Casting Off for Bermuda

Trillium is in the middle with the larger flags!

Today is the big day! We are heading north to Bermuda as part of the Atlantic Cup Rally. 

This week Nanny Cay, Tortola, BVI, the World Cruising Club has brought together the boats of the Atlantic Cup Rally going to the east coast of the USA and the ARC Europe boats heading to Europe. We have met new sailing friends from everywhere: Ireland, Norway, Wales, France, Sweden, Germany, Texas, Colorado, California, etc.
We are one of four Hallberg-Rassy vessels berthed here on A Dock. Two of us are headed to the USA and the others are going to Europe, returning home after a winter of sailing across and then up and down the island chain. We plan to sail with ARC Europe next year if things go well. The Rally is such a great way to meet and make new friends from around the world.

The boats on the docks are decked out in their finest dress flags. It is quite impressive. There are six or seven Hallberg-Rassy vessels in the fleet. Four of us are together on A Dock.We don’t see many other HRs so it is fun to be together. We have essentially the same boats and all agree that our HR’s are the best!

Dennis took this photo from on top of the mast!

In the photo above, the one on our left is from Ireland and the one on the right is from Norway. Further down to the left is another one going back to the Chesapeake Bay with us. 
There are Sun Downer events each evening where we can get to know other sailors. It is fun to hear about their cruising experiences and learn a little more about them and their families. We will all rendezvous in Bermuda again before heading our separate ways. 

We come from many lands!

What does it take to make a party? Two sailors and some liquid something! Now multiply that by the 40 or so boats here and you can guess what happens. It is great fun and we will miss everyone when we return home for the summer. At least we have new contacts on the other side of the big pond!


We are expecting a slow start as the thunderstorms arrived on Wednesday afternoon and will be around for a while. There is hardly any air and it is hot and humid. The winds will be light at the start and then we will meet up with a storm coming off Florida with some big winds of 25 knots plus. That will move us right along, but it will be a wild ride in the swells. 
You can follow us on the Fleet Tracker which is located in the upper right on the Atlantic Cup page of the World Cruising Club site: www.worldcruising.com/AtlanticCup.
At first we thought we were going to have great winds for the first two days. Now the forecast is forecast is for light winds for a couple of days and then we will meet up with a storm coming off Florida. Hopefully we sill catch the back side of it and get good wind. Who knows! It's the weather! Always changing.

Looking down at Trillium's deck. 

We have a great crew with various skills and experiences: Captain Ron from Cincinnati (a great fix-it guy), Tom from Chicago and Tom from Richmond, VA (both are HAM operators). Trillium is one of the Net Controller boats so I will have help with the radio call-in sessions. It will be a little different having five on board so I hope my meal planning works out! It gives everyone more rest as we sail 24/7. 

Once again, it is great to be part of the World Cruising Club. Their safety standards are high and they follow the sailing rules of the "rest of the world" so we have to measure up. Good discipline. 

They make things more convenient by having the Immigration and Customs people at the docks, staff to assist in preparations and to greet us at the next port, organized events, etc.We left Tortola two days ahead of ARC Europe who will join us in Bermuda for joint events.There we will say good-bye to many we hope to see on the other side of the big pond. We plan to sail with the World Cruising Club in the future.

                                                   

This is the last entry until we reach Bermuda. Hopefully the Internet connection will be better there than last year! It is very difficult uploading photos with these island connections. Until we connect again, wish us fair winds and following seas!