We arrived in Antigua at 3:30 am Sunday morning and dropped our anchor outside Jolly Harbour. From Bermuda we sailed 954 nm over five days and 15 hours, making an average speed of 7.1 knots and an average of 170 nm per day. Not at all an impressive performance for an offshore boat like Saltair.  While we had some fantastic sailing at times, our route took us through two windless troughs stretching between Bermuda and Antigua which forced us to motor for over 50 hours (40% of the passage).  We also suffered through several days of unexpected adverse current, slowing our progress by 1 - 1½ knots, or 15-20% of our boat speed.  

The reality of the passage was quite a bit different from the expectations set by the the various weather models (and the forecaster with whom we consulted) that we use before departing.  When we left Bermuda we thought we’d be arriving in under 5 days with just a handful of motoring hours.  Those expectations slipped by a few hours each day for the first few days and then were decimated on the final few days as the second trough developed and the unexpected adverse current began impacting our pacing.  

The final 20 hours were some of the most frustrating hours we’ve seen on the boat. The first squall came through at 6am on Saturday morning.  And then they kept coming… squall after squall after squall.  Each one brought an up to 80 degree wind shift and was followed by an hour or more of no wind.  In the wind shifts our destination went from an “easily-fetched at a comfortably-fast close reach” wind angle to directly upwind (not attainable without tacking back and forth), forcing us to sail away from our destination.  In each windless aftermath we put away our sails and started motoring.  As the wind slowly returned we started with full sails and then began reefing both main and genoa as the wind velocity built back to the 15 - 18 knot range.  But then the next squall hit and it started all over again.  This wasn’t the idyllic cruising life that we all signed up for and it became exhausting quickly!

As we got into the Caribbean we found that commercial shipping traffic picked up considerably.  Most vessels were visible well in advance on AIS, an automated ship-to-ship tracking system through which each vessel continuously and automatically broadcasts its position to all other vessels within radio range.  But on Saturday afternoon we looked astern to see a massive container ship crossing our path at a range of under a mile.  He snuck up on us without broadcasting on AIS!  We were curious if he was travelling in “silent mode” because he was transporting illicit cargo so we hailed him on VHF to let him know that his AIS was off, wondering what his response would be.  He apologized and promised to “reset his system.”  We were unconvinced of his sincerity until ten minutes later he hailed us back to ask if his AIS was working.  When we told him it wasn’t, he asked that we let him know if we started receiving his signal.  Another ten minutes later he appeared on our screens and we let him know.  He was most appreciative.  Either a very elaborate ruse or an honest system malfunction.

With the frequent passing of commercial traffic we took the opportunity to run some tests of our Echomax Active XS radar target enhancer.  This is a collision-avoidance device that monitors the X and S bands used by ship-borne radars and transmits an enhanced radar signal whenever an incoming ping is detected.  The effect of this is that our boat’s radar profile is enlarged, making us visible at a significantly greater range.  Our first test, with a ship that was five miles away was unsuccessful.  The ship reported no change in our radar signature whether the device was on or off.  After a quick consultation with the vendor, we concluded that at 60’ overall length with a thick 100’ high aluminum mast, our radar crosssection in the 2-3m sea state was likely large enough without the RTE that the ship’s radar wouldn’t necessarily be able to see its effect.  We then tried again with a ship at 13 nm and found that we appeared only with the RTE powered, satisfying us that it was working as designed.  

On Sunday morning after a few hours sleep at anchor, we motored over to the customs dock in Jolly Harbor for clearance into Antigua.  Our process was far from smooth, due to some peculiarities of Antigua’s clearance process and my own inattention.  Antigua has decided that they want the home address for every person on the manifest so I had to go back to my computer to collect and enter all of that information.  Then, after all the paperwork was printed and signed, the customs agent realized that Seth is only 12 but was listed as a “crew member” and not a “passenger.”  Antigua is the only country we have come across that doesn’t allow a minor to be listed as “crew” as it would violate their child labor laws.  So back to the boat I went to delete and reenter all of the information yet again.  (This change forced us to pay an additional fee for Seth-the-passenger that isn’t payable for Seth-the-crew).  Then after we thought we were done, we discovered that Antigua’s port authority accepts only cash, no credit cards.  After yet another walk back to the boat, we were finally cleared in some two hours later.  

The crew made good use of the time I was dealing with customs, completing a thorough post-passage cleaning of Saltair’s interior.  They even got started on an exterior cleaning as well!  Once cleared in, we got settled into our temporary home in the Jolly Harbor Marina and quickly tackled the exterior cleaning.  It is amazing how quickly things get clean with four active scubbers!

Our final task before lunch was for me to go up the rig to inspect everything before dropping and putting away our code zero reaching sail.  This is where our day turned for the worse as I discovered that the brand new headstay extrusion, installed by a rigger in Annapolis just 30 days ago, had somehow separated between two joints.  The extrusion was now being held together by the torn-off bolt rope on our genoa.  The entire headstay would need to be removed to effect the repair, which would require parts from the US or Europe. This was catastrophic news for us as we have but 30 days before we are due to leave Saint Lucia on our adventure to and across the Pacific.

We spent the rest of the day in despair as we couldn’t understand how this could have happened.  One typical cause for extrusion damage is a halyard wrap, in which a halyard gets wrapped around the swivel at the top of the stay, preventing it from turning.  With the bottom of the extrusion turning from the furling motor and the top frozen in place by the wrapped halyard, something needs to give.  But we were certain that this didn’t happen in our case as we could account for the two possible halyards at each point in our passages.  And after all of the other issues that we’ve had with the headstay furling system over the past 18 months, we’ve taken to treating the system with extreme care, fully depowering the sail before furling or unfurling it and never adjusting halyard tension from some modest, base level.  So we were at a complete loss.  Before turning in for the night we composed an email to both Selden and Hallberg-Rassy in Sweden seeking their assistance.  Then, exhausted from the passage and the emotionally trying afternoon, we turned in for the night.

We woke the next morning to find a helpful email from Selden Sweden offering up the possibility of an installation error by the vendor who performed the work in Annapolis.  Later in the morning, Selden USA took over the problem-solving to help us find a vendor to make the necessary repairs.  They also began working to assemble the needed parts for shipment to Antigua ASAP.  I lined up a sail loft to repair the genoa and they arranged for a rigger to come remove it from the boat, now a non-trivial task given the torn bolt rope near the sail’s head.  

Resilience is one of the consistent themes of our cruising life.  For each star-filled night, day of dolphin-filled seas or hour of fast, fun sailing, there invariably comes a moment of utter frustration and despair as something stops working and our well-laid plans fall apart.  But having suffered countless of those moments over the past 18 months, we have learned to roll with them.  We suffer the pain and anguish for a bit and then we quickly move past it and into problem-solving mode.  That’s where we are today.  Hoping that the next post here will be a happy one as we’ll be in our final preparations for the beginning of our World ARC adventure.  

These low, dark clouds forbode our entrance into the first windless trough. 

Bob making an hourly log entry during his night watch.

Indrek enjoying our bean bag lounges, the newest comfort addition to Saltair!

Seth was super helpful this passage, serving regular watches and helping out around the boat!  Here he is keeping me company during my 9 - midnight watch.

You can't have beautiful sunsets or rainbows without clouds!

This is the small ship that snuck up on us without AIS!  Who would have thought?

Squall after squall after squall!  They are easily seen approaching in plain sight during the day and on radar at night.  With some careful navigation you often can make small course changes to avoid them, but they still have a tendancy to mess with the prevailing wind.

Seth intensely concentrating at the helm, trying to break our speed record!

A rubber ducky?

Snoopy?

Our official crew photo for the passage!  From left, Indrek, Bob and Alex!