LIFE: Part 2

Current Location: Ponta Delgado, Sao Miguel, Azores
Current Position: 37°44.37'N, 25°39.69'W
Distance sailed since last post: 281 nautical miles

It’s been a great stay in the Azores, although the weather has been rather
wet and grey, but now it is time to leave.

We depart today for Sines, on the west coast of Portugal, about 50 miles
south of Lisbon where there is a nice marina.

The trip should take us about 5 days though, again, it looks like the
winds will be light.

Offri is still with us, so we will have three people taking watches.

We will try to keep you updated, and will post more details and pictures
of the Azores when we get there.

After our arrival we will visit with Ceu’s mom for a few days, as she is
having surgery on her broken leg, and then we will fly to England for a
couple of weeks for Ben’s graduation.

Until then…

Au revoir!

So due to the winds here we still are in Flores. Planing to leave on Tuesday am. Good winds and on a beam reach, should be fast to the Island of Terceira.

To everyone who keeps asking how was it 16 days without seeing land? And how did you keep busy???  how did you feel when you first saw land?

Not seeing land never bothered me at all. Its amazing how everyday was a brand new day even when the scenery was the same. One just never gets tired of watching the sea and the sea life….especially with the beautiful weather like we had, it was nice to spend time outside as we wouldn’t want to miss all the beautiful shows the dolphins put on for us!

Of course being a smooth sail also meant I was able to do all my normal house cleaning, cooking, baking. We also put up our jib storm, just for practice and we fixed some chaffing in our main sail. Patched up a couple of small holes in our spinnaker and some other minor projects around the boat. It was never a dull moment!

(Did Noel post that he was having chocolate withdrawals during our passage??? Offri too. Yes we forgot to buy chocolate before we left. I had to bake cookies twice, 3dozen each time and Offri baked once, 2 dozen. Also at one time I had to open a box of my chocolate baking bits to satisfy their sweet tooth….I was afraid of having cranky men on board! lol)

On our spare time we read books, sunbathed, play games, and watched some movies. Once in awhile we would fit in a siesta, don’t  forget that some of us were up in the middle of the night to do our watches. We did watches of 3 hours long , crew of 4, and we rotated our shifts. Worked out really well.

The first sight of Land, was exciting of course. I had been looking for it for a few minutes and it looked like a cloud, but  Offri got up and confirmed it was the Island. We were happy, but even after anchoring, there was no rush to get out of the boat, or anything like that. We had some breakfast and went ashore to do the customs paper work.

As we started to walk up the hill into town a police car stopped in the side of the Road, we did the paper work right there, on top of the hood. No office necessary and no questions asked!  ahhh and he spoke English very well too.

We have seen most of the small island so far. We rented a car a couple of days ago and we also did a lot on foot. Lots and lots of flowers, very green and luscious, many water falls, friendly people and good food! It’s also very clean and the houses are white with the red tile roofs and very well kept.

Last Thursday went out on my own and check out this little place of artesanatos. The lady,owner, does amazing work of everything from crochet to crafts of all kinds, quilting, bags and all. She told me about her husband and the hard days at sea during whale hunting which the Azoreanos were  famous for.

Her husband walked in, coming back from the farm, that was just a couple of blocks away. The sweet lady offered to give me cabbage from the garden for me to make our traditional caldo verde and sent the husband to go pick it. I offered to come along. She was soo funny. She closed the store and walked to the farm with us.

Ohhh ….I was so happy to see their beautiful planted fields, 3 small pigs, chickens and lots of rabbits. They are all fed from the garden, and the vegetables are grown with mostly their compost.

They showed me around their beautiful property and pointed out some other ones that they own. They are so proud of it and so proud to have earned with such hard work, and that’s when she stared to tell me about the hard days. We started our walk back to the house, with my fresh cabbage they picked for me, mint and a bouquet  of fresh flowers.

She pointed out to me, not very far, an old house that looked like a shed. It was used for whale watching. When they saw whales they would throw 3 fireworks and at that time the Men  who were all working in their farms, would leave everything behind and go. Her husband was one of them. In fact he was one of the men that caught the last whale here, in the 1980’s. The wives were left with the children and all the farm work, including many cows to milk everyday.  Sometimes the men were gone for days, and the worst part: no news from them. He saw many get hurt. In one of his trips, he was badly hurt, lucky to be alive, just the tail of the whale was enough to kill a man and injured so many others.

It was sure an interesting afternoon. She invited me back. Tomorrow I am going back to pick up some organic eggs.

Yesterday morning Noel and I got a surprise on the side of the road!

We were driving back from the airport (were dropping off some of our crew) They were killing, not one pig, but TWO pigs right on the side of the road, in a little rural area between two villages.

I told Noel to quickly stop the car. We  couldn’t believe our luck! I always wanted to show that tradition to Noel.

One pig dead and the second one going up to the bench with the help of 5 strong men. The ladies all ready with the bucket with salt in it to catch the blood while the men are tying the pig around the bench. Without any details( for the sensitive ones) it all happens very fast and pretty quiet too, actually!  Pig is dead and they burned all the hair with torches and scrapped a layer of skin off. It looked very clean and white.

In the mean time the men gave us Port wine…twice. After all it was a cold wet morning and we had to keep warm, lol.

We stood there, sipping our wine and chatting with working men who still took the time to talk to you. We compared traditions between the Islands and also the continent. The Portuguese are very proud people and of course they are always happy especially when  foreigners like  Noel stop and show interest in what they do.

It was now time to clean the insides. It was done in less than 5 minutes. The ladies took it inside in buckets and the men hang the pig in the garage to be cut.

Noel and I thanked the guys and left.

Still ok to drive even after 2 shots (portuguese measurements) of really good port wine at 9am. Viva Portugal!

Today we did a drawing in the wall at the Harbour in Lajes. It is a big tradition here to do that. They say if you don’t do it you will not make it to your destination. Well…… not superstitious, it was fun to do. Offri was creative and very quickly to come up with something.

For now we look forward to sail to Terceira and celebrate Portugal Day there.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Current Location: Lajes, Flores, Azores
Current Position: 39°22.74'N, 31°10.17'W
Distance sailed since last post: 1673 nautical miles

Once again the wind disappeared, so for the last 24 hours we motored the rest of the way, very slowly, so as to arrive with the dawn.

Flores has imposing cliffs and lots of vegetation, so we could see it from 40 miles away – but it still took us all night to actually get there.

We arrived to a beautiful sunrise over the cliffs, with a clear blue sky. As soon as the sun was up, the evening chill melted away.

The harbour is small, and the anchorage is in 12 m of water. With about 8 boats in here is is already pretty full, but around the corner is a tiny marina, not yet opened, where about 10 boats have squeezed themselves in for free moorings.

Already met a bunch of people from Bermuda, plus some more who sailed directly from the Caribbean – for them the trip was 23 days, compared to our 16 days.

So, here we are! We crossed the Atlantic with no drama and no breakages. And Phillipe is due to arrive here tonight some time too.

Tomorrow we will go and explore the lakes and do some hikes.

But one thing we have noticed already: it is so much CHEAPER here than Bermuda and the Caribbean! A can of pop, a bottle of water AND an ice cream Cornetto for only 2 euros!!! I was ready to spend my 10 euro note! And we had an awesome lunch with a huge plate of barbequed chicken, fries, rice, salad and bread – more than we could eat.

Of course Ceu is busy chatting in Portuguese to everyone – and admiring all the goats, sheep, cows, potatoes and cabbages in peoples’ back yards. Plus all the beautiful flowers along the roadsides. All very neat and very well kept.

Only 5000 people on the whole island, so it is small, rural, and friendly.

YouTube Link: Mid Atlantic Cruising

STATS for the crossing:

Engines: mostly ran one engine at a time, and at low revs – typically about 1800 rpm to minimize fuel consumption. 135 engine hours in total. The fuel gauges say we have about half a tank for each engine, but we shall see when we actually fill up.  Still, we had plenty spare.

Water: we got through 150 gallons, so did well – still had half a tank, plus another 50 gallons in jerry cans. We were very careful about washing up with salt water before rinsing with fresh, and only showering minimally every few days.

Food: Still eating fresh salad and vegetables on the last day! Ceu did an excellent job with provisioning – so we had lots of food, and still heaps of cans. Even the beer lasted till today.

Repairs: The mainsheet blocks came off the traveler. They were held in by a pin, which was held in by a split ring. We believe that the mainsheet, when flopping about in the calm, snagged an end on the ring, and pulled the split ring out, thus allowing the pin the fall out. Moral: use split pins, not rings to secure clevis pins. We were able to replace the double block by using the blocks from the spinnaker guys.

We also fixed some minor chafe on the luff of the genoa on the last day as it was so calm. Apart from that, no repairs needed!

We shall stay a few days here, and then go to explore the other islands.

The adventure continues…

 

The wind has now turned against us again. Variable from 8 to 18 kts but always right on the nose. Making very slow progress- did under 60 miles in the last 24 hours as we don’t do well sailing upwind.

Calms forecast for the next couple of days, which means we can motor straight there and do a bit better speed. Maybe miles in a day.

Then the wind should turn with us, but stay light. ETA in Flores is now Tuesday or Wednesday I think.

Saw some dolphins again today. Still not caught a fish though!

Getting in lots of chess, cards and movies. Weather is mostly sunny.

We have had a couple of days of high  speed close  reaching, breaking our previous record by making 185 miles in 24 hours.

Then we had 5 hours of total calm and drizzle.

Then the wind filled in again from the  south and today the sun came out again. Now we are doing a steady 5  knots.

Meanwhile we broke and repaired our  mainsheet traveler block.

Less than 400 miles to go now. Sun is  out, sea is fairly calm, all is well.

Except the wind is  forecast to  drop to zero again in a couple of days. So who knows when we will get  there.

Thursday, May 26, 2011, 04:00 GMT – 39 deg 10 min N, 040 deg 11 min W

On Wednesday night we were cruising along at a gentle three knots. The sea was calm and it was lovely sailing. But it wasn’t to last.

First the wind died.

The sea was glassy smooth, the sun bright and strong. It was perfect weather for sunbathing. Unfortunately it meant we weren’t getting anywhere. With no watermaker, and a limited supply of water we didn’t have the luxury of drifting along like Phillipe of Gaia did (yesterday he did just 25 miles in 24 hours!). It was time to turn on one of the engines.

By using just one at 2000 rpm we can make about 3.5 knots through the water, plus whatever help the wind gives us, and it uses just one litre an hour of diesel.

Adding the second increases our speed a knot, but of course doubles the consumption. And pushing it to 2500 rpm almost doubles it again. Not what we need to do on a long passage like this.

Then the current turned against us.

We seemed to have found an eddy in the gulf stream that was flowing 1 knot AGAINST us. By Thursday night we were making under two knots even when we had a gentle 4 kts of wind to help us.

We decided to steam resolutely north west, hoping to get to the regular gulf stream as soon as we could.

For a day and a half we steamed along. Now and then we changed engines as Offri was sleeping over the port one, so we would switch to starboard when he was sleeping.

And now and then we would furl or unful the jib depending on whether was absolutely no wind, or just almost no wind.

The target was 37 deg north. And, sure enough, when we hit it at 6pm last night our speed went from 2 kts to 4 kts – with no change in course, and no change in weather. At least now there was some prospect of actually arriving in the Azores one day!

Then, this morning at 5am the forecast wind arrived! The engines were turned off, the spinnaker hoisted, and now we were stomping along at 7 – 8 kts on beam reach.

The sun is shining, the sea is calm, but the wind is up and Life Part 2 is moving again.

Ah, the perfect sailing day.

Sunday, 22 May, 2011, 6:07am GMT – 37 deg 57′ N 052 deg 50′ W sailing at 7 kts with spinnaker and main up.

Here we are in our 3rd day of our crossing. So far we have done over 300 nautical miles. Latitude: 35 deg and 03 minutes N. Longitude: 59 deg and 34 minutes W. The weather has been great, the sun has been shinning and the full moon has brightened each and every night. Offri and I even took down the Spinnaker in the middle of the night…no flash light needed!

Ahh…the wind! Its only an average of 6-12knots. We could use more wind to speed us up, since we don’t like using the engines so much, but here we are just gliding along in the beautiful smooth waters at 5kts. Currently we are traveling north west, as the wind won’t allow us to go straight, but in the next day or two it should veer and give us a better direction.

Having such great weather, has allowed us to relax….we have enjoyed playing games, watching movies and reading some great books. One afternoon we got to watch the dolphins who came and glide along with us, there were so many I lost count as I was enjoying their performance so much.

But we still haven’t caught any fish, grrr.

To our families, who are so anxious, we can’t wait to see you on the other side!!!

And to the family we leave on this side…we love you and we will be back!!!

We filled up with water, checked out of customs, hoisted sail and off we went.

Once we got out of the harbour and settled down to a nice sail on a broad reach, I said, “What is that squeaking noise?”

Well, it turns out that the squeaking noise was the top of the davit post resting against the back of the arch, having broken its weld with the plate that actually attaches it to the ark. Since the davit holds up the dinghy we didn’t figure we should really leave it as it is for the long passage.

So back we went.

Checked back in with customs, who were really good and just tore up our exit forms, and then went to hunt for a welder on a Saturday evening.

First stop was Outerbridge Machine Shop, where the very friendly man who had made us some nylon pulley blocks on Friday night lived. He was just leaving with his family, but said come back in an hour. So at 6:30pm we walked up the fill with our two davit poles, and he said they would be ready for 9am today. How is that for friendly service!

Hopefully they will be, and we will be able to depart today.

Well, sort of. We woke up to a beautiful sunny day – and flat calm. Oh well. If we keep waiting for the right weather we will never leave.

Hopefully our next update will be from the high seas. But don’t panic – we will NOT be updating daily, so don’t worry if you don’t hear anything for a while.

 

I have just set up our blog so that I can post updates by email.

I will try to do so every now and again while we are on the crossing!

Well, we finally got the trampolines made, and various other bits of repairs done, and we are set to leave today.

The weather is not great: the first few days are with us (downwind), but very calm, then it turns against us, but still calm, so I don’t expect to have a very quick trip.

So, next stop the Azores…