It's Day 4 for the ARC Europe Yellowshirt team in Bermuda, but things are just getting started. While it seems like ages ago that the first boat arrived here on the ‘onion patch’ – the carbon-fiber Moxie 61 catamaran Tosca arrived already on Tuesday, making the crossing from the Chesapeake Bay in almost exactly 3 days – it’s only now that the bulk of the fleet is closing in on their landfalls.
Mariposa, another catamaran from the Portsmouth, VA fleet was the second boat to reach Bermuda. The crew of five led by Jeff Rondinone – and consisting of two father-son teams, plus a fifth – arrived earlier this afternoon, pulling onto the customs wharf at Ordnance Island under a clear blue sky and calm, sparkling water. The weather really doesn’t get any nicer than it was today – temperatures in the 70s, low humidity, hardly a breath of wind and the clear sky pouring sunshine down and making the already colorful island practically explode with blues, greens, yellows and pinks. And of course the brilliant white of the ubiquitous roofs around the island.
“Well, we used a lot of diesel,” Jeff offered as they climbed ashore for the first time in five days. “There’s not much wind out there today, but we did manage to shut the engine down during the last few miles and cross the finish line under sail.”
Tosca on the other hand, used very little diesel at all. In fact, aside from charging the batteries, the engine remained silent.
“We sailed the whole way,” offered skipper Jean-Charles Corre. “It was just a perfect passage. Max 28 knots of wind from behind us, clear skies, just a little bit of moon. Not a single raindrop. Just perfect!”
The past two days have been pretty mellow for the French crew of two. As Mariposa was coming alongside the customs wharf, mate Antoine was ‘busy’ repairing a water pump aboard Tosca, who are berthed just across the way in the town docks. The broken pump was the only gear failure the catamaran suffered on the route.
Tosca is run by two professional sailors who have considerable multihull experience – Jean-Charles and Antoine met, in fact, aboard the 110-foot trimaran Geronimo, designed by VPLP in France and at the time the fastest boat in the world. Both were aboard during the record setting run round-the-world when Geronimo was after the Jules Verne trophy. They completed the nonstop circumnavigation in 63 days, with a crew of 12. Look for a feature story tomorrow on the two sailors and what their thoughts are on sailing rallies like the ARC and ARC Europe (hint: they love it!).
Crews from both boats offered their insight into what the Gulf Stream crossing was like.
“It was really bumpy,” said Corre from Tosca. “The waves were just from all over, and even though the wind was from the southwest when we crossed, we could definitely tell a difference in the water once we were in it.” He noted that they first felt the Stream about 70 miles offshore of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel, and managed to find the stronger bit, guessing the current was running around three knots and setting them to the northeast. “I remember in maritime school when I was younger the teacher warning us about ‘Cap Hatteras’,” Corre said. “I’d never been there until last year, but I still remember that warning! I’d never go anywhere near there in a storm,” he said definitively.
Mariposa, slower than Tosca leaving the Chesapeake but still leading the rest of the Portsmouth fleet, said the opposite.
“We didn’t really feel anything in the Gulf Stream,” the crew agreed when queried this afternoon. “It was pretty smooth the whole way, and hard to really tell the difference.”
The rest of the fleet will continue to trickle in this evening, with Persistent Lady, the third Portsmouth boat due in within the hour. The first few BVI boats will follow, with Ballytrim, Kristy Sue - the first and only ARC USA yacht going home via Bermuda - Sea Eagle and Malisi all due in before midnight tonight.
