to depart in a few days.  My purpose in going to Salt Ponds was to see the preparations for the cruising rally as the Bermuda Cup Rally is put on by the same people that do the Caribbean 1500 Rally in November that I am registered to participate in with Quietly.  Also Roy Taylor and his boat Contessa would be there as they were participating in the Bermuda Cup Rally.

Roy and Robin (in the left picture) along with Robin's sister Ginger and her fiancé (in the picture to the right from their wedding) were on hand to help dock Quietly when we arrived at Salt Ponds Marina form Charleston.  And of course Buddy (remember Buddy from the day Roy got the call when we were at Gold Coast Marina) was there as well.  Ginger was to crew on Roy's Contessa in the Bermuda Cup Rally, but with the wedding scheduled for the Sunday the race would return to Hampton, they had decided that she would remain at home to get ready for the big day and invited me to crew on Contessa for the Bermuda Cup Rally. 

What a great opportunity!  I had decided to stop at the Salt Ponds Marina to observe the preparations for the rally, now I had the opportunity to actually participate!  Trying to hide my enthusiasm, I said that I would like to think about it over night and would give them an answer in the morning.  I was so excited I could barely sleep that night.  It was later then next day when I finally caught up with Roy on the phone to tell him that I was excited to participate with them.  Roy was with Contessa on the hard with a problem that he had discovered, but he was happy that I would be joining them.  Robin would call me that evening with the details.  I spent the remainder of the day talking with the owners and crews of some of the other boats that would be participating and visiting with Steve who is the organizer of both the Bermuda and Caribbean rallys.

West Marine Bermuda Cup Rally

Robin called that night and told me a little about the other members of the crew.  Roy and I would be the "token" male crew... The rest were Robin and her friends Linda and Carolyn.  Another unique thing about the crew that everyone is either currently an officer in the US Air Force or has been an officer in the Air Force! Roy is a retired full Cornel test pilot, Robin and Linda are both currently full Cornels and Carolyn a Lt. Cornel.  As for myself, a pilot and lowly Captain 25 years ago.  So we all hand something in common.  Roy was the most experienced sailor, second was Robin, and third was me.  Linda and Carolyn had no sailing experience but were interested in seeing what it was like to sail a small boat across the ocean.  Pretty gutsy of them!

Robin, and I attended the daily Rally briefings while Roy was working on Contessa, adding air-conditioning to the aft cabin so that Buddy would have a cool home.  Of course that was also Roy and Robin's cabin.  Also being added to the boat was a new Max-Prop which provided a great performance enhancement to the boat.  It increased our speed through the water by over one knot both motoring and due to its feathering design, also when sailing.

There were a total of 10 boats entered into the Rally divided into two classes - The fast boats, and the slower boats.  Contessa is a Morgan 44 and we were classed in the slower boat class along with six other boats including a Morgan 43 sister ship.  At 12:00 on Sunday June 16th, the horn sounded at the buoy just off Salt Ponds, we raised our spinnaker and were off!  The fast boats were really fast!  Within an hour the three of them were disappearing through the bridge tunnel with the rest of us miles behind in a relatively small area.  Clearly Steve had done a good job of placing the boats in their classes.

On the first day most of the boats except the three rocket ships were sailing fairly close to one another.  As sun began to get low in the sky behind us we could count the sails of five boats around us as our crew settled in for our first dinner. I had no idea that I had signed up for the gourmet cruise, but Robin amazed us every day with her meals.  This first night it was marinated chicken breast from the grill and string beans with almonds.  As we sat around in the cockpit talking after dinner we watched what was to become a nightly spectacular.  Sunsets at sea are nothing like you will ever sea on land...  My watch was from 11 PM to 1 AM so at around 8:30 I disappeared to my bunk to get a cat nap before my watch.  Being the tallest member of the crew, I had the couch in the salon as it was the longest bunk.  Within a few minutes I was surprised to see everyone except the crew on watch slip into their bunks.

In a true sailboat race, cranking the engine to motor sail would be automatic disqualification, but in a Cruising Rally using the engine is optional and the time that the engine runs is simply added to your total trip time.  Roy had figured that any time our boat speed dropped below 5 knots we would cover enough distance with the extra power of the engine to make the penalty worth while. During the Rally to Bermuda this would be come necessary as the winds were often light  or right on the nose. 

Roy taught me how valuable the VMG (Velocity Made Good to a point) on the GPS can be in a Cruising Rally.  As the wind would swing around to be more from the southeast or east and we would have to tack or bear off to maintain our boat speed, our VMG to Bermuda would drop dramatically to where even though our boat speed through the water was 5.5 to 6.0 knots, our VMG would drop to only 1.6 to 2.0 knots.  This is when cranking the engine and motoring directly to Bermuda was worth the time penalty.

I will attempt to explain. Rather than 1.6 knots VMG to Bermuda, we would instantly be making 7.2 knots VMG motoring direct.  Sailing it would take 4.3 hours to cover 7 miles, motoring it would take one hour to cover the same 7 miles.  Thus for race timing we could cover 7 miles in two hours (the actual one clock hour and the one hour penalty) thus we were 2.3 hours faster by motoring. This was very important experience for me!

During the race Roy was teaching me how to manage fuel in the situation of ever decreasing winds. By using the VMG calculation above we knew when it was beneficial to motor and when it was not.  We conserved fuel when ever possible always calculating at what point we could make Bermuda by power along if the wind stopped completely. As the winds decreased many of the other boats spent many more hours motoring than we did and two ran completely out of fuel just outside Bermuda.  We on the other hand had ample reserves.

It was late in the afternoon on the last day when we were motoring towards Bermuda when we stopped to provide aid to a sailboat (not from our group) in distress that was becalmed for two days 100 miles off Bermuda .  There was absolutely no wind and the sea was as flat as mirror when we spotted the boat,  It had a sail up but was not moving.  We carefully inspected the boat with the binoculars staying well away in case these were pirates trying to lure a boat in.  No one answered our radio calls and there was no one to be seen so now we were really concerned.  As we slowly circled one man came on deck and then there was a radio call for the boat circling.  This was a delivery crew taking the boat from the Bahamas to Annapolis when their alternator had frozen up.  This prevented them from running the engine and with no wind, they had been sitting there for almost two days when we found them.

Earlier in the trip we had also had an alternator failure on Contessa and were now using the backup alternator.  We arranged to transfer our broken alternator to them as it would at least turn and would allow them to use their engine.  We stood off while they swapped out one bad alternator for another.  This took several hours so our crew decided to go swimming before dinner while we waited.  Just before Robin had dinner ready the other boat called on the radio to say that when they were swapping the alternators they had found the real problem.  A washer had slipped down between the alternator pulley and the engine and after removing it all was fixed!  We met up again and they passed our broken alternator back to us and we watched them sail off literally into the sunset as we enjoyed another of Robin's great dinners.

Later that night when Roy and Robin were on watch as we approached Bermuda, a little after midnight, Bermuda Radio ask if Contessa would do them a favor.  Bermuda Radio was looking for a fishing boat that was over due and they could see two fishing boats on their radar but could not hail either on the radio.  Would Contessa mind sailing out to the two boats and check on them for Bermuda Radio.  As the rest of us slept Roy and Robin approached one boat and then an hour later the other and reported back to Bermuda Radio that neither boat was the one they were looking for, but that the crew on the second fishing boat was certain the boat they were looking for was safe at home.  Roy and Robin guided Contessa up to just out side the cut into St. Georges Bermuda at 2:00 in the morning, anchored and crawled into their bunk waiting for all us to see the spectacular harbor as we entered in daylight and docked at St. Georges Dinghy Club.

St. Georges - Our Week In Bermuda

We sailed into St. Georges Harbor through the narrow town cut a little after 8:00 in the morning and proceeded across the harbor to the Customs Dock. Clearing in was a simple process of our crew filling out customs forms and presenting our passports.  The same documents you would fill out on a flight into Bermuda and then showing our passports just as you would as you got off the plane.  Here we all are after arrival.

After clearing in, we motored back across the Harbor to the St. Georges Dinghy Club  dock where all the boats were required to "Med-Moor."  Roy and Robin had done this the year before, but "Med-Mooring" is an art... This is when you drop your anchor slightly less than the length of your anchor chain in front of the dock and then back into the dock such that your anchor holds you bow strait out from the dock and you tie two stern lines to the dock.  Not the easiest thing in the world to do but we made it with some effort.

An hour later we watched Megan Alt at the helm of her fathers Morgan 42 do it flawlessly on her first try.  She received the admiration of all the boats there!  Megan and one of her school mates (both 20 years old) and their fathers had crewed Megan's fathers boat over in the rally.  It seems that their autopilot had given them problems and the two girls had helmed most of the way to Bermuda.  To say that Megan is a natural sailor is an understatement.  She is also a world traveler having taken a year off from school to travel through Europe by herself.

Most of the week was spent sight seeing and enjoying the company of all of the fleet at the evening impromptu happy hours at the Dinghy Club.  We visited the oldest church on the  island built in the 1600's and still in use today.  Then there was the trip to the unfinished church which has looked the same for over 100 years! Of course we sampled the local restaurants and oh...those beautiful vistas which just take your breath away.  One of my favorites was "bear rock" which looks like a bear fishing in the surf.  What do you think?

One of the highlights of the week for me was my afternoon swim with the Dolphins at Dolphin Quest.  There are simply no words to describe the experience of swimming with several dolphins who are happy to let you rub their bellies and swim up to eat fish out of your hand.  The trainers/instructors there taught us about the dolphins and how they interact with one another and with humans in the water. 

The awards banquet Saturday evening started with a festive parade of bagpipes and dancers marching along the dock in front of the Dinghy Club.  Afterwards each boat was presented with a silver cup acknowledging their participation in the Bermuda Crusising Rally.  Roy and Robin and Contessa received a special award that is awarded only occasionally for displaying the spirit of seamanship for our efforts in helping the stranded and becalmed vessel on the way to Bermuda and our efforts in helping Bermuda Radio locate the missing vessel the night we arrived in Bermuda.

The Trip Home to Hampton

Our time in Bermuda came to an end long before any of us were ready to leave the island.  But after the awards banquet on Saturday night, we slipped out of St. Georges Harbor a little before 11:pm ahead of the rest of the fleet sleeping. They followed us leaving Sunday Morning.

After coming out of St. Georges Harbor through Town Cut we sailed east to clear the reefs and swung around north of the reef and picked up a starboard tack with the winds on our beam which we held all the way into the Chesapeake Bay five days later arriving at the Salt Ponds Marina a little after 8 PM in the evening on July 4th. After tying Contessa to the dock, we stood on deck watching the 4th of July fireworks with Roy & Robins children, Frank, Ginger, and Brian who had come out to welcome us home.

The sail back to Hampton was truly marvelous.  Every time we approached a group of clouds on the horizon, they would dissipate and then reform behind us such that we were all ways sailing under clear skies over head with winds on our beam.  Our days were spent reading, sunbathing on the foredeck, and fishing.  Robin's fresh, as in served on the plates an hour after being caught, Mahi Mahi cooked on the grill is perhaps one best thing I have ever put in my mouth!

The rest of the fleet that left behind us on Sunday morning did not have our luck and sailed back in squally conditions.  Those clouds that reformed behind us rained on the rest of the fleet most of the way home.  Sometimes you are just lucky!

The  following  weekend Frank and Ginger joined together on Frank's boat in a most picturesque and wonderful wedding.  Roy and Robin hosted the wedding reception in their home with wonderful South Louisiana Cajun food and friends.  This wedding was actually the reason why I was able to make the trip.  Ginger, who is Robins sister, was to make the trip to Bermuda with them but when Frank proposed, a wedding had to be planned and thus there was a place for me.  What a happy set of circumstances!

My plan was to have the rigging inspections for the Caribbean 1500 done in Hampton and then head north to Rhode Island for the summer .  I had no idea that I would spend the next three months in Hampton getting Quietly ready for the Caribbean 1500 but I was about to find out...

Continued in the section "Summer in Hampton."

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