Junior Marvel saves the day!

A bit of excitement tonight when one of the Navy boats just finishing the Newport-Bermuda race (www.bermudarace.com) tied up to Tenho while we were at anchor so they could dive and cut loose the line fouled around their propeller.  Hugo quickly offered up his Junior Marvel snorkeling mask for the operation and the Navy was soon back in action.   (Must have been his rescue training from his Coast Guard mom kicking in...) 

Annapolis to Bermuda (Bermuda Ocean Race)

Arrived this afternoon in Bermuda.  Kids were absolute champs in entertaining themselves for long stretches while the crew (6 adults) took turns on watch. Hugo & Maggie had their own bedroom in the forward cabin with a leeboard to keep them from falling onto each other as the boat heeled, grandfather Gerd was in the navigator's cabin, and crew Joe, Jose, brother-in-law Michael and John & I hot-bunked (aka took turns sleeping) in the 3-bed aft cabin.  Thank goodness for ear plugs!   Highlights of the trip were a huge sunfish checking out the boat as we wallowed with no wind just outside of the Chesapeake, kids catching tiny crabs in the seaweed we scooped up from the water (see photo), man-o-wars floating by, Maggie dissecting one of several flying fish that landed on the boat, and dolphins playing in the wake as we approached Bermuda.  We'll be here in Bermuda until at least Monday.  Our crew to the Azores will be us 4 (John, Tessa, Hugo & Maggie), brother-in-law Michael, and Alexander. We had a last minute injury/cancellation for a crew member and are glad to have Alexander joining us on short notice and look forward to meeting him!



Tessa, Joe and Jose on night watch



calm day



finding little crabs in seaweed

dolphins outside of Bermuda



ocean sunfish



Bermuda Ocean Race awards ceremony



Heading out any minute now

All the crew is on board, lots of food & water, everyone can't wait to get sailing. Transponder is working again so we're no longer showing up as a vessel in San Diego...you can track us at www.bermudaoceanrace.com.  Next stop, Bermuda!

We're out of the house!

Today we officially moved out of the house and onto the boat.  The exercise of moving almost everything we own into a Pod plus one storage room at my parents' house has been quite an exercise in paring down for all of us.  Hugo bravely parted with many of his treasured circuit boards, I reluctantly recycled my high school prom wine glasses...oops, I mean water glasses...and John played a final Rolling Stones song on his 1991 Harmon Kardon receiver and Marantz CD changer before sending it off for scrap ("Some Girls", if you really want to know).  Only Maggie seemed to have no problem sending boxes of her toys off to Goodwill/Purple Heart.  We went to Hugo's lower school closing ceremony this morning, Maggie's last chorus concert this evening, and now we're stowing things on the boat.  Special thanks to all the neighbors, family and friends who helped us with meals, carrying boxes and last minute panic attacks (ie when I realized I'd packed Maggie's last white shirt and black shoes which she needed for the chorus concert).  Now less than 14 hours until we leave...

4 days and counting...

Last few months have flown by...down to 4 days to departure!  My last day of work was Friday, sold my car Saturday, storage Pod delivered today, house bathroom renovation project almost done - although by now the kids actually prefer the camping shower in the backyard...good training for the boat. (who's bright idea was it to work until very end and do home renovation while trying to move? Oh yeah...mine...).  Checkout the June issue of Spinsheet magazine - article on the Bermuda Ocean Race with a bit on Tenho on page 79:
http://www.spinsheet.com/main.asp?page=1168