Sargo's Atlantic Crossing-Leg 1: Florida to Bermuda
This post is long overdue. We will plead being very busy exploring and acclimating to a new country. At this time we are settled in Lagos, Portugal, have developed some semblance of a routine, and can share our Atlantic Crossing experience.
Our Atlantic crossing was broken up into three parts. Florida to Bermuda, Bermuda to the Azores, and Azores to mainland Portugal. This had become a very long post, so it has been broken into the three sections. First up, Florida to Bermuda! The others legs will follow soon.
Leg 1: Florida to Bermuda
After a month in Florida we were very ready to get started. Our first leg would be from St. Augustine to Bermuda, roughly 860 NM. Anticipating a few days in the Gulf Stream we looked for a forecast with settled weather and southerly winds. What we got was definitely settled - some southerlies that then died out to light conditions most of the way. But no complaints. It was warm, sunny, down wind, with beautiful nights.
My (Bjorn’s) cousin Tad was able to join us for the crossing to Bermuda. Tad was eager for the fishing, as the tuna were supposed to be moving towards the East coast. We had at least two lines in the water all the time, constantly clearing sargasso weed. Tad caught on quickly to the sailing, rhythm of living on a boat offshore, and kept us all entertained with silly antics and stories.
Tad getting into the Sargo Orange spirit!
Sargo swept quickly north in the Gulf Stream to the level of Cape Hattaras, then turned east straight for Bermuda. Our buddy boat Twig hunted a bit for wind, but on Sargo we turned on the engine when the wind dropped. We ended up coming back together a few hundred miles from Bermuda, enjoying light air reaching conditions and some motor sailing. Despite Tad’s hard work we only caught a single Mahi Mahi. We came into Bermuda in the morning of our sixth day having covered 938 NM and were just a few hours after Twig. Bermuda Harbour Radio welcomed us in and directed us to anchor for all the clearing in and COVID protocols. Anyone who has heard and spoken to Bermuda Harbour Radio knows how welcoming, properly British, and competent they are! One of the sailor’s rights of passage for an Atlantic Crossing.
We ended up spending close to a month in Bermuda. This gave us lots of time to get to know the island. There are so many forts! We of course went to the Dock Yard, the famous pink sand beaches, and St. David’s Head light. A lot of ice cream was consumed, as were Rum Swizzles and Dark & Stormies. We toured grottos, and got to practice our scuba skills. We did a day of diving with Dive Bermuda, going to the northern most coral reef in the world and getting to dive the wreck of the San Cristobal. While we were there the Newport Bermuda One Two race came in. I had a great time talking with the crews and made friends with Tim Kent on Kent Racing. He had lost the propeller on his Class 40 on the race over from Newport, so I ended up helping him out and diving to put a new one on. We got to watch the start for the race back to Newport - so impressive seeing these race boats power up and fly out of St George’s cut!
A big highlight in Bermuda was our visit to the NASA outpost there. We were out on a hike and stumbled across a building with a NASA sign on it. There was a fellow out front on a videoconference - we asked him what the place was and he turned out the be the head engineer and invited us in for a tour. Evidently NASA has a station on Bermuda to monitor the trajectory of space launches from Canaveral. If something isn’t right, they can blow up the rocket from Bermuda. Toren got to push the Self Destruct Button (but didn’t blow up any rockets!). Thank you NASA and your super nice crew on Bermuda for the welcome and tour!
Time to get serious again. Our next leg would be Sargo’s longest ever, Bermuda to the Azores. This would be almost a two week passage of around 1800 NM. We enlisted the help of Jayme’s dad Bert, and one of my best friends Jedd to help with the crossing. Twig ended up grabbing a perfect weather window, leaving two weeks before Sargo while we waited for our crew and the next good weather opportunity. Ocean passages are not like taking a road trip. Leaving when weather conditions are not good can mean uncomfortable to dangerous sailing, breaking gear, and much longer passage times. Picking a weather window is serious, hard work! The weather was not lining up well, but Bert had his flight booked, so took a chance and came to Bermuda. He got almost a week of extra time in the sun before a weather window started to line up. Jedd’s schedule was tighter, so after a few last minute changes he flew in the day before we had finally scheduled for our departure. Conditions still looked good, so out we went!
Next post: Bermuda to the Azores
