Log Entry - Monday, Jan 16, 2006

Sailboat | Crew | Log | Route | Track

Twelve hours of light followed by twelve hours of darkness Unfortunately, for every twelve hours of light, there are also twelve hours of darkness, and with that darkness seems to come the wrath of the weather Gods. Perhaps it is just my imagination, but the winds seem to shriek louder at night than the do during the day. Bermuda Harbor Radio reported 64 knot gusts. Last night, Sunday night, was a repeat of Saturday night. The wind was screaming and howling through the shrouds and halyards. The wind seems to come in waves with crests and troughs. It would be relatively calm for an hour, the trough, and then a crest, thirty minutes of spit and fire. Part of me wishes I were at sea, right now, in this mess, running away from here, toward the warmth and serenity of the Caribbean. The North Atlantic is not a friendly place in January. The storms migrate south just like the birds. How far south remains to be seen. That was last night. There was one important difference between Saturday night and Sunday night, the barometer was rising instead of fallinig. The barometer reached as low as 997 millibars on Sunday at 5pm, but it has been climbing steadily since then, and now, 10pm Monday, it is at1022 and still rising. High pressure is building, and tomorrow should be a nice day. The weather service advised against leaving now because the seas would still be very high. It was still windy today but without the rain. It is the change in barometric pressure that creates the wind. So, even with the barometer rising, it is still windy. The difference is that good, rather than bad, weather is on the way. What then are the three most important words in weather forecasting? Yes, another lesson, and those words are pressure, pessure, pessure. Remember them; they will appear often in these logs. I took advantage of no rain to ride my scooter into Hamilton, the capital. It was a long 45 minute ride through very busy, narrow, and curvy roads with no shoulders. The speed limit is only 35 kilometers per hour, which is less than 25 miles per hour, but I can assure you that I saw no one driving less than 50. I spent some time at a chandlery, a hardware store for boats, and had lunch in Hamilton. I didn’t stay long because it was too much like a real city. As you can see from all the parked scooters, it is a busy place, and scooters are the preferred mode of transportation. I bought my VHF radio cable, had lunch, and headed out. I visited the two historic lighthouses on the Island. Gibbs’ Hill and St. David’s. Gibbs Hill reaches 362 feet above sea level and has been shinning since 1846. St. David’s is slightly newer, having been built in 1879. Both were built in response to the numerous ship wrecks on the reefs surrounding Bermuda. They are no longer manned, but their lights are still the first thing you see when approaching the island at night, which was our case when we arrived in November. I took the long way home and got a good look at the island.The adjacent photo from Gibbs Hill illustrates a few of 138 islands that comprise Bermudaa. This evening I took my host Danny Little and his family to Café Gio in St. George for dinner (www.cafegio.bm). Ted and I ate there twice when we were here in November. Tonight was just as good as I remembered. They serve an excellent Bermuda Fish Chowder, an island specialty. The final photo is a map of Bermuda annotated with some of my stops. The Dockyards, at the tip of the hook, is scheduled for Wednesday. Tomorrow is a variety of things in St. George. The boat is in the village of St. David's very near the lighthouse. Previous | Next