San Salvador to Beaufort

March 25th 1978

Dear AJ & Don,

First, we must tell you how much we enjoyed the time we spent with you.  Thanks so much for all your hospitality.

We left Little San Salvador a few hours earlier than we planned.  We were doing so much rolling that sleep was impossible, so we took off about midnight.  We had a beautiful downwind sail, arriving at Norman's at noon the next day.  Norman's  soon filled until, by sunset, we had 35 other boats in the anchorage.  We were not sorry to leave the next morning...

We spent 3 days in Nassau restocking and waiting out another Norther, then left in the company of Nanda II (a 31' Southern Cross) for Frozen-Alder in the Berry's.  We took off the following morning for Beaufort, the beginning of an exciting 700 mile, six day trip.

The first night was spent dodging cruise ships on a broad reach through Northwest Providence Channel.  The next 3 days and nights were a very pleasant downwind run doing 5-6 knots in the Gulf Stream.  On day 3 (the second day in the stream), we got a position check form a passing tug which verified our DR position.  On day 4 we had 5 hours of near calm, just before which our jib halyard shackle let loose, sending the jib to the deck and the halyard to the masthead..  Jeff winched me up the mast to retrieve it, fortunately, the wind was light at the time.  As the sun set that evening, the wind died and the rain began and continued until midnight.  Jeff motored for 5 hours, but was able to set sail again just after 12:00.  The lightning display that night was most impressive and thankfully kept it's distance.

The wind began it's veering act after the rain, so that by sunset the 5th evening we had winds on the beam (going forward) at 25 - 30 kts and 40 degree temps!  The wind steadily increased so that by midnight we were down to storm jib alone and making 5 kts.  The seas were at least to the spreaders and the 3/4 moon allowed us to see the Gulf Stream chop that occurs when the stream and wind are from opposite directions.  Every 5th wave or so broke over the boat, and the wind grew to a steady 40 kts, gusting to 50.  Absolutely incredible!  We took 2 hour watches in the cockpit as we'd never sailed in a gale before and didn't know how the Aries would handle the situation.  The Aries proved it's weight in gold, keeping us right on course -- handling the tiller when I'm sure we would have become exhausted.  Besides the wind and breaking seas, the air temp was cold enough to make things very miserable, so after each taking one watch, we gave it up and went below to the warmth of the cabin heater -- resigned to look out every 15 minutes to be sure another boat wasn't bearing down on us.  The Aries handled it all superbly.  We did heave to at 4am to get some sleep, and again "Thora" responded beautifully -- the motion was greatly reduced and only an occasional wave would bury the boat.

The wind continued at 30 - 35 all the next day dictating storm jib and trisail.  We were able to point 60 degrees off the wind, but beating in the Gulf Stream is anything but relaxing.  By 9:30 the fifth night we were abeam Frying Pan Light -- figuring another 18 hours to Beaufort.  The wind and chop picked up once again, however, so that we were now falling off the back side of the Gulf Stream's flat topped waves.  It's terribly nerve wracking anticipating and then experiencing  the trip up the front of the wave, then the crash through the flat top, then the fall down the back side...again and again and again...  By 4am it was too much and we hove to again to get an hours sleep.

It was frustrating being so close to Beaufort, but having to make agonizingly slow time tacking.  By 9am the 6th day, things quieted down to 20-25kts - we continued beating in the 30 degree temps, staying below as much as possible.  Within 20 miles of Beaufort, the wind slackened so that with the left over chop we were making little to no progress.  We tried to start the engine, but alas, the battery was dead and attempts to hand crank were fruitless.  (We later discovered a bad intake valve which lowered compression to the point that the hand crank was ineffective.)  So, at sunset, we were becalmed 10 miles out of Beaufort with no motor.  We took this time to compose ourselves and get a little rest.  It was actually a rather pleasant respite after two days of gale and near gale winds;  having no wind and no motor, we slowed down both physically and mentally, content to wait for the wind. 

When the wind came, it was ideal...over the transom and light, on an incoming tide.  At 10pm we were tuning our course based on the strength of the Beaufort AM radio station and the relative position of our cheap AM radio.  We had no running lights due to the dead battery and were concerned when we discovered a dredge in the channel.  We successfully dodged the dredge twice (he seemed to be following us and without a VHF and no running lights we had no way of knowing if he saw us...) only to find that he had moved the channel while we were away.  After an hour of fumbling our way in (and anchoring in the channel at one point to decide which way one now had to go to avoid the shoals), we were safely in the harbor.  By 2:30am we were swinging safely from our mooring in front of Beaufort, sharing Oreos and Bahamian rum w/ OJ, congratulating ourselves on our seamanship -- and feeling VERY good.

Jeff awoke @ 7am Sunday and went ashore to call customs -- no answer, so we called the Coast Guard who advised we had 48 hrs to clear -- we later learned it's really only 24 hours.  We then both went ashore for a much needed bath and to recount our sailing adventures with our sailing friends.  Before noon the same day, we both had jobs, starting 8am Monday.