32º23.4N 62º6.8’W
SOG (Speed over Ground): 8 knots
Distance from Bermuda: 131nm
Distance to Horta: 1,672nm
We left Bermuda by passing through the cut at St George’s at 3:05pm Bermuda time yesterday. Weather was great for sailing. The weather router for the fleet had advised us all to head due east to get as far away as possible from the weather that was due to hit Bermuda.
Very soon we spotted a squall so we turned the boat and put in a second reef on the main. Fortunately, the squall passed just in front of the boat so we weren’t pounded. By 4:30pm, because of the haze, we had lost sight of Bermuda all together. About this time I began to feel a little queasy and started going down with a bit of sea sickness which I’ve yet to recover from.
The guys had dinner at 5pm which I was unable to join bat chewing on a bread role which didn’t stay down. After dinner I spotted a small pod of dolphins off the port beam. They didn’t stay for too long. While we were all standing there wondering if the dolphins will return, the reefing line snapped. Previously it had been thought that the reefing lines that snapped coming up to Bermuda were due to their being old and worn. With new lines in we knew something must be damaging them. We lowered the boom and put in a manual second reef for the night. I was able to help out at first but the mal-de-mer kicked in and soon I was leaning over the edge again.
As the evening kicked in we settle on watch system. Essentially we were on a 8 hour rota. 2 hours on standby, followed by watch followed by four hours off. As I was already hanging around outside I took the 7pm (Bermuda time) watch. I was back up on standby at 1am followed by watch at 3am. On my 4 hours off I was able to get a lot of sleep. The boat is making good distance with speeds between 6.5 and 8.5 knots. My sea-sickness isn’t beaten yet although the fact that I’m typing this log in my cabin suggests progress.