Skippers Log; April 2003
Puerto Rico to Bermuda

departing
San Juan

Teva
under sail

Beating
at night

Brad's
crashing into..

Just arrived before the cold front hit hard

This was supposed to be
an easy 850m crossing to Bermuda.....with predominantly S, SE and SW winds This would make for some great reaching.
A real treat after all the beating to weather in the Caribbean and the last ocean passage from Nassau.

"Well the weather God's thought differently"
When Brad and Teva boarded the Ar Seiz Avel in Puerto Rico it was hot and sunny ...."but a strange thing had happened"....there was a very very light breeze and it was coming from the North...."strange"......"I am sure that will change very quickly... I mean ...in the last 3 month the wind always has blown from the E or SE.....before you know it it will shift....for sure"

Slam....Baaaaaaaaaaaam..........."Ooooooooh ....Noooooooo !!!!!!!"
We just accidentally jibed while sailing wing to wing........
I leap up from the head as fast as I can "great timing" here I am franticly trying to pull up my pants while I am trying to run to the cockpit, halfway into the main cabin I finally got my pants back where they belong. Teva and Brad are peacefully sitting in the cockpit .... staring at me in disbelieve as I am franticly grabbing the tiller......Teva is breaking up laughing ...... I franticly release the wind vane steering lines and pull the tiller over to the other side
but...... it's......too late....the main is solidly back winded and held in place by the preventer
"Okay guys..... we better get that main down Quickly!"

But .........there was very little down wind sailing to be had, only about 30 hours in total.

A squall arrived for which we had to drop all the sails in a hurry and then the wind shifted from the South to the North in just a few minutes.......
"yep" right on the nose!
It stayed there for days and days on end....sunny, cool, and wind on the nose.
12 days it took us to sail to Bermuda with the grand finally on Brad's last night watch when he lost his balance while writing in the logbook and crashed in to the galley cupboard door. Luckily he did not hurt himself but unfortunately the door was destroyed .
Customs where very friendly and affordable. The day we arrived a cold front hit hard and it started to blow a good 40 plus knots......"yes from the North"....we did get lucky after all!
After all it was a great Adventure for all of us!

Thanks guy's for a great trip.