Marc's Sailing Log
November 2004
During the month of November, I will be sailing from Hampton, VA to Tortola in the British Virgin Islands. The trip begins on Sunday November 7th and should take us around 10 days. Our planned route takes us across the Gulf Stream, through the Atlantic Ocean and into the Caribbean. In other words we're right through the middle of the Bermuda Triangle. We have a crew of 4, and the yacht (The Andy-Em) is owned by my uncle-in-law, Ken Forsberg. There are limited means of communication while at sea, so I have set up this web page for people who want to check on our progress. This site updates automatically, so I apologize in advance for any problems that might occur. I will try to make a log entry at least once a day. If you don't hear from me please don't call the Coast Guard, we have plenty of emergency equipment to do that. If you urgently need to contact me, please email Becky, becky@handcut.com and she will pass the message along to me.
This sailing trip is actually a race, the Caribbean 1500. There are about 50 boats making the journey. The organizers of this race also have a web site which will be updated daily. The site will post weather reports and positions so you can see how far ahead we are. You can find the web site here: http://www.carib1500.com/c1500
Message Log:
(Please scroll to the bottom for the most recent posts)
Sent from Marc's cell phone
Date: Tue, 2 Nov 2004 12:13:44 -0500 (EST)
test message from my cell phone. current position: [cubicle] heading SSW @ 0 Knots. weather: cloudy with a 90% Chance of election today.
Sent from Marc's cell phone
Date: Fri, 5 Nov 2004 20:11:54 -0500 (EST)
I've arrived in hampton. the boat is beautiful but the start has been delayed due to bad weather in the gulf stream. we'll know more tomorrow.
Sent from the Andy-Em
Date: Sat, 6 Nov 2004 17:30:32 -0000 (GMT)
(Subtract 5 hours for Eastern Standard Time)
Hi Everyone,
The race start has been delayed for a few days, until Wednesday at the earliest. There were reports of 30-40 foot swells along the gulf stream. Out boat is 50 feet long. It doesn't take too much math to figure out that wouldn't be fun. Some boats are leaving today and tomorrow despite the weather situation, we are not. I will send some pictures of the boat and the crew once I have a chance. It's a beautiful boat and I'm looking forward to taking it out for a spin around the atlantic. I'm just settling in and I'm trying to store all of the stuff I brought. I might send some of it home in a package before I leave...
Marc
Sent from the Andy-Em
Date: Mon, 8 Nov 2004 21:27:14 -0000 (GMT)
(Subtract 5 hours for Eastern Standard Time)
Looks Like we'll be heading out Wednesday. We took the Andy-Em out in the Chesapeake today for a test sail. We had between 10-20 knots of wind and everything went very well. We've topped off our fuel tanks and we just need to buy a few fresh vegetables before we leave. There are a few minor tasks left, but we are all very ready to leave. I've added a few pictures to the site, one of which is a bird that decided to join us on our sail today. He was very friendly and climbed on our shoulders and huddled in amongst the lines to keep warm. My cell phone worked fine when we sailed out into the Chesapeake, so I should be able to get some nice pictures of the start. Hope everyone is doing well.
Marc
Sent from the Andy-Em
Date: Wed, 10 Nov 2004 01:30:36 -0000 (GMT)
(Subtract 5 hours for Eastern Standard Time)
Today is our last day on land and I think we're well prepared for our journey. We got some last minute shipments today, an Austrian flag and a few weeks supply of stugeron. (seasickness pills) We now have flags from our representative countries. I'll send a picture once they're all up. We'll be leaving the marina around 8AM tomorrow and the scheduled start is around 12PM. The start line is in the Chesapeake, and it will probably take us around an hour to get past the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel. From there we will most likely turn south, which isn't the conventional way to go. Most boats plan to cross the gulf stream further north, but given the winds, our crew seems to agree that going south a bit first will pay off. We've yet to plot our exact course, but we will do that tonight after a detailed weather meeting from the rally organizers. The gulf stream produces eddies, which can give you a nice boost if you hit them right. Reiner had his eye on a cold water eddy which we will likely aim for.
It's come to my attention that people visiting this site might not know who I am. The rest of the crew has given out this web address to family and friends as well, so if you're among those, welcome! My Marc Herrmann and I live in Loudon, NH with my lovely, 7-months-pregnant wife Becky and our first child, a golden retriever named Barley. Compared to the rest of the crew, I have by far the least sailing experience. The boat on which we're sailing is an Island Packet 485 owned by my uncle-in-law, Ken Forsberg. He's a Swede that lives in Colorado, and our job for the next two weeks is to safely deliver his boat to the Virgin Islands. The boat is on it's way to Trinidad eventually, but for now it's going to be kept in St. Thomas. Reiner Schick is a German whose profession is to deliver boats all over the world. He has a great deal of experience and is very knowledgeable around radio systems. He's the one that has set up this connection that allows us to send email via Single Side Band. (SSB) John Knight is a Brit who can also speak American almost fluently. John is also a very knowledgeable sailor and has already given me many tips. John and Reiner both have bruises on their foreheads from butting heads too much. We all seem to get along well. We'll see if that keeps up once we're under way.
This will probably be my last report while we're on land. I'll try to get some good pictures of the start. Unfortunately, due to the delay, The Amistad will no longer be our committee boat. Ken and I took a tour of it this weekend, but it set sail on Monday for another port. I hope this web page continues to work without problems. If you like, you can visit my Dad's website: www.handcut.com which is the official sponsor of this web page. Hope everyone is doing well.
Marc
Sent from Marc's cell phone
Date: Wed, 10 Nov 2004 08:14:27 -0500 (EST)
Getting ready to leave. race start is at 12:00EST. Winds will be light. Temp Has been dropping. Should have some nice pics later.
Sent from Marc's cell phone
Date: Wed, 10 Nov 2004 12:55:32 -0500 (EST)
The race has started and we're underway. we're sitting around 4Th After a good start. we've passed the bridge tunnel and we're in the atlantic.
Sent from the Andy-Em
Date: Thu, 11 Nov 2004 02:23:59 -0000 (GMT)
(Subtract 5 hours for Eastern Standard Time)
We're officially under way... We had a very good start, and we were in fourth place coming out of the Chesapeake. Our start would have been better, but the committee boat moved with about 30 seconds to go. We've been motorsailing most of the way since the winds are light from the northeast. We should hit the gulf stream around 3AM, which is about 44 miles from where we are now. We've covered about 72 miles as of 9:30PM AST. We're on Atlantic time now which is 1 hour ahead of EST. Everything is going well for us so far, no problems to report. Two other boats had to return to the marina before the start, one had engine problems and the other lost their main sheet. We weren't quite sure how that could happen in 8 knots of wind.
I posted a few more pictures, but since my cell phone is out of range now, I won't be able to post any more for now. We may find a way to send low resolution pictures through our SSB link, but it will have to be a really good picture. We only have two boats from the original 37 at the start in sight now. There are some commercial ships out here as well, 5 at the most. I've been learning how to use the radar, autopilot and GPS. We've just done a course correction to get us to the spot where we want to cross the gulf stream. If you're curious, the coordinates are 35,40'N 74,31'W. We are currently at 36,13'N 75.03'W.
The weather is cold, but it should warm up considerably once we reach the gulf stream. I just finished my first watch which was from 6-9PM AST. John is on watch now and Ken and Reiner are sleeping. My next watch is from 6-10AM EST tomorrow. (Thursday) I'm looking forward to getting into the gulf stream. I'd like to see how well my seasickness pills work...
Sent from the Andy-Em
Date: Thu, 11 Nov 2004 15:05:05 -0000 (GMT)
(Subtract 5 hours for Eastern Standard Time)
I just came off my morning watch and are nearing the end of the gulf stream. The gulf stream was pretty mild, and we didn't bounce around too much. I was able to sleep more than I thought I would. My watch this morning was from 6-10 AST, so I got to see the moon and the sun rise. I've seen quite a few flying fish and some sargasso weed floating around. I'm not sure if I've written about the watch schedules yet, but we've changed them from what I may have originally said. We do three 4-hour watches during the day, 6-10AM, 10AM-2PM and 2-6PM. We then do four 3-hour watches during the night. 6-9PM, 9PM-12AM, 12-3AM and 3-6AM. I happy to report that I'm sleeping well and have not felt seasick at all. I've been taking stugeron every 8 hours and it seems to work very well. The winds have been unfavorable for us so we've had to motor since we left. We just turned to a more southerly heading a few minutes ago, so hopefully we can use some of the SE winds that have been coming directly at us. We have decided to skip the two gulf stream eddies because they lie due south of us. We would be going out of our way to find them, and we're not guaranteed we'll be able to hit the right side of them. Hitting the wrong side would slow us down considerably. Our next waypoint is at 164 degrees, so our heading is a little more than that to offset the current we're still getting from the gulf stream. Our position is 35,10'N 73,12'W. You can track our position which is updated twice daily at the link at the top of this page. My next watch is from 9PM-12AM AST tonight. I will write some more later if I have a chance.
Sent from the Andy-Em
Date: Fri, 12 Nov 2004 16:11:24 -0000 (GMT)
(Subtract 5 hours for Eastern Standard Time)
We're finally sailing. We turned the engine off this morning and we making good time. We charted our positions compared to other boats in our class and we're currently running first. There are some boats in the higher classes that will be difficult to beat, but once the handicap is applied, we may be pretty close. Our main competition right now is Concerto, who is at about the same latitude, but 1.3 degrees west of us. After I came off watch last night at 12AM AST, we heard some exchanges on the radio between the boat JetStream and the Coast Guard. Apparently they hit a NOAA weather buoy and had some hull damage. We haven't heard any more on the situation, but they participated in the radio chat this morning so it can't be too serious.
We had the ocean to ourselves for most of the day yesterday. The boat Indeed was visible for a while but they seemed to be on a more northerly course. I'm going on one of the easy watches soon. The 10AM-2PM and 2-6PM watches are easy because almost everyone is up on deck anyway. Today is most likely the last day of light winds. We're supposed to have a front pass us this weekend and we should get a boost from that. We may try fishing today. We still have plenty of food, water, gas, energy and ice cream.
Sent from the Andy-Em
Date: Sat, 13 Nov 2004 00:53:47 -0000 (GMT)
(Subtract 5 hours for Eastern Standard Time)
Looks like we're still ahead in our division. We sailed most of the day today, but the winds are coming directly from the southeast, which is exactly where we need to go. The days have been nice, mostly sunny, and the seas have been fairly steady at 6 feet. I did the radio chat tonight. The fleet reports their positions twice daily and it gives everyone a chance to see how they stand. There's probably better coverage on the carib1500 site, but we have no way of knowing.
We all seem to be sleeping well, and we're eating well too. John has frozen most of our dinners ahead of time and tonight Reiner prepared a Keilbasa, beans and rice dish that was very good. I'm on a late watch tonight, 12AM-3AM AST. I bought a few bottles of coke before we left for these watches, since I don't drink coffee.
The water is turning a lighter blue and it's about 70 degrees. We've seen plenty of flying fish, and we hope to catch one sooner or later. This weekend should be interesting, with the front moving though around sunday morning. After that we expect the winds to shift more towards the north, which will give us some nice sailing for a few days.
I've been learning a lot about sailing and it's amazing how many systems are on this boat. All of the electronic components are tied together and you can pilot the boat from the nav station below deck. There should be a picture of the control screen, I'm not sure if that went out before we got out of cell phone range.
We're currently a few hundred miles due east of Bermuda. We've got some new company with Agua Dulce, a boat that has one of the organizers on it. Indeed is also close to us, but they may just be over the horizon. The boat that hit the NOAA bouy, Jet Stream, is its way back to Hampton. That was incredibly bad luck, but fortunately a number of boats were around to help. It's nice to know that if a boat runs into problems (or buoys) there is always someone close by.
Sent from the Andy-Em
Date: Sun, 14 Nov 2004 00:50:46 -0000 (GMT)
(Subtract 5 hours for Eastern Standard Time)
Today was a really nice day. We had calm seas with enough wind to sail. We brought out the fishing gear but we had no luck. Some other boats reported catching some Mahi-Mahi. We'll try to catch some dinner tomorrow. I've been tracking the position of other boats in our class and we are out in front of all of them. We have a sizeable lead when our handicap and engine hours are counted. For those who don't know the rule, the number of hours you run your engine is added to your total time. Over the next few days we will track some of the faster boats, with which we have been keeping up. One of the fastest boats, "Joy for All", is just behind us (we can see them) but they owe us about 24 after our handicap and engine hours are factored in. That means they will have to get to Tortola a day before us. We got an extra knot per hour boost from a gulf stream eddy for most of the day today, so we've made some good time. We're in a very good position, being more east than most boats. We're sailing as much as we can, and motoring when we sail too slowly. John said his goal is to finish in the top five overall.
We're currently about 550 miles due east of Jacksonvile, FL. We've gone 533 miles in 4 days and we have about 780 miles to go. (If we were to sail a straight line the rest of the way) Once we hit the 500 mile mark, we went for a swim. The water was around 73 degrees and is a nice deep blue color. Tomorrow a cold front is supposed to pass us, which should be interesting. It will hit us during the day so it shouldn't be too bad. I'm learning a lot and I've been able to help out when it comes to the computer/GPS/radio stuff. We heard that "Jet Stream", the boat the hit the weather bouy, is back in port. There is a report on the carib1500 web site about it. (link is at the top of this page) Apparently the Coast Guard response was amazing. They sent a C130 plane, a rescue helicopter and a Cutter out for assistance. Well, I have "The Bad Shift" tonight, 3AM-6AM, so I'll be going to sleep early. It was nice to finally jump in the water today. I'm covered in salt and I like it.
Sent from the Andy-Em
Date: Sun, 14 Nov 2004 15:53:29 -0000 (GMT)
(Subtract 5 hours for Eastern Standard Time)
We've been sailing through some squalls today, so we are all wearing our foul weather gear. We have downpours for about a minute and then a half hour of sunshine. We can see the squalls approaching on the radar, which is nice because we can prepare for them. The wind should pick up steadily throughout the day and will stay with us for the next few days. We've currently in 5th place overall, not counting engine time and handicap. Most of the boats ahead of us owe us time, so we're in good shape.
We've been sailing for 4 days now and we're about half way there. I was worried for a while that I was going to miss my flight home because we were delayed for 3 days. It looks like we'll be there in enough time to do a few dives in Tortola. I dragged all my SCUBA gear with me so I'm going to use it, even if I have to do a night-dive the day before I leave.
I'm writing early today since we might be getting banged around quite a bit this evening. I'll probably send a quick update after my next watch, 6-9PM AST.
Sent from the Andy-Em
Date: Sun, 14 Nov 2004 21:42:18 -0000 (GMT)
(Subtract 5 hours for Eastern Standard Time)
The past few hours have been a lot of fun. I was at the helm for a few hours steering the boat through the cold front that caught us. The waves are high enough that the boat surfs down them. We hit 9.8 knots at one point which is faster than this boat is supposed to be able to go. We saw gusts of up to 50 knots so we've reefed in our sails a bit and we're pulling 5.5 knots with just our staysail. The main and the jib aren't out at all.
We're all doing well, and I think we're all pretty happy to have some excitement after 4 days of luxury cruising. There's only so much the autopilot can do in these conditions so it was nice to take the helm and actually pilot the boat manually. Reiner and John have commented on how well this boat does in rough conditions compared to others they have been on. I just came in after getting soaked for the past few hours. When I go back out for my watch after dinner, I'll be wearing my full foul weather gear. I'm glad I brought it.
We just decided to double up on our watches so that two people will be in the cockpit at all times. John is attempting to cook dinner now, we'll see how it goes. We're having lamb stew tonight, hopefully we won't spill too much. I got some great pictures and video footage of our wonderful weather. I am trying to figure out a way to get some more pictures on the web site. No swimming today, although I did have a shower.
Sent from the Andy-Em
Date: Mon, 15 Nov 2004 12:49:24 -0000 (GMT)
(Subtract 5 hours for Eastern Standard Time)
Just a quick update to let you all know we're doing fine. We still have high winds but the seas have quieted down a bit. I've spent most of my spare time sleeping so I haven't been able to plot or position lately. I will try to get some more pictures on the site by tuesday.
Sent from the Andy-Em
Date: Tue, 16 Nov 2004 15:17:58 -0000 (GMT)
(Subtract 5 hours for Eastern Standard Time)
Our SSB radio went down yesterday, so if you can read this, it's working again. Someone sent us an email saying we're in 5th place overall. That sounds right, we'll see how it ends up when handicaps and engine hours are added. It looks like we'll get to Tortola on Thursday, which will be just over 8 days. We're making good time and the seas have calmed down a bit. Now that the front has passed I will tell you we had 20 foot seas and gusts up to 60 knots. We hit 9 knots on just the staysail, which we had up all night on Sunday night/Monday morning. As a result the outhaul line frayed and would have snapped if we hadn't noticed it in time. We also narrowly avoided losing our radar, whose mount was loose and was flopping back and forth. We were able to fix that before the front came through. It's been pretty bumpy the past few days, much like taking a bath in a washing machine. We're all handling it pretty well.
I have sent some pictures to be added to the picture page. There should be about 10 new ones, but i may take a little while for them to be uploaded. The connection speed here is about 1/40000th as fast as a cable modem.
Sent from the Andy-Em
Date: Tue, 16 Nov 2004 18:49:48 -0000 (GMT)
(Subtract 5 hours for Eastern Standard Time)
We've got about 370 miles to go and we're getting close to having covered 1000 miles. The autopilot is doing a fairly good job, although it does get confused sometimes when we roll off a big swell. The direction can change up to 20 degrees in a few seconds. We're continuing to monitor the positions of other boat to see where we stand. We're still leading our class, but it is still a close race. Today is a pretty lazy day, with everyone catching up on missed sleep. During the storm we doubled up on watches. There was always one person on deck to watch for lights and to take the helm when the autopilot failed, and there was one person below watching the radar and contacting nearby boats on the radio.
We're about 550 miles due east of Nassau. We we all able to take showers today which was nice, since we had plenty of water to last us for the rest of our trip. I hope to do some scuba diving on friday and saturday. We plan on sailing the boat to St. Thomas on Sunday, and my flight leaves from there on monday. I'm in the process of getting some more pictures up on the site, I hope it works.
Sent from the Andy-Em
Date: Wed, 17 Nov 2004 02:38:08 -0000 (GMT)
(Subtract 5 hours for Eastern Standard Time)
Just wanted to let you all know I just came in from my watch at 9PM. The wind is blowing at around 25mph and I'm wearing shorts and a T-shirt. I hope there's no snow on the ground at home...
Sent from the Andy-Em
Date: Thu, 18 Nov 2004 00:42:21 -0000 (GMT)
(Subtract 5 hours for Eastern Standard Time)
There should be some more pictures on the picture page, so go check them out. The quality is pretty bad because we needed to reduce the size to send it over our slow connection. I got a nice lesson in sail trimming today from John, it's amazing what a big difference small changes in sail position can make.
We're in a close race in our division. Concerto is a little ahead of us but we've been sailing along pretty well. If all goes well, we should get into Tortola late Thursday night. We're chasing a squall right now and it is just pulling us along. We're 187 miles from the finish line and we're moving along at a good pace. The seas have calmed down and we're having some of the nicest sailing of the trip.
Tonight should be my last late watch from 12AM-3AM. We haven't seen another boat in over 2 days. We know there are some around but we can only see sailboats when they're under 8 miles away. We probably won't know if we've won until Friday or possibly later. I plan to spend most of Friday and Saturday underwater. Sunday we are planning to sail to Virgin Gorda and then to St. Thomas where the boat will be kept through the winter. My flight leaves on Monday, just in time to get home for my wife's birthday. Tomorrow morning's radio chat should be interesting. We'll be able to see how close this race will end up.
Sent from the Andy-Em
Date: Thu, 18 Nov 2004 16:35:47 -0000 (GMT)
(Subtract 5 hours for Eastern Standard Time)
We're on the last leg of our trip. We have about 75 miles to go to the finish line. The race between Concerto and us is very tight. We have been sailing very fast during the past 24 hours. Concerto is expected to finish around 6PM today and we should be there around midnight. They owe us almost 8 hours once engine time and handicap are calculated. Hopefully they will report their position at the 6PM chat, otherwise we won't know who is the winner right away. A few boats finished yesterday and there are about 10 expected to finish today.
Date: Fri, 19 Nov 2004 02:18:11 -0500
The email on the boat is down but I just talked to Marc. They arrived in Tortola at 11:30 tonight. They were greeted with a bottle of champagne and seem excited to be there. He said it is nice and warm! Marc will try to fix the email tomorrow so he can add to this. Becky
Sent from the Andy-Em
Date: Fri, 19 Nov 2004 21:00:30 -0000 (GMT)
(Subtract 5 hours for Eastern Standard Time)
We made it! 1350 nautical miles in 8 days, 10 hours and 16 minutes. We crossed the finish line just after 11PM last night. We got into the Marina around 1AM and there we're lots of people there to greet us with champagne and rum. We found out we have beaten Concerto by about an hour. We are still waiting for Cayuse to come in. We need them to finish after 6:50 PM tonight in order to win. We ended up getting to bed around 4AM, and I was up at 7AM to go scuba diving. We dove around The Indians, which is a collection of large rocks the stick almost vertically out of the water. It was a nice dive, but I wish my dive buddy for life would have been there. Reiner and I are going diving tomorrow on The Rhone, which is one of the most popular wreck dives in the world. We just got back from lunch at Pusser's and we're getting ready for one of the many parties that will happen over the next few days. I'll send an update once the winner is determined. Oh, by the way, it's 85 degrees here. :)
Sent from the Andy-Em
Date: Sun, 21 Nov 2004 14:17:15 -0000 (GMT)
(Subtract 5 hours for Eastern Standard Time)
So, we won. But not without some controversy. First place in our division was awarded to Ricochet, which is a boat that isn't even in our division. Eventually the ended up changing the results making Ricochet the winner of division 2 and Andy-Em the winner of division 3. I think the difference between first in third place was separated by less than an hour. The difference was the last two days where we really sailed hard and didn't get much sleep.
We are off to Virgin Gorda today to visit The Baths. We'll then sail to St. Thomas to the marina where the boat will be kept for the winter. I'll write another update after I get home on Monday.
