Marion to bermuda 2025

June 20, 2025

We started in Buzzard’s Bay on on Avalon, a Jeanneau Sunfast 3300. The boat was a stripped bare race boat, with zero creature comforts. The start was definitely a test of our mettle, with a breeze gusting over 40 knots. In a span of 10 minutes, a lashing holding the jib on deck blew to pieces, the runner got caught on the wrong side of the VHF antenna, and the tiller extension fell loose from the tiller. Again, this was while we had gusts over 40 knots. Once we got everything settled, we realized the jib halyard was struggling to hold tension under the load. I mention this only to avoid criticism for the halyard tension in the picture above!

Once we finally got underway, we saw what this boat could do. Over the first 24 hours, with a single reef and reaching with the heavy air jib, we covered 180 nautical miles. We were definitely thrown into the deep end.

The story changed dramatically from there. The breeze dropped, the seas went flat, and we learned that while Avalon is a great boat in strong winds, especially off the breeze, she was not a light-air, upwind boat. For the rest of the race, we were faced with light air, upwind sailing.

The last 24 hours were coupled with an adverse sea state. Whenever we got the boat even slightly powered up, a wave would hit the bow, and we would lose all momentum. We quite literally drifted over the finish line.
The most important part was that we finished. It took us longer to get there, but we got there.

We finished first in the double-handed class and were the top overall Bermuda boat.

Sure, we were the only ones in either of those classes, but it takes a lot to finish that race, and it takes a lot to do any race with only two on board.

This race proved to us that we can do this. We made our mistakes, but we learned from them. We did not finish as well as we had hoped, but we were humbled by that.

We certainly respect that this kind of pressure is a privilege. For us, this was living, being the people in the arena. We relished in it, and we are up for the challenge of doing this again.