I'VE BEEN MEANING TO SHARE more about my time in Bermuda visiting the ARC Europe fleet, but I hadn't thought I'd end up having to write a post like this. You may have heard the news over the weekend: one of the 33 boats that departed St. Georges for the Azores last Wednesday was abandoned on Saturday after striking a submerged object believed to be a whale. Fortunately, no one was lost or injured. The boat, a Hanse 370 called Outer Limits (pictured up top slipping out Town Cut on Wednesday), belonged to an amiable Dutchman, Joost Gehrels, who I happened to interview the evening before his departure.

Cha Cha at anchor in Newport. She seems very secure (note deployment of twin chain anchor rodes) (Photo from Newport-Now.com)

THE UNFORTUNATE SAGA of CHA CHA, the 52-foot steel cutter I first encountered in Bermuda back in the fall of 2009, continues. According to an article published earlier this month, the city of Newport, Rhode Island, is now seeking to seize the boat, which reportedly has been lying at anchor in Newport untended since sometime last year. If the city succeeds in this and decides to sell Cha Cha at auction, it could be a good score for someone. The boat definitely needs a lot of work, but at the right price she should be well worth the trouble.

The view from on high. Bermuda Radio's perspective on the world

I FLEW HERE INTO BERMUDA on Sunday to catch the start of the World Cruising Club's ARC Europe rally, which departs tomorrow afternoon for the Azores and Lagos, Portugal. It is not the first time I've flown to Bermuda, but this will be the first time I've both flown into and out of Bermuda, as I normally come (or leave, or do both) by boat. Which means I normally get to chat with the guys at Bermuda Radio (ex-Bermuda Harbor Radio), who are keenly interested in the comings and goings of anything that floats within 50 miles of the island. Over the years, in answering their interminable questions about my intentions and the gear I have on my boat, I've developed a great deal of respect (and even affection) for these fellows, so when I learned that the WCC had organized a tour of the Bermuda Radio facility I begged to tag along. For anyone who ever sails out to Bermuda, this a bit like getting to visit the Wizard of Oz.

UPDATE to the UPDATE: He's on again! My cousin Nick (that's Nicolas Kats, a naturopathic doctor and acupuncturist currently residing in Ireland, depicted above on the vessel in question) has in fact decided to move back to Portland, Oregon, and wants to take his boat along with him. Having studied the charts, he has concluded that the most logical route from A to B leads through the Northwest Passage, and he is looking for crew to come along on the journey.

Here's the voyage precis he sent me:

This is pretty weird. I previously mentioned the tragic loss of Aegean in the Newport Ensenada Race off southern California last weekend, and since then have been following developments with interest. The original presumption was that the boat, a 37-foot Hunter, had been run down by a ship, and this seemed to have been confirmed by at least one eyewitness on another boat. But Aegean's SPOT track also shows the boat running directly into the north end of North Coronado Island at a speed of about 7 knots.

The debris from the wreck reportedly looks as though it has "been through a blender," with most bits about 6 inches long. To me this doesn't seem very consistent with either explanation, and some have speculated there might have been a propane explosion as the boat hit the rocks.

Trybooking.com arrives in Port Fairy carrying survivors from Inception 

It's been an awful month for racing sailors in California. First came the well-publicized loss of Low Speed Chase in the Farallones Race off San Francisco, which resulted in five fatalities and an unprecedented Coast Guard ban on further offshore races in the area. Now this weekend comes word that a Hunter 376, Aegean, has been lost in the Newport Ensenada Race, presumably in a collision, with four apparent fatalities.

Less remarked on has been the dramatic night rescue of six crew Down Under in the Melbourne to Port Fairy Race early this month. The fleet of 14 boats was caught in a vicious gale (winds reported at 40-50 knots, with gusts to 70) and only one boat managed to finish. One competitor, Inception, a 50-foot Beneteau, sank at the height of the tempest, but fortunately its crew was rescued by another crew competing aboard Trybooking.com, an Elan Impression 434.