Not lost without trace - just felt like it!
After days of visiting the yacht for internet and endless cups of coffee with single hander , Richard, we finally got a forecast we could go with - not perfect - but one we could go with. There were some very light wind patches and a couple of days to windward but it was definitely time to leave,
So we all visited the local SuperU to stock up on fresh food and the two boats left together the next morning 21st May on the 10-30 bridge opening.
The predicted two days of wind were lighter than expected and by the end of the second day we had the engine on. We had filled up with diesel and even bought 2 extra 20 litre cans so we were quite confident that we would have enough, especially since we sailed at anything above 1.5 knots speed,
What did we know?
We did eventually get the headwinds and, at least on the first day they were about 17 knots so we got some miles under our belt. The strength dropped by day 2 but we were still moving, though by nightfall we were down to 2 knots.
Soon enough we were down to rationing our fuel, though we did manage to bring a fish aboard and enjoy a lovely meal. The next day we caught another but we had already made dinner so we had to throw it back.
Four days in with a poled out yankee and 4 knots of breeze we were sailing at just under 3 knots, By evening we were hove to in no wind. And thus went the story A week in we were drifting and we dropped the sails and went to bed.We did the same thing on the Thursday. This was not the 8 day sail we had hoped for.
12 days in and finally we were nearing our destination. We had wind and were sailing in 9 knots of wind on my watch when I heard thunder, noticed a huge patch of dark cloud and saw lightening, Scruffbag came up and we reefed down - just in time. The heavens opened and we were both drenched. The autopilot was coping well so we went below. I was pretty frightened. Scruffbag switched off all the instruments due to the lightening. The storm seemed to move slightly away, then ,
By late evening the worst of the storm had passed but we remained hove to so we could enter the harbour in daylight. We got some hours of much needed sleep then rose at 4-15 for the sail in.
This was a pleasant sail in a 15-18 knot south westerly and we arrived in St Georges Harbour, Bermuda at 11-25 am very happy to finally be there. On the way in we passed Richard in his boat Maritza. He had arrived 4 days before us because his smaller engine and 3 blade propeller meant that he used less fuel and hence could motor further. Lucky Richard.
