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Tara - BERMUDA



BERMUDA

Apologies are due to those readers that have been waiting for more blogs. The explanation is short and simple. The absence was due to exhaustion in Bermuda that had turned into pure laziness and recovery while back on the water these two days.

When I last wrote, we were on final approach to Bermuda and happy to be ending two frustrating days of fighting our way into port. As it turns out, that was the easy part. But I’ll explain that later. At 11pm, we entered the well protected harbor and it was bizarre to have no wind and waves at all in there. We ghosted silently to an anchorage just at the same time as great friends (marina mates for 5 months) that we met in Grenada. Charles and Gretchen own, ‘Agua Dulce’, an identical Hylas 54 like to ours. They had just sailed in from Virginia to join the rally. Charles is an alum of the University of Texas (but wisely moved on to Duke) so we are constantly jabbing each other since I went to Texas A&M. As a lawyer, he is well versed in lies and deception so he routinely would get the better of me over cocktails.

In fact, it kind of turned into ‘reunion harbor’ because just in front of them was anchored our dear friends Rich and Sam. He is a Brit and she is Scottish and they were in Bermuda before heading over to Newport, RI. Believe it or not, we met Sam and Rich just months after buying TARA in 2012. We were marina mates in Ft Lauderdale over two years ago. We became great friends and had many a sundowner on each other’s boats and enjoyed the restaurants of Ft Lauderdale together. They surprised us with a knock on the fiberglass in St Martin a year later. Then, this April, we sailed into the British Virgin Islands and dropped the hook and looked over about 200 yards and there they were again. Small world! They are leaving the sailing life since they purchased a farm in coastal Portugal that they are almost done converting into a series of cottages for rent. Lisa and I, along with our boys are planning to pay them a visit this summer in Portugal.

And finally, a third boat was in Bermuda on this speck of an island in the middle of the ocean that we knew. ‘Free Rein’ is the summer home of Ralph and Jackie from Colorado. We met them at anchor in Antigua. We had a great couple of days down south with those guys and never expected to see them again. Wow!
Back to the story… After a celebratory glass of wine, we got a much needed restful sleep. When we woke up I saw that it was time for the batteries to be recharged so I fired up the generator to turn on the charger. The generator would not start. So, I fired up the engine to have the backup plan charge the batteries. Well, the engine started just fine but up the alternator was not working. Uggggghhhh!

To make a long story short, I spent the next three days with helpful friends and several service technicians buried in the engine room struggling to find out what was wrong. We chased down so many things that did nothing to solve the problem! At the end of day three it occurred to me that I had been in Bermuda for three days but I had not left the boat other than to pick up Kenny at the airport. I was very concerned we’d miss the start of the rally to The Azores. Miraculously, answers came about at the end of the third night and I needed to spend our fourth, and last day in Bermuda, finding parts. So, we rented scooters and had a fabulous day circumnavigating that Utopian island of bright colors and cleanliness. After 18 months in the Caribbean, it was shockingly clean! Bermuda, I’m a fan! Best water views I’ve ever seen (BTW, I’ve seen damn near EVERY view of every island in the Caribbean)!!!! Most beaches have that gorgeous bright blue water near the beach only. It seemed like Bermuda had baby blue water going out for miles and miles!!!! Well, we returned from our day of foraging/touring with full stomachs, happy hearts, a new battery, a refurbished alternator, 12’ of water hose, and enough handmade fishing lures to last us for the season. In the end, all of our troubles had been caused by a bad battery (YES, WE CHECKED THAT FIRST! But we were misled by a bad ‘test’ battery, that made us think it wasn’t the battery, Aaarrrggghhhh!) and a tiny screw that had been shaken loose from the alternator during our violent last day motor/sailing into Bermuda.

On the morning of the start, we were at it at 4am replacing hoses, finishing packing things back tight and preparing to set off. More tomorrow …. (I promise)



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