PANACEA and I did well on the single-handed leg of the Bermuda 1-2, picking up a 2nd in class, 9th in fleet (both corrected), with a fleet size of 32 boats. We had a HUGE meander of the gulf stream which gave us a 180 mile boost toward the island group, but light conditions at the start and finish yielded the fairly slow elapsed time (for me) of 123 hours. On the return (Doublehanded) leg, accompanied by my eldest son, John (a veteran of our 1989 B1-2 race), the big choice was whether to go east (of the still-present meander) or west. Since a gale center north of the stream was predicted to give us SW winds south of our stream encounter, I chose (along with most of the fleet) an easterly track, giving us a better wind angle to approach the stream. Wind and seas proved manageable, and we only had to drop the main and proceed under jib- only for 4 hours (still doing 7 knots, however). Peak winds recorded in the area were over 50 knots with the mean in the mid-30's. After a light air crossing of the stream at the base of the meander, we were briefly becalmed and then caught a new breeze to head toward a large (75 mile diameter) warm eddy which promised a 2-3 knot boost. What we did not know was that the meander wall had moved 30 miles east and captured part of the warm eddy, giving us 8 hours of adverse gulf stream current, approaching 3 knots at times!!! We were really stymied as to what to do, but fortunately had enough boatspeed (7 kts) to gut it out and wade through to the positive boost part of the eddy. Boats in our class behind us had lighter air with the same header current and their progress was painful. I picked up 30 miles on my chief competitor in that unexpected system. After a day of westing in an OTK NW breeze to catch the expected light westerly, we had an idyllic spinnaker close reach for 125 miles with a 2-4"sea state to finish first in class on both elapsed and corrected, and first in the combined (sh and dh race) for our class, 8th in fleet. We were especially delighted to finish ahead of both C+C 35's and a Hobie 33 boat-for-boat!

The following is from Gust and Jan Stringos who participated in the Bermuda Race

Greetings- we wanted to report that Bluebird carried the RYC burgee successfully and safely to Bermuda and back. We had a great race down, mostly broad-reaching in 15-20 K of wind. Despite making excellent time, it appeared that we missed the best currents on the Gulf Stream by going a little too far west, finishing in the middle of the pack. Our biggest adventure going down was coming upon an overturned Open-50 Everest Horizontal, a boat that had just finished in second place in the Around Alone Race. One month after racing around the world, skipper Tim Kent entered the Newport 1-2 race. On the return leg, the lead bulb apparently snapped off and the boat overturned. When we came upon it, it was upside down, full rigged with sails up. Not knowing that Tim and crew had been rescued by a cruise ship the day before, we spent some time circling the boat for signs of life below. Some of the "sound communications" included pelting the hull with Maine potatoes. Eventually we got a radio relay from Bermuda indicating that all was well, and resumed the race.

After a few days of rest and recovery in Bermuda (the local medicine being "Dark and Stormies", a mix of ginger beer and Black Seal Rum), we set of for Maine in the pleasant company of Dick and Moira Bentzell, arriving yesterday. Our only misadventure: after unloading at the Atlantic Challenge dock and cleaning up, I set off for our mooring, promptly running over Brad Lawson's mooring pennant and wrapping it tight around the shaft. Fortunately he was there to witness it all and gave me permission to cut Bluebird free. After 1500 miles of sailing, we went astray in our own back yard...

We're glad to be back to the relative cool of Maine and look forward to the Rockland-Bayside Race this weekend-

Gust and Jan Stringos