He is a great guy and I am fortunate to be a friend. I crewed with him from Tortola to Mass back in July, their Hylas is a great boat.

Not enjoying cocktails yet. He reports they are in big wind and big seas from the N to NNE, keeping them on his port quarter sailing 160m. He is nearly thru the stream so that will hopefully improve the sea state for them. They left yesterday (11/3) morning rather than waiting for the official start due to the forecast, a Saturday departure would have been better. Gribs show wind will continue to veer E but not get any stronger. The may end up going S a bit sooner than planned but Fri/Sat shows high pressure with light winds developing at about 65W halfway between Bermuda and BVI, so that should give them an opportunity to get east.

I've been sailing over 40 years but the voyage this summer on Tom and Sharon's boat was my first offshore trip dealing with gribs and real weather concerns and interpretation. I'm also a west coaster so if any of you more experienced cruisers have any insights into the forecast out there in the next few days, please let me know, I'll be speaking to him again tomorrow.