Bermuda: To Go or Not to Go . . .

[Ex-Calif]

Jay's experience is never in question. The boat, properly maintained is not in question for this passage. There is no question about the abilities of a 16 y/o and a 32 years experienced sailor and as Jay points out - you gotta go sometime.

What is in question, and the only question, is contingency time and contingency money. The farther you get from home the harder it is to maintain a schedule and if you have to fix something, it gets complicated.

Jay is taking wise counsel that bermuda and back in 3 weeks leaves almost no contingency time. I would never in a second hesitate taking my son (10) on a two week sailing trip. That is value for moeny beyond words.

Head out Jay, go as far as you can in 8 days and then head back. You've got 5 days slack in there.

[Ryanwhite243]

I know this is quite old, actually, very old. But I am the 16 y/o almost 21 y/o being refered to in the posts. At the time I had been sailing since I was like 3 and was a accomplished go-fast dingey racer in the High-school and private circut. So even my sailing ability at the time was quite extensive. Now I have stepped up to a CAL 20 and plan to do some racing and "pocket-crusing" with it.

Anyways, happy sailing.

[SeaSloth]

So, how was the trip 4 years ago?

[sneuman]

I briefly considered the same trip this year, but decided for some of the reasons cited that it wasn't the right choice. Not all of the crew even had three weeks of vacation to burn - so we would have been hard pressed to do it. Instead, we chose to do Annapolis to Newport, RI, which was much more manageable. Even so, we had our share of sloppy and uncomfortable weather.