With a northwesterly breeze of 15 to 18 knots giving momentum to a fleet of 72 yachts racing in the 30th Marion to Bermuda Race on Friday, Governor of Bermuda Sir John Vereker was spotted grinding winches in full offshore sailing gear aboard the yacht “Babe” while Bermuda boat “Morgan’s Ghost” was leading the fleet in Class A as the biennial regatta got underway.

The fleet is expected to arrive sometime tomorrow.

Five monohull classes and one multi-hull class set sail in the 16th running of the Marion to Bermuda race led in Class A by Preston Hutchings of Paget while in Class B, Colin Couper’s yacht “Babe” was in strong position.

With a spinnaker start it wasn’t long before the fleet began to settle into the 645-nautical mile race yesterday — with predictions that the Gulf Stream will be smooth and boats will try and pick the straightest course through it towards Bermuda.

“The vast majority of people from Bermuda who are sailors understand the vagaries of the Gulf Stream,” said J.T. Thompson who is the skipper aboard Bermudian Jonathan Baxter’s yacht “Pond Prowler.” “Getting through the Gulf Stream is the most nerve-wracking thing.”

Thompson is the former commodore of the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club and is a member of the Royal Hamilton Amateur Dinghy Club.

This is his ninth Marion to Bermuda race.

“I enjoy this race because it truly brings visitors to Bermuda, many of the people who race down will also bring their boats back. There is not this professional edge to it where sailors arrive and fly out again and I like that.”

For Bermudians Gavin Black and Lee Smith on “Pond Prowler,” this is the first time they have been on the race while veteran sailors Frances and Jonathan Carter, a father and son pair, on “Adreniline” were looking strong in Class B and are the defending champions having placed first in the race two years ago.

“Once you cross the Gulf Stream and you are closing in on Bermuda, it is gorgeous sailing,” said Todd Sparling of the USA who is a crew member aboard Adreniline.

“If the winds are right, you will smell the hibiscus flowers. Soon after that you see the Bermuda long tail bird and finally the looming St. David’s Lighthouse.”

For those friends and family who are following the race with an online program called iBoat Tracking, it still does not take away from the serious risks of any major ocean race.

“I was among the first to do the Marion to Bermuda race,’ said Judy Kilroy, who came in third in her class in 1999.

“The race was done using celestial navigation or dead-reckoning. It has gotten a lot more formalised and progressed to sailing seminars, medical requirements and safety rules. To decide if we were in the Gulf Stream, we would pump seawater into a cup and test the temperature. We only knew we were closing in on Bermuda when we could smell fragrances.”

Today, getting to Bermuda may be a little easier, but according to Bermudian Derek Ratteray, the watch captain for Morgan’s Ghost, “the most important thing remains managing the current and wind out of Buzzards Bay to give us a leading edge. Then, we must sail fast. There is a bit of national pride here and we Bermudians would like to win this.”