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Tara - Days 1 -3



Day 1 -- May 10th -- After Lisa and Mark returned from the Oklahoma graduation of Mark’s daughter, Madison, (woohoo!, congrats again Maddie) we departed St. Thomas around 4:30pm in nice, if brisk, winds. In 18-25 knot winds and fairly large seas just forward of the beam, all four crew aboard have had some challenges getting their “sea stomachs.” Not TARA, she proved to be the thoroughbred that she is by pounding effortlessly into the 7-9’ waves coming at us. As darkness fell, we were treated to a light show as she punched in and out of the steep wave fronts causing an explosion of red and green light in the mist created by the impact reflecting off our bow lights. It was definitely a rousing start to the rally. We figure that given the 28 hour head start, the fleet is anywhere from 160 to 220 miles ahead of us. It was a real disappointment to miss the start but we have a fun goal set to try and catch at least one of our Rally friends.

Day 2 -- May 11th -- Boy, you really learn fast why the ‘trade winds’ have a name. You talk about persistent speed and direction 18-23 knot winds still on the beam. There is no letting up! It would be great if we could get rid of the rough seas, but that is sailing! We have been fully reefed on both the JIB and the main since Lisa correctly made the call to bring the sails in to the minimum about 10 minutes after we set them yesterday. TARA is running near hull speed and we have a lot more sail area to put out as things lighten over the course of the week. Even with having waves coming slightly at us we made 197 nautical miles yesterday (a passage record for us). Our satellite is working perfectly so we are getting great weather info and it seems like tomorrow things are expected to lighten through the rest of week. Blogs have been slow to come out since all of the crew is suffering a bit from sea-sickness. Lisa is the only one to have not lost a meal overboard yet. Isn’t this fun?!?

Day 3 -- May 12th -- Smooth Sailing Ahhh, a new day! Today the sky is blue, the wind is still holding at 16-20 knots, and most importantly, the seas are down. We are flying all 3 sails and making great progress toward Bermuda! We figure the whole fleet must be flying ahead of us but we are trying our best to catch some! We woke up to the sight of a sail dead ahead five miles and we did our best to close on her but she left us in the dust. We called them on the VHF and learned that it was a 77’ Swan (raceboat, for the non-sailors reading) so we had a great laugh at ourselves.
Everyone is feeling better today and 3 of us are eating again. Jack, while still not trusting his stomach, is of good spirits and standing his watches like a champ. Mechanically, we have run into a problem with our freezer. We defrosted her to get her up to speed but she just isn’t working well. The freezer temp is up to 32.8 degrees so it looks like the $1,200 Omaha steak order is going to yield impressive meals of Filet Mignon, Bratwursts, and Salmon, for breakfast, lunch, and dinner in Bermuda. Most of it won’t go to waste! Yum!!! And if the winds get as light as predicted, I’ll have the grill on the rail pumping out burgers and franks as soon as tomorrow. We have also lost power in the head in the master bedroom so we are down to one toilet. We made 180mn noon-to-noon so we have decided to put out more sail starting this morning. The winds are down into the 14-16 knot range so it will be hard to hit 180 again tomorrow but we will do our best. That’s about all for now. We’re hoping for arrival in Bermuda on Friday evening! We should hit the halfway point sometime late tonight so that may be a cause for a shot of rum and a toast to legendary sailors that have plied these waters before us.



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