Colin Couper had a hair-raising start to his Bermuda-Marion Race campaign on Tuesday.

The skipper of , which has Governor Sir John Vereker among her crew, sailed the Swan 46 down from Newport only to be met with thunderstorms and torrential rain at her destination.

Although temperatures remained low yesterday, the downpours ceased ahead of tomorrow?s start to the 645-mile ocean crossing.

?That wasn?t quite what we were expecting,? said Couper, father of Commonwealth Games-bound runner Ashley. ?We sailed down from Newport and had no problems until we got into Marion.

?There was thunder and the rain was really bucketing down. It was a bit of a nasty surprise but there was no harm done.?

Couper said , which has completed both this race and the Newport-Bermuda event, had a few ?little things that needed looking at? when collected from Newport ?but nothing that would stop us doing the race?.

Yesterday?s winds in Marion gusted up to 25 knots and the early forecasts suggested a downwind start was in prospect tomorrow for the 15th instalment of the popular amateur race.

Couper?s vessel is one of three local participants with Robert Mulderig?s and Paul Hubbard?s also competing.

And the Governor isn?t the only big name attempting to complete the crossing ? US talk show host Geraldo Rivera is also among the sailors. Rivera is no stranger to Bermuda, having completed the Marion Race in the past aboard his pride and joy