Distance travelled in last 36 hrs: 180 miles
We were all up at first light to get ashore for a good walk with Molly, prior to checking out of Bermuda. It was such a lovely time to be walking around the pretty port of St George’s, just as it was waking up. Wish we could have spent more time exploring Bermuda, but there’s a brief weather window for us to get going and a front due in that we have to be ahead of, so about a dozen of the SDSA Rally boats were planning to leave after breakfast.
At 9am, as we headed out to the sea, we had an unexpected pleasure of wind and Skipper soon had the mainsail up and the ‘Big Blue’ gennaker out as we led the morning pack doing an average of 8kts. The wind continued into the evening, so there were some very happy sailors leaving Bermuda as we’d expected to have to motor the first 36 hours.
A luxury purchase of some fresh scones from the bakery before we left made for a lovely afternoon tea complemented by Greek Yoghurt and Blueberry Conserve as we joined in the 3pm VHF meeting with our neighbouring boats and discussed weather and routing options. Unfortunately, we discovered a connection malfunction with our VHF Radio, which cuts out after a few minutes of talking, so Skipper has his work cut out for him in the next day or two to fix it.
Nev benefited from an amazing night sky on her shift. With both sails still up, finally the serene moment of sailing under a starry sky on this trip was achieved. It was mesmerising just lying across the seats on the Bridge gazing upwards and watching a performance of stars and planets; some twinkling brighter than others, while accompanied by an amazing display of shooting stars, which looked like turbo-charged angels dashing across the sky. Simply priceless.
© Two Drifters Travel
