Newport to Bermuda Regatta 2000 cont...

Boat life was tough during this time. All hatches were closed to prevent water from getting in expect for the lee boards. Since this opening was vertical and facing rear, not much water came through it.

 We would come below after watch soaking wet, pull off our gear, hang it up in the v-birth and try to get 2 hours of sleep. Mark didn't think that it was worth the hassle and stayed on the rail and slept there with his foul weather gear on. By the second night he was completely soaked through.

We we left the warm eddy the water temperature dropped from 65 to 63 degrees. We entered the Gulf stream as planned. This was evident when the sea temperature jumped from 71 to 76 degrees. The thermal image charts showed that the stream temperature should be 80 degrees for a short time in the middle of the stream. It was mostly around 78 degrees. There was a knuckle in the stream where the currents were flowing southwest where we picked up a favorable 2 to 3 knot push. This current lasted for 21 hours until 1900 on June 18th. We left the stream when the sea temperature went from 78 to 76 degrees at 0430 on that day.

After that we picked up another positive push from a partially formed warm eddy for a few hours.

June 18, 2000 1600hours

We were reaching with the jib top, a high clew light jib, stasail, and a full main in 12 knots of wind. There was discussion as to the weather as our  VMG (velocity made good) would increase if we set the spinnaker and altered course down wind. The only way we could resolve it was to set the chute and see what happens. So we dropped the stasail, jib, and raised the new 1.5oz pirate spinnaker. Unfortunately, our VMG to Bermuda decreased. We also decided that we would not like to go further east then we already were.

We dropped the chute and reset the #1 jib and started sailing as far upwind as possible. It was already too late though. Most of our competitors had already made moves toward the west side of Rhumb Line while we were still 14 miles east. It was a close race.

We were sailing as high as we could but still off course by 20 degrees. When we were within 70 miles of Bermuda the wind shifted again which turned the final leg into a beat into Bermuda.

The boats that were the furthest west could fetch Bermuda, all others had a beat in. The end of the race turned into a bay race for us, ie tacking on the shifts all the way in. We heard our competition calling in as they crossed the finish line. We crossed, dropped our sails and motored into Hamilton. On corrected time we finished 8th in our division of 17 boats and 8th in the fleet of 172 boats.

The Finish- notice St. David's Light in the background. Photo by our close friends on Morgan of Marietta