UP COMING EVENTS

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NOTES

7 June 0700 - We had some excitement in the morning. I woke up in the Duty Office to Finale and Bermuda Radio talking about Finale aground.  Evidently he was trying to anchor, fouled his prop on something, drifted across the channel from the Dinghy Club and ran aground. It took a while but he got off with his jib and rising tide and is now at the Custom's Dock. And yesterday Resolute while trying to dock at the Dinghy Club outside ran over a painter and fouled his prop and is currently still stuck to that mooring. A diver has been called for help.
We have Windswept and Milantho left to finish by noon it looks.

7 June 0011 Finale - finished!
Strummer finished at 0245 and spent the night outside not wanting to come thru the Town Cut during the dark and anchoring and wanting to rest I'm sure.

6 June 1300 Finale - I am about 76 miles out and going like the clappers in heavy surfing swells No kite needed -unless one wants to buy a new one in Bermuda! Expect to finish around midnight. Probably bounce around outside till the morning light, pending direction from Bermuda radio Not sure my VHF base radio Is working properly but have several handhelds.let me know when you see me on AIS Great surfing!
Strummer - C 155. S 6 App W from NE at 13
Saraband  - She is slowly making it back to the main land where ever she can get to preferably Newport where her return crew will join her to bring the boat back to Marblehead. She gave a valiant effort to get the motor runing to no avail. She has solar charging for small electronic charging.  No auto pilot so she has to stop for rest periodically such as now at the Continental Shelf.  She make it out of the Gulf Stream. Slow going up to 3 kts.

Been kind of busy, here is a group of inishers:
Envolee 1102
Blur        1139
Young American  1210
Breakaway  1225
Alchemy    1229
Reveille      1303
Fearless      1201
Resolute      1307
Luna            1627
Bluebird       1720
Dianthus      1723
Cordelia       1839
Gryphon       2129

6 June 0958 II Tender finished! 2nd boat to finish.

6 June 0800 - Envolee - Yay and i got this. I know we spoke but for envolee number 89. Twd 326. Tws 9.3 i see one light but no ais. All is well aboard. Nathalie.
Finale  - It is 4:00 am on June 6th (I think). I made it back to the rum line avoiding a line of nasty looking squalls and jibed over to 172 degrees. The seas have a small swell with some breaking waves and with the wind out of 312 degrees and averaging 17-20 knots I am on an adrenaline rush: averaging 7.5 knots with nice surfs up to 8.5-10 knots in the puffs. Instruments say I might finish before midnight but we shall see how the morning progresses. Holding on!
Alchemy  - Morning Roy- I'm beginning to wonder why I had a mainsail in the first place! The fo'csle crew are having their day. Looks like a downwind finish for me.
Blur - Tuesday 06:00 EDT Best feeling ever: sunrise, an espresso and trucking along with the A2. And painkillers :-) Last night I had J/121 Alchemy 15 nm ahead, an now they're 12 behind. Maybe not in race mode anymore? We were doing similar speeds, but since I put up the A2 at 02:30 we've been faster than most boats around. I could have deployed it earlier, but I wanted some sleep to be ready for anything. Wind is steady at 10-12 knots from NNW. Sea-state is good so the autopilot manages really well. We're gaining more and more trust, me and "Frank". He did'tr do well in the huge seas Saturday, so there was some yelling on my part. But getting to know him better (and playing with the settings) has improved my trust in him. He's called "Frank" after "The Transporter"-movies. If yo know, you know. Just 40 nm to the finish. I guess I lost track of time, and it sure doesn't feel like I'm on day 4. I could just continue sailing like this for days or weeks. I guess that is a clear vote for this type of sailing. But at the same time I really want to hang out with other people, have a few cold beers and some laughs. And being interrupted by silly texts from Molly and Anneli (daughter & partner). Miss them. I guess it's the contrasts that appeals to me. I wonder if the weather is nice in Bermuda? I've never been there but many people seems to like it. Anything that should be on my list of "things to do"? Oh, I also need to know where I can find a really good barber?
Breakaway - I can’t see Bermuda but supposedly it is 35 miles away. Young American and I have crossed paths a couple of times this morning, they are in the lead. Though my angle I deeper, should be interesting to see how it all plays out. I don’t know where Resolute is, last I saw they were on the gybe to the east. No response on vhf. I hope to be in after lunch time. We shall see.
Strummer - Had some InReach glitch but now working All good. Moving well.
Melantho  - All is well here. Continuing to take advantage of the wind WNW at 12 kn. Had some funny waves at the start of my driving stint, maybe there was a countercurrent. Things have evened out now. I can lock the helm for 1 - 2 minutes before a wave pushes us off course. I'm thinking that I'll arrive in Bermuda Wednesday morning.
Fearless - all good on fearless. Not hearing comms on vhf. I do have handheld for closer in., Hopefully AIS is still working so Bermuda radio can see me. Looking forward to a dark n stormy.

5 June 2000 - Envolee - Called.  We seem to have texting problems, can't connect but the call works. She is in very light winds, 2 kts but doing 3 kts. Don't see anyone nor hear on VHF.  All is good.
Blur - Monday 18:00 EDT Yup. Like any regular Monday I punched in bright and early and kept hammering all day. Sunny and nice, but winds are very variable with both wind cellsand patches of no wind. Have been going back and forth between A3 (light reaching) and A2 (running in >6 knots). Quite a procedure to get one down and the other one up, running around the boat connected. And then someone need to pack them. Who? Looking at me? I've passed a few boats, and I just got J/121 Alchemy showing up on my AIS. 15 nm ahead, but still I have contact. I think they were almost twice that ahead at one point. Now wind is 6-8 knots from 260. Pretty comfortable now, but we'll see what happens 127 nm to go. Thanks for all advise regarding my broken ribs. No bruises, no blood in the urine, and generally feel very good except when I bump into things or when try special bowman poses (like jamming yourself in the pulpit to sort out the tacklines. PAINFUL! But I can scream out loud without anyone hearing. After 500 nm, I'm asking myself if I enjoy this type of solo sailing? I thought the feeling of being alone for such a long time would feel different. I'm not hating it (I might have a few days ago) but I don't get that special feeling I hoped for, or maybe feared, I might need some perspective before I decide.
Corvus - I arrived safely today at 1830 at the Newport yacht club
Fearless - Hi Roy - what a different day, lots of wild life. Dolphins, Portuguese men of war and flying fish to clean off the deck. All is well, enjoying the conditions. Have a drink for me tonight. Cheers. Phil  You bet! i forgot to mention 5kts breeze from 321M
Finale - I just finished my pasta primavera ( freeze dried of course) 4 Oreo cookies,some English breakfast tea and listened to Willie Nelson on my speakers. So net- net life is good and it is a beautiful sunset with 11 knots of breeze as I travel slightly west of the rum line in some favorable current. May make Bermuda tomorrow late or early Tuesday Tom
Breakaway - Moving right along now after a lot of light air in the mid morning to early afternoon. I did circles amongst the comb jellies. Right now I’m flying the staysail with the headsail and am moving along nicely. Cross my fingers we keep breeze up thru the night. We shall see. Last I checked it looked like First Light and Young American were well on their way to finishing. Pretty cool. I’ll be curious to hear their tales of the Gulf Stream and the choices they made. Both went west early and often. Resolute is still beside me. I can see Scott in the sunset. Otherwise no other boats on AIS. I presume that I will see more as we converge on Bermuda. It will be interesting to see where people are and how they line up. I know it is early but I would be thrilled to finish in the daylight and not tomorrow night, we shall see. My DTW is 105 to Kitchen.
Luna - All good with Luna. Day messages up by a big spinnaker wrap. Will sort it out in the morning. Crossed wakes with Dianthus at 2000. He is doing well too.
Cordelia  - I saw Dianthus and Bluebird but couldn't talk to them.

5 June about 1556 - First Light FINISH skippered by first time skipper, Cole Brauer, crossed the finish line first in the fleet of this year's Bermuda One_Two.  The next boat is not expected to finish until late afternoon tomorrow. Lots of excitement welcoming Cole into Ordanance Island. They put her on the south side vice at the Customs dock due to her draft.
    

5 June 1100 - Cordelia - Sorry about no a.m. check in. I had an asym debacle. The halyard block separated from the mast. Took me a while to straighten things out still poking along. Winds have dropped to 6 kn from the north. it's hard to make any progress at all. But on the bright side use sunglasses and sunscreen for the first time today.
Kiwi Spirit 2 - Stanley Paris just called to say that the boat will not make it to Bermuda.  Engine is toast.  In process of gettng it replaced.  However him and Alan will be flying down to Bermuda to join in the ....
Finale - After all the horror of the last two days today is a Champaign sailing day! I am sailing with a full main and number 3 jib in 13-15 knots of wind coming from the northwest . With 2.5 knots of favorable current . My speeds are consistently over 9 knots ( just hit 10.0) surfing down some nice swells.it is a little overcast and cool I am 230. Miles out close to the rum line with an ETA of 25 hours if this keeps up I could break out a spinnaker but why add stress when you are having fun!
Breakaway - Things are very slow right now, breeze has eased and I’m nosing along towards Bermuda. Got the chute up this morning around 3 and it has kept me moving. I’m afraid those west of the rhumb line might have more breeze from the west, we shall see. I’m going to play my angles best I can right here. Spoke with Resolute this morning, all is well there, he is about to put up his chute in a bit. Reveille was on AIS and Scott spoke to him, but I only heard Scott. I made a middle of the night tired choice to gybe to the west thinking I was seeing a wind shift, it was a silly way to spend an hour or so and cost me some miles. Feeling much better this morning and haven’t spilled my hot chocolate yet.

5 June 0800 - First Light - Good morning! Woof. Last night. Probably wouldn’t have been so bad if I wasn’t so tired. But exhaustion leads to bad decisions which leads to mistakes. Nothing horrible. Just thought about a gybe for awhile, couldn’t get gribs to download so went for the gybed the A2 anyways. Sailed for a little while and realized I was horribly lifted…this was not the bad part…When I went to gybe back the autopilot lost control because I didn’t ease the main enough and as I was pulling the socked kite around the forestay..we tacked. Yup. Just fully headed up from dead downwind on port to fully upwind on starboard. Anyways it was a mess of lines and things. And some other small things went wrong during the fixing process but I won’t bore you with the details of Murphy’s law! But once I got her under control and back up and running. The wind died and I got lifted majorly meaning I wasn’t pointed at Bermuda anymore with the A2 up. Then made the decision to put the A5 up only to then realize from the hair on the back of my neck that it was too windy and too upwind for that sail and switched to the Code 5. Which I am now running with! I’m now snuggled up in my sleeping bag on this very rainy calm morning. True wind is 8knots, TWD is 45, I am pointed at bermuda (yay) and I’m doing about 7.5 knots of boat speed. Haven’t had any traffic. No calls on the radio. Only my anxious, frantic, over tired inner voice singing “sweet low sweet chariot.” Bed time… II Tender - Hi Roy - Rob on II Tender - calm morning, 11 knots NNW, with light drizzle but mostly clear sky. Have big kite up, with small one fixed yesterday. Small tear in my main, but otherwise shipshape. Issues with non-essential electronics, likely a fuse or connection gone in a broach. Hoping the wind holds for the final push south - have lost ability to download weather gribs! Alchemy - I'm having a fine ride under jib alone into Bermuda. ETA Tuesday during the day sometime I think but we'll see. I'm going to finish the race under sail unless we get a wicked southerly.
Ellementary - Crew arriving today and getting trailer etc sorted. This is from yesterday via Kristen. Just got this update from Diane's husband. Just got a text from the boat from 1330. Diane is close enough to motor into New York. I'm in Toronto Canada. My truck is at Fort Adam's and Diane has the keys. No idea what the plan is. I've received only one text so far. This was 1620. Just off the phone with Diane. She's trying to find a harbour to motor to. Signal is still poor. She is ok. Both rudders were delaminating equally. Auto pilot sheared off the tiller. Sailing to New York was safest option do to the sea state. Straight run. She will have to figure out tomorrow how to get back to Newport to get truck and trailer. This is from 1930: Diane is 10 minutes from sails down and motoring in to a marina. She thanks you for offer to help but will be ok. Her 2nd for the race back will be flying in tomorrow evening and will help with packing up the boat and trailering it back home. Melantho - Making steady progress. Finale passed about 200 yards in front of me. Spoke to him briefly. He has had a few minor problems. Doing okay. Finale  - Now sailing with full main and about 40 hours out from Bermuda sailed up to MELANTHO To.offer assistance as his electronics are out. he seemed ok and is making progress to Bermuda under jib. Breakaway - Things are very slow right now, breeze has eased and I’m nosing along towards Bermuda. Got the chute up this morning around 3 and it has kept me moving. I’m afraid those west of the rhumb line might have more breeze from the west, we shall see. I’m going to play my angles best I can right here. Spoke with Resolute this morning, all is well there, he is about to put up his chute in a bit. Reveille was on AIS and Scott spoke to him, but I only heard Scott. I made a middle of the night tired choice to gybe to the west thinking I was seeing a wind shift, it was a silly way to spend an hour or so and cost me some miles. Feeling much better this morning and haven’t spilled my hot chocolate yet. Fearless  - you know your getting closer when the winds declines,. All is well, even managed to get several naps in last night. No major issues, of course a small list to take care of. Cheers Phil Luna - Morning update: Luna could not reach any other sailboats this morning so I am here all alone bobbing around the RL. Wind wend down to 4kts and with the remaining swell it was hard to make any progress. At some point I had 0.5 VMG to Berdmuda…wind now up to 7kts from NNW and hope it grows to the promised 10-12kts. But I think I am finding every possible adverse current I could…other than the slow going it’s a beautiful day out here. Birds are having their breakfast all around me so I will do too! Blur - Good news or bad news first? First god news is that the big A2 genaker is up and we're doing good speeds on port gybe. Looks like one gybe and similar conditions all the way to Bermuda. Lets try and catch some more boats. 170 nm to go and ETA is tomorrow morning. Second good news is that I've managed to both eat and sleep well, so just keep it up. Simple Minds are played really loud and life in general is good. I managed to get through the nasty stuff without breaking anything on the boat except the main halyard extra cover. Should naturally replaced it sooner. The bad news then? I think I might have cracked a rib or two when a big wave slammed me into the mast taking the main down yesterday. Hurts like hell, but I'm able to sail the boat at 100%. The ships doctor has ordinated lots of painkillers and also a "Swedish Fish" (the candy) whenever the skipper feels sorry for himself. On the nature side of things; besides all the whales Friday night, I had a bunch of dolphins play around the bow just now. Found a flying fish in the cockpit this morning and had an exhausted bird take refuge on the boat for several hours. Small thinks becomes notable out here. Fearless - All is wellout here. I know we are getting close. The wind is dieing. So many elements to this race.
Cordelia - I am not sure my radio is working. And my handheld will not work for reporting the finish time. If I need to use my in reach, will that be OK? I'll try radio check when I get near some other boats but that hasn't been possible yet.

5 June 0600 - Breakaway - Now able to read Breakaway emails: Things are still rocking and rolling out here, I have a bit of a current helping me along so that is nice, I’ve been doing about 20 miles for the past few hours, the waves and surfing helps too. I could see resolute and alchemy on AIS, though alchemy disappeared to the east. No one replied on the radio. Things are pretty calm here still reefed with the 4. Debating going with the 3 as the winds ease. However when the wind puffs to above 25 I am not too keen on more sail area. I have found myself rounding up from time to time and auto can’t get the boat down again, it’s annoying but manageable, That’s all for now.
Saraband - Jon talked with her return crew, Richard Sides, He will meet her where ever she lands ashore and help her put the boat together and deliver it back to Marblehead. I asked Elke about the conditions and here is her reply just a few minutes ago: “the Sea state is rough, choppy. Xhuge swells.keep dropping”
Gryphon - Walter's wife passed this along: I just spoke with him. He had a hard day, but he is ok.
Saraband - Hi an update. Tookreef3 out overnight but have to get all the way head to wind to thread through lazy jacks. Need speed and better direction! Elke Backman sent this message from: Lat 38.321707 Lon -71.488423 Still very big seas and wind cont closer to shore. Elke Backman sent this message from: Lat 38.320087 Lon -71.491578
Strummer - All ok. iPhone was wet. Made messaging difficult

4 June 2000 - Alchemy - Wind direction vane broke in 45 knot squall.  Boat broached and main literally ripped in half.  Got it tied down, hooked up spare windvane, proceeding under jib.  Luckily downwind!  I'm at 35.51.289N 66.27.714 W. Sorry Scott, I've done it to you again. Blur - Sunday 18:00 EDT A long day with lots going on. After being miserable about the current for a while, I put the hammer down. For 6+ hours I averaged 9.75 knots (11.6 SOG) and finally found current going the right way. Full main & jib was plenty and hand-steared most of the day to keep speed up. Wind was between 20 and 26 knots. At the end I averaged 11.5 and topped out at 18. Wind gusted 30. Seas was huge and I avoided surfing several of the biggest waves for safety reasons. Borderline condition, and I ended taking the main down. Need to fix the halyard cover +  get some rest.  And eat. Still doing 11 knots SOG. As I said, I'm not here to win, but to finish in one piece. And pushing to hard can be costly. Had a rendezvous with Diantus. We talked on the VHF, waved and took photos. Otherwise not many boats around. The models says that wind will go below 20 knots tomorrow morning, so then I hope for some champagne sailing. 260 nm to go. Saraband - At 6:00 pm communication with Elke Elke: Just sailing now, have orange jib (too small) but couldn’t do a big ger jib on the bow. Drogue in. Windex has been blown off and there are halyards tied up in the spreaders .need to find a good direction, thanks. Jon: Did you try the engine yet? Elke: No I saw the voltage went down, will wait a bit. I have battery tri color etc. holding the wheel with shock cord. Melantho - Just checking in. All is alright, making steady progress. Trying to find the right drive/rest rhythm. I am officially withdrawing from the SH leg. If there is light as forecast near Bermuda I need the ability to motor in. Cordelia - Sorry. I'm fine. Just tired. These wind conditions require constant tweaking on Cordelia. Not getting enuf sleep. Light out here now. Hope to finish before awards ceremony. I think I'm close to Dianthus and Bluebird now based on tracker info but haven't heard them.

4 June 1813 - Trying to catch up with all the comms. Blur  - Sunday 04:00 EDT Finally! For those of you that follow the tracker my performance in the last 24 hours has been really bad. I payed to go east to enter the Gulf Stream at a place where the chance of adverse current should be low, and then I could go south after the bad sea-state was over. Instead I got 80 nm with 3.0-4.2 knots currnt going 330-360, WTF! And this against 2-30 knots of wind. And I can't see this in any models or the maps I got before the race. I tried to go even further east to get relief, but no sign of any. Then finally I just had to eat it and pound south, straight against it,
Anyhow. Newbie misstake? Or bad intel. Gave up a lot of distance. But now I got 26C in the water and 5 knots of current going 110. Looking better. But still bumpy as we're doing 9-11 knots with just the jib. Main might go up tomorrow as I've been able to catch up on sleep. Wind should stay at 24-26 knots into the afternoon. Time to catch some boats. Fearless - Phil just called to let me know some time in the last 6 hours his life raft was washed off the boat. All is well on board but if you could alert the coast guard and anyone else necessary in case it is sighted. Please let me know you've received this message. I have also left you a voicemail and
texted. Lauren Corvus - from Gerry Leger: I’ve been in contact with Chris on Corvis, here’s his information via InReach. At that point i thought the best decision was to retire. As it was soon after , last night i took a knockdown. The real thing . I was on course to inreachlink.com/JBI4NQJ (39.6701, -71.4157) - Chris Terajewicz Hey Gerry, you probably saw i retired from the race. Conditions were very challenging and by the time i was 40 miles away i was already exhausted inreachlink.com/MG4S5CJ (39.6690, -71.4113) - Chris Terajewicz Newport and sleeping in the leeward berth . I heard a loud bang and i looked up and saw the starboard berth in the air. I was covered by all the inreachlink.com/KO6IXLB (39.6707, -71.4188) - Chris Terajewicz stuff that was there it was all soft inreachlink.com/TTZ4IQZ (39.6708, -71.4193) - Chris Terajewicz all my galley stuff ended on the nav station . Boat came up all by itself seconds later and resumed sailing itself. Happy i happened to inreachlink.com/PJKGHZB (39.6714, -71.4223) - Chris Terajewicz cabin looks like a disaster movie . everything everywhere inreachlink.com/5X6GWQZ (39.6717, -71.4243) - Chris Terajewicz be in that berth and thanking my lucky stars that i still have a rig inreachlink.com/BNN4ZZB (39.6716, -71.4233) - Chris Terajewicz
Saraband - From Elke at 10:00 am this morning. It’s been slow going. I found the bow pulpit bent around the forest ay, had to haul the Genoa out of the water. What I thought was a st ay last night swinging around was a dyneema movqbable forestay that broke off a piece of deck hardware , that was swinging around. Im putting up a small jib and trying to get in the third reef but hard to get to with waves. That was what started this cascade I tried t o get in the third reef x couldn’t so dropped the main, then the Ge noa partially curled was flogging and I thought it would break the forestay. I found I had no engine and with this hardware swinging w ildly and what appeared to be a damaged stay, thought the mast woul d come down in a matter of time. When I gas both sails up I could p ower through and ok going downwind. With no sails and no engine it was alarming. Looks like too much salt water got in the ignition th e key all corrodes this morning Holy cow sorry. I have to put up the jib and fix the reef will go soon.
Strummer - Having trouble charging iPhone may be incommunicado soon. Down to first reel II Tender - At 1357 11 Tender called in. All is well. Seas are still big but better organized. Wind is 25-30 out of Northerly direction. Had a period log light winds last night. Visibility was very poor overnight but improving. Some sun trying to poke through. Has not heard from other boats.
Saraband - At 18:55 Elke is just now starting to sail. She texted me and all good. She has small orange storm jib up and so slow going. Jon bixby
Luna - GS update: in my current position I was expecting favorable current and being pretty close to the cold ring…both Gryphon and I are experiencing 2kts of adverse current. Plus wind 22-25kts against the current is giving the worse sea state yet. Still manageable but but tougher than expected that the GS. Update: Luna spoke with Gryphon this evening. We are all doing well. Gryphon could see Dianthus on AIS another 10nm east of him but could not reach him with VHF. Wind is down to 20kts from NNW. Still pretty big swells 8-9ft but the cockpit is mostly dry now and it is to enjoy the sunset! Finale - Just to let u know I am OK but not sure AIS is still working sailing on reefed jib.still have foul current no group chat on 72 working for me Tom

4 June 0900 Breakaway - ll is still wet here. About every half hour or so I get a good wave over the boat. I’m playing with course trying to minimize wave encounters and maximize my speed and where I want to go. I went from the storm jib to the 4 and that has helped with speed. Probably should have done that earlier but I kept waiting for the 30-33 knots to come back.

I spoke with REVEILLE this morning and he and Resolute are about 5 miles ahead of me. I saw Luna on AIS briefly. He was on my stern quarter. I haven’t seen anyone else.

I’m heading a little east of the rhumb line for some current and then a possible tack as the winds shift to the west and we head to Bermuda. Distance wise I think I’m almost half way.

I hope I can keep some food down today, the waves have gotten to me.

4 June 0800 report - posting this from the airport on my way to BDA. Melantho - The problem seems to be that the backbone of my instruments has lost power. I have not been able to fix it. It means I have no knotmeter, autopilot, wind instruments, AIS, and depth sounder. My chart plotter and radio works. I don't have very many options other to hand sail. I've decided to continue to Bermuda, only because going to Norfolk will be mostly upwind and Bermuda will be mostly downwind. My progress will be slow, as I'll only be able to do shifts. First Light - Good morning Roy! Last night was a rough one, I had seen this low that was sitting right in my path and knew I was going to run into it just didn’t know it was going to happen so soon. I gybed and took some nice heavy breeze pointing at an awkward 265 COG. Then gybed back when I thought I was in a good spot with lots of breeze (30 knots) and eventually ran through that spot too. So I gybed back to 265 COG. And tried again. I did this about two more times until I was completely exhausted and decided if the next time happened again I was just going to sit and wait for the breeze to come to me versus I going to the breeze. And well the breeze stayed with me! Right now I am COG 135 TWA 138 TWD 355-17 and I’m moving about 13 SOG. I’m fighting about 1-2knots of current but sea state is normal, a little bumpy but manageable. I haven’t seen anyone since yesterday…it’s a little worrisome of whether the westerly is the correct choice but I’m trying to stay positive! Right now I have one reef in the main and our furling spinnaker (A5) up. My next move is the wind comes down a little is to unreef to a full hoist and send it to Bermuda! Strummer - Had a problem with InReach but hopefully now fixed. Just got this message Had a communication problem but hopefully now fixed. All ok on strummer. Looks like InReach ok now. I'm in Gulf Stream. Big following sea but no breakers. Still 3rd reef but comfortable at 6 knots though water. No rush to break out. Autopilot did well throughout. More sail. Cabin is a mess. Wet stuff all over. No major breakage . And I'm intact. Just shook out 3rd reeef  Saraband - Saraband retired getting organize to head home slow going sat connection problem willtry later. Breakaway - I am unable to open his emails so his wife will be forwarding them to me. Here is the latest. Tell Roy I’m sorry he hasn’t been getting all my pithy comments about how wonderful things are out here. Not sure what that setting is that you can read and he can not. Predict Wind has some stuff that works great, and other stuff not so much. The blog isn’t working well either, oh well. The short of it is that all is wet here. Checked in with Reveille and can see Resolute and Luna (sometimes) on AIS. I continue to plug along, heading a bit east in search of some current and an angle for the next wind shift which I think will be W NW. meanwhile I have the #4 and 2 reefs in the main and that keeps the boat pretty flat. About every hour or so I get a good wave over the boat. Otherwise it is just spray on deck. I’m hoping I’ll get some food to stay with me today, though I’m in fine fettle about it all. I had a beauty of sail change yesterday with dolphins doing full leaps from the waves right in front of me. I felt like I was in a flipper episode. I think I am around half way or so, and things are pointed in the right direction. This is Breakaway's post to a blog: The breeze goes up, the breeze goes down, it goes up again… Sat Jun 03 2023
It’s just a game of having a bit of hope and then having it dashed, currently the wind is up and the boat is moving, other boats seem to be making better speed at a better angle, but I’m not with able to do that. I do have the A3 up now which was a real joy in light air before. With about 7 knots I can at least keep it full. Currently I am working on figuring out the best angle to get the deepest and still have good speed. Looks like I am about to get a small rain storm, this could prove interesting.
No rain, just more wind, it’s up to 12-15 or so and I’m reaching. Glad I have the A3. I might need to go to the zero soon if this keeps up. I put the 142 below and did the best below deck flake and roll I could, I don’t think I’ll need that sail for another couple of days. Meanwhile I’m curious to see how much it goes to the east…
Too much I think, I took the A3 down and am now running with the number 3. I think I lost a half a knot, and I could probably put the staysail up to help, but it was getting a little exciting with the chute, I played it conservative as there is a lot of racing to go and the wind is only supposed to build. I could have gone to the zero, but I think that would get a little too exciting as the wind builds and changing these sails takes a bit out of me, so I’m holding off for now. If it goes below 10 I’ll put it up, but right now the lowest I’ve seen is 15.
Alchemy - Morning Roy- no dice on the VHF this morning. I'm in south gulfstream with a nice favorable current but no wind. I'm heading in the right direction! Abilyn - Josh here on Abilyn. Just went to let you know that I made it safely to shelter island. My current plan is to get the boat sorted and head back out there later in the week and hopefully get boat to Bermuda before start of DH leg. (interesting, Roy).
Cordelis - I'm pretty sure I won't hear anyone on the radio so here's my update. All good after 13 1/2 hours in a countercurrent of three kts or moreover a distance of 67 miles that no briefings or Jennifer Clark knew was there I am of it. Lucky I didn't throw myself over the side in the middle of it. High speeds were typically 9 to 11 through the water and 4 to 7 over the ground. Very painful. That should have been my speeds, not high speeds
Roy - My some of these people have a lot to say. Cole seems to be replacing Michael pretty good.  Kiwi Spirit is arriving today, plans to fix some problems, head down to BDA crewed and do the DH leg.  Sound familiar.

4 June 0000 - Saraband - Elke has a problem with her boat. The mast is still up and she is fine.  She has deployed a drogue and staying with the boat. The Coast Guard is involved. Will reassess in daylight.

3 June 2300 - Melantho - I've experienced a black out of my Raymarine autopilot and instruments. I accidently powered the autopilot off and it took down the rest. I am currently lying ahull, everything is fine, but I'm exhausted at the moment and will retire for the night. I will start fresh tomorrow morning and will weigh my options. I've tried powering it back up by pressing the power buttons of all my i70/p70 but no luck.

3 June 2000 - Fearless - Hi Roy all is well out here. Entered the Gs at6pm, little bouncy bUt bot as bad as i expected.. been a tiring 24h so i need a nap but very happy. No issues to report. Breakaway again I have no idea what. Luna - at 1900 I connected via VHF with Revellie and Breakaway. We are all doing well: wet and looking for the entrance to the Gulf Stream, which is rumored to be around here! Also heard Bluebird in the background. Winds are down to mid-20s from high 20-low 30 i experience since this morning. Seas have built up to about 8-10 feet. Autopilot and Hydrovane have been handling the boat well and with no real sail changes to make I get quite a bit of sleep! Strummer  - Still blowing hard. Waves like houses. Boat handling it well. So far so good. Melantho - Weather is wind NNE 20 kts, seas 6 - 10 ft. Cloudy, not great visibility. My track is starting to bend due to the Gulf Stream. No craziness yet, but I'm not in the strongest part. No one on AIS. No one responded to my hails for the evening checkin. Alchemy - No one on VHF tonight.  Was with Blur this morning. No problems.  Winds 30 kts, fould current.  10kts thru the water, 5 adverse current but doesn't think he is in the Stream. Cordelia - No radio contact again this eve. All well on COrdelia other than the fact that I'm in a horrible countercurrent. Doing 9-10 thru water and 3-8 SOG. UGH! II Tender  - Rob on II Tender switching to text as easier. Great morning. Surfing with the kite up. quite frustrating since then. Heavy rain, grey skys, wind 25-30 kts (max 32). Big seas that are no fun to take on the beam. Spent part of the afternoon in cabin fixing kite / drying off. Breakaway - All is wet here. It’s been a rather unfortunate 12 hours. The seas are rough, the wind is up and it’s the same old, same old. Not much fun I’m afraid, but at least it isn’t raining, though I’m sure that’s in the future. I have been seeing Reveille and Luna on AIS, and occasionally Resolute. 
I had a lovely sail change earlier with dolphins jumping from the waves and doing full breach dives. Pretty cool. I heard a radio transmission that Elementary was withdrawing, but it was broken up, so not certain on that. Another 24 plus hours of this to go I think…..

3 Juen 1300 - Luna  texted me."Ellementary is retiring from the race due to rudder problems. She has turned back with a bearing of 255T Position N39 41 - W 070 00. Finale called that he is over powered with 2 reefs in the main and heading mostly 180-190. Probably will take down the main.

3 June 1030 - Young American - had a little issue with the spin all good now lots of hand steering now (his boat had slowed down on the tracker). Windswept - Just leaving the continental shelf. Winds gusting to 44 knots. Bumpy ride. The stream could be a horror show. Running with about 10 square feet of jib, main furled. Strummer - Can reef from cockpit but need to go on deck for an occasional snag. Only autopilot. Just put 3rd reef in. Blowing 30.
 

3 June 0800 - Been receiving email and text. Lots of talk. Winds have picked up. Abilyn -  My autopilot ram has become disconnected from the rudder. The bold seems to have sheared off. I'm turning back towards home. Copy (with respect to my warning about Wind Farm construction area). Relayed to sailors via VHF. I see that Orion is 17 nm to the northeast of me. The fleet won't be coming anywhere near this location. Blur - Saturday 06:00 EDT The wind is here. 20 knots from NE, so pretty much what the models said. Fast. But uncomfortable.Yesterday was fantastic sailing, and pretty much a drag race on starboard. I opted for a more northern route both for pressure during the night, but also to be well positioned when the low came. The wind was variable and I went back and forth between jib, code and A3. Parked up two times, but mostly had better speed than the boats to the south. Add mist. And lot's of whales blowing around the boat.
My routing, although I doubted it a few times, seems to have worked, as I'm ahead of the group going east. The only boat that I know dived south was the Class 40. If everything goes according to plan I'll enter the Gulf Stream at 16:00. Exciting! PS. Something happened with Abilyn? Saw him turn around and then lost his AIS. (told him Abilyn heading home) Strummer - Wind from the east at 25+. Big seas with breaking crests Awesome Boat doing well and me too so far. Fed and rested. Several windless hours last night but wind came up at midnight. Now making 6.5 knots with double reefed main and staysail. Heard Corvus on radio this am but everybody else probably too far ahead.  Cordelia - Well the only boat I heard today was Alchemy, who strangely, since he is only four miles away, did not hear me. He pops in and out on my AIS so I’m wondering if it’s his antenna or my problem. Since I haven’t had that issue with other boats, I’m thinking it could be his problem. On the bright side, it’s pretty exciting to be up with a class 1 boat. There be some wind out here! I’m seeing pretty steady 20-25 and it doesn’t really go below 20. So with those winds and Cordelia’s heft, we are hauling the mail! Last night was miserable. Time with literally no wind and I even went backwards some. So I was tryiing to decide if I prefer that or living on my ear. I’ll take the ear anytime. But rather than heat up some oatmeal for breakfast, I opted for the PB&J option. The less done in the galley, the better, on days like this, although a good mug o’ tea hits the spot on these cold nights. Did I mention it’s cold out here, with the wind and fog we’re in? Well it’s not cold, it’s freakin’ cold. Wish the sun would burn through. Anyway, enough rambling. This email is cutting in on my nap time. ’Fair Winds to All, Roy2 on Cordelia. Alchemy - Morning Roy- I didn't reach anyone this morning- may have to do with me heading a bit more east to avoid the worst of the stream. We'll see if it works! Melantho - On the radio this morning I heard from Resolute and Breakaway. I have both plus Envolee on AIS. Weather has started to kick in with NNE 25 kts and fog. So far all is well. Fearless - We found the wind. 20-22kts from 44M. Just spoke to breakaway who spilled his hot chocolate. Reefs in both breakaway and fearless. Soon will leave the continental shelf. Cheers Phil  Breakaway - Unable to read his messages. They come as an enclosure with the extension of .msg but unable to open. Passed it along to someone who is connected to him. First Light - Aloha Roy! Cole here on the wonderful First Light. Her and I watched the first light together this morning waiting for the front to truly hit us. What an eventual evening of sail changes and trying to just drive towards the moon in anyway possible. We are now sailing along doing between 10 and 17 knots (I slowed her down a bit because she was starting to complain). Anyways it’s blowing between 15 and 26knots out here, sea conditions have picked up compared to last nights whisper. It’s been foggy and damp for the last 12 hours, I’m trying to get dry! I hailed Young American who are the only people I can see on my AIS currently but no response. That’s all for now! Cheers! II Tender - Couldnt reach Alchemy on VHF so just checking in. Wind kicked in 20-25 knots steady, making for some decent 12-14 knot surfing but mixed sea state. Almost turned home when i realised i’d forgotten my coffee pot, so hoping for a quick trip! Breakaway - Well it’s gotten pretty frisky out here as of late. I’ve reefed the main and the jib. I’m with Melantho, he’s caught me finally. Resolute is reefs and going to a heavy weather jib. Melantho is putting his autopilot for a workout. I’ll tender is ahead of me. Envolee is to windward about 2 miles. A few folks behind on AIS. The big tragedy of today was when my hot chocolate spilled over the stove and floor.
Hanging in with anything I can…. Gregg

2 June 2000 - Alchemy called in.  Very light conditions. Has heard from: First Light, Elementary, Resolute, Breakaway, Abilyn and Envole. This is the light winds predicted by the weather forecasters. NE should start coming in Saturday morning early.
Also we have the following emails/InReach/text: Strummer - Won the start which was fun but they've all passed me now Light winds. Calm seas. So far so good. Dianthus - Just saw a whale breach a couple of times. Pretty much in front of CORVUS I believe! Corvis - Also CORVUS observed a whale 100 yards off port side at 1542.  Reveille - I see Orion and hope to not go anywhere near her. Will pass the word at 19h chat. Abilyn wrote me a book as to why he was late to the start. Strummer - Strummer at 41 10 and 70 58 Foggy windless. Spoke with bluebird and Corvus. Bluebird lost communications to you (me). Corvus - 1900 hours Flat seas , 2 kts wind from 212. Bluebird reports his Iridium Go failed so he will not be able to communicate with his family. Strummer reports flat seas no wind and not making any headway. could not raise Cordelia, Dianthus, Windswept or Gryphon. Gryphon reported in , only thing he reports is that his bread is moldy. Melantho - Check in on the radio - the following yachts called in:: Finale - slow conditions. Envolee Reveille All reporting very light wind and calm seas. I have Young America, Luna, Breakaway, Reveille, Finale, Elementary, Envolee on AIS. Jack Young American - got focused on no wind sailing and did not attend chat hour i can see most of the fleet on AIS - most are going very very slowly - Cole appears to be in a good spot in the front of the pack.:) Cordelia - We just had a call but I am so far north of everyone that they could not hear me. I did hear Corvus and Bluebird. All three of us have flat seas and almost no wind. Speeds are 1 to 2 knots. Of import is that Gust on Bluebird is having problems with his Iridium and so is unable to call his family. He would like that posted so they know that and do not worry. Could be a long boring night if the winds don’t show up soon. Lots of tweaking just to keep moving. My 28,000 pound boat does not enjoy these conditions which makes us both cranky. Breakaway - Hello Roy, It was a beautiful afternoon for a sail, until the last hour or so when the air just went poof. Very light out here, but the fog went away. Wish the wind would make up its mind about a direction. During radio check I heard Corvus talk to someone, did not here the someone. That happened a lot. Bluebird says irridium go has failed. Fearless has intermittent wind instrument problems. Abilene has done well after a late start catching up with the fleet. Had a cable rip out of the instruments displays and that tanked his system?  Heard envolee too I could see Resolute, Abilene, I’ll tender, And in the distance Young american, melantho, and envolee, and finale and maybe a couple others. Gregg

2 June 1800 - Alan Paris said that he is not sure what Stanley's plans for Kiwi Paris 2 are but will arrive into Newport around 1800 Saturday and will berth at the Newport Yacht Club.  He was supposed to have started today with Class 1 however ran into problems getting here from St. Augustine.

2 June 1600 -  Coast Guard called me about the boats heading toward the Cape Wind boats working on the windmill area south of Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket. I emailed and text most of the boats and the word spread to all the boats to keep away from there. At lest one boat saw the big boat Orion (and some said they didn't see a thing) that was here a couple of days ago now working there on the wind mill project.

2 June 1100 - And they are off.  24 boats started.  Rocinaate withdrew before the start (DNC) and Kiwi Spirit is having all kinds of problems just getting here.
3 classes.  Abilyn had electronics problems before even leaving the dock; ended up starting after his class start in the start sequence of Class 2.  Spotting his class mates a bit of time.
Elementary called that she was having auto pilot problem (one of the most common problems) so would sail out of the bay and sort it out once out of the bay.
Luna notified us that he had a port/starboard incident and did his circles to exonerate him and was continuing to race.
I can't remember the last time I was able to do Race Committee for the Bermuda One-Two and not be wearing a winter coat or at least a sweater.  Gorgeous weather for the start. Wind about 10-12 knots out of the south and an out going tide to help. We had to move the line more towards Goat Island due to a big Cruise ship that was parked there.

Skippers that have told me that they are planning on participating in the 2023 Bermuda One-Two: Elke Backman on her Frers 36, Peter Becker (with 2 J/105s), Greg Carville on his J35, Jack Clayton, Brian Gray on his new POGO 44, Roy and Gail Greenwald, Peter Gustafsson on his J/111 Blur, Phil Haydon in a SunFast 3300, James Hammitt, Greg Leonard on his Class 40 Kite USAa144), John Manderson on his Archambault 31 Kismet, Rick McCally, Michael Millard, Thomas O'Connell  on his J/99 Finale, Alessandro Pagani, Stanley Paris, Josh Reisberg, Rick Rohrer, Walter Rush, David Southwell, Gust Stringos, Leah Sweet on a Figaro 3 Celeritas, Chris Terajewicz, John Youngblood on his Little Harbor 52.

1 June - Phil Haydon is having the start put up live on his Sail For Epilepsy Facebook page for those that would like  to see it.

30 May - Frank Bohlen's latest Gulf Stream brief.

9 May - Frank Bohlen's latest Gulf Stream brief as well as an update to the Gulf Stream Primer.

7 April - Notice of Race Amendment #2 is posted.

31 March - Doug (Mary) Mann's boat is for sale.

18 March - 27 people participated in the March Skippers' Forum/Shore Party.  Frank Bohlen started it off with the "Get Started on the Gulf Stream" talk followed by my bringing up various items about the up coming race.  Then followed by Gam and food!  Lots of talk.  New entrant Elke Backman was there with her crew Richard. A bunch of past skippers and crew were present and wonderful to see.  I will post Frank's pitch under the Gulf Stream menu page. The pitch is posted now.

15 March - PHRF-NB will not be ready until 1 April for certificates.

9 February - The March newsletter is available now.

4 January - Note the change of date for the Spring Skipper's Forum/Shore Party.  Changed to 25 February 2023.  Scratch that, it is now 18 March 2023.

1 January - Online Registration opened today and 3 boats have already signed up (check Scratch Sheet menu on the left) and two of the are the Morris Justine 36s.

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28 December - The Northeast Ocean Race Symposium: For the first time ever, in 2023, the three odd-year ocean races in the northeastern United States are jointly sponsoring an event called the Northeast Ocean Race Symposium. The Marion Bermuda Race, as lead organizer, has joined with the Marblehead Halifax Race and the Bermuda 1-2 Race, to offer this unique event. The event is open to all race participants and the public; it is not a race requirement. You can view the full symposium program; or go directly to register. Join us for a full day of information, interaction, and invigoration with a set of sessions to help you better prepare for, and enjoy, your race - or just offshore cruising. There will be speakers, panels, and opportunities for questions and answers as well as a “gam” to close out our day and hopefully ease your path, not only to the starting line, but to the finish as well.

9 November - The 2023 Notice of Race and Calendar are now posted.

5 November - Skipper's Forum/Shore Party. We had about 25 participants.  It was nice to see past skippers and crew as well as potential new skippers; for instance Elke Backman is hoping to do the race next year on her Frers36.  Phil Haydon announced that he will be doing next year's race on a SunFast 3300 and that his Quest 33s is for sale.  After introductions, Frank Bohlen gave us a brief on Heavy Weather sailing mostly to do with waves. Frank's slides can be downloaded.  Afterwards I highlighted some schedule leading up to the race as minor changes to the NOR and SI.  NOR should be available this month. Afterward big gamm session with food to munch on.

4 October - Ken Bordieri is selling his boat.

17 September - The 2022 October newsletter is now posted.

31 May - Walter Rush sent me some sad news today that Doug Mann passed away on 26 May after a hard-fought battle with cancer.  Doug and Mary participated in the 2019 Bermuda One-Two.

March 28, 2022 - Peter Becker has an article in Scuttlebutt about shorthanded sailing and boat preparation.  Peter did the B12 in 2021 and is involved in getting the Bermuda Short-Handed Return race started this year with the New York Yacht Club, the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club, and the Cruising Club of America..

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).