Busy day!

We have had a busy day... Bill has replaced / fixed many of the things that were broken on the trip here. We also filled the propane for the stove, washed the boat, polished all of the stainless topside, and did a good cleaning below. Unfortunately, Bill has discovered that the big tires on the cruise ship dock in Bermuda did damage to the blue paint on the hull. Between the constant rubbing of the tires and the sand blowing onto the boat at 35-45 knots, the paint has literally been worn down. Waxing and buffing didn't help. Another project.... But for now, it is time for happy hour and backgammon.

We are really looking forward to this weekend. Melanie and Doug are coming for a visit tonight and Andrea will be here tomorrow. It is so nice to have friends and family so close (Cataumet is about an hour from Boston).

Here are some lovely pictures of the marina as well as Mary Elizabeth with her new fenders (we went with black this time, which I think looks nice). As you can tell from these pictures, everything is so different -- so "New Englandy", no "Caribbean blue" to be found) than what we have experienced and seen over the past few months.

Cataumet

A few people have asked where Kingman Marina is exactly. Kingman is in Cataumet, MA - which is on Cape Cod. Yesterday Bill and I drove around Cataumet, Falmouth, and Mashpee for a little while. I saw Bill's old "stomping ground" and the beautiful house that he rented for 12 months six years ago before he moved to Quincy. Bill actually kept his boat Beach House at Kingman Marina, so we had several visitors yesterday.

It is fairly cold here. It is sunny and beautiful, but it is windy and chilly. I bought a windbreaker yesterday, which has helped. I actually moved our shorts and tank tops to the back of our "closet" and moved our pants and t-shirts to the front. It is a beautiful place, though, and we are enjoying ourselves.

I am currently on hold with the VA DMV to get my license renewed. I have just been notified that my expected wait time is 13 minutes....

Heaven on earth

We are in heaven.....

The Wickel's have graciously lent us their car for a few days so yesterday Bill drove to Weymouth and picked me up. After lots of laundry and a good home-cooked meal, we drove to Kingman Marina on the Cape. It was a windy night, and the boat is listing in its slip.

This morning we woke up and did lots of errands. First we hit West Marine and got some parts to fix a few of the things that broke on the way here. We also got new fenders to replace the ones that were smashed by the tires at the cruise ship dock in Bermuda.

But... on the way out of the West Marine parking lot, we spotted a sign for $8.99 lobsters. Yes, that's right, $8.99 lobsters. Now to put things in perspective... we paid $43 in the BVI one night for a half a lobster with no claws and even $15 for crappy hamburgers in Bermuda. So we immediately stopped and had a delicious lunch of lobster, french fries, and coleslaw. And we just might go back tomorrow.

After we went food shopping (we expect lots of visitors this weekend) and Bill got his hair cut and a new Red Sox hat. Oh, and by the way, we were able to get the Red Sox on the computer (via MLB.com) last night, which is another plus to being in the States where we have a (somewhat) reliable internet connection most of the time.

It is nice to be back in New England (even though it is chilly.)

They made it!

This will be short and sweet -- Bill, Al, and Ross arrived at Kingman Marina this morning around 9:00 am after a rough night last night and a leisurely sail this morning. After getting into Kingman, Bill called the Customs and Border Patrol and was informed that they -- and the boat -- had to go through customs and immigration 45 minutes away in Onset. Needless to say, the captain and crew were not happy. But all is well now. I will be heading to Kingman tomorrow (yeah) !!!

Oh, and I finally figured out a way to get statistics on how many people are viewing the blog. And there are a lot of you! We have had 69 visits (from five countries) in the past four days! Thanks!!

Message from sea - Monday Morning

Well, we've had an eventful evening and morning since I talked to you last night. I mentioned we were in the Gulf Stream and going fast but I underestimated how fast we were going to go! We ended up with a new overall Mary Elizabeth speed record of 11.8 knots while in it! We then did between 10 and 9 knots until well into the wee small hours. After we exited the Stream the wind completely died away and we glided along all night in flat seas and all of us agree we had the best night's sleep of the trip. This morning it's gorgeous, sunny, warm and the ocean was perfectly flat, like a lake. Had we been able to pull a water skier, it would have been perfect conditions.


I woke up today for the 0700 check-in to the smell of bacon. Ross made us all bacon, egg, and cheese sandwiches. Again, it's nice to have calm seas sometimes because the meals get so much better.

But the highlight of the morning (it's only 0900) is the all the aquatic life we've seen. It's amazing. We've seen multiple pods of large porpoises feeding. And several pods of small whales! I think they're pilot whales. The adults are about 13-15' long with a dorsal fin on the back. Very, very cool. We also motored past a shark of about 8' that was sunning himself, dorsal and tail fins sticking up through the water.


Currently we're still chugging along in calm winds at about 7.5 knots and with no changes we should be at Kingman between 7 and 8 tomorrow morning. I can't wait! But there's actually a lot to do, particularly clearing customs. I'm not sure who to call yet on the Cape to announce our arrival or whether or not they'll let us check in over the phone or have to meet us at the dock. I'll figure it out though....

Latest email from Bill from Sunday afternoon

...Beautiful, sunny day today with winds still not in the right direction and now dying. We motor sailed all night but now we are bucking some sort of current that is keeping our speed down to 8 knots. I'm predicting Gulf Stream entry about 6 tonight. Hopefully they're correct in predicting the light winds because it can get nasty if the north winds are working against the current flowing north. A couple of interesting tidbits of our (so far) monotonous life...we had dolphins again yesterday three times but not anywhere near as many and as long as our previous visit. Also, after not having seen any vessels at all (even on radar or AIS) for a day and a half, we had a cargo vessel and cruise ship all converge in about a 4 mile radius today. Last night Ross whipped up the salad he was talking about and it was delicious. It's so funny how something we take for granted tastes so much better when you're out here. Well, that's about it except there's supposed to be a cold front moving through the Newport/Cape area on Tuesday with strong winds and thunderstorms. Nice! Have fun docking in that! Maybe they'll be wrong about that too....

Emails from Bill

Here are parts of a few emails from Bill. While he is on passages, he is able to check email via "sail mail" once a day via the single-sideband radio.

Friday:
It's just about midnight and I'll be getting off watch soon so I thought I'd let you know how the day went. Like I told you we left about 9:15 this morning and motored around the north part of the island and past all the reefs but we had to motor sail for a lot of the day until about 4 when the wind shifted and we finally got the jib out. Then until it got dark we had a bitchin' sail (the kind you hate) and averaged around 7 kts when we put in a couple of reefs to flatten out the boat for sleeping etc. Since then we're still sailing averaging a little more than 6 kts. Very nice sunset tonight! About an hour ago the Norwegian Dawn came by a couple of miles away all lit up...pretty cool. And just a little while ago the moon came up and looks almost full.

Saturday:
So not much else happened overnight. We're motor sailing again because the winds died down and aren't quite in the right direction. Even though it isn't raining it's overcast and not real warm with fairly quiet seas. I'm probably going to go back and crash for awhile since I did two watches last night and didn't sleep much when I had the time off. What's the plan for tonight? Let's see I'm probably just going to hang out on the boat!

They are off!

Bill, Al, and Ross left at 9:15 this morning (Bermuda time) in good weather and average seas. Bill expects that the Mary Elizabeth should arrive at Kingman Marina sometime on Tuesday.

Again, you can track the boat using the link on the right of this page.

We will keep the boat at Kingman, which is in Cataumet, Cape Cod Massachusetts (about 70 miles south of Boston) through June 8th. The boat needs a lot of TLC (and will need even more after this passage, I am sure) so we will spend a few weeks getting things fixed so the boat is in tip top shape for the summer. June 8th we will move the boat to Marina Bay in Quincy (our old stomping ground!) until a few days after our party. The plan is to then head north. We are not sure how far north into Maine we will go (any suggestions? Ideas? Recommendations? Do tell!) but we are looking forward to it for sure!

Our stay in Bermuda

...we didn't have an internet connection in Bermuda, so here are a bunch of blog entries and pictures that I wasn't able to post until now. Enjoy....

Tuesday we did get word that we would have to leave the cruise ship dock since the weather had temporarily calmed down. Bill and Bill helped Bill and I anchor the boat. Bill fixed the windlass, which was acting up and then Bill from Crazy Horse shuttled us to shore (we have no dinghy!) for lunch. I flew to Boston in the afternoon.

Al and Ross are expected to fly into Bermuda today (Wednesday) and the Mary Elizabeth should leave Bermuda on Friday with the rest of the fleet.

Bermuda is a beautiful place - one that we hope to be fortunate enough to return to soon.

We had been told all week that when the weather finally breaks we would have to move off of the cruise ship dock. We thought we would have to move on Monday, but it was still too windy. We had Bill, Bill and Carol over for breakfast and then watched another cruise ship come into a different dock. When we finally heard that we could stay where we were for at least another day, Bill, Carol, Bill and I decided to take a taxi to the Crystal Caves, which were really neat. We stopped for a late lunch / early dinner at the Swizzle Inn. Bill hosted happy hour on Crazy Horse, which led to a late night of card playing.

On Sunday morning Bill, Bill, and Bill (see how it gets confusing?!?) worked on fixing a generator problem that we are having. It is automatically shutting off after only 10-15 minutes of use.

Thankfully Sunday was a nicer day weather-wise. We took the scooter all the way to Gibbs Hill lighthouse, which was a beautiful ride. We actually walked up to the top of the lighthouse where the view was of course outstanding. We drove the long way "home" around the island stopping at the famous Swizzle Inn for the famous Bermudian cocktail.

On Saturday we rented a scooter! Bermudians either drive really small cars or they drive scooters. Thankfully Bill drove since they drive on the left. It was a really windy day and we could definitely feel the wind as we drove out of St. George's into Hamilton exploring.

Our first stop was the Aquarium/Zoo, which Bill and I really enjoyed. The aquarium houses really neat fish, lobsters, octopus, sharks, etc. -- things that neither of us had ever seen before. AND they had a nurse shark, similar to the one that Bill and I saw when we were snorkeling in St. John.

The zoo was neat too. We saw flamingos, peacocks, turtles, otters, wallabies, and more. We also saw seals being fed by their trainers, which was really amazing.

After the Aquarium/Zoo we kept going towards Hamilton. We stopped at downtown Hamilton for lunch and then walked around trying to find the yacht club in the event they had a marine store. When Bill asked a local where we could find a marine store, he told us to hop in and, not only drove us there, but walked us into the store and introduced us to the marine staff. Unfortunately they didn't have what we were looking for.

It started to rain so we stopped and had a drink while waiting for the weather to clear up since neither of us had a rain jacket and we had a 45 minute scooter ride ahead of us to get back to the boat.

Carol and Bill graciously had us for a delicious dinner and we had an early night.

On Friday Bill and I walked around St. George's. We walked up to the eastern tip of the island via one of the many golf courses on the island, saw Fort St. Catherine and several other forts, had lunch at Blackbeard's and explored. It was a beautiful day on a beautiful island.

Friday night we hosted happy hour on the Mary Elizabeth with our friends Carol and Bill from Rigel, Bill from Crazy Horse and others. Since there are so many Bill's we have come up with nicknames - Bill McClendon is "Island Bill" (for Island Packet), Bill on Crazy Horse is "Crazy Bill" and Bill on Rigel is "Indiana Bill." We are lucky to be docked / rafted up with such great people!

Cruise Ship Docks and Dust

I flew into Bermuda on Thursday. Bill met me at the airport and we returned to the boat. Since so many boats are "stuck" in Bermuda because of weather, several vessels (including Mary Elizabeth) were actually tied up to the cruise ship dock. The weather is so bad that even the cruise ships couldn't come in! So the Mary Elizabeth has a prime location at the dock with sv Rigel (our friends Carol and Bill) rafted off our port side. We are lucky we don't have to anchor since we don't have a dinghy! We are unlucky because the cruise ship dock is not made for small boats. There are large tires that are used as fenders for the cruise ships that are rubbing against the boat. There is also a lot of dust and dirt that is being stirred up because of the winds. Needless to say the boat is filthy.

Bermuda is beautiful! The people are so friendly - which is a huge departure from the US and British Virgin Islands. Everyone greets everyone walking down the street. We have been treated very nicely. The island is stunning. Everything is so green. And it smells fabulous -- there are flowers and gardens and blooming trees everywhere.

The water is different than anywhere else we have been. Bermuda is surrounded by a large coral reef. The rock formations are amazing, and the water is all different colors. It is really a very beautiful, friendly, clean island.

Bermuda...

Since the boat isn't leaving anytime soon because of weather, I am actually flying to Bermuda early tomorrow morning to see Bill. Everyone says Bermuda is absolutely beautiful and I am really excited to see Bill (it's been two weeks!) and explore a new place. Plus it will be nice to be able to assist with some of the boat maintenance so Bill doesn't have to do everything solo. I'll fly to Boston on Tuesday, which is when the Mary Elizabeth and crew will hopefully be leaving for Cape Cod.

I had a really nice day yesterday at the Bunche Library where my lovely colleagues had an amazing surprise waiting after we returned from lunch. It was a nice afternoon catching up with everyone. I will post some pictures soon.

Bill and seven other guys from the "stranded fleet" went golfing today. The winds are still strong, but there was only a little rain. He said it was a nice departure from hanging out on the boat fixing stuff.

We finally broke down and got an air card which will give us access to wi fi wherever we are able to pick up a phone signal (thanks Cindy for the info!) It will be a lot easier than trying to "steal" a signal or pay each time we need wi fi. And we'll always be connected. It is amazing how dependent we have become on email...

Whiling away the time in Bermuda...

Bill here, reporting from beautiful Bermuda. As Lauren mentioned we've been waiting it out until the weather breaks even though I won't be able to leave until Al and his buddy get here on Monday. Bermuda is really pretty but I still haven't gotten out of St. Georges. Lauren is coming for a few days on Thursday and I'm going to wait to rent a scooter and do "touristy" stuff until she gets here. And still the weather isn't cooperating. Today we're having winds gusting in excess of 40 knots. The harbor is as frothy as any body of water I've ever seen and even though we were supposed to vacate the cruise ship dock today, we've been able to stay since the cruise ships have a 20 knot restriction to enter the tight harbor entrance. The weather guessers are now saying "maybe Sunday"...might very well work out for me to leave with the fleet. One other interesting thing occurring...right next to the cruise ship dock is an unpaved parking lot where tons of some sort of ash/mud/dirt/sand is blowing onto our boats. In between we're having rain showers that turn it into mud rather than washing it off. Everyone who knows me understands this is driving me crazy but there is no electricity or water at the dock to do anything about it! That's it for now. Bill standing by in Bermuda....

Cindy's chronicles...

Here are some emails sent by Cindy during the passage.

Start of the Atlantic Cup at noon yesterday in Soper's Hole was uneventful with no boats on time for the start, everyone late. We crossed the starting line on starboard and tacked just once then back to starboard where we've faithfully remained. The winds, there are winds!, are out of the ENE between 10-15 so we've been sailing right along. Zero engine hours for the Mary Elizabeth! The organizers won't know what to do with Bill once we make it to Bermuda. We should arrive sometime on Thursday. I'm drowsy from dramamine but I was pretty sick yesterday and question why I agreed to do this. It's better today. Last night Al was not feeling great either and we decided that Bill could form a sideline enterprise: Daisy Bill's Outward Bound Weight-loss Program. I'll spare you the details.

It's Monday afternoon and we are still sailing. Winds are kind of squirrelly now but we are still doing about 6 knots/hour. We are just shy of 500 miles from Bermuda. I'm still a little queasy but much better than Saturday night. It's beautiful, sunny, and blue. Not bad. Still planned on arrival on Thursday morning. Nothing else to report....

we motored today for about 6 hours and now we are under sail with just a spinnaker doing about 4.5 kn, which is slow but bill is trying to be competitive and there's a complicated equation for penalty for engine use etc. we haven't seen any other boats today. it's beautiful bright blue sky, indigo water, hot and sunny. enjoy it while we can. we are still aiming for thursday arrival in bermuda. i've been so sick that i have been thinking that i will just come home from bermuda and bill and i discussed this last night. he agreed that if i still didn't feel better by arrival, i should leave. i stopped taking dramamine yesterday afternoon, that stuff really made me very drowsy, and so far so good, but we've had nice calm seas. i'm not sure what will happen when the ocean gets mixed up again. it may be time to admit that i am person who gets seasick. tix out of bermuda might be very expensive and i really do want to see this through but i don't want to be as sick as i was for the first 2 days into this. not good. so, nothing else to report. there are a few birds out here and flying fish. have you been watching the satellite tracking thing? can you tell how we're doing? i'll call when i get to bermuda.

i have been officially relieved of my duties and bill is going to send me home from bermuda. we agree that the second part of the journey will likely be unpleasant weatherwise. it's one thing to be sick when it's sunny and warm and another in cold gray new england pea soup. we still hope to arrive in bermuda tomorrow (thurs) but we might not make it until friday. we are 180 nautical miles away and motoring at 7 kn right into the wind. we're done sailing: we've chafed the top of the foresail on the spinnaker halyard and suspect that the fix is a project for a sailmaker. bill is likely going to stay in bermuda to have that repair and others resolved. al is going to fly back to bermuda in week or so to bring the boat to cape cod.

Bill and Wick and I brought the boat safely to Bermuda. It was a great trip. The boat was covered in puke at the beginning (mine) but we hit some rain on Day 3 and cleaned it off. Bill is going to stay in Bermuda to wait out some weather and have some repairs done. He should turn up at Kingman in time for the Chart Room opening. Clever Bill.

SECOND PLACE!

Bill was notified last night at the awards ceremony that Mary Elizabeth came in Second Place in rally class 2. Congratulations to Bill, Cindy, and Al!!!! The full breakdown of results for the 2008 Atlantic Cup can be found here. (LINK IS NOW FIXED)

Al left for Boston this afternoon. Before he left, however, he and Bill were able to get the sail back up and replace the bolts on the traveler, which would have been a lot of work for one person. Mary Elizabeth is still on the cruise ship dock, but the rumor is that a ship will be coming in on Tuesday so the fleet will have to move again. No word on when any of the boats will begin the passage north - the weather is still too rough.

I enjoyed my first Nationals Game today with Sara, Mark, and Pam. The new stadium is fabulous, and even though they lost, it was a great afternoon.

They made it....

Mary Elizabeth arrived in Bermuda on Thursday afternoon. They were the 8th boat in the fleet to arrive in St. Georges. Bill estimates that they sailed 80% of the time and averaged between 7 and 8 knots. When they arrived in Bermuda, they had to med moor, which basically means that they put out the anchor and tie the lines off the stern.

The weather is not cooperating. The fleet expects to remain in Bermuda through the beginning of next week (at least) since there are two storms (a "weather event" to quote Bill.) Unfortunately another rally is arriving today so the Atlantic Cup fleet was forced to move from their current location. This morning Bill and Al moved the boat to the cruise ship dock. There are 10 boats from the Atlantic Cup rally at the cruise ship dock - they tied off two deep. According to the weather service, the winds are expected to increase even more in the next few days.

Since the fleet won't be leaving anytime soon, Cindy left on Friday for Florida. Al will be leaving tomorrow but will return the 19th to help Bill continue moving the boat to Cape Cod. It will take another 4 or 5 days to get from Bermuda to the Cape.

Yesterday Bill went up the mast to inspect the sails. There is a 4 inch rip in the jib, so he and Al took the sail down to have it repaired. It should be ready on Monday or Tuesday. In addition to the sail, the windlass isn't functioning correctly, the sump pump in the aft cabin was acting up and the bolts on the roller furling need to be replaced. Bill has a busy week in front of him.

So things are going OK at the moment. Since all the boats in the fleet are in the same situation, everyone is helping everyone else out - which I for one am thankful for since Bill will be solo starting tomorrow.

Oh, the places we've been....

These are the places that we have been in the past few months….

Jost Van Dyke: White Bay ***
Jost Van Dyke: Little Harbour
Jost Van Dyke: Great Harbour
Tortola: Cane Garden Bay
Tortola: Soper’s Hole/West End
Tortola: Nanny Cay
Tortola: Road Town
Tortola: Marina Cay
Tortola: Trellis Bay
Norman Island: The Bight
Norman Island: The Caves*
Pelican Island: The Indians
Peter Island: The R.M.S. Rhone
The Dogs*
Virgin Gorda: The Baths***
Virgin Gorda: Spanish Town*
Gorda Sound: Saba Rock

Gorda Sound: Bitter End
St. Thomas: Charlotte Amalie
St. Thomas: Red Hook
St. Thomas: Megan’s Bay
St. John: Cruz Bay
St. John: Maho Bay***
St. John: Francis Bay
St. John: Leinster Bay
St. John: Caneel Bay
Anegada
St. Croix: Christiansted**

*Bill only **Lauren only ***Favorites!

Almost there....

According to the Atlantic Cup site, Mary Elizabeth should land in Bermuda sometime today....They are about 50 nautical miles from shore. For now, however, there is no 'news'.


I had a fabulous time with Kerry, Trent, Abigail, and Phil the dog. On Tuesday Kerry took me on an amazing tour of the rest of St. Croix. We went to the rain forest, fed a pig beer, stopped and had lunch, saw a bunch of turtles and really had a nice time. Tuesday night Trent watched Abigail while Kerry and I had a nice dinner.

Abigail is absolutely amazingly cute, and I really loved Phil the dog.


I am so glad that I was able to visit the Waldo's and St. Croix. I really like the island and hope that we are able to go back soon.

Turtles....

Kerry, Abigail, and a very large pig....

Phil the dog....

Half way there...

I received a short phone call from Bill last night. Besides a few things that have been broken during the passage, and a few bouts of sea sickness, Mary Elizabeth and her crew are holding up well. They have been sailing the whole time and are averaging between 6 and 7 knots. You can see their positions via Google Maps here. They passed the 1/2 way point last night. They should arrive in Bermuda on Thursday.

St. Croix continues to be amazing. Yesterday Kerry, Abigail and I did some errands and saw more of this beautiful island. Last night we went to dinner for Cinco de Mayo and had a nice evening with Kerry and Trent's friends.

Here is a picture of Ms. Abigail, 11 weeks old.

Kerry and Lauren at Point Udal, which is the Eastern most part of the United States.

Message from sea:

Bill is able to send and receive brief emails from the boat. Below is part of an email update that I received this afternoon. Mary Elizabeth is actually right in the middle of the pack according to the rally website.

...Anyway, so much for the light winds! We've had over 20 knot winds since the start of the race and have been sailing the whole time! So far I
figure we're averaging about 7 knots. Last night we decided to reduce sail since it was dark and to flatten out the boat...

St. Croix is fabulous. I have been enjoying Kerry and Trent's hospitality, getting to know Abigail (who is now 11 weeks old) and having fun with Phil the dog. Last night we had a great sushi dinner and today, after a delicious breakfast, we walked downtown with their neighbors Ann and David to watch the St. Croix Triathlon. St. Croix is green and lush and beautiful.

They're (almost) off!

A few last minute things to do this morning (customs and immigration, secure a few final things on the boat, etc.) and then they're off!

Al's here!

Al arrived in Tortola this afternoon. Bill and Cindy attended the weather briefing and I picked Al up at the ferry dock. Unfortunately, it sounds like there is not going to be very much wind for the next few days. So the sail from BVI to Bermuda might be more of a motor.....

The rally hosted a really nice dinner tonight. We feasted on mahi mahi, chicken, salad, rice, veggies, dessert....

We are calling it an early night since we have to be up early tomorrow (and since last night was NOT an early night...) My ferry to St. Thomas leaves at 9:45. I am taking a sea plane to St. Croix, which should be interesting (or scary). Bill, Cindy, and Al will push off from the dock between 10:00 and 10:30. The race actually starts at noon near Soper's Hole. So, Mary Elizabeth should arrive in Bermuda in four, four and a half days. It is an 850 mile trip.

Cindy is going to send updates via email so I can post to the blog to share with everyone. And of course we can track Mary Elizabeth's position via the Atlantic Cup website.

Cindy's here!

Cindy arrived safe and sound yesterday. After picking her up at the ferry dock, we went to the Rally happy hour here at the marina. We then had a nice dinner in Road Town with Andy and Cindy from Valhalla. It's so nice to see her!!!


We have spent most of today doing lots of last minute things....

Al should be here on the 4:30 ferry tonight.