Sailing to Bermuda

Hi! I’m Tom Tietjen, the weather, safety and “20th century navigation” guy for this trip. Please don’t judge me because I’m only going to participate on the return leg of this cruise. It’s only because a one month vacation would finally give my partners the motivation they needed to replace me with a younger, harder-working model. Sorry Heidi, Frank, and Jim, unless the sharks get me I’ll be around a little bit longer!

It’s such a privilege to be included on this crew. My sailing resume is a little thin. Nevertheless, I’m hoping to marry my newfound love for sailing with the knowledge I’ve gained over the past three years crewing for Chuck Johnson and the classes I’ve taken with the Tip-O-The-Mitt Power Squadron. To that end, I’ll supply logistics and offshore weather forecasts to the outbound crew via satellite phone and celestial navigation for the inbound leg (yes, you can still find your way using the stars!).

I hope to use my skills at piloting to help get the boat out of Bermuda and into Norfolk (maybe at night for one of them… ). As one of three physicians on this trip (a neurologist, urologist, gastroenterologist), I’ve been assigned the duty of putting together a first aid kit, too. The kit is as big as an airline carry-on bag and weighs over 20 pounds. I think we’re ready for everything from sea snake bites to kidney biopsies to fibromyalgia attacks!

Sailing at night by the stars will be a treat. So little of that here on the Great Lakes, you know. In case any family members are panicking about now, please let me assure you we’ll have several (three I think) operable GPS units on board! I’m going to ask Don to allow me to navigate by the stars so long as I keep within 10 miles of our intended course. We’ll see how that works out…

More later!