And so it begins

Thursday May 16, 2024, sunrise

We’ve been really lucky so far, we haven’t seen any squalls or rain. Although it has gotten cold, it’s still been very nice weather and the sea state has been very calm. But that’s all about to change. There’s a front coming from the East off the coast of the US. It’s supposed to bring high winds with gusts up to 35kts. We should be crossing the front sometime during the night. I feel bad but I’m also glad it will be on Mikes watch.

As the sun sets Mike and I begin preparing the boat for the weather that’s sure to come. We dropped all the enclosures around the cockpit and the helm and secured them, and put two reefs in the mainsail. We made sure our preventers on the main and Genoa were all set up. The wind has been behind us and we have been sailing downwind, wing on wing all day. It’s been really nice. With the boat ready, I am ready to shower and go to sleep. I hope Mike has a good night.

Not long after I fall dead asleep, Mike wakes me up. He needs my help to unfoul the Genoa. I’m not sure what happened, and right now I’m too tired to care. The winds are howling at over 20 kts and the swell has grown to around 6-10 feet. The moon has already set so it is pitch black outside. Not really the ideal conditions for unfouling the headsail. But then again, it it was ideal conditions, the headsail wouldn’t have gotten fouled in the first place, right?! Mike has his life jacket on and is tethered to the jack lines, then heads to the bow to the genoa. I head to the helm to control the sheets and furler line. Luckily it only takes a few minutes to right the genoa. Mike decides he wants to reach for awhile so we take the genoa out to same side as the main and secure our jury rigged whisker pole type setup. I’m going back to bed now.

Once again, I’m dead asleep. But all too quickly, 3 am comes. I stumble out of bed, put my warm clothes and foul weather gear on before donning my life jacket. Then I head to the helm to get report from Mike. He’s had a rough night. Winds peaked at 30 kts with a squall. Luckily it only sprinkled. At this point we are heading NW. I decide I want to turn to the east more, putting the wind directly behind us. So again I move the genoa over to the port side and run wing on wing. After Mike helps me get my sails set up, he heads off to bed. He’s earned his sleep.

In my slumber I had no idea how rough the seas had gotten. Somehow I slept through it like a baby. It’s so dark out and I have to rely on the radar to see any squalls coming my way. So far, nothing, for which I am super grateful. Luckily I only have a couple hours of darkness before the sun starts to light up the morning sky. Until then I will just ride this out. I feel like I’m riding a roller coaster with a blindfold on. It’s a bit unnerving. All I can do is take some deep breaths and try to relax.

After the sun comes up I can see what Mother Nature has in store for me. The waves are much larger than they were the last time I saw them, the sky, ominous. I wish pictures and video could really capture what I’m seeing and feeling, but it seems like it never does.

With the waves coming from behind us, they and the wind are pushing us along. The boat is surfing 🏄‍♂️. With each wave, our speed drastically changes from around 5.5 kts to over 10 kts. Our highest recorded speed for this leg was 13.2 kts.

I’ve learned a lot about our boat on this journey. Surfing the waves, she like to go into it starboard side first. She prefers running wing on wing to a broad reach with a wind angle greater that 140. Just like all of us, she has her quirks.

One of the other boats in the rally fleet, Gian, has been staying right with us for some time now. They are about 5 nm behind us. It’s comforting to have a buddy boat.

If we can continue to ride the wind and waves to Bermuda, we will make it in before dark. During the day a couple squalls passed over us, although the wind never got above 27 kts. I think our apparent wind was only 18 or 19. We had two reefs in the main so I wasn’t worried out it. However it did pour for awhile. It’s crazy how every boat on the rally had different weather because of their positions. One boat behind us only had 5 kts of wind when we had 22 kts.

Late in the morning I wanted to start heading up to Bermuda, so I took the genoa back to starboard and turned up into a beam/broad reach. With that we were able cruise all the way into Bermuda. We would definitely make it before dark.

Around 5:30. Land Ho!

We made it. Now we just have to cross the finish line. 6:06:59. That was our time. We can now rest and share stories of our journey with other sailors from our fleet.

I think Stella was happier to see land than we were.

Bermuda is beautiful. All in all we had a great trip. But we are all grateful to be at anchorage tonight. But our journey has only begun. In a few days we will leave this beautiful place and make our way east to the Azores.