High winds over the weekend caused power outages across the Island while Belco staff struggled to repair the damage.A Belco spokeswoman said yesterday that not long after the winds began to pick up, small outages began to be reported.“The outages were scattered across the Island, all of them in small groups or individual customers,” she said.“The numbers of people affected have gone up and down as staff work to return power to homes and other areas that suffered damage from the winds.”While the spokeswoman was unable to say how many homes in total were affected by the outages, she said that by around 5pm only one customer was reportedly without power.The weather also caused problems at sea with Harbour Radio reporting that two sailboats were yesterday abandoned around Bermuda.At around 11am yesterday, the crew of the sailing vessel Elle, involved in a rally to the Island from Newport, were picked up by the cargo vessel Oleander around 180 nautical miles to the Island’s Northwest after the 46ft sloop was damaged in the storm and a crew member injured.“Other vessels involved in the rally have also encountered difficulties due to the weather,” a Harbour radio spokesman said last night. “We are remaining in contact with them, and they are trying to ride out the storm.”And at around the same time that the crew of the Elle were being picked up, the sailing vessel Spring Moon was abandoned around 550 nautical miles to the Island’s South West due to weather related issues.The harsh weather also led to the start of the 2011 Rugby Classic being delayed as the winds tore down tents and infrastructure.Winds across the Island picked up on Saturday afternoon, with winds recorded reaching 30 knots (35mph) with gusts of up to 49 knots (56mph) as an area of low pressure to the Island’s southwest interacted with a strong high to the Island’s north.The weather continued yesterday with strong to gale force winds along with rain showers persisting throughout the day.As of last night, the weather is expected to remain wet and windy with a gale warning in effect today. However the weather could improve by Wednesday, when the low pressure system is expected to move further to the west.