34 19 N  67 08 W

Set off from St Georges, Bermuda early afternoon yesterday (Tuesday) under zero wind conditions and 24 hours later it is still near calm with wind less than 3 knots. It has been a novel experience to be on the Atlantic Ocean for so many hours of glass calm water…..so different than the mighty seas we have experienced so many times in the Atlantic. We chose this timing to find a 4 day window that would be reasonable for the full passage; there are a lot of smaller scale lows/depressions that run quickly all the way up the east coast from Florida giving 30 – 40 kts of winds and it is those that we have tried to avoid with this timing. Unfortunately, the choice means burning fuel for an extended period until we catch up with some wind later today.

Really enjoyed our brief time in Bermuda; it is a stunningly beautiful, lush, well kept island over its entirety …. vegetation of every kind growing in healthy abundance….. from forests to manicured lawns and golf courses….as well as the beautiful pink sand beaches. And homes that would appear in designer magazines!! If it were possible, this would be a place where we could enjoy living for sure…but…with the high rolling financial markets businesses and lots of “old money”, the cost of living is out of reach…real estate !!!....as well as the most costly supermarket goods that we have seen to date.

Something new: can hardly wait to get to an internet connection when we reach Newport >>> for the last 24 hours we have been cruising amongst thousands of the strangest sea creatures: they vary from little ones that are a couple of inches in length to the largest that are about 9 or 10 inches in length. They appear in the distance as bubbles (like bubbles you would blow …just floating on the water surface) but when you get up close you see that the “looks like a bubble” above the surface part is actually a “sail” with a vertical radiating membrane that gives it a semi-circular shape above the water….with a large slug like body submerged beneath. Never before have we seen anything like this. There is colour in the radiating elements that give shape to the “sail” and there is colour in the body of the “monster” that sits submerged. We see these “fish” (maybe a form of jellyfish) turn themselves to get lower or higher speed from the wind according to how they present the sail profile to the wind.  STRANGE!!....and quite an interesting marvel. We await access to Google or some source to see what it is???

If all goes well, it looks like we will be coming into Newport Harbour on Saturday morning.

DTG: 523 nm