Bermuda 1-2 leg 2

This is part two of the Bermuda 1-2 race report. Part one is here: the solo leg to Bermuda.

Bermuda is a fantastic place. But after recovering from leg one and getting boats and (most) skippers back in race condition, everyone was ready to go again. And as co-skippers, or “number two” started to arrive, everyone became increasingly restless.

The weather forecast promised a fast start; “Wind SSW at the start at or above 20 knots, likely backing to SW through the afternoon. Seas 5-7 feet. Showers and squalls becoming possible farther north.” then more wind and a number of fronts driven by a low over New England. The last third was a bit uncertain, and speculations ranged from no wind to 20+ knots NE.

As before leg one, the big talking point was naturally the Gulf Stream, and how to avoid the meander. The consensus was to go west. But the big question was how far?

J/105 Young American showing off before the start. Peter Becker and Adrien Blanc did an outstanding race by just pushing harder than everyone else. The 105 is a great shorthanded boat with stability enough to excel in the conditions we had, but this was next level.

We managed to be first over the line but were soon passed by Cole Brauer and Catherine Chimney in Class 40 First Light.

Logbook Thursday June 15 20:00 EDT

Thank you Bermuda!!!

Beautiful location, great weather and wonderful people, But it was time to leave. No matter how fantastic a place is, at some point you need to set sail.

The start was right inside St George Harbor, in SSW 12-18 knots. Downwind start so a quick getaway through the narrow “cut” that separate the harbor from the Atlantic ocean.

As in Newport, we were the first boat over the line. We opted for full main and jib, but were ready to put the A5 up as soon as we got out to sea.

The Class 40 went with a flat gennaker and passed us after 500 meters. We managed to keep all the other boats behind, and when we left the island and popped the chute we quickly extended on all the other boats.

We gybed around the first mark and had a short run with the gennaker before we needed to tak it down to go NW.

The Class 40 quickly vanished, and we lead a pack of boats aiming for a westerly route. We managed to keep them behind. but just now being passed by J/121 Alchemy.

J/120 Abilyn is just behind and J/105 Young American aft to leeward. It looks like everyone have the same strategy as us. Feels better than being alone :-)

Wind is 18-24 knots from 200-230. So a bumpy reach with main and jib. Average speed is 9.2-9.5 knots, and we keep pushing.

We had a couple of squalls. One with 35 knots and massive rain showers. Had to take a reef to ride it out.

The forecast is for more of the same. So we need to be careful tonight if we get more squalls.

It’s great to be at sea, and to have someone to share the workload with. And the experience.

See you all tomorrow.

After taking down the A5 we settled in for a port tack speed race.

We had decided on a pretty simple 3 hour watch schedule. PG = Peter Gustafsson, MB = Mattias Bodlund, gem = comnmoin watches that we do together for breakfast & dinner (usually both get a few naps during these). (w) means weather, i e when I download gribs and does the most routing.

Logbook Friday June 16 07:00 EDT

One. Of. Those. Nights.

Pitch black. 20-22 knots of wind on the beam. Waves wash over the boat. Everything is wet. Very bumpy, and hard to do anything. Messing about with a reef. It makes it a bit more comfortable but seems to be a tad slower.

You get the picture. Just miserable.

Does anyone want to buy a J/111?

The good thing is that our westerly pack of boats are staying together. J/121 Alchmy is hard to stop in those conditions and is occasionally a knot faster. J/105 Young American and J/120 Abilyn are very similar to us.

We still have 129 nm to go to where we think we’ll cross the Gulf Stream. But who knows? Sometimes after midnight

But before that, there could be a front with 30+ knots. Just to keep us busy. Weather models are uncertain.

Back to the mine.

Squall time. Massive rain, 40 knots of wind and the choice of going dead downwind or just get the main down asap.

BLUR Friday June 16 17:00 EDT

Friday is Squall-day.

Wasn’t this supposed to be a rather boring grey day with 20 knots of wind and a tight reach going NNW? Apparently not. Got us a few massive squalls. More rain than I’ve ever seen, thunder, lightning, and enough wind to take the main down and survive with jib only

Oh, we had a front passage as well. And a few throughs with lots of wind. So we’ve been going back and forth between full main and 1 or 2 reefs.

Life onboard sucks a little bit less than yesterday. It’s still wet, bumpy, and hard to do anything. It’s hard to make coffee or food, it’s hard to go on the toilet, it’s hard to get dressed – i e getting into soaking wet foul weather gear,

The only thing that’s easy is falling asleep going off-watch.

But we’re getting used to it. Getting into our routines. Appreciating small things. And just keep hammering.

The jury is still out when it comes to Gulf Stream strategy. Our little J/boats group (J/121 Alchmy, J/105 Young American, J/120 Abilyn, and J/111 Blur) is staying together. We’re 50 nm west of rhumbline which should be enough to avoid the main stream. We have 1.5 knots adverse current, but are not sure what it is.

Anyway, we’re committed to this and we’ll see how it plays out.

Good night everyone. Really appreciate all the followers out there, and I can’t tell you how much your comment means to us.

When we put in our big second reef (reducing the luff by 40% – similar to a 3rd reef) we thought it looked kind of silly. But we’ve had good use of it in several races.

Logbook Saturday June 17 07:00 EDT

Fast and furious.

Since 01:40 we’ve had 20-30 knots from SW and building seas. So we’re pushing hard towards (what we think) is the best place to cross the Gulf Stream. Still, 70 nm to go. And 315 nm to Newport. So halfway celebration today,

It’s full-time hand steering to not broach or bury the bow in a wave. Quite hairy in the pitch black night with thunderstorms and lightning on the horizon. So much easier after sunrise (I got a tiny glimpse of the sun before the sky went grey again.

Otherwise, life on board is good. We have 3-hour watches, and two common ones for breakfast & dinner. That means 3*3=9 hours of possible sleep + some shorter naps during the day. Sleep-deprived, but not too bad. We also eat well (last night was Creamy Tuscan Chicken with pasta). Delicious.

My ribs (that I hurt on leg one) are better, but I’m still on painkillers. It’s amazing how many movements on a boat affect the ribs. The common “I’ll just reach a little further and grab this” for example. Or steering. Or sleeping.

Time for breakfast. Then back to work.

Logbook Saturday June 17 20:00 EDT

Hello, my dear friend the Gulf Stream.

This time we found the stream right where we thought it was. There is hope for me as a navigator after all🙂

After a day with a mix of glorious and fast running down waves, and double reefing in squalls, we were greeted by massive clouds rain, and finally no wind at all.

When the new wind filled – we were upwind, closed hauled on port tack. Now we’re under jib and two reefs doing +8 knots towards Newport. Less than 200 nm to go.

The Gulf Stream measured 50 nm south to north, and we had max 3.4 knots of easterly currents.

Besides fighting with J/129 Abylin, J/46 Resolute has joined us on AIS. They’re 10 nm to leeward. So I guess our westerly route beat their rhumbline variant.

It’s hard to match the bigger boats in these conditions (TWA 80 in 20-22 knots). But we’ll do what we can.

Over and out from the uncomfortable ship Blur and two very salty sailors.

Logbook BLUR Sunday June 18 07:00 EDT

Sunday, bloody Sunday.

What a night!

I can remember many miserable nights on race boats. And on a J/111 they’re very often at TWA 60 in +24 knots of breeze. It’s just an inferno. The boat is flying over waves slamming into the next. At least a couple of times I’ve looked into the forepeak expecting a hole. Water over the deck hosing down anyone that sticks their head out. Nearly impossible to live in a washing machine set to “crew breaking”.

A few times, we’ve had a crew who never been seasick and were bragging about fishing boats on the North Sea. 30 minutes of this cracked them 🙂

Oh, and our third crew member, the autopilot, has decided to protest our choice of settings and put in 3-4 spontaneous tacks, Very irritating, but we figured out a way to gybe back on course.

The positives? We’re fast. We’ve been matching J/120 Abilyn all night.

The forecast indicates that the conditions should improve in a few hours. We’ll see. 122 nm to go, so early Monday morning ETA.

Why we do it?

Apparently, to appreciate normal life!

Breakfast time. Mattias is super happy to get some yoghurt and granola.

Wewere able to stick to our routines when it came to drinking, eating and sleeping. This was key to be able to hold the gas pedal down even when the conditions were rough.

Our Gulf Stream strategy was pretty spot on. A few boats went a little further west and had 0.1-0.2 knots less adverse current. Most of us saw 1-1.4 knots. But I think we entered the main stream in the right place, and tried to find an angle where we had some help (and not fighting against it).

I lost most of my confidence on the first third of leg one, but after that we’ve managed to be in the right place most of the time.

It was also funny that the worlds foremost Gulf Stream expert, Frank Bohlen, credited a few of us for our feedback on leg one:

The rapid changes in Gulf Stream structure and location that started in late April early May of this year are continuing producing a complexity of flows and complicating optimum routing for boats going to or coming from Bermuda. Some of this complexity, and too often differences between model predictions and observed conditions, was experienced first hand by the Bermuda 1-2 competitors during their Newport to Bermuda leg. Some of these differences were the result of interactions between the flows in the main body of the Stream and those associated with warm and cold core rings. Of particular interest was the response of the warm core ring clearly observed in early May sited near 390 30’N 680 30’W adjoining the edge of the continental shelf (Fig.1). As the meander developed over the next two weeks this ring looked to be “absorbed” by the main body (Fig.2). This belief was supported by both the altimetry based model and the Navy HYCOM model. Direct observations however, by boats transiting the area, suggest that the ring maintained a structure sufficient to produce a well defined clockwise circulation resulting in some amount of adverse current (for south going boats) along the rhumb line just south of the continental shelf. The evolution of this feature over the last two weeks is even more interesting.

An excellent opportunity to dry the boat. It’s amazing how water, both rain and sea, manages to find it’s way into so many areas. Blur is a very dry boat below, and most of the water comes through the companionway when crew comes down or we haul sails up and down.

Logbook Sunday June 18 20:00 EDT

What a difference a day makes.

From “washing machine inferno” to coasting along in the sun in 14 knots of breeze. And with the change of conditions, the crew’s mood changes as well.

Finally, a chance to get out of the boots and foul weather gear we’ve lived in for the last few days And to try to dry some of the things on board.

We’ve been sailing with J/120 Abylin and J/105 Young American most of the way, and after 600 nm it’s turning into a tactical challenge before the finish- The westerly breeze is giving way to a southeasterly 20-30 nm from the finish.

Young American opted to go right and be first into the new breeze. Abylin is in the middle just getting it, and we’re still in the old breeze, but I think we’ll have a better angle when we get the new one. We’ll see. Just trying to do what we can until the race is over,

My guess is that the Class 40 and J/121 will top the leaderboard, and that the smaller boats will struggle.

We just had a fabulous Sunday dinner. Cheese and crackers to start, then a Chipotle Burrito Bowl (with several additional hot sauces), and to top it off, we got coffee and chocolate. Yummy!

ALERT: just got the new breeze. Gotta go.

See you all in Newport!

Just as promised, we hit the transition. We managed to sail around Abilyn using the old breeze and spent maybe 30 minutes in light air before…

…we could get the A3 up and get going again…

… and then we hooked into the northeasterly that let us put up the code and speed towards the finish line just south of Newport.

A fantastic feeling.

Code 0 up, going fast at TWA 110-120, just on the edge. Blasting Eminem and The Hives. Knowing we made it. Not just in one piece, but probably with a decent result.

Two exhausted sailors looking lost at Newport Yacht Club.

But after a while, we found a beer. And a shower. And a bed.

Leg one was very hard to summarize since so many things were new, and it was very emotional for me as it was my first ocean solo race. Leg two was more familiar as we’ve done long offshore races doublehanded, and this type of racing is similar to the fully crewed 600 nm races we “usually do”.

Some observations:

The J/111 can be raced hard. Really hard. In the conditions we had, I’m sure we as a crew would break before the boat did.

But, the J/111 is not the ideal boat for this type of racing. It’s light, sensitive and lack stability. Things that make it a fantastic boat inshore but makes it rather demanding shorthanded offshore. But this also makes the challenge bigger for us as a crew which is

Preparation is key. This should not come as a surprise, but after 1700 nm of hard racing nothing broke on the boat except the extra cover on the main halyard (that was scheduled for replacement before the start). All those hours replacing stuff before it needs reåplacing, and triple checking everything, really pays off.

Routines work. We managed to stick with our schedule for drinking, eating, and sleeping/napping and had the energy to spare at the finish. Some smart decisions in the light winds at the end may be attributed to this.

A fantastic race that I really like to do again.

Thanks to everyone who made this possible.

Especially Phil Haydon, Tim Kohl, and PJ Shaffer at NEB who helped out when things went sideways for me. And naturally, The Newport Yacht Club, Roy Guay & Ted Singsen for organizing. The best events around the world aren’t run by committees but by people with big hearts.

Also a big thanks for the support: J/boats, North Sails, B&G, Expedition Marine, Henri-Lloyd, Liros, Happy Yachting, Spinlock, Cyclops Marine, Pantaenius, and many more