"A journey is like a marriage. The certain way to be wrong is to think you control it."
- John Steinbeck
(6/5 email)
Hi
Everyone,
Crazy
24 hours for us.
Grandpa has been staring out at the big
blue ocean since we started the trip looking for whales. I can't even look at his eyes without crying
myself but yesterday afternoon his pain paid off. We were motoring in completely calm water
barely even a ripple when he shouted that he thought he saw a spout off to
starboard. Sure enough I confirmed it
and we altered course to try and get a better look. It took some time but up popped a mama Fin
Whale with her baby calf. The calf took
off and hid but the mom was feeding. She would take 4 or 5 big breaths and then
dive. She would stay down 5 or 10
minutes and repeat. We got pretty close
and Grandpa got some pictures. The mama
was way bigger than Midwatch.
We
motored on through the night and an hour before dawn my AIS alarm went off. Sure enough a ship was coming at me
again. It was about 15 miles away but
our current headings would result in a passing of 0.15 miles. Too close for me so I turned to
starboard. The ship passed within about
2 miles...good enough.
We
had a beautiful sunrise...so nice that I woke Grandpa up to see it. We took some pictures and had our coffee when
I realized I could see land. It was
Flores out in the distance. We were
still 70 nautical miles away!
That
lightened the mood and Grandpa decided to set the fishing lines. Twenty minutes later one of the rods went off and
we got ourselves a little Tuna. We had
him for lunch with Uncle Ted's chicken rub that works really well on fish. We have enough steaks for 3 or 4 more meals.
We
then motor sailed all day and into the early evening before we reached
Flores. The weather deteriorated during
that time and for nearly the entire trip we could not see more than small parts
of the island as it was shrouded in cloud and mist. Finally we reached the port and took the
sails in. When we dropped the main I
realized that we had broken some brackets that hold the sail to the mast. These are heavy duty ones that attach to the
battens and are must haves. This was a
result of them being old and worn but primarily from us leaving the sail up to
help steady us through the last two days of calm. The sail bangs back and forth and broke
itself. I know better and should have
set our storm trysail and saved the main.
This was a really devastating moment for me.
Anyway
we tied it up and motored into the marina area.
There was an outer area with 4 or 5 cruising sailboats anchored. It was
really exposed and looked uncomfortable, downright dangerous when the wind
is out of the north. We continued in to
the marina area to find it completely packed and so tight that we stopped and
backed out. I was done. To be honest I could care less about stopping
though Grandpa was really looking forward to visiting the Azores. He has been reading about the islands for
days. I ofcourse would rather stick
pins in my eyes than go through the entrance and exit formalities. I spent all day building up my courage to get
through it. We learned we would have to
visit all the authorities a second time before we could leave so I had resigned
myself, that the best we could do, would be to leave on Monday. This would give Grandpa enough time to
explore a bit.
Well
it wasn't to be. We idled out of the
harbor and started to try and figure out what to do. My first instinct was to head to Horta on
Faial (another island 125 NM away) where they have a better ability to get
parts. I set up the sat phone and went
about getting a weather report for that trip.
I sent Grandpa to the bow to look for parts to the sail and to try and
get a feel for our status. The results
were calm weather so we would likely be motoring and Gandpa figured we had
enough extra parts that we should be able to make the sail workable without
going to shore. I also got an email from
Kim that talked of ugly weather coming at the end of the weekend. The weather report caused us to think it would
be a bad idea to anchor at Flores.
Anchoring was looking to be a hassle because we had stowed anchor and
chain down under the bunks for better weight distribution and deploying and
then restowing the dingy is a massive undertaking. So we were left with Horta or buck up and
head straight for Ireland.
I
transferred fuel from our wing tank to main tank and found we have a full main
tank so we still have a sizeable amount of diesel though it goes fast when you
motor 24/7. We have lots of water and
lots of food...even fresh fish. We
looked at the long range weather as best I can.
I would have liked to have high speed internet for this but we wouldn't
get that until Horta. What I found is
that we have a few more days of variables and then some big stuff coming in,
over 30 kts, from the west all the way down to Horta.
Our
decision is to scrap the Azores and head for Ireland. We know we are going to get clipped by these
weather systems but we feel like we might get stuck for better than a week if
we go to Horta. We turned the boat North
Northeast and put up the storm trysail
and started the engine again. Our
current plan which will change due to weather and passage realities is to go on
a heading of 22 deg T and hold that the best we can over the next few days
until we hit 47 North latitude. From
there we will turn Northeast and head for Ireland. We should be in the westerlies then and have
a big current. Most of the routing books
recommend this approach. This also keeps
us more distant from the Bay of Biscay which is to be avoided if at all
possible.
The
only thing I am disappointed in is not being able to give Grandpa some time on
land in the Azores. From what we could
see it was lush and beautiful but their facilities for yachts were pretty
sketchy and we don't have time to fart around.
We needed space at the dock...period.
In
general we are much more in shape for what is to come. Grandpa is getting his sea legs finally. We have settled into healthier routines
(eating) as well. Tomorrow we will be
busy through the calm fixing the mainsail and prepping for heavy weather. I just hope we get enough wind to not have to
run the engine all the time. Though we
still have a lot of diesel we have a lot of miles to go (1400 nm). We anticipate around 10 or 11 days. A lot will depend on how we handle the
weather. We need to sail conservatively
because we have given our sails such a beating but if we are too slow we will
get hit more squarely with heavy weather.
Until
tomorrow,
Dad
and Grandpa
(6/6 email)
Hi
everyone,
We
hove-to for a couple of hours to effect some repairs. We rearranged some slides on the main
sail. Grandpa did the sewing...he is
good at that. I went through our
turnbuckles and exchanged the wimpy pins for stronger ones. A big ship stopped to see if we needed
help. That was pretty good of them I
thought.
Among our disappointments yesterday we got off our schedules and are
exhausted today...fighting over the settee it seems. We expect to get into much heavier weather in
a few days so we have a lot of things we want to do to try and prep for
that. We took care of the main sail and
the rigging. Next we need to work on
stopping water from getting into the v-berth through the windlass and a slightly
leaky hatch. I need to refresh the
composting toilet...never a fun job. The
engine is now due for an oil change. We
are running it a lot to get ourselves out of the variables.
All
for now,
Dad
and Grandpa
No comments:
Post a Comment