May 20-25, 2014-
An early flight back to Bermuda and we were back on the boat just after noon. All was well with the boat. The rest of the week was spent doing boat projects in preparation for our Atlantic crossing.
Saturday night we had a tremendous thunder storm, which lasted for almost 2 hours. The Yacht Club was hit by lightning that blew out much of their equipment. The strike hit their flag pole and fried the stays holding it up. That traveled to a nearby laser sailboat that had just been delivered to the club, and blew a hole through the deck. The club also lost their phone system, security system and most computers. WOW – were we fortunate!! Quintessa was less than 200 feet away and the tallest mast in the marina. It could certainly have been us to be hit. That would have created a major delay in our trip, waiting for replacement electronics and installing them.
Ken came in on Sunday to join us as crew. We had met Ken and Suzi in the Caribbean and sailed together for a few months. Four years ago when Bentley became sick and we had to drive him back to Boston, Ken and Bob delivered our boat back to Cape Cod then sailed Ken and Suzi’s boat up to the Cape, both from Beaufort, NC. Ken has years of sailing experience and boat ownership and is a great addition to the crew.