We arrived Bermuda Thursday June 1. We did customs and immigration formalities at St Georges harbor at the NE end of the 14 mile long island. The main town, Hamilton, and the Great Sound where the Americas Cup playoffs were taking place are at the other, SW, end. After a day of relaxing from our 15 day passage and checking out the well preserved, quaint town of St. Georges we motored over to Hamilton.

Coincidentally we came down the channel into the Great Sound about half an hour before the start of a day of races to determine who among 5 contenders (Japan, New Zealand, England, Sweden, and France) will challenge Oracle USA for the cup. That series of races with the US will be later in June.

So we decided to anchor and take in the activity. There were several hundred sail and power boats from 12 ft inflatables to 300 ft mega yachts lining the boundaries of the race course. We found a spot and watched 4 races.

In the week we were in Hamilton and after lots of action including a spectacular pitchpole crash by the Kiwis, Artemis - Sweden and Emirates Team New Zealand made it to the finals and will race off to decide the challenger.

Watching from the boat was great but the best way to see the action close up is on TV. We visited America's cup village on a 6 race day and with hundreds others watched the races on two giant screens. We were able to watch pre race preparations of both the NZ and Swedish boats close up at their bases which are right next to each other. We were pleased to see two West Marine inflatables on the dock of the Swedish syndicate, Artemis.

While it's sure a long way from the kind of sailing enjoyed by 99.9% of sailors, AC racing with the 50 ft very high tech foiling catamarans on short race courses is certainly exciting. The boats are fast, there is lots of action, and positions can change fast. Among our crew we had folks pulling for the Brits, the Sweds and the Kiwis. The consensus was that the Kiwis were the strongest team.

Alistair Murray, former CEO and current Ronstan Chairman, introduced us to Ron Stan. At first we thought it was one of Alistair's spoofs. Yes two folks named Ron and Stan started the company but could there really be someone named Ron Stan? Well yes and he works for another fun company: Bacardi. Ron is a very active with his own cruising sailboat and he crews on race boats including Newport and Marion to Bermuda races.

I've never been a fan of white Bacardi rum and I didn't know it but Bacardi owns oodles of other labels including Martini, Saphire Bombay Gin, Grey Goose Vodka, Benedictine, Dewars Scotch, a couple of tequila brands etc. Ron gave us a great introduction to Bermuda, a tour of Bacardi's amazing headquarters and some �"samples�", which we have been enjoying. - RR