Bermuda Race Preparation on Whisper

Tuesday, June 17, 2014

Tuesday, June 17, 2014

Race prep has been about a year long, but frenzied over the past two weeks.  Exploding our spinnaker a couple weekends ago did not contribute to a sense of equanimity, but it has been repaired (the sail).

We have loaded about half the food, with Addie and I having spent an inordinate amount of time cooking, and freeze/vacuum packing meals.  While we may be one of the slower boats, we will be one of the better eating ones.

With my double handed crew, Peter Dowd, and one of the return crew, Andrew Dieselman, we moved the boat from Marblehead to Little Compton (about 2 hours away from the start in Newport) on Friday and into Saturday, transiting the Cape Cod Canal at about midnight and arriving in Little Compton at 6am.  

Fog, all the way.  Cold, rain, windy, wind on our nose, and we sailed very little, mostly motoring.

Land could be seen twice during the 16 hour trip:  once in the Canal, and then not again until we were 100 feet from the breakwater protecting Sakonnet Harbor in Little Compton.  Braille sailing, as can be seen from what the appearance was like from the boat at early dawn today.