Dave writing here,
Well the big crossing has started. We left Bermuda yesterday afternoon, all boats starting from St. Georges harbor through the narrow town cut. Wind was very light at the beginning but then picked up. It has been 15 to 25 knots since then so we are moving well. (as I type, about 8 knots). We had a fairly rough seas night. We had to reef (reduce) the main during the night and had a little trouble with a line jam and the main sail cover (stack pack type) gave way. We manage to clear all and kept moving well. We had about 7 boats around us in the middle of the night, however we saw no boats, ships or sea life all day. The seas flattened out and we are now making good time and heading North to try to get favorable winds later.
Paul left yesterday just as we started. We hated to see him go as he was a lot of help and great company. Also with 4 on watch we were able to get more sleep time than now with our 3 person watch schedule.
I am on watch now and it is pitch black outside. Nothing much to watch but instruments, radar, AIS and try to send some emails. Once a day for email and weather is about what we can work in. When we are on watch, since we have only one person on, we wear our safety harnesses, clip on to a safety line and we also have a "Screamer". This is a little unit you carry in you pocket and if you were to go into the water or get to far from the main unit, it sound a siren type alarm to wake the other two. Unfortunately it has been false alarming and scaring us for no reason. We will keep using it as it is comforting.
We really enjoyed our time in Bermuda. It is very clean and British. Very different from the Caribbean. We got our boat chores done and had a day to tour. Linda, Dave and Paul rented scooters. Jim, more wisely took the bus and ferries, avoided traffic scares and probably saw more. We had a blast.
We are still eating well and trying to get use to 24 hours per day of rocking and motion as we look voyage. Probably about 15 days from here to the Azores.
More later when Linda can type. My computer crashed and I am trying to type on a little key board and small computer with apparent problems. The above took about 35minutes to type.
Sail mail is working and I can generally send and receive at least once per day with a little effort. Send us a quick note if you like.
The crew of Purrrfect