Sure. Sail to Bermuda on your way south. If she has been offshore, and you know every nut and every bolt and can envision her rolling over and coming back up relatively intact, then there's no reason to take a safer, coastal route.Some sage advice from a highly respected captain. Capt Wayne was generous and genuine with sharing his experience of the north Atlantic in November. These waters can be unruly this time of year, and I have been the subject of its wrath more than once. Instead of taking those near-misses with death or serious injury into consideration, I think I was trying to suppress their memory, hoping to have a bit of luck on my side. This notion was encouraged by Tom G. who has done this run numerous times aboard his schooner. Here lies the key difference Capt Wayne was trying to highlight: Tom G. has owned his boat for many years and has sailed her extensively offshore. My boat? She's never lost sight of Nova Scotia.
And it could be the case that everything could go smoothly. We could have beautiful run to Bermuda then be in a good position for making a shot south to wherever we eventually choose to go. Then again, we could get caught mid-way with no place to run.
I was never one to argue against the true pleasure of a journey being the journey itself, not the destination. Now that I have come to accept that the Bermuda route is less than ideal, I'm looking forward to re-visiting some of the eastern U.S. ports I visited long ago during my tall ship career.