Wilmington to Bermuda Day 7 Arrived
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Wilmington to Bermuda Day 7 Arrived 32:22.689N 64:40.938W 7th June 2015 720 Miles from Wilmington 9515 Miles from Ramsgate by log.
Norma had the privilege of catching the first glimpse of Bermuda when she sighted the Gibbs Hill lighthouse at 3:10 on Sunday morning. By 07:30 we were close enough to see the land and to contact Bermuda radio on VHF. It was really nice to hear the cool calm BBC English coming back to me on the radio, it has been a while. The reintroduction to British bureaucracy was another thing and they soon had me dashing around the boat gathering the required information: Type and capacity of the life raft. SSB Radio details including call sign VHF Radio details including MMSI number EPIRB details including hexadecimal registration number Small Ships Register number Home port and country Departure port Next destination port Crew and nationality Boat type Length in feet Depth in feet Name of vessel phonetically Do we carry in date electronic charts of Bermuda Do we carry in date paper charts of Bermuda I think that was about it, the most information ever requested but all done very calmly and professionally. The morning passed as we sailed the length of Bermuda in a gentle South Westerly wind to finally arrive at the customs office in St Georges just after lunch. We are now moored stern too in Captain Smokes Marina which consists of a wall with enough space for five yachts. It has one shower, wifi and a really happy pair of old gents running it and all for $2 per foot which is extortionate but every one has warned us that Bermuda is expensive. The journey over took a day longer than expected and two days longer than I had hoped for but considering two days of no wind followed by two days of heavy headwinds we are lucky to have made it at all. We will catch our breaths here and restock with the plan to head out again on the 9th, which incidentally is also my birthday, so I will blog again before we head for the Azores and our meeting with our final crew member Willem. Below are a few pictures of our departure from Wilmington and our passage over to Bermuda.
Another Vagabond in Cape Fear Marina Wilmington NC
An English couple wave us good by from Wilmington
Cape Fear Marina Club House and Office
Our last view of Cape Fear Marina
Nice view across from our pontoon
My I’m about to cross the Atlantic face
Norma’s I’m about to cross the Atlantic face
Steve’s I’m a salty old sea dog and I’ve done this all before face
First day and all going well
Even the old mans happy
Out of Cape Fear next stop Bermuda
Big ships try to catch us in a classic pincer movement while crossing the gulf stream.
Sunset day one
Morning day three, Bugger
Pounding to windward in a force 5 with more to come on the horizon
Jen singing in the rain, and yes that is an umbrella on a boat on an ocean.
Adamant getting ready for his second night watch with bad weather to come
The morning after the two nights and two days before, sun is up and a nice cup of tea for breakfast. How very, very British of us darling.
The sun is up there somewhere, now all I have to do is find it and I will know exactly where we are .
Norma’s latest and long promised painting for Paula and Andrew of a waterfall in Grenada. Or as Steve an I have named it the Uterus in the woods. |
