Category: Cruising

The boat that overtook us on our last night was a 1984 Moody looks like a 425 and boy did those guys get some performance from it! We later started closing on them but we were reaching 10kn speeds and closing the island too fast in the dark so we reefed to main only and 6-7kn. Gradually Faial emerged from the dawn and we ran down the south coast. The sea roughed up as closed the channel between Faial and Pico. With the island backlit by the rising sun the channel itself was a little obscure. We arrived opposite the

We are bouncing along in the usual lumpy sea but unlike a few days back we now occasionally get a favourable as well as adverse current. We are under genoa only and it’s small so only making 4.5 to 5.5kn in 15-22kn tailwind. No point in speeding up as we can’t go fast enough to get to Horta in daylight so we will slow it down and arrive on Weds morning. Wind is due to continue through next few days. Now seeing lots of seabirds. For a moment we heard about two words on VHF but unable to find any

The gribs say wind is coming and we now have a W F5 at midnight. Too late to mess about with the main, can wait til daylight. Been motoring all day because the swell was bigger than the wind (9-11kn) and the full rig bangs & shudders in the rolls sending aftershocks through the hull. Seas from the west and north at the same time. The correct sailing strategy would be to bear away and head to Flores and gybe back down to Horta to avoid rolling as wind is dead astern. It adds miles and the reluctance stems from

In 24 hours we have gone from T-shirts and shorts to fleeces! As I went to bed tonight a new sensation; it felt cold. Daytime temp. in the saloon now a lovely 26 deg C down from 34C, water temp 23.7C down from 32.6C. We have 460nm to go and we have been a bit roughed up over the last 18 hours whether there is wind or not. This last section feels like it’s going so slowly…we yearn for land because we know it’s there. Today’s discussion ‘which bar shall we go to in Horta?’ ‘Cafe Sport is the yachting

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