UP COMING EVENTS

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NOTES

Skippers that have told me that they are planning on participating in the 2023 Bermuda One-Two: Peter Becker (with 2 J/105s), Jack Clayton, Brian Gray on his new POGO 44, James Hammitt, John Manderson on his Archambault 31 Kismaet, Stanley Paris, Rick Rohrer, Walter Rush, Leah Sweet on a Figaro 3 Celeritas.

5 March - Fred Cosandey forwarded his notes on Sailing With Lithium-ion Batteries to me ahead of the Skippers' Forum for today. About 22 people participated in the March Forum (2 were in Zoom).  There were wonderful discussions about Lithium-ion batteries and Fred agreed to review the changes we make to the battery requirements in the Safety Requirements we will be generating. Lots of gab of course before and after the meeting.  Caryn Cummings and crew Jody Sullivan and Jim Oblinger generated much more food than we needed.  Bill Shea walked amongst us and took quite a few pictures.  I have posted them in the Photo Gallery.

31 January - The March Newsletter is now available.  We will be having Skipper Fred Cosandey giving us a brief on “Sailing with Li-Ion batteries: performance-merit-safety" which should be of interest to many skippers.

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11/22 2021 - Phil Haydon has provided a guide on shorthanded sleep. It is posted in the Lessons Learned page.

11/6 2021 - We had a wonderful Skipper's Forum/Party with about 25 people attending.  We started, after introductions, off with a brief from Rick Rohrer on the Sleep Survey he and Phil Haydon developed and sent out to this year's race skippers.  The brief can be downloaded. They had a very good response to the survey and Rick provided us with the results.  There was a wonderful discussion about shorthanded sleeping.  Phil is working on a primer which hopefully will be useful to the solo skippers. On another note Joe Cooper announced that Quantum Sails Newport and himself will both be sponsor again for another two years. Lots of gab before and after the Sleep discussion with 6 new potential skippers for the future.

10/5 2021 - The October newsletter is now posted.  Please note that we have dates for the 2023 Bermuda One-Two as posted above.

8/8 2021 - Sandy Van Zandt has posted his Tartan 30-C for sale.

6/26 2021 The 2021 Bermuda One-Two wrapped up Saturday 26 June with the Awards at the Newport Yacht Club. About 70 people participated in celebrating another successful Bermuda One-Two.
The last boat to finish was Windswept sailed by Rick McCally. He delayed out there to avoid the predicted Tropical Storm and finished Friday 25 June at 14:48, after 195 hours and 903 nautical miles of sailing. Due to his determination to finish Rick was rewarded with 3rd place in Class 4 in both Corrected Time in the doublehanded leg and in Combined Corrected Time (combined corrected time for both the singlehanded and doublehanded legs). Rick also won the RI Governor’s Trophy for the best combined corrected time finish in the fleet by a Rhode Island resident. In contrast Rick also won the Charles Carpenter ‘Biermiester’ Trophy for last place corrected combined time finish. Rick was also awarded the Longest Participant Award amongst all the skippers that raced in this year’s race. This was Rick’s 9th Bermuda One-Two.
Michael Hennessey and Cole Brauer on Dragon were awarded the Newport Yacht Club Commodore’s Tray for best doublehanded leg elapsed time finish in fleet (as was done in the singlehanded leg to Bermuda). Young American sailed by Peter Becker and Leah Sweet were awarded the Chester & Lillian Monroe Cup for best doublehanded leg corrected time finish in fleet and also for a first-time entrant. Stanley Paris was awarded the Peter Hegeman Ancient Mariner Trophy for being the oldest skipper in the fleet at 83 (this use to be awarded to people in their 70s). The Jeff Spranger Team Trophy was won by the team of Gryphon 1st in class (Walter Rush & Dallas Johnson) and Young American 1st in class (Peter Becker & Leah Sweet) for a combined score of 2 points.
Voted by the skippers for the Juan A Perez Bermuda One-Two Sportsmanship Award to the person who best exemplifies the true spirit of the Bermuda One-Two was Loren Brindze on Topaz.
We were lucky to have 8 new skippers this time. We need that to keep the race viable. Also it was pointed out to me that we also had three women crew this year which of course is great to see. Potential women skippers in the future? Would be nice to see. Unfortunately we did not have any family boats this time; husband/wife, father/son, father/daughter, etc. In the past I have been proud to brag about the families participating. Maybe due to Covid-19 this year. I do know that one family had to back out due to Covid-19 restrictions with Canada. Hope families return in 2023.
Speaking about 2023, I heard Stanley Paris, Kiwi Spirit 2, challenge Michael Hennessey to another round in 2023!
Caryn and her crew provided the food which there was plenty of. Actually most of the people that helped here are Floating Point crew!
The first set of pictures are now posted. Go to the Photo Gallery menu on the left. Tom Clarke’s pictures from the start are great as well as Bob Fitzgerald from the Towne Cut. I hope to have pictures from Bill Shea of the pea soup fog start as well as the Awards in Newport.
I’d like to thank those two, Tim Troy and Jonathan Bixby, that arranged with Bill Shea to get a picture of my boat, Floating Point, and the crew and frame it. Nice picture! Thanks to all involved.
A vote was held for the Skipper’s Representative for the next two years leading up to the 2023 race. Overwhelmingly Jonathan Bixby was voted in as the Skipper’s Representative. I would like to thank Tristan Mouligne for his four terms as Skipper’s Rep. He did amazing work with prospective new skippers. He was always available for questions from new skippers. Thank you Tristan.

6/25 1443 Windswept finished!  Wouldn't you know, as he approaches the finish the wind completely dies.  Talk about adding salt to a wound!

6/25 0700 Windswept emailed: Well,this will be Charlie's Last Report from the MTA. His wife finally wised up and handed him a nickel rather than a sandwich as the train roared through Scully Square station. Confused? Listen to the song. True to form, I came roaring into RI Sound at nearly 8 knots (that's roaring for Windswept) on a nice beam reach with about 18 knots apparent. I had time for a twenty minute power snooze, so I took it. Literally, twenty minutes later I awoke to slatting sails. The wind and shifted to the due South and had dropped to about 5 knots. So here I am, 18 miles from the finish, only able to muster about 3 knots from the most elaborate collection of preventers and bungee cord the world has ever seen. I should be in by about noon.

6/24 1600 Windswept emailed: Yes, making good time now. The barometer is getting pretty high. There could be another chapter in this saga.

6/24 0900 Windswept emailed: Wind from ENE 150-21 knots. I am tracking dead on the finish mark. Still have a 1-2 knot head current as boat speed is consitently well over 7 knots and SOG rarely breaks 6.5. It is about 50 miles to the continental shelf, and I expect I will loose the current there. The NE wind against a head current would explain the truly nasty sea state, not large, just bumpy. I went on deck last night and noticed that I was towing a white buoy. I hauled it in and found that it was my radar reflector. The flag haylard had broken. Now the question is, if I make a pot of coffee, will I wear more of it than I drink?

6/23 1000 Windswept emailed: That song was sung by the Kingston Trio in support of George O'Brien's political campaign promise not to raise fares on the MTA. No one remembers what happened to Mr. O'Brien, but it became a sensational hit for the Kingston Trio. "He may ride forever 'neath the streets of Boston, he's the man that never returned". Not bad considering I have no internet out here :)! Now, if I could just remember to duck the boom! It got me good last night in the middle of a disaster on deck, which was itself in the middle of an amazing thunder storm, all of which woke me from a sound sleep. The inner forestay broke right where it joins the mast. Lowering the staysail got the lot into the sea which took much effort and harsh language to get back on deck and down the forward hatch, right on top of the last of my dry clothes. The main sail was not set at the time. It was only the rolling of the boat that sent the boom my way. As of this writing, I believe that I am still in the stream as the water temperature is 85F. There are scattered showers. The wind is down to 12-15 knots and is oscillating between NW (boo) and West (yeah). I have full main and genoa set and am heading for the barn, which is still well over 250 miles away. Another two or three days and this saga will be history.

6/23 Finishes
0332 Adventure-us
0507 Topaz
0509 Dauntless
0510 Rocinante
0516 Corvus - this leaves Windswept left to finish.

6/22 1930 Adventure-us called: 13 kts wind. He heard Rocinante lost his AIS but Topaz said he will pass along traffic info to Rocinante.
2100 Windswept emailed: As you can probably see from the tracker, I cut back to the staysail again. The SW winds have built back to into the high thirties and the sea state is pretty grim. Every hour or so I get completely washed over, which leaves the cockpit full to the brim. The side lockers are not adequately sealed, so a lot of water gets inside the boat. For the first time in the 25 years I have owned her, I had water above the floor boards. Not dangerous, I have great pump capacity,just really freakin annoying. I am about 30 miles from the suggested GS entry point. I think that I may have already entered it as the water temperature has steadily risen to 83.5 degrees. I am also starting to see a strong left to right current set. This could also explain the sea state. I will be watching for thunder storms on the northern edge. Well, that's my story. Undoubtedly my reward will be a period of persistent light air directly from Newport :)!

6/22 finishes
0741 Luna
0750 Relentless
0942 Glory
1027 Cepheus
2123 Melantho, slow going out there since the front went through.
2200 Gryphon

6/22 0700 Adventure-us called: Talked with Rocinante and Topaz. Heard Highlander and Corvus talking but they couldn't hear us. 19 kts now. Last night was light and on the nose but very variable.
Melantho emailed: Another frustrating night with frequent calms and foul current.  Finally crawled out of warm water thanks to a light NE wind.  Looking forward to a nice clam chowder. Conditions:  Wind SW 12 kn, Seas 2 - 4 ft, mostly clear Highlander is just 1 nm ahead of us.
Highlander emailed: All is well on Highlander. We were well positioned for Claudette and only saw a brief gust to 27. No squalls and AB amazing sunset. We are currently sailing side by side with Melantho only a few hundred yards from us. Wind is SW around 16 knots surfing down some big swells left over from Claudette. Fantastic sailing. We chatted with Corvus this morning and they are well but saw a very different experience than us with Claudette. Our ETA is late tonight into Newport. Looking forward to getting home to get the eye checked out. My eye doctor is not overly concerned due to the slow improvements seen since the injury occurred. From Highlander. Jon and John.
Corvus text: All is well on Corvus, great sailing this morning. Corvus established a new speed record yesterday when the effects of TS Claudette were felt. We hit SOG of 13 kts. As we surfed down a wave in a 40+ kt gust. Not something we want to repeat lookng forward to getting in tonight.
Windswept emailed: I lost the solar panel array. It was so violent on deck that it would have been too dangerous to try and intervene. I did save one panel which is lying flat on the afterdeck and still seems to be generating power. The other lies on the sea floor nearly five miles down! The decks were continuously awash from breaking waves. A good deal found it's way below, partly through numerous small leaks and partly by my going on deck.  It a good thing I got the second bilge pump running. Everything is wet down below. Conditions seem to be improving. The waves are getting smaller and more regular. The top wind gusts are now generally under 30 knots with the steady winds in the low 20s. I am going to raise the double reefed main soon. I am starting to have trouble maintaining my target 5 knot average speed over the ground. I have 99 miles to go to the GS entry point. If conditions prevail, I should get there in the early morning hours tomorrow. And we do this for FUN!

1900 Adventure-us called: talked to Topaz but could only hear Corvus and Highlander talking but they couldn't hear Adventure-us.  Had a period of 30 kts but now 15 kts, nice and comfortable. 148 nm to go!
Cepheus emailed: Cepheus is in bound. We fixed the autopilot (though not calibrated ) lots of hand steering since yesterday at 4am. Phil the electrician fixed the mast head tricolor and something else but I need to sleep and can’t totally remember . Life is GOOD! Phil and Coop
Windswept emailed: As you may have figured out, I am once again headed for the finish line. The storm finally arrived in my neck of the ocean. What had been SSW winds at 19kts. gusting to 25 became due S at 25 gusting to 35. I am on port tack with only my #4 jib set on the inner forestay. The sea state is very confused, with long 9 plus knot sleigh rides cut short by dramatic sudden stops. I am thinking that the winds will tend to slacken as the storm races on ahead of me.  The plan would then be adding the double reefed main to maintain speed. I have a school of porpoises playing with the boat. They are much smaller and much darker than the bottle nose variety that usually pick me up at the continental shelf. Hopefully, the south westerlies last until I am through the stream, sometime during the day on Wednesday.  Usually a big storm flattens the wind field for days, but these mid ocean south westerlies had been so well established that they may survive.

6/21 Finishes: 0859 Kiwi Spirit 2 2nd again!
1201 Gryphon Solo 3rd again!
1452 Alchemy finished first in his class, Class 1.
1541 Kent Racing finished.
1701 Young American finished 1st in his class, Class 2. Following in a tight race Reveille and Choucas 3 possibly overtaking Reveille.
2101 Choucas 3
2106 Reveille

6/21 0700 Melantho emailed: The Gulf Stream was not kind to us. Yesterday we stayed on deck all day to deal with the thunderstorms. One squall hit us with 45 kn, with the usual attendant damage. Lost another mainsail batten, so now with all my spares used I'm still missing half my battens. The head also pulled out of the track slug, but that has been repaired. Jib has some leech damage. Last night we had light conditions, which allowed us to rest. The sun has risen. Today is another day.
Dragon emailed his last: This edition started in Fog, and perhaps was destined to end in fog. From about 5 miles out, visibility went from a clear night sky filled with stars to a struggle to see the top of our mast. Dragon wrapped up in fine style, spending most of the 12 hours preceding her finish creaming along in champagne conditions, on a broad reach in smooth seas. The bonus was piling on miles against our competition who were set up to the west and had a deeper and slower approach. We finished with some pretty wide gaps on the chasing boats. Time will tell if they are large enough to offset the handicap adjustments, but we have our fingers crossed. In the meantime, we are maybe 2 hours out from Stonington in our delivery home. The boat is stripped and tidied up, almost fully decommissioned before we even get to the dock. No breakage or issues in this leg - I wish they were all like that. Until the next edition - and a huge thanks to Roy and all the other volunteers who make this special event possible!
Adventure-us called: Bad reception via sat phone. Still in contact with Topaz. Wind is 17 kts SW, moving right along.  Decided to head directly for Newport vice a waypoint they were headed for. Squalls during the night and now out of the Gulf Stream.
Windswept emailed: I am thinking that it is about time to turn around, power up, and head for the finish.
Corvus text: Good morning. Corvus reporting all's well after leaving the GS. Encountered two squalls in early morning hours one of which had winds of up to 40 kts. This morning Rocinante reported on radio chat that all's well on board.
Glory emailed: Glory has been out of radio range for the past 24 hours, we had been close to topaz and relentless but we got split up in the second round of thunderstorms. We broke or second reef line again and lost some time repairing it and now we are slightly east of rhumb in about 1.5 knots of adverse current. We are both well and spirits are good, inside of 150nm to Newport!
Topaz emailed: Just wanted to update for the blog. Topaz has just exited the gulf stream, not without a bang! We had some nice squalls right at the end and got pushed along hitting boatspeeds of 15 knots. A little bit of excitement, especially in the dark of night. Taking a beat to reorganize the small cabin and then powering up the sails a bit to keep ahead of claudette

6/21 0504 Dragon finished.  1st to finish on return leg as well as the 1st leg. It's only appropriate; they started in fog and finishing in fog! Although not quite as dense. Kiwi Spirit coming up next followed by Gryphon Solo. By the way Gryphon Solo's reporting again and it's complete track is available. Don't know why it wasn't reporting yet.

6/20 Adventure-us called: Talked with Topaz. Topaz talked to Rocinante. Corvus in the area. All is well. In the Gulf Stream and expect to be out early morning Monday. Triple reefed main moving along. Several squals.

6/20 1500 Highlander emailed: we are abandoning the race and motoring to find wind and try to be in a better Osiris to deal with Claudette. I also need to get to a eye doctor ASAP. Still having vision issues. We are currently 283 miles from Newport. Motoring position 372417n 680280w Jon
Kiwi Spirti 2 emailed: Alls well. Once again can a kiwi slay a dragon? It's possible
Corvus emailed: All aboard Corvus is well, we are in the Gulf Stream double reefed main and no jib making decent progress. winds are at 251 degrees M and high twenties to low thirties. Just had a radio chat with Rocinante, all is fine there. He was attempting to fly rig has solent when a squall hit and his solent halyad got away
Luna emailed: We checked in with Relentless on VHF this evening and they are doing well. We had seen Cepheus on AIS a few hours ago but could not reach them this evening. Luna had an eventful morning. We broached after the main autopilot failed. Later in the morning we lost the rudder on the hydrovane. But thankfully Luna actually has three steering methods and we limping along on a groaning backup autopilot. We're hoping this one makes it to the finish line. Responding to a 30 knot breeze early this morning We popped a batcar off the mainsail track at the 3rd reef tack point. The car is now lashed to the mast and we're stuck at the 3rd reef till the finish. We're hoping it doesn't get too light as we get closer to newport.
Relentless text: All good to report on Relentless. Luna nearby under 3 reefs due to a broken batton car. Getty chilly this side of the GS.
Windswept emailed: He who fights and runs away gets to fight another day :)!
Dragon emailed: Home stretch, and Dragon is speeding her way towards Awesome Town. Today turned out to a bit more tricky than we had planned for. Around 11 AM, the steady 10 knots of breeze first moved forward, heading us, then died out and left us struggling for a solid 4 hours. All we could really do was keep the boat moving and hope was that Kiwi Spirit and Gryphon Solo were going through the same ridge. But after the whammy we laid down last night, it was a mood killer. Persistence paid off and the SW breeze filled back in around 3 and got us back up to speed. We crossed over the continental shelf shortly after, the last major milestone before the finish. We continue to point at the finish, with 80 miles to cross to get there. The boat and crew are in great shape, the sun just set on a beautiful day, and we are lucky to be here.  Dragon, rumbling along in the North Atlantic.
Kiwi Spirit 2 emailed: Oooh! Ooh! You sure no how to hurt a guy. We start racing at midnight

6/20 0700 Highlander emailed: Slow going. Adverse current slowing us up. Entering GS around 4 this evening. Currently 25-30 TWS with very lumpy seas. Spoke with a NOAA RESEARCH ship informing us to get west ASAP to avoid the worst of the storm. We are making every effort to do this. Currently at 3645n 6754w heading 340 cog doing 6 SOG 7 knots Through the water
Melantho emailed: Rough approaching Gulf Stream. Conditions: Wind SW 28 kn Seas confused 6 - 10 ft.
Windswept emailed: 1 am currently 166 miles from my GS entry point. That would have me entering the stream about this time tomorrow (Monday AM) and leaving it about 12 hours later (Monday around 6 PM). This is based on current speed and conditions. I have plenty of fuel and supplies to loiter out here for a while. As I recall, this should be a fast mover.  I just downloaded fresh GRIB files. I will look them over. Tough decision!
Adventure-us emailed: Communicating with Corvus, Topaz and Rocinante.  All OK. Low 20s now, was near 30 earlier.  All reefed. Topaz hand steering. Cross North boundry of Gulf Stream 8am Monday morning.
Young American emaild: VHF update - assume until further notice that our 25w VHF is not receiving or transmitting. the good news that the bolt of lighting that basted right next to us did not take out the rest of the electronics.
Luna emailed: Luna had a fine night under two reefs in the mainsail and jib with 20-25kts. The early morning was more exciting. Wind built to 28-30kts, we furled the staysail and put in a third reef. After a while the lower mainsail car parted from the mast track. We have to sail conservatively for the rest of the race to make sure the extra load on the other cars doesn't cause cascading failure of the mainsail. A little later the autopilot ram failed causing us to accidentally heave-to. We recovered and switched to the back-up autopilot (glad to have it now!). Wind is still in the low 30s and we are doing 7kts toward the GS entry about 35nm away. At 0650 we connected with Relentless and Cepheus. All is fine on board of Relentless, sailing with two reefs in the mainsail and a small jib. They are just wet! Cepheus reported an autopilot failure that are trying to sort out. Don't know if it is the ram or the computer. They are steering by hand. Could not hear from any other boat and none of us could see each other on AIS.
Gryphon Solo email from his wife: "he contacted me via txt this am that all is good after some squalls and is about 213 miles to Newport.
I asked him to txt you."  Gryphon Solo's tracker stopped working Saturday at 1420. When he passes position to me I will update his position on the tracker map.
Dragon emailed: Well, Dragon spent her night snacking on Kiwis. Good for vitamin C, or so we have been told. Forecast was spot on, with winds remaining from south west but building to 25+ after dinner through to about 0200 hours, then low 20's until dawn. Now they have settled to mid teens. We used the pressure to haul the mail, blast reaching up the rhumb line at speeds that occasionally made it as high as 18 knots. It was wet and violent sailing. The Stream itself was virtually a non event. We reached it around 2245 hours (10:45 pm) and were through it by just after midnight. It was maybe 20 miles deep at most, and only noticeable because of the 81 degree water temp and the fact that the sea state calmed down while we were in it. Just before dawn we crossed a long line of squalls, marked out in front of us by the lightening that would blossom in first one cell, then another, then the first cell then a third. We ended up avoiding all but one, which dumped torrential rain on Cole who was standing watch at the time, and served her up 35 knots for a good 10 minutes. Now we have mostly clear skies, with mares tails at high altitudes perhaps warning of Claudette's approach in the next 36 hours. Seas are fairly light. We expect the breeze to fade down to as low as 5 knots as we go through the day, remaining SW. Kiwi is west of us, and for her to get east it will mean sailing deeper angles in a light breeze which won't be fun for them. They have 13 feet of boat length on is, but we like our chances given our better angle as we sail right down the rhumb line. The only wild card is Gryphon Solo who's tracker has not transmitting since yesterday morning. Dragon - on the prowl in the north Atlantic.
Alchemy emailed: I am through gulfstream. 30-40 knot winds all night. I have been communicating with Fred on Choucas. lots of lightning in the stream. I hope his boat didn’t get zapped. If so his electronics could be out.
Highlander emailed: We entered the GS at 10 am seas better. Warm temps making good time now. Wind SW high 20’s pushing the boat to get way away from this area where Claudette is expected to pass through area on Monday. Boat and crew are doing fine. The NOAA ship we saw earlier seems to be shadowing us. They told us they were heading back to Newport, so we are comforted by that.

6/19 1900 Adventure-us called: Either called or contacted via AIS: Relentless, Rocinante, Dauntless, Corvus. 21 kts SW sailing with 2 reefs in the main and a jib. Current in their favor.  Expect to hit the Gulf Stream Sunday night about 11pm.
Dragon emailed: Doing the rhumb line rumba out here. It's blowing from the southwest and a sporty 20 to 25 knots so we are blast reaching parallel to the rhumb line. We are set up a few miles to the west right now, prepared for the Gulf Stream to sweep us east as we cross it. It's been a sunny day, and very wet. The sea state has built to 2+ meters and the combination of waves and our speed that occasionally spikes to mid teens means there is water coming over the deck regularly. Going on watch means suiting and booting for protection. Dragon is doing well with two reefs in the main and Solent reaching. The auto pilot is earning her keep, given a sea state that is throwing the boat around a bunch. Good spirits as we are finally making good speed towards the finishbin what has been a slow race up until now. Otherwise, we are keeping an eye on Claudette. We should hopefully be in the barn by the time she reaches the race course, but that will still leave a bunch of boats that have to contend with her. Fingers crossed.
Cepheus emailed: all well. Spoke to Luna and they are good. Winds picked up to 18-20 this afternoon but declined to 15. Pushing for the GS

6/19 1332 Choucas 3 emailed; Had a radio contact with David from Alchemy last night. He was in good spirit and doing well. On Choucas, we had some halyard issues. First right after leaving St George harbour the main halyard broke at the cleat. I had a spare one so we were able to remove the old one and install the new one. Second, the Code 0 was stuck at the top of the mast and we could not lower the sail. So Ernie had to hoist me up the mast so I could cut the halyard and retrieve the sail. Thankfully, it was relatively calm mid-morning.
Cepheus emailed: nice sailing out here. Making some good head speed

6/19 Check out the pictures of the start in Bermuda yesterday, video by Cepheus and other pictures from our stay in Bermuda on the St George's Dinghy & Sports Club Facebook page.

6/19 0700 Highlander emailed: All is good on the SV Highlander. Currently heading directly to our GS waypoint entrance 200 miles away. Wind still NW at 8 knots expecting the SW shift later today. Beautiful moon light sailing last night. The sun is out with few clouds. Still working out the autopilot issue. Hope to have this resolved to day by doing a recalibration, all hardware has been checked and working. The best news is my vision in the right eye is improving. The human body is doing its healing work. We spoke with Glory, Luna, dauntless and rocinante in last nights Radio check. All is good with them. Dr. Richard Rohrer was able to provide me with piece of mind as he explained what he went through with his own eye problems years ago. Highlander signing off till next time. Cheers Jon
Adventure-us called: Moving along slowly in 6kts NW. Heard from Rocinante, Topaz and Corvus. All ok.  Relay heard about Luna and Highlander (eye sight better, autopilot sort of working). Waiting for the SW to kick in later today. Expecting 15kts.
Alchemy emailed: We had to stop for a bit as I noticed the rudder bearing was loose. Fixed it and we’re back at it. David I think we got it for now. Luckily I caught it early and had spare bolts
Melantho emailed: All okay. Trying to get west to line up for Gulf Stream. Spoke to Cepheus yesterday and verified my AIS is not working. Have to wait to figure that one out. Conditions: Winds WNW 12 kn Seas 2-3 ft
Dragon emailed: After fighting our way to the back side of the front on Thursday night, our nex navigational challenge was dealing with the light and variable air that was in the high pressure ridge that followed. We never got to flat calm and saw at least 3 knots and as much as 10. It meant we were able to keep the boat moving. The original expectation was that we were going to see NW breeze that we could use to ooch our way towards the west side if the rhumb line, but it stayed more WNW which meant we ended up on a long VMG tack on the east side of the line where we were crossing tacks with Kent Racing for a while in the early hours of Friday morning. Through the day on Friday, there were multiple instances of large wind shifts, leading us to make tacks to stay on the favored board and all of which brought us back to, and then a little bit west of the Rhumb line where we met up with Gryphon Solo. That turned into a drag race down the rhumb line. Straight line for most of Friday afternoon, then some tacking with the wind shifts on Friday night. We ended up with some separation last night, and now they are doing a bit deeper than us and sliding a bit further west than us. The wind has made an expected shift to the SW as we have sailed out of the ridge in the past 5 hours and into the new system. We are expecting this direction for the rest of the race, with a build from the current 15 knots to as much as 25 knots tonight before settling back down on Sunday. Meanwhile, it's partly cloudy skies and 76 degree air Temps. We are slightly cracked off and near reaching in a light chop. Nothing wrong with a day of that kind of sailing!
Gryphon emailed: I can RECEIVE email now as well as SEND, just so u know. All is fine here. (wordyWalter)
Kiwi Spirit 2 emailed: Alls well. Kiwis also have long beaks it would appear. But traditionally a beaks length is measured not from its appearance but from its nostrils. Kiwis nostrils are uniquely at the end. Better for sniffing out worms and its favorite hu hu grubs.
Windswept emaied: That westerly jaunt was intentional. Hoping that it sets me up for the SW winds and GS entry point. We will see if it was worth it! All systems on Windswept are back to full operational status. Have a safe return return flight.

6/18 2100 Windswept emailed: Quiet windless day until about 16:00. A nice breeze filled in, from the wrong direction, but better than rolling around. I got to the bottom of the engine starting issue. Simple fix once found.  How is Jonathan's eye?
Adventure-us called: becalmed most of the day but wind filled in and moving nicely now. Heard from Corvus, Topaz, Luna, Relentless, Glory, Rocinate, and Highlander who is addressing autopilot and eye issues.
Cepheus called: All is well. Forgot to call in again. Was taking a nap. Clothes are dry and ready for the night.cheers Phil

6/18 1122 Windswept emailed: After an exciting departure that saw class 4 maintain a pretty tight formation, a series of thunder squalls beat me up pretty badly. My roller furler control line broke during a 30+ knot squall, instantly deploying my entire genoa. I really didn't think that the mast would take the load. I lowered the sail, but with that much wind, it kept going into the drink or trying to take me parasailing. It took about twenty minutes of strenuous effort to get the sail down and stuffed down the forward hatch. I then rigged the inner forestay and storm jib, just in time for the the wind to drop to zero! It is still zero some eight hours later. I have replaced the furler line and reinstalled the genoa and repaired all of the minor issues. However, I just discovered that the engine will not start. I have plenty of battery power, so it is probably a wiring issue in the starter switch. It shouldn't be a big deal to do a work around. More later.
Kiwi Spirit emailed: Kiwis can't fly or swim. Lay only one egg a year. Not much fun. But they are tenacious.
Glory emailed:  just a quick blurb from Glory All is well on the ship. You've probably already heard stories from the other boats about the 47 knot squall that came through yesterday. We put in two reefs and kept the jib up unfortunately the outboard end of our second reef line chafed through and so we went through the second squall with a single refin, which felt a little dicey. Last night was very calm after the storms went through, and we woke up to very little breeze as well. This let us fix the outhaul issue so we're ready for the next line of squalls. When the wind filled in we were able to fly the Spinnaker for a couple of hours, but then the wind shifted to the northwest and then to the northeast before dying out completely. While we had the Spinnaker up, there were about 50 squid that were literally flying over the waves. Three of them unfortunately landed against Glory's deck house, but I think I was able to rescue all of them. One of them even inked the deck! Right now the winds seem to have gone back to the west, and we're closehauled trying to stay close to our stream entry point doing about five knots. I can see a cluster of boats on AIS to my South and slightly west. Cheers

6/18 0700 Highlander emailed: Roy, Highlander is fine after going through many squalls since start. Wind is NW we changed to stb tack heading west. Hope to catch SW later today. I had a incident on the boat injuring my right eye by a flogging line during a squall. Vision is blurry. No pain. I need to talk with a eye doctor today to help diagnose what’s going on and what to do. John looked in the eye and saw blood in the color portion of my eye. Not the white part. Hoping it’s not serious. We are dealing with it ok Jon Wind direction is NE not NW. at 3 knots boat is moving 2.3 over ground
Corvus text: Boats calling in at 0700 all nearby and all becalmed. Corvus, Gryphon, Highlander, Luna, Adventure-us, Reveille, Topaz, Rocinante, Melantho, Dauntless. Jonathan Bixby's eye injury was caused by a flailing sheet during sail change. He is in touch with his doctor and takin Dramamine to dilate.
Topaz text: Life aboard the Topaz has come to a stanstill. We survied the weather leaving Bermuda and now we wait in a alm windless sea to get moving again. No equipment failure, morale is good!
Cepheus emailed: Been a busy and damp night. But right now there is no better place to be
Adventure-us called: spoke with Reveille; Rocinate; Melantho; Topaz; Corvus, will fix vang issues today; Highlander; Dauntless has battery charging issues but will work on it today; Windswept. all becalmed now.
Cepheus emailed again: All is well but damp. Wind just returned
Kiwi Spirit 2 emailed: Alls well on KS2 at 8:15am. Number squalls and calms. Did a 360 on my watch - horizontally of course
Young American emailed: all is well on YA - would like more wind then we have at the moment but sure that will change.

6/17 1900 Dragon emailed: Heard no one during chat hour, and can't see anyone on AIS. Blazing start out of St. Georges then down shifted as we passed Kitchen Shoals. We have been rhumbline for now, but know that will change after the front comes through. Speaking of which, we reached the forward edge around 1430 hours and I think we are just now seeing the backside with a pretty big wind shift towards the NW. Up to and while in the front it was blowing 20+ with gusts to 28, now it is settling a bit to high teens. It's a sloppy 2.0 meter sea state with waves from both beam and Stern quarter. Lots of weed catching on keel and rudders. The auto pilot is working overtime. Have a good night!
Cepheus emailed: - all well on Cepheus. Got a bit Damp in a squal but conditions have just calmed . Cheers Phil and coop
Corvus text: evening report from Radio Chat. Windswept lost his furler during one of the squalls. Rig is secure. he is setting up innner forestay for a staysail. Highlander Jon Bixby repporting right eye injury and is has called his eye doctor of advice. Gryphon has eye first aid kit and is standing by to see if it is needed.
Alchemey emailed: Beautiful sunset with a full rainbow. Much slower now, but we’re not complaining after the squalls.
Adventure-us called: they are jib only taking it nice and easy during squalls, "rocking out". highest single puff they saw was 40kts. about 3 squalls all very short in duration.  they spoke with Reveille; Glory; Relentless; Corvus has a broken vang, 2 reefs, partial jib; Luna has 2 reefs in main and staysail, broken jib top; Rocinate has 3 reefs in and small jib.

6/17 1300 The rain/thunder stroms went north and south of us so we had a sunny day with winds out of the southwest 16 to 20 kts. All boats, 22, started except for Rubicon which is in Dock Yard repairing his weak cockpit floor to be able to sail back maybe next Tuesday. He has a tracker and it will be displayed. Not long after we finished we heard Bermuda Radio hail Dragon, Gryphon Solo and Kiwi Spirit 2 that they were heading toward the reaf and to turn east, now.  Dragon actually went over the reef.  Sounds like a change to the SIs is called for in 2023.
Just looked at the radar picture here and they will be running into thunder squalls in a little while.
Larry Roberts provided his boat Estrella Del Marfor Race Committe, Tom Clarke, Sheila and Michael Gringley all participated in handling the start.

6/16 Frank Bohlen has sent us his Note 4 on the Gulf Stream today.
Ken Campbell zoomed in to give us a weather brief for the trip back at the beginning of the Skipper's Meeting. Boats got their Gerry Cans filled with diesel fuel and propane tanks filled thanks to Verna Oatley at Godet & Young and ice blocks were delivered.  Tomorrow is the start at 1100 EDT (Noon here).