I'm back in the office today, and it feels surreal. The "real" world is out there at sea, close to nature. It's impossible to say in words what this trip meant to me, the sensations are too powerful for that. To all of you who joined us on this adventure by following this blog, thanks for all of your support. We started this blog just to let our family and friends know that we were safe and making progress, but it has turned into so much more. We keep hearing from people how they followed our adventure here.

I think all of us who made this voyage were transformed in some way. For me, it was a dream fulfilled, and I have many moments at sea etched into my brain. It was a great adventure and now I plan to spend some time thinking ("noodling") on what comes next.

Until the next adventure, take care, and always reef early.

First we sign in with Herb and a bit later, he calls on us to give us advice. Just thought it might be fun to hear all that goes on.

That's all from the Eichhorn/Brooks crew. We are off on the next part of the adventure. \look forward to seeing you all in a week or so to share more.

Cheers
Suzan

Hello everyone,
This may be our last entry (and my first) as we will be busy tomorrow preparing for our departure. Our time here has flown but we have tried to make the best of it. We were sorry to say goodby to Eric and Eveleen last night but look forward to greeting the next addition to our crew on Friday.

Emerson is busy looking at weather maps and listening to Herb on the SSB. I am busy making lists of things we need to buy to make our passage back. We managed to meet someone at the marina we are in who is a auto pilot expert. This morning he spent fifteen min. and repaired the thing!!!!

We have had such excellent meals so far thanks to Eveleen and all of those who gave me advice about easy meals underway. We have spent loads of money on eating out - this place is more expensive than we anticipated but no complaints from the galley wench - every time a waitress brings me a dish I am forever grateful!!!

Meg, if you were able to follow us on your ham radio, we will resume contact with MaryAnn on Sunday at 8:00am . We will also be talking to Herb for weather on 12359.8 everyday at 4:00.

Today we are in a little internet cafe, preparing for a day of shopping in St. Georges. Even though we've walked around quite a bit here, we haven't really spent any quality time in the shops. Tomorrow we will begin thinking about our departure, checking the weather, watering the boat, shopping for provisions, etc. We hope to find a weather window starting on Friday. Several boats that wanted to leave this week were advised to wait until then before departing, due to high winds over the Gulfstream (30 knots!). One boat even went out for a day, then turned back due to the forecast. We'll be looking for a milder forecast before our departure. We plan to remain flexible in order to minimize our exposure to bad weather. The upshot of this is that we might have to stay in Bermuda an extra day or so... not too bad now that we think about it...

Stay tuned...

Yesterday we rented a scooter and met Eric and Eveleen in Hamilton for lunch on Front Street. After lunch we motored back to their place on the far side of the harbor. They have a sweet little cottage, right on the water with a view of several small islands in the distance.

From Hamilton we headed out to the southwest end of the island, out to the end of the "hook" where the old Naval Dockyard has been converted to a museum and shops. The museum is in a fort with canons overlooking the southern approaches to the island. Lot's of good nautical history here... We watch kids swim with dolphins in a "dolphin encounter", we saw a demonstration of glass-blowing, and we sweated (it was hot!).

As the sun was sinking we jumped back on our scooters and motored back to E & E's place, showered and watched the sun set over the water. Then back downtown in Hamilton for a nice dinner at the Lobster Pot. Three of us settled on the tuna steak, and it was the most excellent ever...

Then, back on the scooter for us to return to St. Georges and Silence. One word on riding a scooter in Bermuda: the streets are narrow, with rock walls on either side at the edge of the street. This is no place to learn to drive, though I did let Suzan drive a little (I didn't do any back seat driving, no, not me...)

We are now sitting at an internet cafe in Bermuda. It was great to make landfall after 6 days at sea, a sense of accomplishment washed over the crew as we ran up the south coast of the island. We arrived on the evening of July 4th, and we didn't expect to see any fireworks this year since we aren't in the US. However, many of the resorts set off fireworks in our honor as we passed up the coast!

Some details from the crossing that might not have made it into the blog yet:

On our first night out we saw an atmospheric test which caused a effervescent glow of gas, dispersing across the sky. A second rocket exploded an hour later.

On our second day, we encountered a returning aircraft carrier. The deck was fully loaded with planes and helicopters. An F-111 Tomcat made a low altitude pass, straight at us at mast height, then rolled out and ascended. A second Tomcat made a pass a short time later. We loved the airshow!

The early parts of the trip were mostly motoring, punctuated by short bouts of sailing in light air. After three days we started to worry about our dwindling fuel supply, and when the wind died again, we simply drifted in rolling seas for 7 hours, waiting for wind. Finally, a Southwest breeze started, barely perceptible at first, then building to 15 knots. We kept this wind for the remainder of our passage, logging a 165 mile day in the best of it!

Several equipment failures: the autopilot ("Bob") gave up the helm halfway through the trip, then shortly after the radar went on the fritz. We are having Bob checked out tomorrow morning, the radar will have to wait until our return to Annapolis.

We're loving island life here, and it will be hard to leave on Saturday. Beck will be joining us on Friday. I'm starting to eye the weather to make sure we have a good window for the return crossing.

Special thanks to Mary Ann and Jim, who made our link back to shore while underway. Mary Ann was faithfully on the radio for us each morning at 8:00 Am, and Jim has been keeping the website up to date. We're also getting weather information from Herb of Southbound II each day, which is very helpful.

The crew dynamics for this trip were the best you could ever hope for. Everyone worked hard, kept a positive attitude even when there was no wind, and we enjoyed each other's company immensely. Eric and Eveleen are moving to a hotel room tonight, so we'll visit them in Hamilton to minimize the separation anxiety.

We have taken a Mediterranean style mooring in Bermuda, which has been a new experience. We reach our boat on a wood plank from the land. Walking the plank here means going out on the town for Rum drinks!

Yesterday our shore power cord shorted out, blowing the dock breaker. The cord was ancient, so it was off to West Marine for one more expensive item. We have to leave the dock so that we can stop spending money!

I'm looking forward to being underway. We'll likely be motoring all the way down the Bay, but there appears to be 10-15 knots of SW breeze waiting for us on the ocean. On the outbound trip there will be a new moon, so we should see lot's of stars. On our return leg, we'll have a full moon... less stars, but we can see the waves at night.

We set sail Saturday at noon. The forecast is for light south winds on Saturday and Sunday, so it looks like we'll make our first leg to Norfolk under motor. We're hoping that the winds will remain from the south for our Gulfstream crossing. The Gulfstream current moves from southwest to northeast and having the current and wind moving in the same direction makes the waves smoother. If the wind shifts to the north, which often occurs when a front passes by, then the seas will be choppier.

Our first update underway will be on Sunday the 29th, when we should be closing on Norfolk. Then we will continue to maintain a radio schedule each morning at 8:00 AM until we arrive in Bermuda.

Tally ho!

The rental EPIRB arrived today. This is one the most important pieces of equipment on the boat. EPIRB stands for Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon. This thing transmits a mayday signal to a satellite which is then forwarded to the Coast Guard with position info accurate to within a couple of miles. It's great to have this connection to shore-based help. (Hopefully, we'll never need it!)

This weekend we completed everything on our to-do list. New halyards are reeved, the dinghy is on board, lot's of geared was stowed, etc. While I was up the mast I found a number of cotterpins that the riggers had left untaped, so I wrapped all of them. One exposed cotterpin can easily tear a sail, so the trip up the mast was very worthwhile. At the top I also lubricated the top bearing for the mainsail furler with heavy grease. Thanks to Eric and Beck for coming over and hoisting me up.

We had a major shopping expedition for food today, to be followed by some more shopping later this week. One more week of work and then we are off!

We attempted to speak with Mary Ann on the SSB on Friday. She's in Charleston at the moment. The sky conditions where poor, probably due to the bad weather we have been experiencing, so we were unable to hear each other. Suzan doesn't really believe that our radio works... We've changed our schedule to talk to Mary Ann at 8:00 AM each morning, hoping for better propagation.

Suzan's friend Carol and her husband Ken came by Friday evening to share their Bermuda experiences with us. They gave us lots of good info about anchorages, where to snorkel, and where to find groceries and services. We greatly appreciate their insights.

OK, it looks like Robin is in, and I notice that Jim has his account set up also. We should have good communications for the trip.

Tonight we have a radio schedule with Mary Ann to verify that our SSB is still working after reconfiguring the backstay. For those of you who are curious, the backstay is the wire that supports the mast from the back of the boat. This support can also serve as an antenna by inserting two insulators inline to isolate part of the run. Then the radio output is attached to the isolated portion of the backstay.

The insurance company has given us the green light for our trip today. One more checkmark on the pre-departure checklist...

I picked up 2 new halyards at West Marine this evening. Fresh hardware is a beautiful thing! Saturday Eric and I will run the new halyards, and I'll go up the mast to lube the top bearing of the mainsail furler, replace a missing screw from the spreader lights, and make one final check of the rig. Then we'll roll up the dinghy and get it aboard.

After Saturday we should be able to concentrate on water, food, and clothes. Suzan is working on the provisions and the medical kit and plans to do some shopping. I suppose I should bring some Bermuda shorts. Seems appropriate...

Mary Ann and Richard and Jim have volunteered to help us with our communications while we are at sea. Mary Ann and Richard have a SSB radio aboard their boat, and will keep a radio schedule with us each day, at 9:00 PM EDT starting on the 28th of June. They have an email-only connection, so they will email our position reports to our friend Jim in Indiana. Jim will post our position on this site. The SSB radio is capable of communicating over long distances (thousands of miles) but it's reliability is affected by the ionosphere, so don't be alarmed if we are unable to communicate on some days. It's a bit of a Rube Goldberg contraption, so it will be interesting to see how well this works. Stay tuned...

My sister Robin is also able to update this site and she is our primary point of contact for our EPIRB, so she'll post here as we contact her when departing and arriving in port.

It's been a productive weekend. We got the water tanks sanitized, I accomplished some electrical upgrades, the bimini is rigged and we took off a bunch of unnecessary gear. There never seems to be enough space for storage when you start looking at where you are going to stow things. We need to find places to store 3 weeks of provisions...

There are just 2 more weekends to spend preparing. This weekend I'll focus on putting up the bimini, getting fuel aboard for the outboard, doing some minor electrical work, and getting the mainsail outhaul to work a little better. Suzan is focusing on chlorinating the water tanks to make sure they are sanitary, and starting to provision with the items that don't need to be fresh. It's time to run through our lists and make sure we haven't forgotten anything important!

So, while the rig work was underway, I had to remove the man-overboard pole and mount and, so I decided to take the man-overboard pole home for repainting. It took some time to complete, as the rain prevented painting on most days, but after several weeks I had a nice, freshly painted pole. While I was re-attaching the mount to the backstay, I dropped my screwdriver to the deck, which bounced up and over the side and into the water. OK, so I lost a screwdriver. I went down below to find another screwdriver and I thought about the fact that I'd never put the man-overboard pole in the water. It's been sitting on deck since I bought the boat 6 years ago and I've never tried it. So, back on deck I took the pole and gradually lowered it into the water. At the halfway point, it's still not floating by itself, so I continue lowering. I went a little too fast and lost my grip and it just kept going down, and down, until it disappeared. So, our man-overboard pole doesn't float...

The rig work is complete, except for replacing a couple of halyards. Eric will come over weekend after next and help me run the new halyards and go up the rig for a final checkout. We had a good day with the crew yesterday, went over all of the boat safety equipment, and sailed for a few hours to checkout the new mainsail. We practiced man-overboard drills for a couple of hours... The crew was Andrew, Eveleen, Eric, Beck, Suzan, and me.

Now, it's time for final preparations. We have to get the final release from the insurance company and start putting aboard supplies, rig the bimini, get the dinghy aboard, etc. It's almost time to go!

I checked on the boat yesterday evening and it appears that the rig work is nearly complete. The rigger informed me this morning of several additional parts that need to be replaced on the roller furler, and also indicated that all of the halyards should be replaced. One more thing to worry about...

Talked with the rigger and he says that the work is underway today. We should have the boat put together in time for the weekend. Just in time for our shakedown sail on Sunday! The new mainsail is onboard also...

I just got word that our lifelines are ready to pick up, and the new mainsail from North will be ready on Friday. Woohoo!

Saturday we took the sail down in anticipation of the rig work. The halyard stuck halfway down, so I got to go up the mast to sort things out. It turned out that the rope to wire splice on the halyard was unravelling and catching on something inside the mast. One more thing to fix...

The engine work appeared to be complete yesterday when I went aboard. I'll start the engine today to make sure everything is running OK. If the rain clears out some I might get the dinghy cleaned with the help of my nephew, William.

Also on the agenda: the rig work will require some reengineering of the SSB antenna lead. Right now, there is only one insulator on the backstay, near the mast top, and the antenna attaches through the chainplate. This is a bad idea for a number of reasons, foremost of which is that someone could get quite a jolt if they touch the backstay at the wrong time. So, we are adding a second insulator and we'll move the antenna attachment to a point above the first insulator, off the deck.

We received some more bad news this week: one of our crew, Jim, won't be able to sail with us on the return from Bermuda. We're all disappointed to lose Jim as a crew member and we hope that he can make trip with us sometime in the future.

The rig work is promised for completion by June 6th, so we should still be able to have our shakedown sail on the 8th.

We got the word yesterday from our rigger that we need to replace all of the standing rigging on the boat. All the rigging is original, and Silence is turning 20 years old this year. The normal life for the standing rigging in this climate is 10-15 years, so we have been fortunate to have had no failures. The rigger showed me several stress fractures and some places where corrosion is weakening various components.

We've commisioned the replacement of the rigging, and we think we can get all the work done in the next few weeks. The preparation of the boat is going to come right down to the wire, so to speak...

On the bright side, yesterday was a beautiful day and I got to see the Blue Angels fly at the Naval Academy!

Saturday the rain threatened Annapolis all day, but we were fortunate that it never came down. We were able to complete the application of Poliglow and even repaint one of the two cove stripes. It didn't feel much like May at 48 degrees. We even turned on the heaters aboard to warm ourselves up towards the end of the day.

Today we tucked Silence back into her slip, looking very prim. Our to-do list is getting shorter and our attentions are turning towards provisioning. I can't wait to get underway!

It turns out that the hardest thing about sailing to Bermuda is getting a rigger out to your boat to perform an inspection. I had to fire our first rigger because after 2 months there was no report. The second rigger had us scheduled for last week, but couldn't make it over until this week. I've been promised a report for next week. I'm crossing my fingers that they deliver soon...

We should get our new lifelines back from Fawcett's today or tomorrow and the engine will get some more attention from the mechanic next week. It seems that the coolant resevoir gasket is leaking along with the thermostat gasket.

Here we will publish our departures and arrivals to keep everyone informed about how our trip is progressing. We might also include some stories about the adventure. Stay tuned...

This weekend we apply Poliglow. Gotta make it shiny! Cousin Joe is gonna help.