On June 14, 2021, Andrew and his crew of four left the dock at Fajardo, PR and pointed Billy Ruff’n north while I jumped on a plane to be home for my mother’s 91st birthday. The stellar crew consisted of Jon Sauer and Bill Read from CYC and Doug Firth and his daughter Casey, from Maryland.
A few days in, the high water alarm went off and after much ado, Andrew figured out it was coming from our new water maker draining into the bilge. Adjustments were made and Billy Ruff’n continued her journey, only now she was pointed directly for Bermuda with a plan to let the developing storm (Claudette) pass by while taking shelter in port. Another delightful day of sailing with the chute up found them 20 miles off of Bermuda when they heard an exchange over the radio. Sailing vessel Slip Away was out of fuel and had called BDA Radio for assistance. Billy Ruff’n was 5 miles away from the ship calling for help and offered to assist. They motored to the scene and used throw bags to exchange a transfer pump and Jerry can so that Slip Away could fill from our tanks. Unfortunately, no one had a hose long enough to reach the fuel in our deep draft tanks so the crew had to abort the mission, rig the Fortress anchor and carry on to St. George’s Harbor.
Billy Ruff’n arrived in Bermuda at 22:30 on June 20th and headed straight to the Customs dock to clear in. Although everyone was fully vaccinated, they were instructed to stay on board and come back the next day for COVID tests. The next day, they waited for 4 hours in the Customs office for someone to come and do the tests but when no one came (and no one seemed to care) they left and went out to Whitehorse Tavern for lunch & rum punch! The next day was Casey’s birthday so after finally getting their tests, they celebrated with dinner and more rum punch at The Wharf.
On June 23rd, Billy Ruff’n left Bermuda in a dead calm. After motoring at least 24 hours, Andrew noticed some blacker than usual smoke coming from the exhaust. He added oil and it seemed to get a little better. Fortunately, the wind also picked up so they could sail a bit. Going through the Gulf Stream, they were struggling to go 3 knots against the current and the transmission began playing games with them but eventually on June 28th, they sailed onto a mooring in Jamestown, RI.
Bill wanted to commemorate the occasion with Bloody Mary’s so they tore apart Doug’s cabin/bar to find the aging bloody mix (that had come from the house we sold in 2019) and combined it with the cheap vodka used to kill fish along with whatever was left in the fridge for a celebratory breakfast!
