The date is July 3rd, 2018, and we are nearing Bermuda! Our crew member changed his decision to something that was even more beneficial for us, instead of just getting “close to Bermuda” by July 3rd, he decided that we needed to be “in Bermuda” by July 3rd. By removing “close” from the decision process, we were no longer subject to the subjective definition of what “close” means! To me, close to land is 100 miles, to someone else who had never been out to sea, the thought of being 1 mile out in the ocean might seem really “far”. We no longer had to play to the word play, as we now needed to be anchored in the Harbor to count as making it to Bermuda.
And what might have caused such a change of definition? Well, originally, we were going to sail right on past Bermuda and head straight to the Azores. The reason for this is two-fold:
1st: Bermuda is really expensive and we didn’t want to run out of money before we made it to the Azores.
2nd: I declared that we needed to stop in Bermuda to “re-provision” since we took so much longer than expected to get to this point.
The 1st concern is one that Maddie and I had and also had full control over. The best way to avoid wasting money in a country is to not spend any. Instead of going to a fancy restaurant, we would choose a local place that is inexpensive, or to be even more frugal, we buy groceries and cook on the boat. To be even more frugal, we cook canned foods that we already have on the boat and don’t spend a cent!
The second reason was a farce that I proclaimed to our crew member to explain why now we were going to be stopping in Bermuda. The real reason we were stopping there was to shove him off the boat and continue on our way without him. Telling this to a person with anger issues is not wise for your health, especially if you are trying to keep your medical bills down while approaching a notoriously expensive country! So instead, I told him the 2nd reason and there was no arguing or yelling on his part in response.
Maddie knew the real reason, as we had discussed it previously, his ultimatum about our speed simply gave us a way to get him off the boat without causing a show.
So, here we are at the end of July 3rd, the day we needed to be in port to keep our crew member with us for the rest of the voyage across the ocean, and we are still out at sea with no land in sight.
We have failed to meet his expectations and would be pulling into St. Georges Harbor at some point in the near future as failures to keep his standards of an acceptable speed.
As the sun begins to get low in the sky, the winds shift and the clouds warn us that the weather is becoming unstable. The winds we have will not be the winds we will receive tomorrow.
If we were out at sea, we would have simply changed course to be going in generally the right direction, but at a much more comfortable angle to the seas and wind. Since we are approaching Bermuda, we do not have this luxury. We need to maintain this heading and adjust the sails accordingly.
Clouds that were flat and low begin to rocket up into the sky, telling all who see that squalls will be upon them soon. Up above, alto stratus clouds wisp in, telling us that tomorrow, a cold front will be approaching and the winds will be intensifying.
