June 4, 2000

direct to you from 300 miles south of bermuda. our first day out we had a great sail. we did 170 nautical miles in 24 hours which is not too shabby. that,s about 200 land miles. the wind started to drop towards the end. with the right conditions, 20 knots just forward of the beam, taio could definitely do 200 n.m. a day, the small cruiser,s holy grail.
more john and carol

June 13, 2000

hi guys. just a quick note to let you know that we have arrived safe and sound in bermuda. no wind for two days, but other than that a great trip. first thing we saw on entering st george,s harbour was our friend bruce,s boat. cool. tall ships 2000 starts tomorrow. great ships, mainly from europe. carol wants to get us in it. we,ll end up spending our lives on the tall ship circuit. could be worse. just met the guys from the bluenose II. going to get the grand tour if we can get it together. hi all.. for some reason this original message got bounced back. it's now june 13, we've been here a bunch of days now. having a great time. we were too lazy to contact local tallship 2000 to try and enter so we were spectators only. bought 3 day bus passes and bopped around this lovely island on pink buses, and once on a ferry. the ships were great... lots of them. flowers in bloom everywhere, great vegetation, and awesome shades of blue water. truly an enchanting place. we'll will probably leave on thursday, weather looks good so far. our immediate destination is nyc after that who knows??????.....
love john and carol

June 16, 2000

hi gang. all set to leave beautiful bermuda. however wind from northwest forecast tomorrow so may be here another day or two.

we have fallen in love with bermuda. stunningly beautiful and an incredibly civilized place. everything works. people wonderfully friendly. something to be said for the old colonies.

tall ships here so different from san juan. instead of thousands of armed cops etc, a couple of bobbies in shorts with pencils for weapons. the tall ships were plentiful and all together along the wall in hamilton making an amazing vista of masts and yards.

met some guys off bluenose II and got the full tour. toured kruzenshtern, the biggest sailing vessel in the world, a former Cape Horner. italy,s amerigo vespucci was unbelievably ornate like bob guccione,s bedroom. the captain has a glitzy balcony hanging off the stern with basil growing in window boxes. britain,s lord nelson is specially designed for the physically disabled. you can wheel your wheelchair out on the bowsprit! we had dinner with a guy who may become the first person to sail across the atlantic in a wheelchair. many other great class a ships (the big ones) and a lot of funky smaller stuff from from europe.

we got a 3 day pass for the really good bus-ferry system here and got out and saw some of bermuda including the very cool royal navy dockyard built in 1806.

we can participate in the parade of sail in new york and also do tall ships 2000 in boston but may just head back home to do some work on the boat. we,ll see.

sarah is joining us in new york. it will be great having her with us again. leaving here is made less difficult knowing that we will be back in november on our way south.
love to all, john and carol taio

June, 2000

hi gang, we,re out in the atlantic, 460 miles northwest of bermuda and 200 miles southeast of new york. our friend bruce left bermuda with us but had to turn back with mechanical trouble. too bad because the wind picked up nicely 60 miles from bermuda and we had a great sail.

yesterday was a real bumpy ride in the gulf stream. for those of you who,ve never been to sea in a small boat, it,s kind of like being in the mixer on a redi-mix truck. you,d better be hanging on to something before you move anywhere.

last night was really frustrating. we got stuck in an eddy of the gulf stream and instead of the usual 1.4 knots going northeast, we had 3.5 knots dead on the nose. we were making 6 knots through the water and 2.5 over the ground. finally took a chance on which way to turn to get out of it and escaped in 3 hours. of course if we,d had all the latest gizmos we could have downloaded the latest satellite infrared imagery and known all. kind of takes the fun out of it, assuming it works.

speaking of which, i was going to say that we had passed through both the sargasso sea and the bermuda triangle when we sailed fom north carolina to the virgins with nothing more ominous than a bit of mould on the bread. but, in fact, both of our gps,s died in the bermuda triangle. coincidence, theorists of the supernatural?

however, all is redeemed. this morning at 5am, i was on watch, motorsailing in very light wind over a glassy sea. for half a hour before sunrise, the eastern horizon was an incredible japanese watercolour of rose and lavender and gold reflecting across the ocean all the way to taio. and then the dolphins came. they were between taio and the lightening horizon so were black silhouettes leaping and cavorting. two pods of maybe 20 or so did their morning dance. i was reluctant to wake carol because sleep is so precious at sea but i couldn,t let her miss it. by the time she got on deck, the sun was above the horizon and a third group began to play. we shut off the engine and ghosted along under sail and a fourth group began leaping in front of the sun which was by then above the horizon. they often leapt in unison and sometimes there must have been at least fifteen leaping together. a memory to treasure forever.

a short while later we saw many more dolphins leaping in unison. we saw hundreds stretched along a line six or eight miles long. there were many more in the distance all around. great to know so many have kept out of th clutches of sea world and starkist. sadly, they were too busy to come and play with taio this time, although one big guy did sniff around a bit. these were BIG dolphins, not your little cute jump through the hoop guys. have to learn more about them.

i realize i,m starting to sound like some kind of poofter poet so will confine future messages to discussion of ball valves and propellor shafts and other butch stuff. love, john and carol

June 26, 2000

greetings from manasquan, new jersey.

it,s a long story. on our way into new york, couldn,t get there by dark, fog, 25 kn. wind and various thundery things forecast, no radar, so we,re here. met really nice people right away and hung out with them for the evening.

apparently some of the opsail tall ships may be here wednesday, so we may hang around.
yet more dolphin encounters. had a bunch swimming with the boat in the middle of the night and then more in the morning. it,s getting tedious. we told them to find some other bipeds to bother.

we,re safe and sound. hope all is well with you guys. love, john and carol

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