Blog One:

After waiting an extra day in the harbour to make sure the generators were running smoothly we’ve left Bermuda, with a good send off from the locals and our favourite dog, Skupper, the golden retriever. Once we had navigated our way through the reef and said goodbye to our pilot we saw a Humpback whale breach the water three times just before lunch, it was an amazing send off from Bermuda. Unfortunately we are yet to be able to put the sails up as the wind is unfavourable, that’s okay though as morale is high and watch duties have begun, it will be nice to get into a routine once again. So far, we have spent our evenings sat in the lower mess singing sea shanties and drinking all the rum, life is good.

Blog Two:

Hi everyone,

Just a quick update: we sailed from Bermuda at 10:00 (Bermudan time) yesterday, Tuesday 4th April. The pilot came on board for a 2.5hour handling of the ship out of Bermudan waters. It was the same pilot who brought us in and he made a great job of it. We were lucky to be on the bridge again and had the perfect view of the island as we left.

Many Bermudan friends and locals had come to the quay to wave us off and it was quite an emotional goodbye.  (Special thanks to shipmate Sharon Swann, Ed at the Sailors’ Home and all those who have helped the ship during this amazing stay.) The islanders have been so kind and thoughtful and the ship gave a salute to the gathering as we slipped our moorings. We will be back soon to this wonderful place.

As we left our pilot and started on our journey towards the Azores, we were treated to a great sky and a lovely sunset followed by the rising of the full moon, flooding the sea with dazzling light. As always, that was followed by a display of stars in a non-light-polluted sky.  Our galaxy was laid before us, its map of planets and stars almost blinding in their clarity and brightness. 

We had the first night watch, 20:00 to midnight, which was warmish with the odd shower over us.  We have already seen whales and dolphins heading in the same direction as us, so we are hopeful of more sightings as we move towards the Azores and even more when we get there as this should be whale season.

Weather is set fair for our journey and we should start sailing soon (at the moment we are on engines as the wind is on our bow).

Aft Starboard

Bridget, Roly, Peter, Daryl, Amy, Kate, John and Fran