Latitude 44° 0.537" N, Longitude 69° 7.051" W

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

1:33 AM GMT

Latitude 41° 28.687" N, Longitude 71° 20.158" W

Monday, June 8, 2009

1:40 AM GMT

Latitude 37° 10.921" N, Longitude 68° 17.406" W

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

1:41 AM GMT

Latitude 36° 30.285" N, Longitude 67° 52.815" W

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

1:51 AM GMT

Latitude 34° 7.012" N, Longitude 66° 35.975" W

Thursday, June 11, 2009

1:54 AM GMT

Latitude 32° 48.720" N, Longitude 64° 55.891" W

Log Entires from 2009 Bermuda One-Two

7/4/2009

10:36 AM EDT

A moving letter from John Van Slyke, competitor on Dragon J:

Sent: Wednesday, July 01, 2009 10:03 PM

Subject: Existence

Brothers and Sisters,

I arrived home at 3:00 PM today after spending  all of the days since we got in on June 25 in the Newport Hospital.  About mid way through the return leg, I began to develop what turned into a very serious staph inflection in my right knee.  Over a three day period from onset, this staph infection became so severe that I could not use my right leg.  Both my knee and my ankle became swollen to twice normal size.

We were within 30 miles of the finish when Ted told me via sat phone  that I had a life and death situation on my hands and that I had to turn on the engine and get to port as soon as possible. He said he would be waiting at the dock, which he was along with Roy, Robert and  some others.  They helped me off the boat and into a car my wife, Bonnie, had waiting.  We went directly to the ER at Newport Hospital.

At Newport Hospital I learned from the ER doctor that I had an extremely serious staph infection in my knee.  The locus of the infection was in the bursa, but it was threatening to break out and enter my blood stream.  If that happened, I would have a real problem.  Staph also can penetrate into joints and bones.  Staph infections routinely kill people, and staph can be very difficult to treat.  Even more troubling, certain strains of staph have become resistant to all antibiotics.

Cool, eh.

A team of 5 doctors at Newport Hospital quickly covered my case like  white paint.  I shall be eternally grateful to them.  Had they not  prevailed, I could well have lost my leg or my life.

I now must complete about 7 to `14 days of IV antibiotics (twice a  day) at home.  After that I will switch over to pills.  Hopefully, the  whole episode will be over in another 4 weeks to 6 weeks.

I have heard and read that staph infections are serious business.  Now  I know up close and personal.

In effect, I began to become seriously ill about half way through the  return.  By the end, I was almost useless; although I did stand mid  watches.  My crew, Glenn Walters gradually had to assume the full  load. This was a real burden; because we had lost our autopilot about  50 miles out from Bermuda.  He did a great job,  He is an excellent  helmsman.  However, had we needed additional boat and foredeck work  after all of that gulf stream mess, we would have had a problem.

THANKS:

A number of you visited me while I was in the hospital, called, and  sent emails.  Robert was first on scene after I was admitted to the  hospital.  I will never forget his kindness, concern, and helpful  observations as a practicing ER physician.  All of these things were  huge morale boosters.  Thank you very much.

RUMORS:

First, as much as I love the 1-2 and all of you, 2009 is my last  race.  I made this decision way back in February for purely medical  reasons.  You see, I have a form of soft tissue arthritis that is  progressive. For medical reasons, the odds are overwhelmingly against  my being physically able to do the 2011 race.  My hope was that 2009  would be routine.  The single handed leg was.  And I am very happy to  end on that note.  I only wish we could have had better luck on the  return, parts of which we sailed well.

Second, Dragon is not for sale at this time.  It may be at some time  in the future.  I have found the J 120 to be a fabulous boat but a  bitch to sail solo.  A J 120 is a full bore race boat that is designed  to be sailed by a crew of at least 6.  It is a highly technical boat  to sail and a handful to sail single handed and even double handed out  on the open ocean.  Foredeck work is particularly difficult.  Without  an autopilot, you have a real situation on your hands.  As I get  older, I may move to a boat that is much easier for Bonnie and me to  sail.  Meanwhile, I love the many variables on a J 120, and I will be  sailing Dragon.

REFLECTIONS:

My brush with disaster in the return this year and the situation  involving the weather and the delay have caused me to think carefully  about safety issues in the 1-2.  At some point down the line, I will  prepare a memo with a number of recommendations.

THE NAVY HYMN:

On one of my ships in the Navy during Vietnam, thought of a successful  deployment, particularly in the North Atlantic during winter,  as  returning safely to our home port.

For those of us who go to sea alone and shorthanded, we defy some long  odds when we head out and are able to return safely to port.  A great  deal of our success is due to the boats we sail, to careful  preparation, and to our own superior seamanship.

There is also a measure of providence.  Each of us has been in our  share of close calls, including near collisions with sunken  containers, dead heads, and large ships.  So, good fortune and an  angle or two is involved in every offshore passage we make.

Had I been at the awards ceremony, I would have asked everyone to  stand and join with me in singing the Navy Hymn.

One again, my sincere thanks to those of you who have wished me well.   I hope to be back at 100 percent in a few weeks.

In the bonds,

/jvs

7/2/2009  

1800 EDT  Tenant's Harbor

We had a cold, foggy, drizzly overnight passage from Cape Cod and are finally back in Penobscot Bay.  It is good to see our spruce and granite islands again (when the fog and drizzle allows). The wind has been on the nose all day and we have anchored at Tenant's Harbor for the night. Very cozy here!

We will make it to Rockland in the morning, then finally home to Skowtown, garden and cats, and the 4th of July!

Gust & Jan

A Final Word from Our Weather Router:

Gust - Glad to hear that you made it back safely. I followed you on the tracking and could see how you were doing. It was a very unusual weather pattern to be sure!

For comparison,  the Marion Bermuda race was also one for the ages. The start was last Friday (same day as yours), and of the 48 boats signed up to go, 4 failed to start, not liking the weather outlook, and 17 boats retired from the race due to punishing headwinds and seas through the last several days of the race. That included one boat that was in position to be a sure winner of the race less than 100 miles from Bermuda when they lost their mainsail. The last boat is just finishing this afternoon. I am sure they will be proud to claim a Cook's Trophy that, in this case, will be an award well earned that they can truly be proud of!

You should be proud yourself that you were able to complete both legs of the 1-2 in such conditions. It seemed to me that the percentage of boats registered for the race that completed both legs was not that high. Time to relax for a few days!

6/28/2009

Bermuda 1/2 Wrap-Up 

10:43 AM EDT

Greetings, all- well the race is over, we are safe ashore, shaved and cleaned, rested and watered- time to share a final report on the race:

The second leg was quite a challenge.  We had forecasts of possible 50 knot winds for the Gulf Stream: a low pressure system (storm system) was parked  on the rhumbline, affecting all of New England, with no likelihood that it was going away anytime soon.  We postponed the start of the race for 24 hours, everyone re-analyzed the situation, and we all concluded that there was no real option other than to start out and deal with it as best we could.  We knew it would be challenging, but not life threatening.  A few boats did decide not to start at all.

As it turned out, we had about 3 days of fairly heavy winds, frequently 24-30+, with peak wind recording (just a gust) of 46K. Waves were estimated to be 12-14 feet, not huge, but you do look up to see them from the cockpit.  This is not the heaviest weather that Bluebird has been through, but it was the most sustained.

During this time, Harry and I traded 4 hour watches.  We were intermittently seasick, but functional. We didn't eat much, but tried to stay hydrated.  We had no major equipment failures, other than losing our #1 jib. The autopilot (#1 gear failure in the fleet) worked great, although it used a lot of power.

After the winds settled down, we had extended periods of calms, which was almost as bad as the heavy weather.  But eventually, we were able to move along, finishing after 7 days.  The last night was one of the most excellent sailing experiences ever; I spent hours hand-stearing in moonlight and starlight, spinnaker up, using the Big Dipper as my guide as we surged along.

Results: Bluebird finished 4th in class the second leg, and in fact were the last in class, as all the other boats in our class had retired or not started.  Our friend, mentor, competitor and fellow Maine sailor Peter on Panacea traded places with us, finishing just ahead this leg.  We turned out to have won our pickle plate after all, as we finished 3rd in class (again, just behind Panacea) in combined time for the two legs. And we ended up 9th in the fleet overall.  Just a little over half of the initial fleet finished.

Our best result, though, was just being able to participate, compete and finish the voyage.  It was a great experience.  The men and women sailors were a great group- fiercely competitive in the most friendly way; eager to help each other out in any way, wether that meant helping/advising a repair, contributing a dinghy ride, or standing by in an emergency. The camaraderie was wonderful.

Special thanks to Harry, who hung in there during tough times; Laura, who sent us daily Red Sox updates; Jan, for her constant encouragement and support; and Peter, who encouraged me for years to consider this challenge.

Now, Jan and I are sailing back to Maine- Bluebird over and out!

6/27/2009

Hello all- crossed the finish line in Newport 07:56 AM, behind our good friend Peter McCrea on PANACEA!  Safely tied up at the dock. Details later- cheers, Gust and Harry

06/26/2009

21:24:14 EDT

Our last night out- it is beautiful- flat seas, clear stars overhead, a sliver on New Moon in the West. We are making 3-4 K towards Newport in 6 K SW winds, hope that it holds and builds. There are ships and fishing boats about; we cannot see any of our competitors.

Strange fish stories: we saw many sunfish today- large creatures of the shark family, but round and flat like a flounder, feeding on the surface, dorsal fin wiggling back and forth. We found a very strange eel-like fish, around 3 feet long, streaming behind us, apparently attached to the rudder (we couldn't see the point of attachment). We tried to get him off (we didn't want the drag!) with the boathook, this he ignored.  We wiggled the rudder back and forth, again he wasn't impressed. Finally, I started the engine: this he didn't like, and took off like a shot.

Back to the watch-

6/25/2009 0025 EDT 

Back to no wind, drifting and slattering - got to get some wind! g

6/24/09 10PM EDT  

Position: almost 40N,  69 23'W

It's been a long strange day. We have finally escaped the cling of the large warm eddy that was sending us East. After many frustrating hours of fitful winds, we finally got a light but steady breeze at sunset and continue sailing along towards Newport. The low pressure system shows signs of breaking up finally but is not predicted to go away until Friday morning.

Lots of interesting fish sights today. Harry saw what appeared to be a sailfish leaping from the water many times. As we sailed amidst sargasso weed, schools of what turned out to be small tuna (yellow fin?) were snapping up small fish hiding in the weed. A small school of little fish huddled against Bluebird for protection. A magnificent, iridescent blue-green-yellow mahi-mahi or dorado circled the boat, leisurely sampling from our little fishes.  Finally, in the dark tonight, a pod of dolphins came by, huffing, blowing and whistling.

The stars are out and the Milky Way is bright. A sliver of moon is rising. The air is warm and moist.

Radio reports from nearby boats indicate that there have been many withdrawals, boats starting their engines to just get in. There was a fair amount of equipment failure (damaged sails, spars, and especially autopilots) in the heavy weather. Just crossed over to the Continental Shelf!   Gust and Harry

6/24/2009

Sorry to all that emails have not been getting through- have written at least once if not twice/day. No wind, very frustrating, just sitting here about 140 nm from Newport. Once (if) the wind comes up, we'll be fine. We caught up with Peter on Panacea this morning, but then lost our wind and he pulled away. We saw a sailfish today, a school possibly of bluefish, and a very beautiful 4 foot mahi-mahi (dorado) very iridescent, following the boat and eating our fellow travelers. We left him alone! love gust

6/23/2009

185 miles or so to go but the winds are light and from the N- no big change expected until late tomorrow, probably won't be in until Friday. But we are well and enjoying the moderation.

6/24/2009 

Note from the webmaster: Bluebird experienced difficulty with her satellite communication over the past several days due to the heavy weather.  All is well and some current and previous messages that were not received until today are posted above. 

Monday, 06/22/2009

6:18 AM EST

Miserable night with NW winds in the 30's-unable to head towards Newport, have been going W for a bit. Winds moderating, hope to be able to tack soon. Will try to consult with Herb this AM. No radio contact with fleet since hailing Pogo Loco yesterday. Boat wet but sound, all systems ok. We are safe and hanging in there. Gust &Harry

Sunday, 06/21/2009

08:15:50 EDT

Rough night- winds up to 46K- big seas. Better now, 20's, staysail only. Bluebird good, crew hanging in there. Calling Herb/Panacea in 1 hour. g

Friday, June 19, 2009

22:55:26 EDT

32° 47.82' N

64° 54.86' W

Greetings all- the good ship Bluebird has had an excellent afternoon and evening, surfing at speeds sometimes over 8 K in winds gusting to 35- things have moderated now and we are sailing at a more seemly pace. All's well aboard and we hope for a quiet night.

Thursday, June 18, 2009

Greetings, friends- the start of the return leg of the race has been postponed until tomorrow noon because of a possible gale on our course.  Most forecasts were for 30-35 K winds, but one forecaster called for 50+. So we will wait a day and see what develops. This gale has not yet been confirmed, but we are trying to narrow down the details.  So stay posted!  Gust and Harry

Saturday, June 13, 2009 - 06:30

Aboard Bluebird

Greetings, friends- final report on the first leg of the 1/2 race.  Bluebird ended up 5th in her competitive Class of 10 boats.  We ended up 8th in the fleet of 40 or so, with 9 boats withdrawing or not finishing.  One boat is still out there, has turned back to Newport.  While one can fantasize about winning something, in this race the journey/experience was everything, and I'm very happy with how we did.  Of course, with Harry aboard for the return trip, it will go even better!

People have asked about several things:

Passage Routing: Why did we go so far to the West, instead of taking the most direct course (called the Rhumb Line) to Bermuda?  In passage making, whether racing or not, one has a choice of either going in a straight line towards the destination, dealing with wind/situations as they come up, versus deviating from the rhumb line to take advantage of some feature of weather or current.  In my case, I initially went west because I wanted to minimize the impact of a small gale that was tracking to the east. My friend Jonathan, who won the race and is a killer sailor, sailed right for the gale because he wanted the winds. We both arrived, but he was many hours ahead!

I also went west to take into account the eastwardly flowing Gulf Stream.  That crossing was very mild this trip.  After the Gulf Stream, I again looped west to take advantage of what I thought would be a wind shift; this did not materialize.  Interestingly, my friend Peter on Panacea, of Rockland, took the almost identical route, totally independently of me, but for the same reasons, and we finished quite close to each other.

Sleep- or lack of it- how did that go? I was worried about this, but it went fine.  The general rule is that people need about 5 hours of sleep a day to function (some more, some less, but it's pretty consistent)- however, you don't have to get the sleep all at once, a series of naps will do. I have a timer alarm ("Mustang Sally"), that I set for 20-24 minute intervals.  After dark, I start to take naps, the alarm goes off, I check quickly for ships, weather changes, sail trim, etc, then go back to sleep quite quickly.  I was surprised that this actually worked, and overall I felt quite rested.  Once the sun came up, i was always wide awake.  I think that years of being on call, doing stuff in the middle of the night, was good training.

Food: I don't really feel hungry offshore and have to more or less remind myself to eat.  I had cereal every morning. I had my big meal at noon- (I had 6 frozen meals in plastic boil bags- chicken curry, beef stew, etc.- these were easy to warm up and eat, no dishes to wash afterwards). I did some snacking during the day, dried fruits, nuts, etc.  Tried to stay hydrated with seltzer water.  Sandwiches or soup for dinner. Despite being a coffee lover at home, I don't seem to want it offshore and basically never drank it.  Likewise alcohol.

Entertainment: mostly one is happy just being out here looking around at the water, horizon, moon and stars.  The second half of the trip, I usually had visual contact with at least one boat, sometimes two, and radio contact daily with a few boats,  I did lots of reading- a book or two a day.  Some people fish during the calms, with several successful landings of Mahi-Mahi, or dorados- best fish in the world!

Events: mostly I was unaware of what was going on with the other boats.  There were apparently a lot of adventures after the start, talked about at the race web site: spinnaker wraps, one dismasting, one collision between boats, engine problems (for charging batteries), equipment failures of various sorts.  Two boats reported collisions with whales, one damaging his rudder but able to limp in the last few miles to the finish line to win his class.

Bermuda: all I can say is that it's great here.  I'm on the anchor and so far have eaten all my meals on the boat. I go for a run in the morning with a motley collection of running sailors (an especially odd group). The water is clear, warm and blue; T in the 80's every day.  A thunderstorm has come by around sunset each day so far. People are friendly...

Well, that's probably more than most of you will want to know about!  There are a few pictures on the website.  Jan is coming today, Harry on Monday.  I'll stay off the air until Thursday and will try to be a more consistent log reporter.  Until then, fair winds and following seas to everyone-  g

06/11/2009 

Crossed finish line 0143 this morning. No silver, but great to be here in one piece with no mishaps! Thank you everyone for all the positive energy and messages.

Tied up to customs dock now, waiting for the agents to come on duty at *AM, if I can stay awake that long...  Cheers, Gust

6/10/09 21:00 

Going where e wind don’t blow so strange... Sailing from thunderhead to thunderhead, sky purple with lightning flashes. Phosphorescent fire streams from the bow and jets from the stern. The sweep of a lighthouse is appearing in the distance, bouncing off the clouds.

6/10/09 17:00

Winds have died to 5K from W/SW, not ideal for arriving to Bermuda, but still making slow progress in that general direction. One boat, EKO, on horizon still; not sure where everyone else is, but probably more easterly. Logged 635 NM; only 40 or so to Bermuda.

Boat is clean and dry, customs paperwork filled out, just need some wind!

Weather continues muggy, lots of low-lying clouds, thunderheads and occasional showers.

06/09/2009

20:56:40 GMT

34° 31.93' N

67° 21.75' W

Making good progress to Bermuda- just passed nm500. Winds 10-12 from W/NW; talked with Herb of Southbound II and Peter on Panacea, winds sound good for the rest of the way in- but possibly getting lighter towards Bermuda- and as always, subject to change...

Finally hoisted the spinnaker and am charging along at 7 K.  The spinnaker halyard is up the mast, but the spare jib h seems to be working without snagging or chaffing unduly, I think should be ok for a short while.  It's great feeling it pulling the boat along!

Water bright blue, air muggy, sky scattered low-lying clouds- Cheers, g

06/08/2009

17:55:25 GMT

36° 47.07' N

67° 43.66' W

Bluebird and Panacea just crossed tracks, 330 miles out of Newport, and had a brief RYC meeting. We're both happy to have a little wind.

6/7/2009 - 6:03 pm EST

Greetings- a slow day on the water today.  Winds have died, I am racing the jellyfish, still staying just ahead.  Not much to do but wait for the wind, which is supposed to come eventually from the NW.

Todays big event was the autopilot- the drive unit began making terrible grinding noises this morning and wasn't holding the course.  I tried my first round of tricks (incantations, curses, turning it on and off, ignoring it..). When none of that worked, I emptied the cockpit locker, and replaced the drive unit with the spare aboard.  Works perfectly, thank god! So no wind and relative calm was good for crawling around the locker getting it in.

Saw bits of the full moon last night and Venus at dawn. No boats in sight, will try radio contact this evening.  Cheers g

6/6/2009 - 1:21 pm EST

rough weather but all ok. love g

6/5/2009 - Pre-race Jitters: Ahoy everyone!  Morning of the start (at 10:40)- I am at my computer getting the last minute weather updates and forecasts.  There is a small low pressure system (which sounds much more benign than calling it what it really is, a gale) just south of us- this has been a little worrisome, but it looks as though it is going to go just below us, then head for Nova Scotia and the Northern Atlantic, so we will miss the worse of it.  In any case, the first 24 hours are expected to be sloppy with some wind and more than some rain.  After that, it appears that winds will be quite light, which can sometimes mean drifting around for hours and hours.  If only, as Goldilocks always wanted, it were "just right"...

In any case, Bluebird and I are ready, as are the rest of the crew:  Ishmael, the autopilot, who has been on his best behavior so far, and Mustang Sally, the "Watch Commander"- an alarm that goes off at various intervals to keep the rest of the crew on task and alert. 

Cheers, and fair winds to everyone today!

5/29/2009 - Bluebird has arrived in Newport Sunday afternoon after leaving Rockland Friday (5/22) morning in cold, drizzle and fog.  But winds were generally light and favorable, so I wasn't beating into the usual blowing southwesterly and made good time, arriving at the Cape Cod Canal early the next day.  I saw few fishing boats, no commercial traffic at all overnight.  Wildlife sightings included harbor porpoises, seals, great rafts of eider ducks (especially around Monhegan), guillemots and a strange bird, I think a petrel, which flits around the boat at night like a bat, making strange noises, apparently attracted by the navigation lights.

After the first cold night, things have warmed up considerably- the waters of Buzzards Bay are in the 60's, compared to 50's of Maine.  I spent the night anchored at Hedley's Harbor, a lovely unpopulated cove near Wood's Hole.  A great snooze!

Newport is busy, bustling and touristy- I'm glad that the delivery down is over and that I can now concentrate on the final boat preparations for the race.