Saturday, we attended the fall skipper's meeting for the Bermuda 1-2 in Newport, Rhode Island. If we can find the resources, we will enter that race in 2013. I've made it my priority to do that, and spending time talking with other skippers helped me cement the idea into a commitment. I'll sail to Bermuda next June. Monica will meet me there and we'll sail back to Newport together, just as before.
In anticipation of getting to the starting line on time, I've decided to bring Robin north sooner than the December date I'd chosen. (There was another motivation -- Monica doesn't want to sail on into December -- which I'd like to do -- so there's no point leaving Robin in the water.)
The resources we'll need amount to money. We need to have the entrance fee, now at $500. We need to get our life raft recertified, another big expense. And then there are other items on the list that I'd like to have for the race: A new staysail and an antenna and a ground for the single side band radio I bought last year top the list.
On Sunday, on our way out of Newport, we swung by the Newport Shipyard to inspect some of the megayachts docked there. Below are photos of some of these boats, for which Robin wouldn't quite make it as a dinghy. The first one, although you can't see it,has a speedboat stored in its transom for use as a tender.Another is parked on the far side of, and dwarfing, a Swan 42-44, I think.
These boats are apparently mere trifles for their owners, who have left them in cold Newport when they might be sailing in the islands. Every one of these vessels, except the third one, appears to be well over 100 feet long.