Hurricane Impacts on Transatlantic Passage

When I was a small child growing up in Puerto Rico, I thought that hurricanes were conscious beings. That they could make choices about where to go and if they made the right choices, they could grow larger and stronger. The wrong choices would weaken them. I also thought that they chose to attack small islands in the Caribbean when they wanted to, or chose to avoid the small islands and spare the islanders who were living there. I was 5, give me a break.

Now that I’m older, I understand that hurricanes are merely weather phenomenon and their actions are not controlled by conscious choices but by the forces acting on them.

Crossing the North Atlantic in the Summer means that you will need to be aware of and avoiding the Hurricanes that (typically) are raging south of you.

Every year is different and every hurricane is special, but in general, hurricanes form off the coast of Africa and intensify as they travel across the Atlantic. Once they get to the Caribbean, they are powerful and will either deviate north which will cause them to skirt the East Coast of the United States or they will slam into the Gulf of Mexico.

In general, if you are North of the Doldrums, and East of Bermuda, then you are safe from hurricanes. Hurricanes have trouble making it through the Doldrums and tend to lose a lot of steam as they venture north. They are also incapable of traveling through the high pressure system known as the Azores High, which is why the Azores are safe from Hurricanes.

We know this information very well, but do the hurricanes?

In 2018, we were in the Harbor of Bermuda when Hurricane Chris was approaching. We sailed away and left to hide further east of it as it raged on to the North West of our position. We left Bermuda on July 9 and made it to Horta, Faial, Azores, on August 2. We had great sailing going across and were safe in our knowledge that we were where hurricanes could not reach us.

Debby formed in the path we sailed on August 9.
Ernesto formed in the path we sailed on August 15.
Joyce formed in the path we sailed on September 12.
Leslie formed in the path we sailed on September 23.

You get the picture. There is no safe place from a hurricane while out in the ocean. Areas of the ocean that are famous for stopping the passage of a hurricane and deflecting them away actually had hurricanes (Leslie) spawn in there and thrive for over a month!

The weather patterns of the past have changed and the storms are becoming more vivid and with fewer rules that they must abide by.

Hurricanes are a major consideration for choosing what route and when to sail across the Atlantic, but the important part is to make sure your yacht is never caught in the path of a hurricane. Do what you can to avoid them and steer clear of them because your life does depend on it.

Boatyard Projects

Sonder: n. The realization that every person is living a life as complex and vivid as your own.

Here we lay in this boat yard, working tirelessly to finish the refit. Months of our lives have been spent in the bilges as we work to ready her for the next leg of her voyage.

Years of our lives have been spent working on her, maintaining her, with our hopes and dreams suspended in her rigging. So much work, thought, and pride has been wrapped up in this one hull which now lays on the hard surrounded by other boats in various stages of their boat life. Some look new, some have been decaying for years, but each and everyone has a story, a past, and a voyage.

How many boats have had their stories pass through this yard? Where have their stories gone from here?

New Friends

Cruising isn’t just about working on your boat in random places of the world. It’s also about traveling, meeting new people, and experiencing new things!

We met this couple and decided to go visit the caves on Terceira, Azores together. They were a lot of fun and we greatly enjoyed hanging out with them while they were visiting this island.

The coolest part (and how we got to know each other) was that their last name is my first name: Herby.

Living Somewhere New

What is the goal of cruising? Is it to sail? Probably not, if your dream is to sail, you will find it easier to attain that goal by joining a local sailing club. The goal of cruising is to live somewhere new, somewhere exiting, and somewhere different.

Sailing helps make these dreams a reality as it provides you with a mobile home that requires no fuel to move great and vast distances. Once you get somewhere, the goal is not to sail around some more, but instead to explore, to hike, and to live there!

We arrived at the Azores, a small Portuguese archipelago, in August 2018 and we are still here now and loving it! When we do finally leave, we will set sail for mainland Portugal, where begin to make our way into the Mediterranean Sea.

Why? To live in amazing places that we could only dream about!

How? Because cruising allows us to do this!

Bulkhead Repair

The plywood that butted up towards the shower got wet frequently and finally rotted away. The bulkhead is made of two layers of 3/4 inch plywood. Having two layers actually makes repairing this much easier. Instead of worrying about getting a perfect fit and junction on a butt margin, I can step the repairs and grant myself a lot of surface area to glue the repairs to.

Instead of repairing the problem with a future problem, I chose to use 3/4 inch closed cell foam core boards. These are unable to rot but offer incredible amounts of strength. Being the same size as the old plywood, they fit perfectly in place. All I need to do is cut back the rotten wood with the larger side of the hole facing me in the head. This means that the first piece is cut out the largest, larger than the second piece which lays deep to it.

With all the rotten wood removed and cut back to clean and solid margins, I simply glued the foam core into place and glassed it all together. The result is a repaired bulkhead that won’t rot again as the shower will remain there.