Several people upon hearing of our sailing plans have asked me if I have any concerns about sailing through the “Bermuda Triangle”. I’m not above superstition, knock on wood, and I don’t discount the paranormal completely but I am from Missouri on most matters (I’ve got to see something to believe it). I must admit that I haven’t given any thought about the Bermuda Triangle, I didn’t even know where it’s supposed to be except somewhere around Bermuda. The recent inquiries have piqued my curiosity so I decided to look into the myth of the Triangle, this is what I found:It seems that its geographic location and even its shape vary depending on which author you’re reading. Some say it’s a triangle that goes from the cost to Florida up to the island of Bermuda then down to Puerto Rico. Others describe a much larger shape that extends out in to the middle of the Atlantic Ocean (taking in the lost continent of Atlantis wherever that is). Some even describe a huge trapezoidal shape that includes the mid Atlantic states and the Gulf of Mexico. Hard area to avoid, no matter who’s description you may subscribe to and no matter what course we take south we’ll be going through the boogie patch.
It’s an area that has been supposedly plagued by all sorts of spooky disappearances and catastrophes such as the loss of “Flight 19”, 5 Navy torpedo bombers that disappeared off the coast of Florida in 1945 during a training flight. The disappearance of the USS Cyclops and her crew of 309 that sailed from Barbados on March 4th 1918 and was never heard from again. And disappearance of a DC-3 with 32 people onboard during a flight from San Juan to Miami in 1948. These stories and more that have fueled imaginations of the purveyors of the paranormal. Some of those authors have blamed losses in area on UFO abductions, others to antediluvian technology from the lost civilization of Atlantis.
Fortunately there doesn’t seem to be any real basis for the myth of the Triangle. The US Coast Guard has investigated and remains highly skeptical of the myths associated with the Triangle. More significantly; Lloyd’s of London has no surcharges for operating in the region having determined the area to be no more dangerous than any other.
I know that Bermuda is surrounded by a huge reef system, is cut off from the continual USA by the Gulf Stream and located in the Atlantic hurricane strike zone. The reefs have torn the bottoms out of hundreds of ships over the years. The Gulf Stream travels up to 5 knots and its volume of flow dwarfs that of all the major rivers in the world. When storm winds oppose the stream the sea becomes a force to be reckoned with and don’t even think about messing with it during a hurricane. With all that in mind we intend to proceed with courage, prudent seamanship, good planning and careful preparation. All that plus good luck (touch wood), my lucky rabbit’s foot and much heartfelt praying to St Brendan should get us through.
235 days...
