Bermuda Arrival

St George, Bermuda

The plan was to begin looking for a good weather window starting on May 1st for the passage to Bermuda. As it turned out, the weather looked good for departing on May 1st so we headed.

While we had planned to do this leg alone, we had some last minute changes and Tim (Larry’s brother) and Rich (Larry’s collage roommate) joined Berkeley East for the passage, while Mary went home to finish some projects and visit with her mother.

The passage was just over 650 nautical miles and we had estimated it would take 4+ days, but with favorable winds, we made it in 3 days, 6 hours, averaging over 8 ½ knots!

As we settled in for our first night offshore, the winds picked up and we found ourselves close reaching in bumpy conditions, not a great way to adjust to life on the boat. But by morning the wind had shifted, the seas calmed slightly and we were reaching at over 9 knots. The following nights were clear with great views of the stars and a bright moon rising to light the skies after midnight. The wind held for most of the trip, keeping our speed up. In the end we motored for a few hours, so that we could arrive in Bermuda before sunset.

While we left with hopes of consuming freshly caught fish in route, it was not to be. The 2nd day out we got a hit on a nice tuna, but when we got it to the boat it slipped off the gaff and got away. From that point on we never even got a hit on the lines. We hope for better luck on our passage to the Azores.

We arrived in St George’s Bay Bermuda just before sunset, cleared customs, dropped the hook and celebrated a great passage. Larry, Rich and Tim where all in fine shape on arrival, and the only damage to the boat was a small tear in the spinnaker and a broken spinnaker tack line (which caused a few exciting moments as the spinnaker flew behind the boat until we could get it down.)

Next stop, the Azores.

Previous Comment

22 May 2010 – Irene Smith

Ah – the joys of an unleashed spinnaker – we experienced that on the south side of PR – pretty exciting – and not in a good way! Glad the “boys” had such a good trip – 8.5 knots average – wow – that’s awesome!