We are leaving for Newport

We really wanted to post several pictures, but our connection this morning is a little too weak. We'll give it another try before we weigh anchor.

I can’t believe it’s been over three weeks since we arrived in Bermuda and dropped anchor in this idyllic harbour; likewise, I can’t believe it’s been two weeks since I’ve updated everyone on our life here in Bermuda. We’ve been little social butterflies for the past several weeks spending our days touring Bermuda (hiking trails, the aquarium, museums, parks, etc) and our evenings hanging out with fellow boaters. We spent a lot of time with Ken and the crew of Golden Daze before they headed off for The Azores and through them we met another charming man, Jamie of Illusions. Jamie was originally headed for the Azores but had to make a tough decision to come back to Bermuda and continue back to Miami. We also spent some time with the crew of Diedrich; they were one of the boats we traveled to Bermuda with and they left for the Azores in late May, but had to turn around due to a steering failure. Diedrich has been repaired and is back on the water headed for The Azores, while the folks they originally left with should all be arriving there over the next couple of days. Reinhart has been trying to help some folks refine their weather acquisition systems and we’ve copied loads of electronic charts and mapping programs; we are so thankful for how generous everyone has been.

Andreas (you know, that poor kid who had to walk to school through chest high snow) arrived last Friday (bringing steaks and sausages) and the pace of activities picked up. We checked out Hamilton, Gibbs Lighthouse, the skinniest draw bridge, a beach, and a fort...and he spent a lot of time trying to help Reinhart and Charles figure out why Diedrich laptop was misbehaving. We had some of the roughest weather we’ve seen in a long time while Andreas was here but we braved the high waves and driving rain and dinghied into town to retrieve our runaway paddle and for a nice lunch on Andreas. Before we knew it Emily was here (bringing pasta, nutragrain bars, canned goods, and great weather) and we all took a ferry ride, checked out a few more forts, had another nice lunch and spent some time in St. George’s. We blinked our eyes and it was time for Andreas to leave and now it’s our turn.
Today, we leave for Newport, RI. We are having an unusually stunning morning, which promises pretty weather for the first part of our journey. Pretty weather, but not perfect, as it looks like we won’t have much wind and will probably spend the first 24 hours motor-sailing. It doesn’t look like any other day coming up would be a better day to leave, and we need to get Emily back to work, so we’ll go ahead and start off with a calm day or two. We hope to arrive in Newport between June 20 and 22, where Kris Buttenberg will be joining us! We’ll update the blog by June 25th to let you know how our trip was, how Emily liked her first passage, and what our first impressions of Newport are.