Year: 2014

Now almost on the Bermuda-Azores (Horta) rumb line at 36.22N and 039.45W heading 070T at about 4.5kn. We have had an adverse current against us of 1.2kn for hours on end so for 4 hours of every day we are working just to stand still! Very slow to close the Azores. We sailed during the night on a flat sea till 6am, then motoring, then 11am the swell started, at noon we sailed again, at about 7pm we went into a kind of mid ocean tidal race which tried to shake our fillings out, then by 9pm after trying everything

Strange thing happened this evening – we tacked. First time since Grenada so that’s about 1,900nm on the starboard tack which has been perfect for us. No messing about with running backstays every five minutes and from that point of view we love the space that the ocean offers. In fact since St Martin I would think we have made about 10 adjustments to the sails, just reefing, as we have held the same point of sail relative to the wind all the way, a fairly close reach. Motored today from 0600-1700, changed time zones +1 hour (supposedly every 15

All going well here since 9am and currently heading 040T at 4-5kn in 10kn wind on our way to hitting the Bermuda-Azores rumb line. Expect to turn toward Horta in under 48 hours when wind swings further west. Today’s problem child is the chest freezer which decided to stop doing it’s job. I dug out about 16 thawed chicken breasts only to find the whole freezer contents to be covered in ‘chicken juice’ as there was a hole in the bag. Other vacu-pack steaks etc were washed & transferred frozen to a smaller freezer but all of the chicken and

Hard fought miles. Our boat has gone quiet, food from tins, sleep is poor, bilge alarm goes every hour and this is our 11th day on a fairly close starboard reach. Our waterfront apartment as was has been transformed into a noisy, shaking, crashing condo over by the brickworks with a 24/7 earthquake thrown in. It’s midnight local time and although things are supposed to have eased they haven’t. Wind cycles through 13 to 22kn all the time and we are mostly on a reach in 18-22kn making about 6kn. Our cage is being rattled! Woke up this morning and

At home we think of High’s as light breezes, flowers, honey bees, barbeques and days on the beach…let us introduce you to an Azores High! There is good reason that it’s stable at 1032mb it’s powerful. Today’s new issue consisted of a drawer under the chart table which holds heavy tools smashing it’s plastic latch and launching into the saloon. We redistributed the heavy stuff, took a latch from a cabinet elsewhere and managed to close it again so we can still get to the forward part of the ship! Close reaching all day in 18-22kn SSE wind at 7.5

‘There’s got to be a trick, how do you think he does it….sure plays a mean pinball’ Awoke to an overcast sky, first in ages, and a radar screen smattered with squalls, probably about eight at any time. As we edged the front of each squall we were catapulted to 8 knots, shot across the face and out the other side, then wallowed in a turbulent sea making about 3 knots until we crossed the next when again we were pinged forward. And so it continued for around 3 hours, ping, ca-ching, prrrrt, ching – we were the pinball. Come

Crossing an ocean at 4 knots made me think ‘well what if we’re here for Christmas?’ Mmmm let’s have a look at our provisions? We have Christmas Pudding (yay!), cream (whooo!), red wine (waheey!) and brandy (weeey!), roast potatoes (yippeey!), peas and carrots (yeey!), no bread sauce (booo!), no sausages (boooo!), no Queens speech (hoooraay!), no raiders of the lost ark number 17 (hoooraay!), and we have turkey (yeeeehhheeey!) Hang on, turkey? Use by date mid June (booooo!). So instead of the odd plastic bucket floating past we need to find a turkey and a string of sausages….closest substitute available

At about 9am a swell appeared which has to an extent broken our ‘in a marina without shorepower’ type feel to our world and we started a little rolling and yawing. 11am pulled in a bit of wind 8-10kn SW and we set full sail. During this time we decided to check out the clew, tighten the line fastening the sail to the aft of the boom roller, and as it was a touch frayed, work in a second 10mm line. The 10kn wind gave us about 5kn SOG for 5 hours then died again. At least we got a

Clearly we need to start an Ocean Snailing Club as wind remains 3 to 6 knots and we crawl along under power making about 100nm a day. Could be there’s a little wind for 12 hours or so on Saturday but that’s about it. The sky has been crystal clear and panning 360 degrees on a searingly hot deck one can stare straight at the razor sharp edges of the horizon in any direction. No haze, no squalls, none of the fade out to a white blur. Just a sharp blue line. And I’ve never seen so many miles, mile