Wednesday managed to get through video covid testing for 12 crew, then boat registration, and finally immigration for Bermuda. It has to be said that the three Bermuda immigration officials were a credit to Bermuda – friendly, cheerful, and efficient. They’re dealing with almost 2000 sailors who aren’t the best at remembering their passport, following process, or being as polite as they could be. Anyway a very successful morning, so in the afternoon with a little breeze in the channel, we got through some more data gathering for various sail combinations. Here we are reefing our big J0 foresail, a furling jib like masthead sail flown from the sprit – a weapon! A grand day out…

The team now assembled in Newport and boat jobs quickly being ticked off. Managed a sail on Sunday to go through the systems, see new sails, and calibrate the instruments. Monday plenty of jobs going through safety equipment, sorting out interior, and generally burning calories going back and forth between container and boat. And to Tuesday and a full day sailing with safety work included. Tomorrow is testing day and dealing with immigration paperwork. We’ve shipped all our shore clothes to Bermuda by freighter on Sunday so are down to our 2 sets of clothes for the race. The washing machine is getting a lot of use this week.