Bermuda Bound: Day 5

Journal of November 8th

Andrew and Heidi very generously took a longer night shift so Greg and I could recover from the chaos and brutal hard work of existing through Day 4. There was no wind at night. Zero. None. But we had the remnants of the swell from the previous day. This resulted in a pendulum swing putting the port toerail in the water, immediately followed by starboard toe rail. We’d get a few on the bow to give us some reprieve of a minute or two and then the pendulum would begin again. I was very surprised that in the morning when we got up all of the items that were bashing around in the cabinets all night were unbroken. Andrew had said that it was so extreme that each time you sort of wondered…”is this the one that’s going to tip us too far?” to which I added “you know you are tired when you follow that thought up with an ‘oh well I’m sure it will be fine’”.

The seas were glassy, the swell was settling, and we were scheduled to arrive in Bermuda around mid-day. Thank goodness. The last couple days had been fairly challenging and we were all looking forward to a break to rest, look around the boat and assess its status after the bash-fest, eat some food that was not made in one pot, and get ready for the next leg to Saint Martin.  

About 60 miles out from the south edge of the island the winds came up to a good 15-20 true and we put out the sails and are currently enjoying an AWESOME broad reach. We just surfed down a wave at 9.6 knots. This is glorious. Everything is quiet and fast; the sun is shining and there is a beautiful island off our port side. We just ate a nice lunch of warm potato, salmon and rapini salad and are preparing to furl in the sails and head to port.

The massive cold front is coming tonight, we will be in a safe harbour with our Q flag down and (after a drink or two to steady what will likely be a very rolly feeling land) we are going to have a great sleep.  

I will post in a separate blog about the over experience from everyone’s perspective of the passage as well as our arrival in Bermuda.

Much love,

M