350 miles out of Bermuda

Blasting along!
We sailed very little yesterday with low winds (when sailing we had 4-5 knots of boat speed), motored through the night, and started sailing wing-on-wing this morning. We just barelly crossed in front of a squall line (jib rolled up and main single reefed) with winds sustained just down wind of the squall line around 25-30 knots. We have just now in the process of rolling out the jib as true winds have come down to 15 knots on average.
Our present course over ground is on average 70 degrees magnetic. Boat speed is around 7.4 knots and our speed over the ground is around 6.9 knots. True wind speed is currently reading 16.4 with a true angle of around 150.
Our present position is 36 degrees 18.9 N and 59 degrees 47.3 W.Just before we skirted the squall it was pretty amazing sailing this boat on auto pilot in 17 knots of breeze. The boat was pushing 10 knots coming down waves while Stu and I sat there reading our books! Amazing!

Bermuda Departure

Sorry to be so long but we did arrive in Bermuda and actually have cleared through customs to leave for Ireland. Finally I have some time to write on the blog. We have had a wonderful stay in Bermuda including some great parties and lots of hard work to get the boat ready for the crossing. After many days working out of the Royal Hamilton Amateur Dinghy Club, we moved over to Dock Side where we were hauled out and able to put a fresh coat of paint on Barra's bottom before heading across. We have loaded her with food and feel she is ready for the trip. Wish us fair winds and good luck. Track us on: http://charthorizon.com/m/cz/map?vessels=Barra&history=Bermuda_-_Ireland&v_scope=recent This will give you and up-to-date position on where we are.

Thanks for following us.... The crew of Barra

Hi everyone,

We are current 240 miles from Bermuda with a strong south-south westerly enabling us to go upwind almost straight at bermuda. Everyone is working hard and sleeping well to get us to bermuda as fast as possible. If everything holds up the way it is now, we expect to get into bermuda somtime between sunset tuesday and very early wednesday morning.

Hope all is well back home,
The crew of Barra

24 Hours After The Start

To Friends and Family,
Hello from everyone on Barra. Everything is going great. We started the race yesterday with a moderate (12-16kt) south westerly breeze. After a couple of tacks to get out of Narraganset Bay we started on starboard tack, heading just low of a beat. Except for a brief tack in middle of the night, we've continued on starboard ever sense. Last night the sky was clear and the stars filled the sky until a bright moon arose. While the sky was nice the wind unfortunatley did come down quite a bit. This morning we were accompanied by a whale for about an hour. The wind is currently averaging around 8 kts and is still coming from around the southwest.
Position at 1345 EST: 39 degrees 12.6 N; 69 degrees 56.2 W
Cheers,
The crew of Barra

Race Start

Newport Bermuda Race

The day has finally come. Barra and crew are ready. They leave Jamestown, R. I this a.m. and head to Newport where they will join their class at the starting line. 215 boats make up the entire fleet! Log in to iboattrack.com to watch the action! GO BARRA and crew; Louis, Paul, Geoff, Tyler, Pete, Rob, Frank, Bobby, and Stuart! You have all worked so hard to make this day possible. Thank you, everyone, for making our dream become a reality with the start of the Newport Bermuda Race!

Newport