I'm back home on the coast of Massachusetts after six days at sea, sailing with five friends from Bermuda to Boston's North Shore aboard a 44-foot sailboat.
Nearly 700 miles of blue water separate the two points and if something goes wrong, you're on your own unless you happen to be sailing within rescue range of the U.S. Coast Guard.
Coast Guard rescue helicopters can reach out 300 miles and remain on scene for about 40 minutes until their fuel guage says it's time to head back to shore. That range covers nearly half the distance between Boston and Bermuda. Unfortunately, Bermuda has no air or sea rescue service, so if your boat sinks a few hundred miles from that remote island, chances are you'll spend days in a liferaft, hoping a passing ship will stop to help. There's also the possibility that nobody will find you. The Bermuda Triangle is known for swallowing up boats without a trace.
#SailingBermudatoBoston #PumpedupbyAdventureTravel
But that's what adventure travel is all about and why it pumps me up, gets my adrenaline flowing and my soul glowing. There's a risk factor that heightens your senses. It's about putting yourself out there.
So now it's time to write the Bermuda sailing story, edit the photos, and send them off to SAILING Magazine. www.sailingmagazine.net. In other words, I'm On Deadline.
But once that assignment is tucked away, it'll be on to the next: sailing a bareboat to Culebra and Vieques in the Spanish Virgin Islands. That adventure begins next month and I'm looking forward to it.
#SailingtoVieques #SailingtoCulebra
At the helm of Tioga this week, sailing from Bermuda to Boston.