Bermuda Bound

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 10^th – 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.