Bermuda
Bound
After
a few weeks in Jacksonville – cleaning out the Bahamas sand and rechecking all
systems, we headed for Charleston to join the seven other boats leaving for
Bermuda. The Rally to the Cup was organized to shepherd boats from the US East
Coast to Bermuda for the America’s Cup Races. Boats departed from Annapolis, MD,
New York and Newport, RI. Our group met
at the Charleston City Yacht Club for a weather briefing and send off dinner.
Surprisingly we met a group also hailing from Panama City as well as other
boaters with whom we have mutual friends. The boating community is indeed a
small one.
We met up at 10 AM on June 10th – high tide in Charleston
Harbor – to depart on our 911 mile 125-hour journey. Accompanying us were good friends and fellow
adventurers, Sue and Rob Blue from Panama City. These hardy souls quickly learned all they
needed to keep our auto pilot happy, watch for other boats on the radar and
generally manage a “watch” alone through the night hours. We all took turns on watch for the five and
half days or our trip and even managed a little sleep when we were not keeping
an eye on the empty seas.
Fortunately,
the waters were calm and basically flat. A couple of thunder storms missed us
in the distance, and we took a short 4-mile detour to make sure another closer one
also did. The last day and a half we had following seas which added a little
speed at a most welcome time – by then we were ready to see land. Our arrival
coincided with a J-Class race just outside our harbor and we were impressed to
see some classic and unique boats approaching the finish line as we headed
toward them. The impressive Maltese Falcon (of “Mine’s Bigger” fame),
dwarfed even the cruise ship leaving the inlet.
While there was plenty of time
for reading, napping, and chatting, the boys also managed to catch a beautiful
Wahoo and two Mahi – not to mention the ones that got away. The excitement of
hooking three fish at one time did relieve the tedium of our crossing and
filled our freezer to overflowing as well as providing a few meals along the
way.
We
cannot thank Rob and Sue enough for taking the challenge and joining us on the
adventure. Their company kept us sane, their help gave us plenty of sleep, and
their good humor made the trip enjoyable. All chores were accomplished in half
the normal time so we even had time to relax.
Thanks
to Dr. Greg we had a fully stocked medical kit and even had a lesson in
suturing which we were glad not to need at least so far. (We did practice a few
more times Greg before cooking that chicken into Jambalaya. Rob did do a little
surgery on Sue’s foot to remove a glass shard.
Our Frank managed to break a glass on the back deck. Thankfully no
stitches were needed!
Only
one mechanical repair was made on the way.
Steve detected a small drip in a transmission oil heat exchanger and
swapped it out for our spare. We were
barely stopped for half an hour – not even enough time to get sea sick.
Nonetheless, everyone on board was happy to see the islands of Bermuda – about
four hours before our arrival since our course brought us around the south end
and back around to the east for our anchorage in St George Harbour.
