Voyages from 1998 to 2005
 - #1 North America and the Atlantic Crossing
Written at Puerto Mogan, Gran Canaria, Canary Islands, November 15, 2005

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Judy retired June 30, 1998and we departed the Toronto Hydroplane and Sailing Club on schedule at 2030, July 3, 1998 for an overnight crossing of Lake Ontario to the Welland Canal. We had friends with us for the crossing and the canal, and a friend’s teenage daughter with us up until Tobermory in Lake Huron. We went around Manitoulin Island through the beautiful North Channel to a Great Lakes Cruising Club rendezvous at Gore Bay. Then on through the Sault Locks into Lake Superior and along the Michigan shoreline over to the Keewatin Peninsula, up to Isle Royale and over to Thunder Bay. Across the magnificent north shore of Lake Superior and down the east side to Pukasaw Park, we went back through Sault St. Marie and into Lake Michigan.

Down the west side of the lake to Chicago, we took the mast down at the Columbia Yacht Club located in an old Prince Edward Island ferry. It was impressive motoring through downtown Chicago through the Sanitary and Shipping Canal, between the skyscrapers into the Illinois River, which emptied into the Mississippi River just above St. Louis, Missouri. Rather than stay in the Mississippi, we turned up the Ohio River, into the Cumberland River and then down the Tennessee Tombigbee Waterway, a lovely, more yacht-friendly waterway which emptied into the Alabama River and Mobile Bay.

From the Fairhope Yacht Club on the south of Mobile Bay, we went across the Gulf Coast Intracoastal Waterway to Appalachicola, across to Tarpon Springs and down the West Coast Intracoastal Waterway, through the Everglades to the Florida Keys for Christmas, and down to Key West and out to the Dry Tortugas before crossing over to Havana, Cuba. We only spent a week in Cuba, but enjoyed it and are looking forward to spending more time there on our return to the Caribbean.

From Cuba we went to the Bahamas for February, March and April, visiting Nassau, the Exumas, Eleuthra, and Andros before returning Stateside to Fort Lauderdale to re-supply and prepare for our Atlantic crossing

We left Fort Lauderdale heading north with the Gulf Stream on May 11th, and arrived in Bermuda after 958 nautical miles on May 19th. It was a heavy sail and Judy was not well much of the way. However when I asked her if she wanted to fly over to the Azores or to England, she declined. After a couple of weeks at anchor in St. Georges, we left with a cluster of other boats for the Azores. We arrived to anchor in Lajes on Flores June 22nd, after 20 days and 2050 nautical miles. If we could have followed a rhumb line without trying to chase good weather (Hah!) it would have been only 1850 miles.

The south-westerlies did not set in that spring and we had strong northerlies most of the way across. Our self steering packed it in after the first week, and Judy was unwell most of the trip, able to get up for emergencies or sail changes; otherwise I was single handing, living in the cockpit for two weeks. I could not hand steer for 24 hours a day, and the only thing that saved us was that Veleda will track close hauled into the wind with her wheel lashed down and the sails strapped in tight. She would steer herself for hours at a time, allowing me to get some rest. Actually, I didn’t mind it as I had thought of doing a single handed passage, but I felt very badly for Judy, day after day of not feeling well.

We got the self steering fixed at Mid Atlantic Yacht Services in Horta, a very good chandlery and repair facility. After a couple of weeks we then set off for our last leg to Falmouth, England. Judy again declined the offer to fly over, and again was unwell for part of that 11 day, 1255 nautical mile passage. She lost 14 pounds (about 6 kilo) from Fort Lauderdale to Falmouth, May 11th to July 22, but as she says, she put it back on. However, we made it; our first ocean crossing.

To summarize:

- Fort Lauderdale to Bermuda – May 11 to 19, sailed 958 nautical miles in 9 days - Bermuda to the Azores – June 2 to 20, sailed 2050 nautical miles in 21 days - Azores to Falmouth, England July 2 to 23, sailed 1255 nautical miles in 12 days

The crossing took 42 sailing days plus a couple through the Azores to cover 4263 nautical miles plus another 100 or so around the Azores (at a speed of about 5 miles an hour). We hope our return across to the Caribbean will be smoother

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