Nearly there

Position: 39° 04’N 031° 49’W
Course. 065
Wind. S 18-23knots
Daily run: 162 miles

The train ride continues unchecked and we are closing in on Flores where we expect to arrive around midnight tonight. There is no chance of anchoring on this unknown coast in the dark so we will find shelter in the Lee of the island and sail up and down until it gets light. Hopefully there will be a suitable anchorage somewhere – in my mind the Azores is all calm waters and great high pressure systems producing delightful settled conditions. But not for our arrival – we have SE winds force 4-5, occasionally 6. Marvellous.

No voyage is complete without its dramas, big and small. Last night we had one of each. Firstly no fresh water coming out of the taps, which is odd as we’ve used very little. We have a tank on either side of the boat, connected by a pipe. We’ve been heeling over on one tack for days on end so the tank to windward is empty and the pump drawing air. Not a problem that won’t rebalance on our arrival – bottled water for tea in the meantime. Luxury!

The other drama, was less straight forward. Around 2300 the engine starter battery alarm (very high pitched. Very persistent. Ignore at your peril) started to go off, suggesting the battery was worryingly low. Luckily the engine started and we had a really good look at the battery level and all seemed normal. Running the engine for an hour didn’t do anything to stop the alarm though from
Coming back on  (once engine off again) so we opened up the back of the control panel to reveal multicoloured spaghetti aplenty and Tom had a good poke around. It reminded me of those bomb disposal scenes in action movies when they have to snip the right wire. After some deliberation Tom pulled hard on one connection and finally there was peace. What was interesting about the incident was the degree of impairment one has after 10 days with no more than 2.5 hours sleep at a time. We deal with these puzzles, yes, but it takes time and I know my own brain is functioning way below capacity. I’m all in favour of trouble shooting at very slow speeds (if possible of course) because of this.

We are longing to find some respite and rest in the shelter of Flores, but also prepared for it simply not being tenable, due to wind and/or swell. We won’t actually know until we poke our nose into each anchorage. Wish us luck!
Continue reading “Nearly there”

Dolphins

Position: 38.07’N 35.20’W
Day’s run: 162 nautical miles
Course: 090
Wind: SSW 18-22

Last night we had an amazing show of dolphins! There were about 100 of them and we saw them doing the most amazing tricks. Jumping really high and landing on their backs and spinning in the air it was incredible. Here are a few facts about dolphins:

1. Dolphins are some of the most intelligent creatures. Scientists are trying to decode their language.
2. Dolphin pods vary in sizes they can be as small as 20 or as large as 200 dolphins. The one we saw was about 90-100.
3. There are more than 20 different species of dolphin!
4. The strongest adults are at the front of the pod with the teens round the outside protecting the older and younger dolphins in the middle. The dolphins take it in turns “nannying” the youngest dolphins once they can cope without their mothers.

The Portuguese men of war are getting larger and more colourful. Daddy was pulling in the tow generator, which had some tentacles wrapped round it, and got stung! Luckily, he’s all right and it was just a slight tingling. All is well here hope all is well every where else. That’s all today.

Dora

Romping towards Europe

Position – 37’38’N 38’41’W
Wind – 20-25 knots
Speed – 7.5 knots
Daily run – 173 miles

It’s weird, if you look on the chart, we are so very close to the Azores and when we reach the Azores we will be in Europe, and close to home. Dora’s very excited about this.

We are all very excited about arriving in the Azores, we’ve been researching with our guide books and it looks beautiful! I think we are also all itching to get on some of the lushest green hikes…

Sailing around at 7 1/2 knots, progress is fast and we plan to arrive on Thursday morning – a very impressive crossing! The wind has been blowing at 25 knots and although it’s quite uncomfortable, we’re coping and it’s worth it because she’s zooming along!

Holding on!

Position: 37.00N 042.30W
Day’s Run: 190M
Speed: 8kts
Course: 080T
Wind: SSW, 20-23kts

We’re tearing along at eight knots under genoa and mizzen with a mostly blue sky above us.

Beam reaching in a blow is hard work, on deck you’re constantly dodging the regular showers of spray sweeping downwind as the bow head-butts the incoming wave. Occasionally a cry of surprise and disgust rings out signalling someone has been too slow to get their head down. Below one has to be very careful moving about as the boat violently pitches and rolls her way East. Reading in bed is the safest off watch activity.

Yesterday we recorded our best day’s run yet, 190M noon to noon but there’s no time to feel smug as a low is forming S of us that will bring E winds from Thursday so we’re racing to reach Flores before then. To complicate the picture, a front is moving slowly across our path threatening a return of the torrential rain that characterised the first three days of this passage – so there’s plenty for the navigator to ruminate on. As our original destination on Flores is untenable in an E wind we’re now hoping to find shelter on the other side of the island in the bay of Faja Grande Europe’s most Westerly village.

Fingers crossed we get in before head winds, absurd rain or both catch up with us!

Bye bye Sargassum. Hello jelly fish

Position: 36° 40’N 046° 25’W
Wind. SW 15knots
Course: 100
Daily run: 159 miles

Sargassum is the thick orange weed that has been ever present since about the half way point on our crossing from the Canaries to the Caribbean. It floats about in great lumps and often gets blown into anchorages harbouring numerous jellies underneath to sting the unwary. That part of the ocean is full of enormous swathes of the stuff. Unlike most seaweed it isn’t initially attached to land. Apparently it caused much sadness in Columbus’s early voyages as the European crew naturally assumed its appearance meant that land was near where in fact they must have been some weeks off. Personally I’m not sorry to see the back of it – jelly fish stinger harbour, tangler of the tow generator, and just the fact that it’s a most unappealing shade of orange.

In its place we’ve been entertained by the most extraordinary flotilla of beautiful jelly fish. Dora (our natural history advisor) tells me they are Portuguese men of war. They are certainly very beautiful. They look like little Japanese rice paper dumplings, with a Cornish pasty style crimping along the top in a stunning pink colour, particularly lovely at sunset. This dumpling is kept anchored by a bulbous deep blue submarine. I’m guessing they are only 20 Cm long and incredibly delicate looking. Yet we see them get flattened by wind and wave and then that beautiful pink pasty edge comes bobbing upright once more. It’s quite mesmerising to watch. They seem to just drift about on the waves at the mercy of the elements, but in huge numbers. If anyone would like to try and add a picture of these beauties and confirm (or correct) Dora’s classification we’d be delighted to see that when we get to the Azores

Nothing much going on

Position: 36’30’N 49’00’W
Course: 095
Wind: S 15 knots
Speed: 7 knots

Daily blog post which is probably going to be really, really boring because nothings happening – by Daisy

Nothing much is really going on at the moment, we are on a beam reach (which is quite uncomfortable) and we are celebrating being halfway back to Europe.
The weather has continued to stay ‘nice’ and dry and the wind is staying between 15-20 knots to the south. But that’s really about it! There still haven’t been any serious disasters and we are all well.
Daisy x

Passing the time

Position: 36.01’N 052.18’W
Wind: SSW 12-13
Boat speed: 6.5 knots
Course: 090

Today we have had lovely weather sun and wind and we have seen many more Portuguese men of war. Earlier, Daisy and I created an iMovie about a super hero, Tiddlezz, (yes it’s spelt with z’s)and the villain, ratatouille the evil rat, which was very entertaining. We’re roughly 1000 miles away from the Azores! Nothing much has happened since yesterday. We are sailing along at a steady 6 knots. The main sail, Genoa and Mizzen are all rigged. The sea has calmed down a bit so it’s more comfortable. That’s all from me today.

Dora

Sun at last

Position: 35° 26’N 055° 30’W
Wind: SSW 10-11
Course: 090
Daily Run: 170 miles

Today, for the first time it hasn’t rained! Though we have entered an area with a very small amount of wind we are lucky to be sailing at 6 knots without the engine. We’ve hung up all our oil skins and they are finally dry. It’s so nice when you’ve had lots of rain for it to stop for just one day so you can dry everything and have the hatches open so you can breathe.

During the rain, we have all the hatches shut so it creates an extremely stuffy atmosphere. Daisy is the only one complaining about the sun she prefers sailing in the rain. We are all well and nothing bad has happened we found out what was wrong with the battery so all is well.

Dora

Ps from Polly. The period from 1730 to 2030 was the heaviest persistent rain I’ve known. Daisy collected an entire bucketful of rain water in the cockpit (most directly though some running off the cockpit seats). On the back of the boat we have a dan-buoy – a safety device that you throw into the sea if someone goes overboard. The dan-buoy is only supposed to trigger its light/inflation when immersed in the sea but last night it got so saturated it started flashing away in its holder on deck.

Pictures from when the sun finally came out. Including amazing double rainbow.

Battered like fish

Position: 33’46’N 61’10’W
Course: 080
Day run: 175
Speed: 7 knots
Wind: SSW 14-20

We were battered yesterday. The wind was gusting 35 knots and the sea lumpy and the rain continual. We had the Mizzen and Genoa up and were making 9 knots!

I really enjoyed it when we were making faster progress, the thrill of the speed and waves coming up to meet you like you are a celebrity, bashing against the side of the boat trying to get a better look and the disappearing under the boat gushing the hull side ways – I think I was the only one who enjoyed yesterday! Dora was feeling ill and Daddy busy repairing tow generator (this is how we make electricity), we will not be able to fix it, so need to hand steer all the way to the Azores which will be hard work because only three of us are really capable of this!

We also all got drenched, the rain poured brutally and continuously until 6,  by which time we were all freezing. We started hearing thunder and seeing lightning around 8 and this stayed with us the majority of the evening making us hold our breath!

So really yesterday wasn’t a brilliant day for most, but the wind has died considerably to 14-20 knots and the sun has come out.

Daisy