Let’s get the boring stuff outta the way first….. Most importantly: WIDAGO and her crew arrived safely into the port of St. George’s, Bermuda after four days, eleven hours, only motoring for 19 – including a fishing-pit-stop. Winds were mostly on our beam @ 18-20kts, and calm, almost following, seas. Just a few squalls to dodge, and very light winds the last day. Now the good stuff…
WIDAGO got off to an interesting start. As this was our first participation in a rally, we (and I use pronouns liberally) really had no idea what to expect, especially at the start. There were 60+ vessels in the bay outside of the marina, awaiting the noon start. Because we are a catamaran, we had a planned delayed start of ten minutes. Because we really don’t know what we are doing, we were delayed another 10 minutes, making us the last boat to cross the starting line. No place in the standings to go but up. However, while still in the Sir Francis Drake Channel, we had a lively encounter with a non-rally monohull – motoring under power without sails – CBDR to our starboard. Capt. Ahab expressed his great displeasure at the skipper’s apparent lack of knowledge regarding navigational right of way. Perhaps our young guest crew member increased her vocabulary with phrases sounding close to “clucking chick”. The monohull failed to heed Ahab’s expletives and manual gestures: we were forced to rapidly change course, successfully avoiding collision 20 minutes into a five day passage. No harm, no foul – except for maybe foul language.
The highlight of passage (besides arriving with the same number people we departed with) occurred the afternoon of the first day. At approximately 4pm, we decided to set out just a single fishing line, in hopes of having something do to besides feel seasick. By 4:30pm – the unknown monster struck. Gordon was first to the reel, Ali @ the helm, and Ahab was below decks testing out the electric freshwater toilets. Gordon quickly identified a most formidable opponent by the force and speed with which the reel unfurled. Guestmate Guy Dixon quickly relieved Swabbie Gordon – as surely the beast below would have pulled Gordon down into Davey Jones’ Locker.
Indeed the battle was a group affair. With the skipper off the can and back at helm, the sails were quickly doused and the battle ensured. For the next hour, we thought we had a tenacious tuna within our grasp. My thoughts drifted to soy sauce and wasabi. As Dixon heroically fought the monster, Adelaide assisted her father on the rod; Gordon stood at the ready with gaff in hand. But alas, there would be no great sashimi pupu platter for dinner that first night. Instead, we were delighted by the sight a steep dorsal fin, as a mighty blue marlin breached behind the boat. BBM (Big Blue Marlin) fought onward for another half hour, battling Dixon’s stamina against his will to survive. Finally, BBM succumbed to exhaustion as he was brought astern. Ahab was able to wrangle the glowing green lure safely from BBM’s mouth, gave him pats on the back, and sent him safely back to the sea.
Beside weather and fishing, obviously the most important thing when sailing is food. My maternal instincts tend to take over, as I worry there won’t be enough. This is absolutely ridiculous – I know this – but I cannot help it. Prior to the start of the rally, I spent two full days sweating in the galley, pre-making food enough for twenty people for ten days. This was a four day passage with seven souls (one of which, yours truly, I knew wouldn’t eat anything besides Ritz Peanut Butter Crackers for the first three days). Needless to say, the coolers and fridge were packed with homemade chicken-ginger noodle soup, pulled pork & Cuban black beans, Beef Stroganoff, quiches, and a various assortment of cold noodle/pasta salads & pre-made deli sammies. The baguettes in Tortola were the perfect crusty-chewy balance – enough to make a diabetic double down on their pump (JJ….dingdingding).
But having the right provisioning, and pre-cooking 90% of the food, just doesn’t cut it on WIDAGO. You see, Capt. Ahab has very specific, completely irrational, ridiculously unreasonable expectations for how food should be presented while underway. Specifically, there should be available, at all times, an assortment of fruits, snacks, condiments (you’d better not forget the ketchup, hot sauce, orange marmalade, and organic hand churned butter from hand milked, grass-fed cattle raised in high altitude). All food must be plated, and presented at the same time. Served hot, with appropriate cutlery, linens, and beverages. It doesn’t matter if the galley wench feels like she did at week 11, pregnant with twins, contemplating the rising acid in her throat, sweaty tongue, and massive caffeine withdrawal. “You must feed the horses!”, insisted Ahab. There was a brief splitting moment where I wondered, “How many pictures of the dead body do I really need to take before I throw him overboard in order to collect the insurance money?” This came just after I was informed by Ahab that because I did not serve his toasted muffin with butter and preserves at the same time as his quiche & fruit, he “felt hurt inside”. Honestly, this is really what makes a great marriage. I was so happy to know that Ahab felt at ease enough to openly share his feelings. Communication is key. I am still working on my communication skills, but I did reciprocate how his expectations made me feel. Since this is family blog, I’ll leave it to your imagination, the words I shared with him…again it sounded similar to “clucking chick”, a phrase I learned from Ahab himself at the start of rally.
Next stop…Azores!
I think Ahab needs to go to charm school……or cry baby school! I’d eat anything you’d serve me for dinner, or snack! I’d say, “Thank you beautiful Ali Grace Wench, Guardian of the Galley, Mother of My 3 Testosterone Heavy Off-Spring! I adore you!” I hope you get your sashimi!!
WIDAGO to be renamed “SIDEWAYS”?
So WIDAGO has a Automated Identification System broadcaster that broadcasts its position to vessels up to perhaps 25 miles away. The AIS system places a little ship logo on the chart plotters of vessels within that 25 miles – that ship logo is essentially saying “WIDAGO is here – please don’t hit us with your ship”
The problem is that while the rest of the fleet had AIS ship logos on the trip north that actually pointed north to Bermuda, WIDAGO’s pointed west toward Cuba, Miami, North Carolina, which was disconcerting to those of us following behind on sailing vessel GEM.
When WIDAGO heads east to the Azores, their AIS will be pointing to the North Pole.
So two possible solutions:
A – attempt a convoluted engineering fix to realign the AIS device, even though there’s small but significant risk the AIS will stop broadcasting leaving WIDAGO invisible to the container ships and tankers that roam the high seas, or
B – simply rename WIDAGO to SIDEWAYs
I’m voting for B, even though this will require, in keeping with long-standing WIDAGO tradition, that the boys be renamed: William becomes Simon, David becomes Devon, and a name yet to be determined for Gordon that starts with way
Fair winds to the Azores
Haha! Peter – that was fantastic. You can be a guest author anytime on our site. Perhaps we can rename Gordon after the famous country outlaw Waylon Jennings? Wishing you and the GEM crew safe passage back to Bristol!
I’m laughing so hard I’m crying! Safe passage to the Azores!! See you on the flippity flop, xoxo
Yeah Moseleys!!!!! We are so excited to see you guys.oxoxox
I see a hilarious best seller in it’s beginning! I love every word and image!
Bah ha ha! Too funny. Safe travels crew, our thoughts are with you!!
I can’t believe you released a blue marlin boatside – Raul would be proud!
I’ll send you the photo – I didn’t do the best job, as I was preoccupied with keeping Dixon and Adelaide from going overboard….Next time I promise to document it better.
I’m dying laughing right now. You are a better woman than me. I wouldn’t bother to throw the body overboard. In jail I wouldn’t be getting seasick, wouldn’t be making quiche while feeling like the contents of my stomach would make a nice filling, and I woudn’t be listening to the clucking chick.
Ha! Miss you!
Great post, Ali, you had us laughing out loud!
So, you were DFL at the start, but how did you finish — with a passage of 4 days 11 hours, you must have passed a goodly part of the field!!??
We did a great job catching up – were the fourth boat into St. George’s out of 60. Because it is a rally, you get weird handicaps, and penalties for motoring so we finished “results-wise” fourth in class of boat. It was a great sail – heading out in the morning for Azores!
It sounds like fun on all fronts. And I would recommend at least 10 well staged photos.
pictures coming soon – you wouldn’t believe how hard it is to find a decent internet connection here in Bermuda….
I’m with Merdy! Loved your post – and of course you and your crew – including cranky Ahab. Safe journey tomorrow – we are sending good vibes and prayers from stateside. Bon Voyage. Ah loo Momma