San Juan to Bermuda

 

The passage from San Juan to Bermuda is around 800 nautical miles, or approximately 6 days at our average cruising speed of 5.5 to 6 knots. We weighed anchor in San Juan on Tuesday morning around 10 am after doing last minute jobs like getting the dinghy on deck, mounting the Watt & Sea (our hydro generator), and sending me up the mast for a quick rig check. We were escorted out of the harbor by my “boyfriend,” one of the pilot boat captains who liked to pass by our boat at anchor every morning to say hi while I drank my coffee. He earned his nickname because, over the course of a week, he gave me his phone number, offered the use of his car, and, of course, greeted me with increased exuberance every morning. His nickname was confirmed when all of my morning greetings stopped the minute Hans arrived back home. Matilda was especially tickled by the prospect of another man outwardly flirting with me and she would tease me until she’d collapse into a fit of giggles.

Goodbye Pilot captain friend!

Goodbye San Juan and el Morro

We had a very fast and bumpy sail for the first 20 miles or so out of the harbor. The winds were funneling along the north coast of the island, placing us in an acceleration zone. The wind was strong and the seas were confused and big. In order to preempt seasickness, the kids and I each took a dramamine an hour before we left harbor, so we promptly fell asleep as soon as it got uncomfortable. A seasickness cure of sorts, but perhaps not the most helpful for Hans.

First few hours at sea, no bueno. You can see Matilda curled up on the back deck with a bucket next to her. We definitely lost our sea legs!

By mid afternoon the seas were more organized and the wind was down to a more manageable 15 knots. The motion was significantly more comfortable. We all roused and started to settle in for the 6 day passage. We left San Juan with a forecast of light winds with perhaps a couple days of motoring. The wind died sooner than we expected and our passage unfortunately turned into a straight motor to Bermuda. We had a 12 hour respite in the middle when we had wind enough to sail, but then it was straight back to motoring. Once again we’re happy to have a boat designed for long distance voyaging with the requisite fuel capacity, so we had plenty of diesel to get us north.

Watch out for the creatures from the deep!

Highlights of the motor included swimming at the deepest part of the ocean, the Puerto Rican trench, a whopping 6000 meters deep, longer days, which, in turn, provided more spectacular sunsets, and… not much else. It was pretty long, monotonous, and hot. I had pre-cooked all our dinners before we left San Juan. Usually I try to pre-make the first three dinners because by the fourth night my seasickness is pretty much gone and I can cook, but I had time in San Juan so I pre-cooked all of them. Go figure, I could have been down below cooking starting on the second day with the calm conditions we had. Still, it was a luxury to have all the meals ready-made and the only galley work we had to do was the dishes.

May 26, 2022 05:20
Every early morning we saw the moon, Jupiter, Venus, and Saturn.

May 26, 2022 05:42

May 28, 2022 04:58
You can see the moon and Jupiter on the right.

We made good time because of our direct course to Bermuda and the consistent speed that comes with motoring. Bermuda is a flat island so we couldn’t make out land until we were less than 20 miles from shore. Bermuda has a strong seafaring history and the island continues to encourage and support mariners. When we were around 30 nautical miles out from St. George’s, we heard Bermuda Radio hailing another sailboat on the VHF. They communicate with every boat that nears the island before they enter St. George’s harbor (the required point of entry for all pleasure boats). It’s a pretty thorough conversation and one that I stumbled through at 7am after being awake for over four hours at that point. Port, registration number, do you have AIS, MMSI number, EPRIB, EPIRB number, charts, last port of call, next port of call, etc. etc.

Practicing slingshot skills.

Hans looks a little nervous!

Probably the most spectacular sunset I've ever seen.
May 28, 2022 18:33

May 28, 2022 18:52
It just got better and better.

May 24, 2022 19:10

As we got close to Bermuda we could see the dark gray and black rocky shore, the bright blue water, and the white roofs of all the buildings. We entered the narrow cut into St. George’s harbor and were reminded of the west coast of Sweden. Small islands, inlets, pine trees, and little cottages and houses clinging to the rocky shoreline. We tied up to the customs dock in St. George’s and an official came out of the office to clear us in. He had a clipboard with lots of paper and many, many questions. He asked for the captain and Hans jokingly pointed at Freja. He nodded and directed all his questions to her. She knew probably 80%. After the lengthy check-in process, we left the dock and motored across the harbor to anchor next to our friends Adam and Cindi on Bravo. It was a real treat to see them. The last time we met up was in Grenada in February for just a couple days, so we looked forward to spending more time together exploring a new place.

It was fun to see all the cruising boats at anchor as we motored around the harbor looking for a good place to drop the hook. We had spent so much time in the Virgin Islands surrounded by big charter catamarans and part-time cruisers; it was neat to be amongst our own kind of people, the long distance voyagers, the passage-makers. All the boats were true blue-water cruisers, immediately recognizable by their solar panels, wind turbines, jerry cans lashed on deck, and often a self-steering wind vane mounted on the transom. Notably, almost every boat was a monohull. Catamarans are very popular, especially in the kid-boat crowd, and this was the first time in awhile where there were significantly more monohulls than cats in the anchorage. I feel like cruising has changed a lot since Hans and I were sailing in the Bahamas and the Caribbean over 12 years ago (bigger boats, fancier boats, way more catamarans, less camping lifestyle, more land-on-water lifestyle), but the anchorage in Bermuda felt more like “the good old days” than what we’ve gotten used to. (And yes, I know. We also contribute to the bigger boat, more toys, more creature comforts lifestyle slide, but we’re usually in the bottom half of boat length in any given anchorage.)