Bermuda part 2: During the race

I had a huge amount of fun preparing and competing in this race. It was a major challenge. I hope my teammates were satisfied with my performance. On my end, I want to thank our skipper and every one of my crewmates for a fun, fast and successful voyage. 265 boats from a dozen countries raced this one, and it was a hard-fought battle.

I take lots of photos and enjoy sharing them. These blogged photos are low resolution for easier posting. I will freely share the originals for non-commercial use. If you want to use any of these comercially then let's talk.

In the first post (http://2006-06-16-rando-bermuda-before.blogspot.com/), we had just left the dock. Now it's almost noon on Friday 16-June and we're motoring past Castle Hill, a lovely place to have brunch or watch the race. Lower left you can just see our private cheering section. Moms and wives are great, aren't they? (Where would we be without them?)


I had been below, furiously trying to synthesize a few different weather forecasts, a gulf stream current projection (thank you Jen Clark), and our own boat performance characteristics to calculate / guess our optimal path to Bermuda. A large eddy of the Gulf Stream was on the rhumb line (the staight line to Bermuda), and we would have to avoid that feature. Which way to go (left, or right)? I made that decision about ten minutes before the start. But I was too busy to tell the crew at that point (and they were pretty busy, too). I told them after the start.

Here's some of my homework from the previous week. The heavy black lines represent the two most likely courses for us. I chose to send us on the eastward track.

Prestart action. We motored toward the starting line.
This is a Fife-designed classic yawl.

Here's Titan, the RP-75 maxi. She's called "the big red boat". You can see why.
Clover is a Swan-56

Motoring toward the start is one of the J-44's
Babe, a Swan 46. The Governor General of Bermuda usually races on this boat and he did again this year. I chatted with his wife (Lady Vermeer) on the dock in Bermuda. Nice lady.
Here's Mutiny, a Baltic 43 sailing out of American Yacht Club. She was in our class. I've raced against her many times.
Intrepid, Endeavor 51 from Westbrook, CT (in our class). Buddies.


Alaeris, an Outbound 48Lots of boats zooming back and forth as our start (the third class to start) came near. We had 21 boats in our class so that made for an interesting starting situation. Our objective was not so much to win the start but merely to have a clean one. Who knew that 635 miles later some of our positions would be only minutes apart?


BOOM! The starting gun goes off! Our 635-mile adventure begins!
We lead Aphrodite moments after the gun.

This is just a few moments after the starting gun. We started at the right end of the line and had a decent start (with a view!) More importantly, we had clean air.
Aphrodite & Intrepid

Shortly after the start. Notice the helicopter.
Usual Suspects, Mutiny, Googolplex and Galadriel. Usual Suspects came from Canada to join this race.
Mutiny, Googolplex and Galadriel
Googolplex and Galadriel. Both race against us regularly. Googolplex would take a westward track. Galadriel went east (as did we). They both had good results. I won't tell you ours (yet).

Alaeris & Intrepid about five minutes after the startGaladriel heads to the left side
Patriot, C&C 48, sailed by the US Naval Academy
Kalevala II, a Grand Soleil 37

Intrepid (left) & Patriot

Harry hoists Fernando up the mast, Robbie tails, Rick smiles. He does that a lot. :)
We had to send Fernando up the rig. The staysail halyard was fouled ... we should have cleared that BEFORE the race! Doh!


Serious concentration here. Notice the helicopter taking pictures. Smile & wave, team! (No, just joking. Act like you know how to sail, not like a hot dog.)
One last sight of our competitor Intrepid. They wound up taking a westerly course to Bermuda, and we a more easterly one. They have a crew of 15. Why only 2 on the rail?

Shortly after 3PM we figured we wouldn't need to tack for a while (like ... probably a few hundred miles!) so we put up the staysail. Nice work, Robbie! :)

Matthias (Matz), Jerry, & Will hold down the rail
About 4:45 PM. Above: Cliff, Dan C., Rick.

Matz checks the compass to stay on course.

Friday around 5:30 PM, we get around this trawler (with nets out). Dolphins were lurking for food, but they came over to check us out.
Matz steers while Jerry takes down our class flag (we put it back up before the finish). We left the protest flag up ... "just in case". Don't mess with Moondance! :)

These two photos taken around 4:50 AM Saturday morning, before dawn.

Saturday morning, 5:17 AM, our first sunrise at sea. Land is well behind us and we are heading into the Hudson Canyon.
Saturday went by rapidly, our first full day at sea. I was busy getting into my routine, making sure I was doing all the right stuff ... forgot to play team photographer. Now it's getting late in the day Saturday. I need to remember to use the flash... MUCH better! Hey, 'Nando, keep it straight. :)

Saturday early evening we are staysail reaching south-south-east at a nice clip.

Cliff (left) & Harry (right)Some obligatory sunset photos
Saturday sunset. If you look closely there are a few boats on the horizon.

Sunday morning , clear and bright.
11AM Sunday, another sail change. We did about 27 during the race.

Hey! Jerry's sleeping in MY bunk! I should have done something mean and nasty to him .... but I didn't. Cliff steering around 1:30 PM
Fernando around 5:30 PM





Sunday afternoon. Cranking at 9 knots toward Bermuda. Who knew the wind would get lighter? (Sure wish I had a crystal ball.)

Sunday late afternoon Cliff & Dan decide to rearrange some furniture. And some bulkheads. And the stereo & TV, too. Why? Bored, I guess. The wind had gone light. I stayed far away. And prayed for more breeze.

Sunday night. Here's my nav station. High tech and old tech.
Monday morning. Cliffs checks our position. No, we're not lost. yet :)
Crew greets the morning and clamors for breakfast.
Rick & Fernando hangin' out. Nice hat. Nice shirt.
Dan O. is young, but a talented helmsman. Here's fingertip control of the boat.

Monday early evening. Dan C. patiently explains to Fernando that, "Bermuda's THAT way"
Tuesday morning we figure it's the last full day of the race, let's dump our fresh water from the tanks but put it to good use. Some lucky folks got to bathe. Here junior saves dad from an embarrassing photo. :)
Now Rick is all clean and spiffy.


Tuesday late morning we saw some more dolphins. They hung around and frolicked for a bit the way dolphins do.

Rick serves up some soup for lunch. Besides serving as starboard watch captain he's also our cook. He did a really nice job. Thanks, Rick. Says his family pre-cooked most of the food prior to the race. THANKS, family!
Cliff checks on our position.



Early Tuesday afternoon. Port watch captain Can C., and Skipper Cliff. Wind has gotten MUCH lighter, and we've tacked.
Will was our most experienced crew and one of our best drivers. He had the ability to steer effectively for hours when called upon. Nice job, Will.

About 3PM on Tuesday afternoon we crossed in front of Devocean, a Swan 45 (and MUCH faster than us). That was pretty cool.

Gettin' toward sundown, Tuesday evening. Our LAST evening in a slow race.
Rick grins as he steers into the dusk. He grins a lot.

If you look VERY closely at these pics, there are three boats on the horizon.

Going ...
Gone! Harry swears he saw the "green flash".

Watching the horizon.
The daylight is fading fast.
Crew grabs a last look at the fading light before donning PFD's (required at night). About this time I made the call to "sprint" to the finish (all hands on deck until the finish). In hindsight it was a bit early ... I wanted to go about the last 8 hours, but it turned out to be 13. Sorry, guys.
About 8:30 PM, I'm testing my skills as a low-light photographer. Looks like a Beneteau to me.

Dawn, the final morning. As we looked south we saw the low mass of land for the first time in 5 days.
Skipper Cliff took the wheel for the final approach to the finish line. In comes a rain squall, our first time getting wet all race.
The crew donned foulies for the incoming rain squall, and the pfd's required for the finish. I decided that the nav table was calling ... so didn't bother with my rain gear. :/
Fernando got a bit wet in the little rain shower. Not sure if that's a smile or a glare.Here's Riptide, a Beneteau 40.7. faster than us, so we felt good finishing ahead of them.

Here's Riptide, St. Catherine's at left and cruise ship at right.
Here's the landmark 265 boats have been racing toward: St. David's Lighthouse!Hooray! We finished at 7:21 on Wednesday morning.
So we've just raced 635 miles, and who shows up just a few minutes later? Our teammates, Aphrodite! We wave at them, they wave at us, we take pictures of each other. But they still have a few hundred yards to go to the finish and we are feeling GOOD!

I lined up this picture carefully, trying to get Aphrodite and St. David's Lighthouse in the same frame. Almost waited too long.
Aphrodite passes us on their way to the finish.

Robbie!!! Welcome to Bermuda for the first time! Have a GREAT day! :)
We've finished the race and we're headed for Hamilton (a 3-hour motor through a very narrow, reef-lined passage).
Passing the first of many bouys on the way to Hamilton.

That's the end of the race pictures. Lots more to come (of our land-based adventures, and one more day of sailing).

We had a very good race. Results here: https://app1.regatta-manager.com/Regatta/nbr.html
We finished sixth in our class of 21, and 36th in the St. David's Lighthouse Division (about 165 boats). We finished just one minute (on corrected time) ahead of 7th and two minutes ahead of 8th. Aphrodite was ninth.

Galadriel, who went further east than we did, came in third (well done, guys). Googolplex, who went fairly far west, came in fourth (again, well done). But we'll get you next time. :)

Thanks again, teammates!