Day 183 - 300 Miles (240 NM) To Go and Some REAL Excitement!

We waited a long time today for Bob's email, anxiously waiting for a question asked nearly two days ago, "When do you think you will get to Ireland?" Bob is checking/sending email once per day so a message sent out after he checks email for the day is received the following day and the response is sent the day after that. In our technical age, a two-day wait seems an eternity. We spent time after dinner this evening looking at photos of Flores; Anna and I are both sad we won't be there with the Bobs.

Greetings from Midwatch!

Had quite a scare during my mid watch on Midwatch.  The ocean was pretty calm but I had a nice wind of around 17 kts with a full set of sails.  Our watch schedule doesn't conform with local time.  We are still using eastern daylight savings time (about 2:30 AM).  Don't ask!  Anyway, pretty sure I was slipping in and out of sleep and it was getting pretty close to dawn because I could see the horizon just fine when all of a sudden I see the side of a ship come out of my blind spot made by the mast and genoa and dingy etc.  I was less than 100 feet from the boat (small cargo ship).  I jumped up and hit the dodge button on the auto pilot and swung the wheel to port, watched the ship slip by and listened to its engines rumbling.  There were lots of lights and I could clearly see in the windows but I didn't see any people.  After the ship passed I had to swing sharply to starboard to cut through its wake.  I hollered down to Grandpa to be ready for wakes but he never woke up.  I was shaking in my boots for some time.

 Later today I pulled out the radio manual and set up an alarm for the AIS feature that should alert me to commercial vessels.  Our radar should be able to do the same but it only seems to work intermittently and uses so much energy it is not that practical.  When going through the AIS settings I found that it was set to alert for vessels 10 miles away or closer by default.  I also changed that to the max.  I think 25 miles.  Anyway now I need to get close to a ship to test it out and see if it works.

We are now heading for the closest island to us in the Azores called Flores.  It is currently only 240 nautical miles away.  I would like to get to the dock before dark on Wed.  We will need our speed up to make it and so far the wind is not cooperating.  They call the area we are in the variables (variable wind) for good reason.  If we miss it we either have to heave-to all night and wait till morning or consider continuing on to Faial which adds another 130 nautical miles and quite possibly the same situation "a dangerous night time arrival".

Flores looks interesting...fewer people and less touristy.  It is also said to be the most beautiful of all the islands.  Its position might be better for the next part of our journey to Ireland.  We will probably stay for only a couple of days and then continue to Ireland unless weather dictates we linger.  So maybe we will head for Ireland Saturday or Sunday depending on weather.  I would anticipate a solid 10 days to get to Ireland assuming we don't have storm or equipment delays.  That should put us into Ireland between the 17th and 19th.

We will have to figure something else out for repairing big blue.  I am sure there will be options in Ireland and beyond.

FYI, Grandpa made grilled cheese/salami sandwiches and I am pretty sure it will be his first and last meal of his own making.  Today he is a little sick.  Not sure if it is because he ate a bag of dried apricots for breakfast or from our general lack of cleanliness, probably both.  Can't wait to give him back to Grandma, he is a lot of work to take care of.

Goodnight,

Dad and Grandpa