MysticSail.com

Well we made it to Hampton, Virginia after setting off for the BVI’s from Newport, RI and along the way we learned some important lessons. One, with sailing its not where you are going to, rather where you are headed for. Two, even the weather experts can be wrong and it is still just a forecast which is just an educated guess at best.

We hired Jennifer Clark and her husband Dane to help route us through the North Atlantic in wintertime and get us through one of the most treacherous parts of our adventure and to our destination. She does the Gulf Stream routing and he does the weather. We left on Thursday Dec 6, 2007 with a nice westerly breeze of 15 knots, Natural Mystic was broad reaching at 10 knots with our screecher up under clear blue skies. We motor sailed overnight towards the planned way-point to cross the Gulf Stream as the winds were light and the forecast for the next day was for winds light and variable becoming southerly 13 to 18 knots during the day and we wanted to cross the stream quickly as possible under these favorable conditions, because if the wind is from the wrong direction and opposes the current, huge boat eating waves can form.

I awoke to my watch at 6 am just before dawn and watched the sun rise. The sky was blood red and gorgeous, and the winds light. The old saying was going through my head, “red sky in the morning sailor take warning,” but we had hired the best to help us on this part of the trip and the forecast was for perfect conditions. By 7 am I had the jib back out and we were sailing at a nice pace with 12 knots of wind out of the south. By 8am I was waking up Ty from his sleep early and we were putting in our first reef as the wind was now 20 to 25 knots out of the south, in another half our we put in our second reef and when wind was now 25 to 35 knots out of the south. Natural mystic was sailing close hauled at 10 knots upwind and performing beautifully in the now building 4 to 6 foot seas. By 10 am it was time to put in our third reef as the wind was now 35 to 45 knots and the seas 6 to 8 feet, she was still sailing at about 9 knots, but we had to head off the wind a little bit to take the seas on at a better angle. I drove the next 4 hours while our bridgedeck was slammed by wave after wave and the wind rarely dipped below 40 knots.

I wish we had some pictures of this as we do have a cameraman on board, but he was the second to get seasick, as P-Kiddy was the first. Ben cleaning up the cat’s vomit quickly caught the contagious disease and soon discovered the rail bucket and how miserable it is to be seasick.

The rain started at about two or so and the all of a sudden with it came 50 to 55 knots of wind, we were now fore reaching just trying to survive in 10ft seas with breaking waves all around us and that’s when it happened. The screecher that was not furled as tightly as it should have been came unfurled at the top and it was all hands on deck. I started the engines, headed downwind to reduce the apparent wind and as we were surfing a 20 knots Ty and Ben were able to wrestle in the screecher and stow it below.

Then as quickly as it started it backed off, by 3:30pm the wind was now North at 12 knots and the 10 ft seas were a sight to behold as it was offshore in the middle of the ocean and breaking waves were actually throwing little barrels 350 miles from land as the sunset glistened pink and golden off the wind blown spindrift.

We had damage, a torn screecher, broken battens, the tack was pulling out of the jib and so the decision was make to abandon our initial destination and head for Hampton, VA as it was one of the closer ports, and Ty said Gary Bodie was from there so we thought it must have a sail-maker or two to fix our gear. Thirty some hours of powering later, navigating the entrance to the Chesapeake on a moonless, inky black night, slipping in the narrow entrance between two freighters barreling along at 20 knots. With military gunboats circling us at ridiculously high speeds, just out of clear visual range, making sure we were no terrorists headed for Norfolk, and we made it, safely tied up at the dock in front of Hampton Yacht Club at 2:30 in the morning.