This morning we awoke to a mixed forecast of weather - today there will be a system come through with strong winds but it will lay down and behave better tomorrow. Only problem is that the wind will be from the NE at about the time that we get to the stream. According to those that have done this before, it is 24 hours to the stream and 12 hours to get through it with everything going right. With winds from the NW to NE we would get there all right, but we will need something from the NW around through W to S to cross it, otherwise we would be having a rough time. It may be that we might have to tolerate a few bumps this year. The crossing will take from 8 to 12 hours depending upon our speed. One option would be to head south parallel to the current and make southing when the wind backs and we can go.

The fleet is pretty much all here. It looks as though there will be about 30 boats making the trip as well as another 10 or 12 who are not in the rally but who have been waiting for a window to cross anyway. The photo accompanying today's post is of a portion of the rally fleet at the marina.

This morning, quite early, we changed the oil and filter on the engine to get her ready for the 5-6 day trip to Bermuda. We had a bit of a challenge finding a place to take the used oil rags and filter, but eventually we found somewhere. You'd think that would be a normal service for a marina to provide but apparently not at this time of year. We tied down the dingy to the cabin top and also rearranged the lines holding the kayak down so that it wouldn't interfere with the jib sheets. I also started work on the NMEA bus but didn't complete it.

We had the skippers meeting this morning and we turned in our Bermuda clearances and got the initial briefing and paid up our dues for the event. It was actually extremely informative and it was the first inkling of what we are able to get for our $125pp. The only negative thing that I could have to say was that all of the skippers didn't understand the concept of question and answer period. They would shout out their questions in the middle of the presentation and most of the questions were ones that if they had listened to the speaker, they would have already known their answers.

We took Ron off for a walk through the mansions and the cliff walk when we finally had enough empathy to realize that he had been here for a couple of days and hadn't really seen any of the sites here in Newport. I think that he found it quite interesting and was comparing it to some of the major English country estates, as we did. He was also describing the area of the UK where he and Pye have their retirement home and the major estates and even rectories that are near to it.

It looks like we won't be making contact with our friends Mary Lou and Jay from Screech. With the past few days of weather it was unreasonable to expect that they'd be able to come down in time for our departure. Oh well, perhaps we'll be able to see them in Fernandina Beach in the spring.

Tonight we will have the planned social and dinner at the Rhino Bar and will also get an initial presentation from the weather router that will give us our first inkling of whether we will be going tomorrow. Of particular interest will be the forecasted current charts for the Gulf Stream and the recommended entry and exit waypoints to take advantage of the eddies. I really would like to get started. This is something that I have always wanted to do and I feel like the sprinters must feel like on the televised sports shows when they keep getting called back from false starts.