Bermuda Day 2! Meet & greet our sailing friends!

Early morning!  We were up at 4 am to check the trackers and figure out when our friends would finish.  Once they crossed the finish line, they would have to motor 2 hours to the harbor & marina - a long time!

 

We were on the docks at 5:30 waiting for them to arrive

 

 Still pretty empty marina - only the large super racers had arrived

 Rambler was the 1st boat to arrive - over 80 feet and pure racer.  She arrived in just over 2 days, which was slow for her

Me & my friend Linda waiting for sailboat Incognito - her husband was crew (his 3rd time racing to Bermuda, the other 2 times he raced his own boat)

 Incognito!!  A beautiful J121 (hull #1), many of our friends on board

 Chris waiting to help them dock

 Dark & Stormy's for all!  Everyone looked great - couldn't tell they had been at sea for 5 days!

 Breakfast with the crew.  They ended up in 4th place in their division.  They were stuck in the 'no air' for quite a while (happened to all the Bristol boats)

 Next to arrive (just a couple hours later) - Shearwater!!  This is the boat that Chris sailed back to Newport

 The wait to get into the marina was so long, they had to have half of their crew picked up by a dinghy and taken to shore, so they could catch their flights (had planned to arrive the day before...)

 The yacht club is getting busy now!  A lot of dark & stormy's being made!  (Chris is talking to Chris, the skipper of Shearwater)  We had lunch with the Shearwater crew :)

 The marina is starting to fill

 Yacht club  Queen Elizabeth II has visited a few times - her pictures grace the hall.

 Incognito & Shearwater are almost side by side in the marina

 Next to arrive - Moon Shadow

 

We bought Dark & Stormy' for their crew!

 Appetizers with Moon Shadow :)

 Aggressive came in shortly after Moon Shadow, so we missed helping him dock.  He & his long time partner (daughter of his best friend), double handed the race (his 15th time doing the race!!)  Bad to the bone!

 So, we had dinner with Aggressive :)  A full day of eating & socializing :)

 A long day - but a very good day - one of my favorites ever!  Our walk home - street party

 narrow curvy streets (many with no sidewalks)

 Our guest house

 We headed back to town for dinner with Aggressive - rather than have another meal at the yacht club :)

 a beautiful evening.  Weather was in the mid 80's (humid) during the day and low 70's at night

Bermuda! Day 1

Our friends were doing the Newport to Bermuda sailboat race (approx. 635 nautical miles in open ocean).  And Chris offered to help bring one of the boats back (a good introduction to blue water sailing, since it's more casual on the way home (and you can delay for weather))

 

 

Travel Day!

Flight out of Boston - over Martha's Vineyard :)

 

 and Nantucket

 and finally (really only a 2 hour flight )  Bermuda!  Beautiful turquoise water!

 1st order of business - Beach!!  The race would normally take 4 days (well some boats would do it in 2), but average is 4 days.  But low winds forced an extra day, so we were able to land & relax on the first day.  2nd day - greet our friends!

 Nice beautiful beaches

 Then we headed to town to have dinner with our friends who were waiting for their racers

Small island so mostly small cars and scooters.  It is British colony, so they drive on the left side of the road.  But they accept US dollar since most tourists are American

We got a phone call while we were with our friends, so had an approximate time of arrival for our 1st boat (we were waiting for 4 boats).  Tomorrow was going to be an early start, so we headed home early!   (we booked our rooms late, so couldn't get a room near the yacht club, but we booked a guest house that was a long walkable distance away)

More racing!

This week, it was close close close!

 And we had to dodge some really big guys too

2nd place again!