April 27-May 2, 2014-
By Sunday noon we were ready to go. We released the lines, said goodbye to Provo and began our sail north. As we passed between the reefs on the northern side of Provo a large squall was approaching. We managed to just get ahead of it before watching it blacken Provo behind us.
Herb, the weather man to the sailing community has retired after many years of providing valuable weather forecasts and routing info to sailors across the globe. We had planned on using his services again. Commanders Weather, out of Nashua, NH, amazingly close to home provides forecasts for the boating community worldwide. They provided us a weather forecast and suggested route for the Provo to Bermuda passage. To do so, we let them know our preferred schedule for departure and boat speed. They confirmed that our date worked with the current weather forecast and suggested we head due north, and then turn east rather than the rhumb line to capture the best winds. They were right. We also sent them our position on a daily basis, via email, so they could update us on any changes in weather that may affect us.
We sailed most of the trip on a starboard tack. Day three we lost our good wind and motored for about ten hours. For our half way celebration we had ice cream. Little things can be big in the middle of the ocean! Having a freezer this trip made meal planning much easier and allowed more treats as well.
With the wind back again we happily turned off the engine and returned to good sailing. When the wind became light again later in the trip and we began motoring, the crew voted to turn off the engine after just a few hours for the quiet of sailing. Fortunately the winds again increased and we had a beautiful sail on to Bermuda.
