Year Two: A Review

The Sophomore year of our voyage is complete!

June 2, 2023, start of year #2: Portland, ME.

Summer ’23: Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, St. Pierre & Miquelon (France), Magdelen Islands, Quebec.

Fall ’23: South via Boston, NYC, The Chesapeake Bay, and the ICW to Florida.

Winter ’23/’24: Cruising the Bahamas for a second season. (With a side trip to Cuba.)

Spring ’24: Sail to Bermuda to start our Atlantic crossing to Europe.

June 2, 2024, end of year #2 of our voyage: Bermuda.

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Headlines

• We lost a crew member this year. Bill The Dog. March 17, 2011 – June 18, 2023. He will be missed. Rest in peace. Chris wrote a eulogy for Bill in Points East Magazine. Read it here: A Eulogy for Bill

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• Canada! And France! All documented in earlier chapters of this blog. Unforgettable. Read about our time in Newfoundland in SAIL Magazine: Cruising Newfoundland On A Literary Pilgrimage

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• We’ve been hoping to visit Cuba for a long time and this year we finally made it there. Unfortunately we arrived and departed by plane instead of by boat. Despite our best efforts, we were unable to get the paper work from the US Coast Guard sorted out for our boat, so we parked her in Florida and flew across to Cuba on a airplane like most travelers do. What an amazing side trip from our Bahama Winter! Next time by boat.

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• In May we flew to the USA to see son, Nate, graduate from NYU Law School. Then drove on to Philadelphia to see his partner, Mikaela, graduate from Penn Law School three days later. Those hats!

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• Our Atlantic crossing to Europe has begun. The first leg from Marsh Harbor, Abaco, Bahamas to Bermuda was the longest offshore passage of our journey so far. 758 miles. 5.2 days. The next leg will be longer.

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A few statistics from the past 12 months:

Canada to Cuba (sort of) and out to Bermuda all at walking speed

• Total Mileage:
  • Year 1: 5,901 NM. 
  • Year 2: 6,725 NM.
  • 2 year mileage total: 12,626 NM.
• Miles under sail:
  • Year 1: 1,671 (28% of total miles). 
  • Year 2: 3,687 (55% of total miles).
• Miles motoring(or motor-sailing):
  • Year 1: 4,230 (72% of total miles).
  • Year 2: 3,038 (45% of total miles.)
• Diesel fuel purchase:
  • Year 1: 606.7 gallons. (Similar to what a 25MPG car will burn to cover 15,168 statute miles.)
  • Year 2: 402.4 gallons. (Similar to what a 25MPG car will burn to cover 10,060 statute miles.)
• Engine hours:
  • Year 1: 845.9 (Similar hours on a car would produce approximately 42,000 miles)
  • Year 2: 607.6 (Similar hours on a car would produce approximately 30,400 miles)
• Gal/hr. diesel burn rate when motoring:
  • Year 1: .72
  • Year 2: .66
• Total nights spent on anchor:
  • Year 1: 222 (Best anchorage: Hog Cay, Ragged Islands, Bahamas)
  • Year 2: 206 (Best anchorage: Hare Bay, Newfoundland, Canada)
• Total nights spent at the dock or on a mooring:
  • Year 1: 143 (Best Marina: Jekyll Island Marina)
  • Year 2: 159 (Best Marina: Marina de Havre Aubert, Magdalen Islands, Quebec)
• Days underway:
  • Year 1: 195 out of 365
  • Year 2: 160 out of 365
• Average mileage on days underway:
  • Year 1: 30.3 NM
  • Year 2: 42.0 NM
• Longest day’s run:
  • Year 1: 93.5NM (April 10: Deltaville, VA to Annapolis, MD.)
  • Year 2: 165.1NM (November 3: Recorded during our 3-day run from Beaufort, NC to Jacksonville, FL)
• Countries visited:
  • Year 1: 2 (USA, Bahamas)
  • Year 2: 5.5 (USA, Canada, France, Bahamas, (Cuba–sort of), Bermuda)
• US states visited: 
  • Year 1: 14 (ME, NH, MA, RI, CT, NY, NJ, DE, MD, VA, NC, SC, GA, FL)
  • Year 2: 11 (ME, NH, MA, RI, CT, NY, NJ, MD, VA, NC, FL)
    
• Laundromat / marina laundry room visits:
  • Year 1: 21 (Most expensive: Oak Bluffs, MA. Most fun: Jekyll Island, where the laundry was conveniently located next to the bar.)
  • Year 2: 22 (Most expensive: Marsh Harbor, Abaco. Least expensive: Atlantic Boat (Thanks Alex, L.!) and Liscomb Lodge Nova Scotia (Where we persuaded house keeping to let us take over their laundry room for a few hours) Most fun: Marina de Havre Aubert, Magdalen Islands, Quebec where the laundry room had a great view and was conveniently located above live music and a bar. It’s noteworthy that the most fun laundry has coincided with our favorite marina two years in a row.) Laundry is a big part of our life and a place where we make many friends.
• Side trips via rental car: 
  • Year 1: Side trips via rental car: 6 (Portsmouth NH, Solomons MD, Ft. Lauderdale FL, George Town, Exuma, Long Island (Bahamas), Morehead City, NC)
  • Side trips via rental car (or borrowed car, thanks Alex L. and Julie!) year 2: 9 (Blue Hill ME, Sydney (Cape Bretton), Magdalen Islands, Boston/Providence, Baltimore, Titusville, Acklins Island (Bahamas), Key Largo, Boston/New York/Philadelphia )
• Side trips by Ferry:
  • Year 1: 0
  • Year 2: 3: Miquelon (France), Isle d’ Marin (France), Ramea (Newfoundland)
• Side trips by plane:
  • Year 1: 0
  • Year 2: 2: Cuba, Boston/NYC/Philadelphia

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Takeaways

Our ratio of sailing to motoring improved dramatically from year one to year two. This was partly due to the fact that we lucked out with better winds for sailing in the second year thanks to El Niño. But the biggest reason is that we lost Bill the dog. Bill kept us near coastal in year one, and we were often rushing to get him to a place where he could get ashore for a walk. After he was gone, we opted for more offshore overnight sailing, especially our most recent push to Bermuda. These offshore legs were always scheduled for when winds would be optimal for sailing.

Our drop in gallons per hour diesel consumption is related to our decrease in engine use. When we did run the engine in year two, it was often for short bursts at relatively low RPM to get us in and out of harbors. Long days of motoring at high RPMs were less frequent in our second year.

One way or another, we covered a lot of miles this year past. The variety of the places we visited and the waters that we sailed were amazing to comprehend. It’s hard to believe that you can see so much when traveling at such a slow speed. Or is it because we travel at such a slow speed that we see so much?

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Breakdowns

For a 33-year-old boat Sundance continues to hold up exceptionally well. But we did have a few failures:

• Year 1:
  • The toilet pump failed. We replaced with spare on hand. (Our custom mahogany and bronze toilet pump handle swapped over to the new pump easily and remains as good as new. I am sure it will outlive us both. And if I’m wrong, we carry a spare for that, too.)
  • The fresh water pump failed. We replaced with a spare on hand.
  • The relatively new radar raydome failed. We replaced with a part shipped to Solomons, MD. In the process we upgraded from the Raymarine Quantum 1 to the newer Quantum 2.
  • And just recently our watermaker production dropped by half. We’re working on sorting that right now. Worn annular rings?
• Year 2:
  • Blue Hill, ME: Yup it was those annular rings causing trouble on the water maker. Replaced with spares on hand and we’re back up to full production.
  • Magdalen Islands, Quebec: Toilet pump failed. Replaced with new spare on hand. Added new toilet pump to spares kit.
  • Magdalen Islands, Quebec: Toilet intake seacock (Marelon) cracked and began to slowly leak. This probably occurred when we were straining the attached hose while making the above repair to the toilet pump. We quickly made our way to East Boston where we hauled the boat and replaced the offending seacock.

• Warderick Wells, Bahamas: Windlass failed. Replaced with new spare on hand. Added new windlass to spares kit a few months later in Key Largo.
• Key Largo, Florida: Refrigeration system has been slowly losing coolant for years. And we’ve intermittently been topping that gas back up for years to keep it going. I think we have finally found the leak and solved it once and for all. The O-ring in the blue cap covering the fill port on the low pressure side was compromised. As a result the cap was both inducing a leak in the shreader valve that it covered and then letting that leaked vapor escape. Replaced O-ring from spares on hand and problem looks to be resolved.
• Key Largo, Florida: Our VHF/AIS antenna has been another ongoing problem. We renewed the splitter and the masthead antenna. Both projects failed to solve the problem. The co-ax cable within the mast looks to be the issue. This cable is bundled with all the other mast wiring and secured to the inside of the forward end of the spar to keep it from slapping around in there. To replace it, we will need to take the mast down and remove the wiring bundle. This is more of a project than we want to get into right now. So instead we installed a second VHF antenna on the pushpit. It doesn’t have quite the range that the masthead antenna had, but it works. When we do eventually bring the masthead antenna back online, this second antenna will be nice to maintain as a back up.
• Current Cut, Eleuthera: Starboard upper chainplate developed a deck leak. Removed, inspected, re-bedded, re-tuned rig.

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Boat Projects

• East Boston: We never did haul the boat out during the first year of our voyage. So when we had to haul out to replace the failed seacock in East Boston in September of year #2, we took advantage of being out of the water to tend to a variety of other routine maintenance projects including: bottom paint, prop service, and cleaning and waxing the topsides.

• Key Largo: We replaced our old stainless steel lifelines with Dynice Dux cordage. Read about that project in Chris’ related story in the June 2024 issue of SAIL Magazine: Just Duxy

• Key Largo: Renewed jib sheets and main halyard.
• Marsh Harbor: Renewed the fresh water pump and toilet pump. This was preventative maintenance. Both pumps were working fine, but based on past experience, we deemed them to be near the end of their useful life. We’d rather swap them out at anchor then in the middle of the ocean during the upcoming Atlantic crossing so we took care of it in The Bahamas prior to departure.

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Reflections

Chris: It was great to be home in May to see the kids graduate from school. Revisiting the busy East Coast corridor was also eye opening. I always figured myself to be a city mouse, but I struggled to regain my footing in the dense maw of civilization. The experience made two truths obvious: 1. I’m getting old. Because only old farts complain about the “dense maw of civilization.” 2: Life on the boat suits me.

The boat’s running strong, we’ve seen some amazing places this past year, and I’m looking forward to what comes next.

Worst Day: Sunday, June 18: Father’s Day. Lunenburg, Nova Scotia. Alex and I loaded Bill the dog into a taxi and took him on his last ride to the vet in Halifax. Sadly, cancer was eating him up and we had to put him down. Long ride back to the boat with just two of us in the cab. Sadly, we were burdened with a barrage of death and loss this past spring and early summer. But this is a sailing blog and I’ll keep the scope of discussion limited to the crew of this boat.

Best Day: Sunday, August 13, Hare Bay, Newfoundland. Every place in Newfoundland was more astonishingly beautiful than the last. But in retrospect, Hare Bay was our favorite. The majesty of that fjord has to be seen to be believed. And the hiking up the sides was phenomenal. Read more about our time in Newfoundland in the May 2024 issue of SAIL Magazine: Cruising Newfoundland on a Literary Pilgrimage

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Alex: If I’d been required to write this response in the middle of Year #2, I might have said it felt like a sophomore slump – remember those? As Chris has alluded to above, our spring and summer were marked with a lot of loss and so it felt as though sadness shrouded us, much like the fog in the six weeks of sailing in Nova Scotia. That surely didn’t help, nor did the pneumonia I acquired somewhere between Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. AND. What abides from those memories is the fact that even in the lows, I never wanted to get off the boat. In my fever dreams in Port Au Basque, I made Chris throw away some of my bedding and I hallucinated having a husband without a Santa Claus beard hiding last week’s lunch, but never, not once, did I wish to be in a different life. Can’t say that was always the case back when we lived on land.

Worst Day: Well, there were two. My mother died in late April and then Bill followed her in June. She’s glad about that I’m sure – she never failed to remark on the fact of her gratitude that Bill loved her and considered her one of his people. He did not consider most people to be his people, and sometimes he let you know that with his mouth. Same goes for my Mother, may she rest in peace.

Best Day: Again, I’m going to have to go with a plurality of days here. We’re not long returned from our time on land with the kids and other family as we gathered for law school graduations. Sitting at long tables, surrounded by people you love, eating good food, being nourished by interesting conversation and the knowledge that the kids are now adults, and excellent ones at that….well life doesn’t really get any better, does it? It’s possible that only having little sips now and then from the cup of family love makes the drink sweeter. But I don’t think that’s it. Time with family is just good. And living on a boat is too.

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What’s next?

The Azores then England.

Stay tuned…

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Watch a related video of a presentation that Chris gave at The Pelagic Sailing Club about sailing The Bahamas: