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Challenges from Antigua to the AzoresJolly Harbour, Antigua to the Azores via Bermuda

Guy Warner

In early May 2000, I was in Jolly Harbour Antigua preparing my Dehler 41DS, Blue Blazer, for the 1000nm run up to Bermuda. The first leg of ARC Europe. My crew were Doug Gardner, a submarine friend and a 30-year old volunteer, Nina, an experienced sailor whom I did not know. Doug duly

arrived raring to go, but I had my doubts about whether Nina would actually turn up. However, she was on the next flight after Doug, bringing two bottles of champagne. We had a jolly time at the ARC Europe farewell party, it was good knowing quite a few yachts from the trip over the Atlantic. I had had the engine serviced in Jolly Harbour, but when we were manoeuvring near the start line on 11 May, the prop stopped turning. I immediately thought we had picked up something round the screw and got Doug to don goggles, a nose clip and dive down to free the prop. He reported that the prop was clear “It can’t be,” I said, “go down again.” He didn’t relish a second dive but came back with the same result. The start was happening so we set off thinking, who needs an engine? When it became less hectic, being an engineer, Doug went down to look at the engine. He discovered that the propeller shaft had become disconnected from the engine. Several bolts were missing – they had not been tightened up after the service. Fortunately, Doug found them in the bilge, connected them and all was fine. He now had a

Guy, Nina and Doug in 2000Guy today (below)

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good story about how I had made him dive twice in shark-infested waters to clear a pristine propeller.

We needed the engine, as there was little wind for the first few days, then the weather changed dramatically. We were suddenly blown almost flat with the boom in the water. I was alone on watch and Doug rushed up to help, but in doing so he caught his foot on a catch at the bottom of the sliding washboards, badly cutting his heel. Nina was now in the cockpit, so I told her to go below, find a needle in the First Aid box and sew up Doug’s wound. She only found a rusty sailmaker’s needle and wisely rejected it in favour of steri strips.

We found ourselves in a tropical storm in the notorious Bermuda Triangle, the wind blew a good F10, gusting more, for a solid two days. We found it best to put the wind on the quarter and hand-steer away from the waves, watching for the really big ones that flooded the cockpit. We had three reefs in the main and a small amount of the regular blade jib; it was too rough to rig the storm jib. After some 24 hours of very tiring activity, everything quietened down and I said to Doug, “I think we are through it.” “No,” he said, “we are in the eye,” so we took the opportunity to get on the other gybe. 24 hours later, the storm had passed. I remember Doug saying to me several times, “I think we are in survival mode here.” Throughout Nina remained icy calm and just got on with crewing the boat. In hindsight, after gaining my Ocean Yachtmaster, I realised I should have hove to on starboard tack, thereby allowing the storm to pass through in 24 hours.

The fleet all had the storm in varying degrees, followed by no wind. Canadian yacht Dany 2 lost all power and had no fuel left. Nobly, the German yacht Micadue turned back and gave them an open ocean tow for 200nm into Bermuda. They had abandoned their hopes of line honours to help a fellow yacht. We limped into

Blue Blazer, a Dehler 41DS

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Bermuda somewhat battered but cheerful on 20 May conscious that the onward leg to the Azores was due to leave on the 23rd. Nevertheless, we partied mightily with our fellow yachts into Sunday, exchanging stories about the Bermuda Triangle. When I went later that day to see Andrew Bishop, the very efficient ARC organiser, suggesting the next start be delayed as most yachts had defects and needed to recover, he said, “Guy, if you hadn’t been pissing it up in Blue Blazer for an extended period, you would be in better shape – request denied.”

So I spent the remainder of Sunday getting victuals for the onward passage and seeing Nina and Doug off to the airport. Richard, Tim and Judith arrived on schedule that evening and were horrified to find how much there was to do before the off on the Tuesday. Richard, a familiar submarine sailing companion, had just retired as a Rear Admiral and his friend, Tim, was another just retired Rear Admiral. Richard took charge and devised a viable plan. I could see why he had delivered the Trident submarine project to time and budget, an unparalleled achievement. Judith, a good sailor and former work colleague, set about rectifying a problem on the VHF, having worked in marine communications. Somehow, we got everything repaired and stowed in time for the off. I am not a good starting helm but on this occasion, thanks to having our blue reacher up, we led the field out of the cut to loud cheers from friends as we passed the Bermuda Yacht Club.

Even friend Otto shouting at me from his Nicholson 46, Lady of La Mancha, “We’ll be keeping the beer cold and the women warm for your arrival in Horta.” couldn’t dim my sense of satisfaction. Our lead was to be short lived as we sped up north according to my navigation plan, which had us skirting round the top edge of the Azores high and resulting infamous calms. It turned out badly for us as we had 30 to 50 knot winds, albeit on our port quarter, together with much rain and unpleasantness. However, the wind was steadily from Newfoundland and our Pacific Plus Windpilot coped most of the time although we had to take over from time to time. I remember Judith on the helm saying “Guy promised me sunshine, this is what I get on a typical May bank holiday.” Tim was stoic too, keeping rain-filled watches in shirt sleeves only, insisting he was enjoying every minute of it. His toughness had been honed in HMS Invincible during the Falklands War.

Blue Blazer was really excellent in heavy weather but tended to creak and I always had doubts about her durability. On the open radio net I was voicing my concerns

Richard, Guy, Judith and Tim

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to Otto, who was telling me all his crew were incapacitated with seasickness, but his pedigree Nicholson was holding up well as expected, when some wag came up and suggested that as I had a strong crew but a suspect boat and Otto had a strong boat but a suspect crew, we should do a transfer to ensure one of us got through safely! In fact we sailed into Horta Marina on the Azores island of Faial with great aplomb in the early hours of Sunday 4 June. ARC Yacht Silent Wish was just ahead of us and came onboard for celebratory drinks, which lasted most of the night! It had been a fast passage over 2000nm of the Atlantic, averaging some 6.5kts and gaining us fourth in class. Not surprisingly, there were a few things to fix and some sail repairs to be done, but overall we and the yacht were in good shape. We duly visited Peter’s Café Sport and did the obligatory painting on the marina wall.

Our onward passage to Lagos Portugal is another story. We all agreed to have a grand reunion in the Guinness Bar at the Southampton Boat Show. My wife Ros singled out Nina and congratulated her for remaining so calm during the Bermuda Triangle storm. She replied that she was absolutely terrified, but there was no point in showing it!