Around the world with the Aqualunies

Bermuda

Jonathan & Gabrielle Lyne

Thu 29 Jun 2017 10:27

Ian Williams arrived to stay with us for a couple of nights. He flew in on Friday and joined a cruise ship on which he was giving a couple of talks about the History of the America’s Cup. In return for this he also was given a double cabin for the cruise from Spain to Bermuda. He handed that offer to his parent’s in law as it was Cesc’s 70th Birthday last weekend. Ian came and stayed with us on Aqualuna and Nick and Cesc joined us on Saturday for her Birthday. We sailed out to the viewing area to watch the America’s Cup. Drank champagne to celebrate and I did a buffet lunch. It is not quite so easy to see what is going on with the racing from the yacht unless you can pick up the graphic on screen. For some reason we were unable to do this either on the television or on the lap top. Nevertheless we had a very good view as they came through one of the gates. I will download photos when we arrive in Newport and are back on wifi. Last Friday night we met up with Malcolm and Glynis Gibson who came on board for drinks with Ian and then went off to an Oriental restaurant for dinner. It was not brilliant but I think that was our fault with the choice of food. On Sunday we went to The Village to watch the racing, met Mike and the rest of the Salperton Crew at the Moet Chandon bar where they were saving seats for the owner of the yacht and his guests. The bar was very, very busy and no room to sit so we headed over to ‘The Green’ to watch the racing on the big screen, here we met up with the Gibsons again and their neighbours who have a house next door to them on Wahiki Island off Auckland.

On Monday Michael and Carolyn Derrick, also RCC members, came on board and we went out to the viewing area on the yacht. The race was really in the bag for New Zealand but you never know anything could happen, Oracle could suddenly come up with a miracle and we could get some very good match racing, this didn’t happen. It was one of the most boring races, each going off on different tacks and only meeting occasionally, nothing spectacular happened and Team NZ romped home with a win. After the racing we stayed at anchor for a bit rather than rushing back to Hampton and had a swim. The water was so clear and so very blue and just the right temperature. After getting back on our mooring we arranged to meet up again with Michael and Carolyn at the bar/restaurant at the Princess Hamilton hotel and had a jolly good evening.

On Tuesday morning we did some last minute shopping and then motor sailed around to St. Georges. We explored the very pretty old port on foot in the afternoon, pictures to follow. Came back to the yacht and watched various other vessels arrive to check out of Bermuda before many of us set sail for Newport the following day. Many J’s arrived and also Salperton who still have owner and guests on board so no socialising with Mike here.

This morning we checked out at immigration and set sail at about 10 am for Newport along with a convoy of many other yachts.
It is now 2 am and I am on watch. We are just coming into the Gulf stream, the water temperature has gone up to 27.5c and we have just got 0.9 knots at the moment in current this should continue to increase. Still not much wind so we are motor sailing at least the rain squalls have stopped. There are a couple of J yachts still within sight of us just passing on our starboard side.