Last beat to Bermuda

One interesting aspect of our first ocean storm is how it changes your parameters. Leading into it, 25 knots was pretty exciting, and 30 knts made us a little apprehensive. Having sailed for a number of hours in 40 knts, with seas to boot, 25 knts now seems quite routine.

Tuesday night remained amazingly dark. The weather systems have totally changed from those on the continental shelf. Now we have starry skies, but dark, anvil-headed thundersystems patrolling around in isolated patches. The dense rain within them is reflected in the radar, and the lightening is of course visable. We were back into reaching mode - fast and flat - and it was fun to steer between the systems keeping out of the wind blasts and rain.

Finally, Thursday morning dawned with clear skies, almost calm seas and a 15 knot breeze (close hauled). We continue our watches all day to allow everybody to catch up on sleep, but in the afternoon, the warm sunny day, beautiful blue water and fun sailing had us all on deck laughing and wearing shorts and t-shirts. I think this is what we came for. We even had dinner together - the first time since leaving NYC.

The night watches are hilarious. We're so tired we're almost delirious, and tonight Dan broke out some of those Dutch schtoopwaffle things, a delicious hyper sugary treat. In combination, between trimming the sails and watching the horizon, the tiredness and sugar-rush conversation swings from absurdity, to absolute seriousness, to way-out humour - out of context not really funny, in fact outright silly, but doubled over laughter funny at the time. I distinctly heard Dan singing Eye of the Tiger at one point.

Through the night the wind has clocked to the south. We're now close hauled and smashing uncomfortably to windward, periodically burying the nose in steep waves. But we can hear Bermuda Radio on the VHF, and although we can't see it, it's only sixty miles over the horizon. I think we'll have to motor or motor sail the last bit to ensure we're safely inside tonight, the next big system is heading in from the northwest, and Bermuda weather forecasts 8-13' seas and gusts to 30.

We're very excited. The Q-flag is ready. We've previously faxed our details to Bermuda radio, and now we're just praying we can get in before customs closes for the day. I expect we'll see the lighthouses guarding Town Cut and St. Georges harbor anytime soon.

One of the photos shows Dan pointing at our hitchhiker.