It is hard to believe we have been in Bermuda almost a week already. We soon caught up on our sleep so set about cleaning up the boat, washing off some of the salt, drying out the sails, etc., doing some laundry, and generally checking the fluid levels in the engine and generator. During this latter activity we noticed some coolant had been leaking from the generator reservoir, which was a bit of a puzzle to begin with. When the generator was running, we noticed it was coming from the coolant overflow tube ….. hmmm, strange. Howard twigged that the hoses had been reversed, i.e., the hose leading to the engine was sucking air, not coolant and the overflow hose was taking fluid from the bottom of the reservoir as the engine warmed up. An easy fix (we don’t mind those ones).

We also contacted Chris Parker to see when we might have a good weather window for proceeding onwards towards the Chesapeake. He didn’t have good news…. he wasn’t optimistic there would be a window before the week of May 17th due to a series of Lo systems that are coming off the US East coast! So, we immediately let Cliff and Nancy know. They were due to fly out of JFK the following morning to meet us here in Bermuda and join us for the passage back. It did kinda mess them up. Initially they thought of cancelling but they found they couldn’t cancel their hotel reservation for Wed & Thurs nights so they decided to come after all. However, they ended up missing their flight on Wednesday and instead flying standby on Thursday. We are very happy they finally made it. They moved onboard Timing on Friday and we have had a most enjoyable time doing some of the more touristy things together over the weekend. We took a bus the length of Bermuda on Saturday to The Dockyard where the Admirals Cup teams have their bases. Unfortunately it was too windy for the AC boats to be out on the water so there wasn’t much going on in that respect but it was the finish line of the ‘End to End’ fund-raising cycle/walk so the place was buzzing. Yesterday we went to the Bermuda Aquarium, Museum & Zoo, which we thoroughly enjoyed. We now have a much better understanding of how Bermuda was formed and how unique it is, being the most northerly island in the Atlantic that has thriving coral reefs (due to the warming effect of the Gulf Stream) and how diverse the underwater ecosystem is due to the presence of deep sea reefs, shallow more protected reefs, caves and mangrove swamps.

An update from Chris Parker indicated there may be an opportunity to depart today but he indicated we would have to be prepared to motor about 75% of the way, about 500 nm, into light to moderate head winds and be sure we could make it into the Chesapeake by Friday at the latest so as to avoid being caught up in a geographically ‘massive’ gale that is likely to hit the east coast on Saturday. We didn’t like the sound of this scenario so have decided to wait for the next opportunity. So, Cliff and Nancy departed this morning for a flight back to JFK. We expect to receive another weather update from Chris on Thursday. It is unlikely Cliff and Nancy will be able to join us for the next leg due to other commitments so if anyone is interested and available the week of May 15th, let us know…. We will be keen to take the next opportunity because we want to haul the boat in Worton Creek before departing on a road trip to Oregon by May 26th at the very latest! We know, boats and schedules are not a good combination…

My friend Sheila and Steve gave us a great welcome, treating us to a most enjoyable dinner with a friend of theirs in their ‘new’ home on Friday. I think Steve has been working harder since his retirement in November, moving out of their former home into Sheila’s parents house, prepping their house for renting (to a manager of the Kiwi land-based AC Cup team), and sprucing-up their new house and boats for house guests over the AC event.

You may remember we mentioned that a rather fast-looking 66-foot catamaran passed us on our way to Bermuda. Well, it is docked at the St Georges Dinghy Club, close to where we are anchored and a favorite watering hole of ours. It turns out it is an HH66 that was built in China by the same boatyard that used to build Gunboats. We met the captain who kindly invited us aboard for a tour, and met the other two crew members; all very pleasant professional people. It is of such light construction with carbon fibre rigging and foam-cored hull but is still a very comfortable racing boat with no less than 4 fridge/freezers and an ice maker onboard! What amazed us the most was the way they jack up the mast to tension the rigging for stiff breezes and loosen it for lighter airs. They have been out performing Gunboats they have raced against to date. The HH 66 regularly sails at 22+kts. It must be exciting, and a bit scary.