Saturday, June 20, 2009

Finding inspiration while sailing

Common dolphin

I have been away from the computer for most of the last couple of months, but I have been lucky enough to get great inspiration from some of the experiences I have been having.

For most of May I helped sail a boat,
Volpaia, up from St. Maarten to Newport, RI by way of Bermuda. She is a Swiss flagged vessel with great lines who sails beautifully. Sailing a 68' sailboat thousands of miles for many days on the open ocean hundreds of miles from land gives great opportunity for thought. We had some beautiful sunrises and sunsets, moonrises and moonsets, beautiful weather, bad weather, calm seas, and strong winds and rough seas. We saw turtles, dolphins, jellyfish, Sargasso weed, Bermuda Longtails, and many other birds and fish.

Volpaia at dock in St. Maarten
Volpaia at dock in St. Maarten



leaving St. Maarten
Sailing away from St. Maarten on the evening of May 6, 2009. We were heading into 10' seas and a rough first 36 hours. No pictures for a couple of days.

Sunrise May 9, 2009
Sunrise on May 9, 2009 -- I was on watch from 4-8am, noon-4pm, and 8pm-midnight. My sunrise watch was the best!

Moonset May 9, 2009
and moonset on the other side of the boat -- we had the benefit of a full moon passage -- lots of light at night really helps to see big waves.


Sunrise May 9, 2009
sunrise later that same morning - I'm the only one awake to see it.

Sail on the horizon
We passed another boat (white dot in the distance) also heading to Bermuda May 9 -- 360 miles to go. Sargasso weed in the foreground.


longtails
Bermuda Longtails investigating the mast of Volpaia at dawn on May 10, 2009. 200 miles out from Bermuda. We are the only thing for miles and miles, so any bird in the neighborhood comes to see what this strange thing sticking up from the ocean is.



St. David's lighthouse as we were coming in to Bermuda on May 11, 2009. We had to slow down in the night to get there at a reasonable hour.



Church Bay on Bermuda's South Shore -- good snorkeling here.



Cyrus at the helm as we sail out of Bermuda on the morning of May 15, 2009.



At sea about 50 miles north of Bermuda on May 15, 2009. We headed straight north before heading west to Newport to avoid meeting a cold front coming off the east coast head on....



Still weather at sunrise on May 16, 2009. The wind and rain of the cold front awaits us a couple of days from now. Enjoy the sunshine while it lasts....



We passed lots and lots of Portuguese Man o' War siphonophores (Physalia physalis) in the ocean (wikipedia link). There is concern that jellyfish and organisms like this will become much more prevalent if we continue to kill their natural predators....



Flat calm.



Amanda just before sunset on the 16th.




We took a slight detour to fish something shiny out of the ocean a quarter mile off our course.... It turned out to be a Hannah Montana balloon. At least we got it before a sea turtle tried to eat it. Brooke is wearing a coat for the first time in about a year and a half... Evening on May 17... it is getting chillier.



As we were eating dinner on deck on the 17th, we were visited by a pod of 15-25 Common dolphins, Delphinus delphis. They rode our bow wave for a good 15-20 minutes. It was awesome.




I'm taking a photo of the rest of the crew all decked out in the boat's foul weather gear! The high winds and icy rain have subsided after 24 hours.... It was rough enough and rainy enough that I didn't want to drag my camera out into it.



Amanda and me at sunset.



Sunset on the evening of the 18th. Nice to see the sun again as it is poking out under the back edge of the front.


Off the coast of Nantucket
Another sunrise on my 4am-8am morning watch. We're getting close to land -- Nantucket is just over the horizon to the north -- lobster pot flag in the foreground. We're sailing very slowly now, to avoid coming in brutally early.


Mmmmmm coffee. Land ho.


Cyrus at the helm as we come into Newport on the morning of May 19th.




Coming into Newport, RI with our quarantine and US courtesy flags flying.