Advertisement

Bermuda Bound Editor, No. 2

275 miles to go to the Onion Patch

After three days, the 10-man crew of the Swan 45 Plenty, owned by Alex Roepers of Stonington, Conn., has already seen a lot of what a Bermuda Race can offer. There’s been fog and wind, fog and no wind, no wind with sun, and then today, Sunday, the third day of sailing, a glorious bout of running down the line with current, lots of breeze, and a top speed of 19.2 knots. Of course there’s been some excitement. Last night around midnight (the best time for trouble), we ended up with two spinnakers and a staysail macrame’d together in knot so tight we had to take the three sails below to get them untangled. Since we’re in the Gulf Steam, where the water temperatures are 80 degrees, it was a sweaty, maddening job. But it got done, and we were belting along again soon. Our first position report, received and sent Saturday at 9:10 in the morning, was a good one for us. We were second in our class of Swan 45s behind Better Than, and ahead of the remainder of our class, Class 6. This morning, we found out we’d dropped a place to another 45, Alliance, but know there will still be plenty of opportunities in this eddy-riddled 635-mile racecourse. We’re about 275 miles fromBermuda, and sailing in an afternoon breeze that’s expected to die and go right. We’ll keep plugging away and hope that Monday’s roll call puts us on top. -Tony Bessinger, aboard Plenty in the North Atlantic

Advertisement
Advertisement