November 13: much of the same story. Winds are on the nose. On Day 6, the advise of the weather guru C.Parker is to go to Bermuda as the winds will seem to stay easterly for a long time and also to seek refuge from a nasty cold front system...and so, after reflexion and verification that we do have charts for entering Bermuda, we set allsails up and start the engine in order to make it o Bermuda. Not far, says Parker, only 150 miles. Yes, but with southeasterly between 12 and 25 knots on the nose! And, on Day 7, we are sure that we will not make it before the cold front and that we will have a nice welcome in Bermuda with winds of 25 to 30 knots (luckily from the South) and squalls. We can't wait!
The real challenge is to make it south-east enough to go around the shallow banks (from 2000 fathoms to fathoms) without endangering our safety. Such a drop in water depth will create huge waves that send us banging all over the boat. Our legs and arms can proove it: we look pretty abused and beaten up. It is a great feeling when we manage to finally round the Plantagenet Bank (submerged mountains) and begin to sail parallel the Bermuda island...now , we are too fast and must reduce the size of the jib as we do not wish to enter the island's narrows in the darkness. The wind is gusting up to 27 knots, the seas are big, but the boat is just behaving wonderfully.