After a fantastic summer in New England and a busy winter of boat maintenance, we’re off on a new adventure – sailing to Bermuda and hopefully beyond. After leaving the dock and then deciding to get one more peaceful night’s sleep at anchor in Charleston Harbor, we pulled up the anchor at noon on Tuesday 3 May and pointed Madrone’s bow almost due east for the ~800nm passage to Bermuda.
It’s been almost a year since our last sailing passage of more than a night or two. So much of the first day is spent finding our sea legs, chasing down rattles and clanks from various lockers, and trying to remember how to sail the boat. And even though we’ve been through this a few times before, leaving for a long trip on the open ocean still makes us plenty nervous.
But so far the weather has cooperated with moderate winds just aft of the beam, and we’ve been able to maintain decent speed almost directly along the rhumbline. Noon finds us more or less in the middle of the Gulf Stream, getting swept north at 2-3kts as we try to continue to make miles to the east. We should pop out of the current this afternoon and have our fingers crossed for more good weather in the days to come.
Day One
168nm
32 38.8N 76 33.9W
