Day 187 - Preparing for Real Weather

It is easy to forget about tropical storms and hurricanes once they depart the east coast, many of us forget that these same weather systems continue on across the Atlantic, sometimes even providing Europe with a feel for the tropics. I have been watching passage weather for days, warning Bob of an approaching system. Only after two things happened, a call from True World Marine (were they were preparing for Tropical Storm Andrea) and I opened CNN to see a map with the track of Andrea, the Tropical Storm, did I realize the system I was following was all related to the storm. I am afraid I have panicked Bob by mentioning the word hurricane. The map below is the wind forecast for Monday noon. I have been emailing an occasional weather map to Bob but it is very slow and cumbersome to send attachments on the satellite phone. Bob tried to download a hurricane track but found that unwieldy as well.The good news is there are people out there who can help with routing in situations like this and we have reached out and initiated the process to get a little help with this one.  We'll keep you posted.

Hi Everyone,

Moving north-northeast at a snail’s pace for the past couple of days.  Hardly any wind.  We have run through a fair bit of our diesel fuel so we either get wind or we sit.  We just got a wind shift and enough wind to make five kts over the ground towards our waypoint so that is good.  Hoping it lasts.  We also sailed out of a veil of clouds and mists that we have been wallowing in for the last three or four days and we finally had a little sun for the afternoon.  It really brightened the mood.  The Azores will always leave a bit of a sour taste for me.

We spent the morning doing prep work for heavy weather sailing.  According to the weather reports we will be wishing for calm instead of wind within the next 48-52 hours.  We think we have taken care of a number of weaknesses.  Mostly trying to stop small leaks and rebalance the boat as we have used up stores and diesel etc.

I made mushroom and pepperoni pizza today with chocolate chip cookies for dessert.  We are on our new time schedule using UTC which is the same as the old Greenwich Mean Time.   This should be the correct local time until we get to Norway.

I started going through navigation and route planning for our arrival in Ireland.  I usually rely on Kim for this stuff because she is so good at it and I think she really enjoys it.  Grandpa is zero help.  He thought Mark and I would do it and besides he is red/green color blind.  Also he can't see much unless he has his special whale watching glasses on.  He told me he is trying to retrain his eyes to see distance by not wearing his glasses.  I don't think anything on his body or mind is re-trainable.

As I am writing this a new wind is filling in:

            Current Position:
            20:22 UTC
            42 28 N
            29 16 W
            spd 6 kts
            Hdg 28 degrees True
            Wind 13 kts
             running a broad reach full main and full genoa at the moment it is very peaceful.

We have been seeing hundreds of dolphins today but they are not very social and many seem to be different species than we have seen so far.  In the calm water you can see all sorts of creepy jellyfish and worm like creatures, some that are eight feet long.  Looks like stuff you would see 10 million years ago.  We also saw three turtles today but strangely and sadly it looked like they were all dead.  One large ship passed about five miles in front of us.  We have one more meal of fish left in the box so grandpa tried to catch more today with no luck.  I think we have been moving too slowly to catch fish.

All for now,

Love Dad and Grandpa

Day 185 and 186 - Arrived/Departed!

       "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,

 Not much forward progress yet today.  Battling calms and what wind we get seems to be on the nose.  I guess that's sailing!

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

 

Day 184 - No wind and preparing for landfall

With no wind Bob is able to start preparing for landfall and is prepping paperwork for customs and immigration, checking on the correct flags, looking for anchorages, and digging out Euros. I did manage to find some Euros for them before they left NC, which isn't an easy task if you don't do your banking there. Eventually I was able to get them a tip packet from AAA which gives you a variety of bills in packets of $100 value. He has only one one-hundred-dollar-packet and since he left I cancelled the credit card after my email was hijacked. He does have some U.S. dollars so hopefully he can find some where to convert some to Euros before too long. Grandpa has a credit card too although we have been warned that there are not a lot of businesses that take credit cards. Hopefully we won't have to worry too much and they won't NEED too much money.

Hi everyone,

 The wind totally died on us.  Basically a zero...we have been motoring since midnight with no end in site.  137 miles to Flores! We hope to get in tomorrow before dark.  No way we will make business hours at this rate.  Worse case is we drift around all night and wait till Thursday AM.

Lots of dolphins again today.  We get visits 3 or 4 times a day now it seems.

Worked on cleaning the boat up, down below.  Lots of stuff is wet.  Cut my hair and Grandpa and I both had nice showers with all the engine heat.  Again, the new shower is great.

Put the American flag off the stern.  Need to get the paperwork and other flags etc. out. 

Love Dad

PS  Grandpa is sound asleep on his afternoon watch again.  Pretty quiet today though so we will let him.

 

 

***************************

Here is an excerpt from an email sent to Finn:

Grandpa wanted you to know that he found whales today.  He has been looking everyday until his eyes hurt for whales and finally today he saw some.  What he saw was a fountain of water shooting way up into the sky from their blow hole which is how they breath.  When I saw the whale blow I turned Midwatch and we motored closer.  We found a Mom and Baby Calf and they are called Finn Whales.  You should have Anna look up Finn whales on her tablet so you can see what they look like and learn more about them.  We got really close and the mother whale was bigger than Midwatch.  I saw grandpa get a little scared when the whale turned towards us once. 

 

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

Day 182

Just a few more days! It looks like they will arrive sometime on Thursday evening. 

The kids and I spent the day in Maine and were able to take a dinghy ride in the cove. It was nice to be back on the water, even for a few minutes. Finn told me today how much he likes being on the farm. He has been having great fun helping Uncle Kirk. He is a natural farmer with a real zeal for farm work, a positive attitude and a true love of the Earth. He told me today that he is looking forward to going to Kindergarten and he thinks there will be flowers there. Farmer or Seafarer?

      Hi Everyone,

The wind is shifting on us and we will change course when I finish typing and baking cookies.  I am out of control with this cooking thing.  Sausage, egg and cheese sandwiches for lunch!

Anyway, it was a beautiful day here.  Dolphins visited again...we expect them now.  We checked the weather and the storm I was worried about doesn't look to be a factor so we are a lot more relaxed.  Finally put a fishing line back in the water again.  First time since our first day exactly two weeks ago.  The water doesn't look very fishy here but we need to be ready as we approach the islands.

Found a new use for Mark the chair.  He is great to sit in while running downwind.  You can lean back and he holds your head while you watch for windshifts on the telltale at the top of the mast.  Very useful....Grandpa has  been parked there all day.

We are thinking of looping around to the north of the islands to prepare for some north winds coming later this week.  We would hate to have to short tack to reach our goal on the last day.

Checked the batteries today.  They needed lots of water.  The auto pilot is a serious energy hog but we can't live without it.  It’s like having three more people on board.

Hope all is well for everyone out there...

 

Dad and Grandpa

Day 181 - Portuguese on the Radio

All a long, Anna and I have been estimating Midwatch will arrive in the Azores on the eight but we are  beginning to think they will arrive even sooner. I think it is time to start thinking about those tickets to Ireland. I guess I better get serious on finishing up my list. They heard some Portuguese on the radio today, that must feel like they have got over the hump! 

Hi everyone,

Forgot to post our position yesterday and had to do an emergency text to Kimberly late last night.

Current Position:

              20:00 UTC / 4:00pm eastern Daylight Savings Time
              36 58.408 N
              41 37.206 W
              Spd 8 kts Course 81 True

Motor sailing full sail in 20 kts of sea, charging batteries and putting some miles in the bank after a long slow night.

Last evening we had a wind shift that headed us south and the only way to hold our course was to sail directly downwind.  This is generally our weakest point of sail with the sloop rig and because we blew out our new reacher/downwind sail "Big Blue" we were fit to be tied.  The best way to handle this point of sail is with the whisker pole on the genoa set "wing and wing".  Grandpa has a thing against the whisker pole and the thought of running this rig at night wasn't what he signed up for.  To add insult to the situation the air was moist and foggy so visibility was terrible.  We set off on our course and the boat flopped and the sails flogged so violently that it clearly wasn't going to work for us.  So we tried a few different things, in the end we went with the genoa alone with the whisker pole.  We were only doing 2.5 kts but we had a positive 1 kt current so we managed about 3.5 kts all night....it sucked.

Anyway with the morning light we were able to set full sail wing and wing and watch it close to avoid accidental jibes.  Midwatch settled in and we did 6.5 kts for hours.  Then a shower came through and the wind clocked around to the starboard quarter just enough to allow for a broad reach.  We set off and ran the motor to charge the batteries.  I am hopeful that this wind will get us most of the way to the Azores.

Of note: we saw a container ship today and were visited in the morning by a pod of a dozen dolphins.  The VHF radio has come to life again with lots of chatter in what we think is Portuguese so it really feels like we are getting somewhere.

Then the most amazing thing I have ever seen happened.  Grandpa "cooked" lunch on the stove.  He did pretty good too.  He started to give me all kinds of s...t about how he would have cooked before if he knew where stuff was and so on and so forth.  In any case I am proud of him for that moment.

We haven't taken many pictures because it doesn't really look like much on film out here and we are getting pretty shaggy to say the least.  Grandpa invested $16 in a bag that contained 4 pairs of cargo short type things made of sweat pant material.  He says he is just going to throw them over the side when he is done.  They are cut wide and square and though they are technically shorts they reach to his ankles.  They are the most god awful things you have ever seen but he is extremely proud of his purchase.  They also have numerous large pockets to which he has been adding tools and headlamps and snacks and such.  I think he is using the stuff as ballast as the pockets are around his ankles.  He hasn't gotten his sea legs yet and I fear he won't before the trip is done so maybe the pocket ballast idea isn't so bad after all.  Maybe I will snap a picture when he isn't looking.

On the boat repair front I have been trying to find the source of all the little leaks we never knew we had.  My rudder bearing work is not leaking but there are some small cracks in the fiberglass in that general area that are.  I don't think it is anything serious but I will need to try and attend to it as soon as possible.

The radar wouldn't work last night.  It is my most loved and hated piece of equipment.

Our propane sensor got doused in bilge slop and is in continuous alarm mode.  I rinsed it in freshwater today and hope it dries out and works again.  We will see.  Everyone's favorite topic the "composting toilet", is performing admirably.  We have had to keep the toilet ventilation shut off most of the time but with just the two of us it doesn't  seem to be a problem.  It is entirely possible that the boat reeks and we have no idea.  We will see if the customs officials in the Azores linger down below or not.

Our water tank still reads full.  We have been so conservative in our water usage that we could probably do three loops around the entire Atlantic on one fill up.  Since we ran the engine today giving us hot water I think we can declare a shower night tonight.

The most difficult part of the trip continues to be getting through the nights with so little sleep and keeping our sorry selves fed.  During the day we seem busy and happy enough and don't nap when we should.  There is more excitement building that the Azores are within reach.

Today we opened the new book on the Azores that Kim got us before we left.  On the third page was a map with the counter ocean currents that we have been experiencing and text saying we should be further north.  The problem has been there are storms further north.  I will take the counter currents over the storms any day...and today we have a 1 kt positive current.

All for now,

Love Dad and Grandpa

Day 180

Bob's email:

Hello Everyone,

Doing much better today.  Couple of good meals and a broad reach and an escape from the worst counter current you can imagine and life is good again.

Had a period yesterday when I wasn't sure there would be two of us on the boat when we got back to the dock.  Fortunately Dad and I have been through these types of things before...but nothing like feeling like you are 16 years old again!

Anyway, I wanted to be sure to assure all those out there named Mark that Grandpa was in no way implying anything even slightly negative about the use of the name Mark for his new chair.  He would never do that!

Yesterday afternoon the furling line for the genoa chafed through again.  That didn't help the moral either.  I can't begin to describe the tensions that this boat must endure to get us across this water.  Anything that isn't run perfectly smooth is doomed.

Anyway, it calmed way down and the sea flattened last evening.  We were able to set the genoa and main full and sail close hauled on flat seas.  It was glorious.  Grandpa slept like the dead and I actually made him a hot meal.  I touched on this yesterday but the most difficult part of this voyage is getting good nutrition.  I am making a conscious effort to battle this.  Anyway, I woke Gandpa up for his evening watch with a couple of hot salami melts with fresh baked cookies for dessert.  He was barely awake when he ate them but I think they helped him a lot.  I cleaned up and hopped in bed and of course just then the wind completely died.  So it was back on deck in my underwear.  We dropped the genoa off its furler so we could do repairs in the morning and started the engine and steered back on the rhumb line for the Azores.  We used the radar to skirt around some thunderstorms that we chased throughout the night.  We also saw evidence of boats on both our port and starboard but never saw any lights or marks on AIS...seemed suspicious!

This morning we woke to lots of sunshine and continued motoring.  We had a big breakfast of bacon, eggs and toast and two cups of coffee and an orange and then had a visit by a pod of 5 dolphins (we never tire of these things).  We also passed a buoy and a high flyer (radar stick) for a long line.  So it was fisherman out sneaking around  last night.  Then we went to work on our furler(we are real tired of the furler). We tried a different approach to the furler mechanism and put a bigger diameter rope on which should be easier for Kim to pull.  We ran the genoa back up through the foil on the furler and just then the wind came up out of the south and off went the engine.  We have been sailing a perfect broad reach all afternoon of 12-15 kt winds and at this moment life couldn't get much better.  I am able to type on the computer and everything is flat as it should be.  Most days I have to keep my feet on the wall to stay wedged in to the navigation desk.

According to the weather file I downloaded yesterday I should be in calm winds and motoring so we feel blessed by the wind god today.  I transferred 10 gallons of diesel down into the tanks which gets some weight off the deck.  Grandpa has started to study how to splice these new braided ropes I think both of us would have as much luck trying to solve the rubik's cube.  Ah, as I am writing this the wind piped up to 17 kts., bet we will be reefing down tonight as we are expecting the winds to freshen.

All for now,

Dad and Grandpa