11 Interesting Facts About the Bermuda Triangle

We'll be entering the Bermuda Triangle soon, on our way north to the USA. Just Google “Bermuda Triangle” and you get over 3 million hits. I had to research carefully, because if we believed all the fantastic stories written about occurrences in this area, we'd never sail there. Here are some interesting facts to ponder:

1. The exact size of the Bermuda Triangle depends on your source. The smallest area ever defined is at least 500,000 square miles. Some sources day it is as large as 1.5 million square miles.

2. The Bermuda Triangle is roughly defined by an imaginary triangle that connects Miami, Florida to Bermuda and San Juan, Puerto Rico. This area is also known as “The Devil's Triangle” or “The Hoodoo Sea."

3. Christopher Columbus is thought to be the first European to sail through the area known as the Bermuda Triangle on his first voyage to the New World. He reported that a great flame of fire (probably a meteor) crashed into the sea one night and that a strange light appeared in the distance a few weeks later. He also wrote about erratic compass readings.

4. The first mention of unusual incidents within the area was in 1894. A US Navy officer, S. D. Sigsbee, concluded a 7-year study in which he noted that 1,628 derelict vessels had been found within the area that is now called the Bermuda Triangle.

5. Vincent Gaddis, an American author, coined the phrase “Bermuda Triangle” in a February 1964 Argosy magazine cover piece. The Argosy was the first American pulp magazine published 1882-1978.

6. Some scholars claim that William Shakespeare’s play, The Tempest, was based on a real-life Bermuda Triangle shipwreck.

7. The Bermuda Triangle was a best-selling 1974 book by Charles Berlitz which popularized the belief of the Bermuda Triangle as an area of ocean prone to disappearing ships and airplanes. The book sold nearly 20 million copies in 30 languages, but is now out of print.

8. Unexplained events within the Bermuda Triangle have been attributed to: UFOs, leftover technology from the mythical city of Atlantis, underwater pyramids, sea monsters, methane bubbles and mud volcanoes, giant whirlpools and blue holes, electronic fog, compass deviation, violent weather (including sudden squalls, downdrafts, hurricanes and waterspouts), the Gulf Stream, giant rogue waves and human error … and probably a few more that I've missed.

9. Steven Spielberg played upon the UFO theory in Close Encounters of the Third Kind when the planes of the missing WWII Flight 19 were discovered in the desert and the missing crew was returned on the alien spacecraft.

10. Lloyds of London, a major insurer of ships and boats, does not charge any extra premium for vessels plying the waters of the Bermuda Triangle. If the insurers don't charge more, they obviously don't think it's a risk. In actuality, considering the amount of ocean-going traffic in the area, the incidence of losses in the waters of the Bermuda Triangle are no worse than any other place.

11. The Bermuda Triangle was one of the places on Earth where true north and magnetic north line up and this was sometimes considered a cause for miscalculation on the part of sailors when sailing through the BT. This is no longer true, however, because as the Earth's electromagnetic field has changed, magnetic north has shifted. The agonic line, the point at which true north and magnetic north are the same, is now somewhere in the Gulf of Mexico.

Want to test your knowledge of the infamous Bermuda Triangle. Take this quiz.

Culebra to St. Augustine - Days 1-3

Day 1 -  1130 nm to go Once again, it was a flurry of activity as we prepared to up-anchor and head out from Culebra to St Augustine. We woke with the dawn, checked the weather again, and after a cuppa and a few more checks, we were off across Ensenada Honda on an overcast morning and heading back into the Caribbean Sea. We'd rigged the pole and removed the sail cover last night to save ourselves from too much morning activity. 1130 nm to go … the first day out, it always seems that the distance is so long, but experience tells us, it goes by quickly. The days at sea seem to blend as we adjust to the passage and before you know it, we'll be sailing into the St. Augustine Inlet and under the Bridge of Lions. In the meantime …

The overcast skies soon burned off, replaced by warm sunshine and big, puffy, linen-white clouds lazing their way through a baby-blue sky. The weather forecast was calling for more of the same for five days out.

If you want to appreciate how wonderful sailing can be, you should have joined us today. Long period, 3-4'(1m) seas, a constant 12-18 knot wind and we were broad-reaching and downwind sailing. There's not much heel. The sails are full out – wing on wing. It's deliciously warm with enough breeze through the cockpit to be totally comfortable. It was an “oh-my – aren't-we-the-luckiest people on earth!” kind of day. The stuff sailing dreams are made of. Fish jumped; noddies, gulls and frigates soared overhead. We cruised along in the low to mid-6s, like the lazy clouds above.

A thought about Puerto Rico. It has all the amenities of the USA … US phones, ATMs, it's reasonably safe and secure, access to all American goods and supplies … but it's distinctly and delightfully a true Spanish culture in a warm, tropical environment. Looking for a place to escape (but not really, totally escape)? Puerto Rico's the place to visit.

Day 2  -  968 nm to go

Once past the islands, islets and outlying reefs, we set a NW course (315M) which would take us all the way to St. Augustine Inlet, skirting to the north of the Dominican Republic, the Turks and Caicos and the Bahamas.

Our first night out was a restless one as usual, trying to get into a sleep pattern of  3 on/3 off. We're tired, but unable to sleep on our off-watch, then sleepy during on-watch.  It all passes quickly and we'll be in the swing of things in another day. On a very positive note, no one aboard has been the least bit seasick thanks to benign weather and seas.

Several ships passed during the night, our trusty AIS alerting us to their presence, but none passed closer than 3-4 miles away. The night offered the same constant trade winds from the S/SE and we made good mileage .We're already less than a 1,000 miles to go. At this rate, we should arrive in about a week.

We're traveling with a buttery yellow, waxing moon as our companion. She lights up the sky till about 0200, dousing the brilliance of the stars surrounding her. No matter, I prefer moon glow.

The day was lovely and primarily spent reading and writing. There's limited chatting since one of us always seems to be napping. By tomorrow, it'll be all good and we'll be on a sched again.

Day 3-  826 nm to go

Another good mileage day under ideal sailing conditions. Neptune is looking out for us, for sure. A favorable half knot current and a gentle following sea have definitely helped our cause. The moon continues to wax and outshine the stars ... except for Venus, her constant companion, who seems to maintain her star-glow in spite of her sidekick's brilliance.

Though there are not many ships (3-4 a night), we see lots of jet contrails during the day. As I watch them, I wonder where the people aboard are heading and why. On vacation to the islands maybe? I wonder if the passengers can look down and see the tiny dot of a boat floating in the endless, surrounding seas and are wondering the same about us. Come to think of it, from 40,000' (12,000+m) up, I doubt we are even noticeable.

According to the charts, the depths here are deep, deep, deep – over 26,000' (8,500+m) and we wonder about the terrain below us and the mountain tops that form the Turks & Caicos and the Bahamas, only 60-70 nm south of us. What critters lurk down there?

A big high pressure system prevails, providing us with the fine weather. The GRIBS and Buoy Weather, however, agree that we'll be windless soon. Sigh! We'll be here adrift in the midst of the great, mysterious Bermuda Triangle.

Ah, yes, we are well into the infamous Bermuda Triangle now and are constantly on the lookout for sudden squalls, not to mention Kraken and other great sea monsters, methane bubbles, waterspouts and especially aliens. So far, so good.

Heading to St. Augustine, Florida

I know, I know … we were supposed to head over to San Juan for a few days and hang out, but surprise! We've changed our minds. We're looking at the calendar, feeling pressed to be moving north more quickly than we'd prefer, but hurricane season is soon upon us and the further north we are, the more relaxed we'll feel. So … instead of a leisurely island hop north, we're heading to Florida all in one passage, then head north to the Chesapeake from there. This passage looks to be 1100+ nm. The GRIBS show good winds and, of course, we'll have the favorable Gulf Stream to help us on our way once we make the Florida coast.

We decided upon St. Augustine as our first Florida destination because 1) it's a good point of sail; 2) the inlet to the bay is not far from the sea and the entrance is easy; 3) we remember St. Augustine fondly as a friendly, easy to get-around kind of town with lots of amenities within walking distance; 4) it's America's oldest city, founded by Spanish conquistador Pedro Menéndez de Avilés in 1565; and 5) we have a mooring waiting for us at the Municipal Marina just inside the Bridge of Lions.

We've finished all the #1s on our to-do list and actually completed a few #2s. Since we're already technically in the USA and since we're heading to Florida directly, there's no need to check-out with officials or file a float plan. We're already good to go. We visited the two little, but oh-so-well-stocked grocery stores today to stock up on a few freshies and the few items on our provisioning list that we can't live without. (Note: Never run out of TP or PB.*) We've left the last of our trash at the dock receptacle. I've stowed and lashed and prepared for a week-long passage. David is doing engine and deck checks as I write. There are two Stugeron tabs sitting on the saloon table, waiting for bedtime consumption. Time to move on and as always, we're humming “On the Road Again” as we make the final preparations to leave at first light tomorrow. We love arriving and we love leaving.

NB: *Everyone probably realizes TP is toilet paper. Non-Americans might not deduce that PB is peanut butter, a necessity no American cruiser would opt to live without.