We left Nantucket at 9am on Monday 26th May and our adventure really began! 
See Max's diary below for a description of the crossing south to Bermuda. 
Six days of high emotion, incredible seas, mechanical problems, a few 
dolphins ............ but no mermaids. They got those on the return journey!

Not many photographs were taken on the trip. I was either sleeping, on watch or puking up into my bucket.

Max's diary of the crossing to Bermuda. 

Monday 26^th May  

9am Leave Nantucko, Farewell to Foxfire, Fuel up…lose numpty!! Beautiful day, Figawi race returners leaving, light winds, sunny. By noon winds building as forecast and getting cooler. Head winds as we go east to get round Nantucket shoals. Now 18 kts easterly. 1 reef in and furled jib. Doing 5.5 kts. 2pm ..bit of drizzle and still blowing 18 head wind. 4pm over-powered so second reef in. Agree that if Keith and Jane hear Nick and Max discussing reefing down then it goes in!! 5pm wind now gusting to 25. Holding course well at 5.8kts. Fixed up radar reflector. By 8pm E winds 20 -30 kts gusting to 35 kts. Double reefed main with jib furled to storm. Sea swelling to 10 feet. Pretty uncomfortable. Jane and Keith sick. Now heading south so wind on the beam. By 10pm winds dropped to 5 - 10 kts and sea calming down. Misty. Engine running. Approaching shipping lanes south of Nantucket . Nick and Jane see dolphins which look like torpedoes with the phosphorescence.

Tuesday 27^th May

4am heading south at 6 kts. Sea swell. Clear of shoals and shipping lanes. Running with engine and double reefed main. Ap wind 11 kts from the north. Preventer rigged and trying wing on wing but too much swell. Shook out both reefs but over-powered so back in. Still running with the northerly. Sailing with wind vane. Holding good course. Nick and Jane fishing and pull out baby tuna. Great salad for supper…seared tuna a la Nick! 3pm got first weather fax from Boston . Very sketchy but showing 25 kts ahead. Not too much of a concern but will listen to Herb as well. Feeling confident after handling the 35 kt gusts pretty well.Listened to Herb at 4.30pm . First mention of heavy weather ahead. He says don't be north of Bermuda after Saturday. We're not too concerned as we are making fairly good ground and even think we may be in Bermuda by Friday at current VMG. Still fairly confident.

Wednesday 28^th May

3am. Winds v light. Motor sailing. Only 4kts apparent wind. Boat motion seems to have changed so think maybe we are in the gulf stream already. Sheets get tangled round the forestay in last day watch. Max tries to furl jib as wind builds and the headstay furler is jammed. Seems like the furler line is jammed up so Max dismantles the furler drum and re-run the line. Still jammed!! Turns out that the new spinnaker halyard is jammed in the track at the top of the forestay so is wrapping as the jib furls. Only way to release is to haul Nick up the rig. Continue sailing with Jane at the helm and Nick gets the tangled halyard free. Still wet and wind building. By 10am wind is peaking at 20kts. We are on a beam reach with full main and jib doing 9 kts SOG. Seems like we are getting a helping current...not expected!! Need to check this! ETA Bermuda show 44 hours!! Confidence building that we will at least be in Bermuda well before Sundays storms. By 1pm wind has dropped again to 2 kts! Need to run engine again. Stormy weather appears to be behind us. But… Download weather fax at 2pm from Boston . Scary looking stuff ahead. Never seen a black triangle before! Forecast of 50kt winds. Nick and I discuss options including running for the east coast USA but seems we can't get away from it so decide we just need to gun it to Bermuda ASAP. Get south!! Herb at 4.30pm still talking about bad conditions after Sat. Doesn't seem to be mentioning what we are seeing in our faxes. There are no other boats in our area who are checking in with Herb. Next trip we need to be able to transmit. Would have been very reassuring to discuss our situation with Herb. A fair amount of anxiety onboard but we go about battening down. Heavy items lashed down below. Hatches checked. Life raft and bilge pumps checked. Grill stowed below. Two reefs in. Jib furled back. Feeling nervous but prepared. Ended up having an amazing night. Starry night blowing 20 - 25 ….engine running to increase speed and charge batteries. "Thrilling sleigh ride" recorded in log. Saw a large vessel (Christmas Tree). Nick called them on VHF and they confirmed that they were adjusting course to avoid us and they also concurred that they were expecting heavy weather but talked of 25kts...not 50. Also saw a sailboat which passed us to starboard only 50 yds. Couldn't raise them on the VHF.

Thursday 29^th May

Keith's Birthday. Had a thrilling night and a beautiful sunrise. A steady breeze but nothing too strong. Interesting weather watch….fronts seemed to be coming through one after another. Very defined cloud banks and dramatic skies. We had a mainly sunny day and Keith at least avoided puking on his birthday!! Cooked chicken risotto for dinner, Just about to go off watch and Nick is setting up to run the engine for a few hours to charge the batteries. Gear shift lever comes loose so he can't engage forward. Try to repair and have to dismantle the steering column. As usual there is one screw that won't budge so we have to fire up the electric drill and drill the screw out. After 1.5 hrs of trying we conclude that we cannot repair but we can engage the gear manually from the cockpit locker.  

Friday 30^th May

Feels like we are making fairly good ground south but the wind is building from the SW so we are close hauled and struggling to maintain speed at the ideal course. Heading too far to the east. Still quite sunny but the wind is building in the afternoon to 30kts plus. We are sailing close hauled with two reefs in the main and a very small jib flying. It's fast and exciting but we still go with trepidation. The seas are building which is making it difficult at the helm and we get some serious thuds as the hull hits upcoming waves. I have two main concerns about the boat. 1..the rudder is taking a beating and I know the bearings were a bit loose in Newport . 2. The mast step…T33 has some notoriety for a weak mast step bridge. I read an article about a dismasting of a T33 in these waters just before I left!! Amazing sight of maybe 10 dolphins diving out of the waves and then playing in our bow wave for about 20 mins. Wishing I was a dolphin....more wind and waves means more fun to them!! Still 30 kts plus on the nose and waves continuing to build. I'd say between 15 and 20 feet at this stage. Sun is shining and despite the anxiety it's an awesome sight!! At about 4pm I am concerned about growing seas and increasing winds but it looks like we are leaving the main part of the front behind us. I'm still running the engine to maintain speed against the wind but due to heeling and low fuel we suck in air and the engine cuts....arrggh!! Suddenly we have a consistent 35 kts and I decide to run with it for a while….heading more easterly just to ease the punishment on the boat. Eventually it gets too much and we need to get the main down. We get beam on to the wind and seas and ease the main right out…..I have no engine to drive into the wind. Nick does a great job wrestling down the main and lashing it to the boom. Now we have only the jib furled right back and we are sailing back on course into the wind. Seas are still building so we decide to try to heave to with only the jib. It seems to work well and suddenly everything is more peaceful…despite huge rollers some of which are cresting. They seemed to be approximately half way up the mast so just over 25 feet....It's awesome but scary!! It really looks as if the weather is behind us and brighter weather ahead. We have a certain sense of relief however we are soon reminded by Herb that there is still bad weather to come and we need to make headway to Bermuda . Didn't see much point in weather faxes at this stage we knew what we had to do. Big concern now was the fact we had no engine. I tried to address this but found it impossible in the seas and in my state of mind to concentrate on what needed to be done. I had had little sleep in the last 48 hrs so we lashed the liferaft on deck came out of hove to and started making headway again with just the jib (Nick and Jane on watch) We decide to contact shipping just to report our position and destination back to Bermuda and also to see if anyone had any weather information. Still nervous about the Saturday deadline for getting into Bermuda . Keith mans the VHF with a call every 15 mins...there is nobody out there!! I'm in my bunk contemplating the mess we are in. Can't sleep but at least rested for a couple of hours. Back on watch at approx 8pm with Nick. Jane and Keith stay below and maintain radio watch. Nick and I both v concerned but we seem to be stable so Nick goes down and Keith comes up at 10pm .

Saturday 31^st May

Have a reasonably good watch making about 5 to 6 knots towards Bermuda . However towards the end of the watch (I think 2am ) it feels like something has caught the rudder. We do a couple of donuts! Making very slow headway and tough on the helm. We shine torches but can’t see anything. Not much we can do till the am. Nick and Jane come up at 4am (?) They hold course but still strange on the helm. By this time winds have died to 10 to 15 and by sunrise it's 10 kts. I decide to go over the side with gogs and snorkel while it's relatively peaceful and see if I can see anything on the rudder. Nothing….we conclude it must just be some weird currents. Now about 90 nm from Bermuda and it's 8am. Approaching our Sunday deadline rapidly and making less than 5 knots VMG. Watching the horizon anxiously. Must get the engine running!! We will be running the batteries down and we will need the VHF to help us into Bermuda . Have another jerry can of fuel so while the wind is at 10kts we get some fuel into the tank. Seas are still swelling maybe 15 feet but not cresting and subsiding. Now rested and with a clear head Nick and I manage to get the fuel system bled and we are underway again to great whoops from all onboard. It suddenly feels like we are going to make it as long as the storm doesn’t come early and I still have anxiety about running out of fuel. I intend to call Bermuda for a tow if necessary. We have a great day motor sailing and the mood is buoyant! Finally we make contact with Bermuda Harbour Radio at 30 miles out at about 7pm . A real scout master but was very comforting and tracked us in on his radar. Arrived customs dock at 1145pm…..well we made it before Sunday!!