11 July 1996 Horta, Azores
We did a few jobs, filled up with water, tidied up, etc. We had a good NE15 wind today and the forecast is for the high to be to the north of us. We’ll probably have to go north for two days to pick up westerly winds. We watched total mayhem when “Crisden” and “Sea Lord” left. They had been drinking for four hours in Café Sport and were a little tipsy. Glenys cooked a stew ready for the first day on passage and we’re all set to go tomorrow morning.
12 July 1996 Horta, Azores
We were bad, bad, bad last night. At eight o’clock, after dinner (and a very reserved glass of red wine), we heard a jazz band at the bar. We strolled down, but they had temporarily finished. We decided to have a beer. Unfortunately, the band didn’t come back to play until ten o’clock, by which time we were into our 3rd beer... We decided that we wouldn’t bother sailing and stayed up drinking until well after midnight. Surprise, surprise we had hangovers this morning. We cancelled the day and mooched about.
I repaired the brakes on Brett’s bike; Glenys took the boys to the beach in the afternoon while I played the clarinet. It was a beautiful day and I wish we had left today. Glenys rang her Mum yesterday evening and spoke to Gareth! He’s back in the UK for a while and is hoping to come down to Southampton to meet us – I hope so, it’s been over a year since we saw him and Fi. Their daughter (Maia) is now 1 year old!
13 July 1996 Horta to Dartmouth, UK (Day 1)
Up early and tidied the boat up. Craig threw his bike away (awww!), I took Brett’s to bits and stowed it in the front cabin. We filled up with diesel. One of our diesel containers has leaked all over the deck, so we’ve now only got 5 spare containers which is about 120 litres. It took me half an hour to scrub the spilt diesel off the deck and ropes, etc.
We paid our bill and motored out into very calm seas. We hugged the shore of Faial and then headed towards Graciosa. By two o’clock, we had enough wind to sail and had a very pleasant beat into a 10 knot wind until six pm, when we started the engine while in the lee of Graciosa. Thirty minutes later we were able to sail again and had a pleasant sail up to midnight. The biggest problem has been the few mosquitoes that we have brought with us – the bastards kept buzzing me and I couldn’t sleep properly on my first off-watch. I hate mosquitoes!
14 July 1996 Horta to Dartmouth, UK (Day 2)
At about one o’clock, the wind veered to southerly so we were on a broad reach to hold our course of 070°M. The winds remained light but at least we were moving. At half past nine, I decided to steer 030°M as we need to get further north to try to find some more wind. There is also a SE setting current which is pushing us further east than I would like. At midday, I stopped the engine and poled out two jibs and we plodded along at 3 knots. Our 24 hour run of 100 miles was quite pleasing.
We’ve (once again) slotted into our routine and we’re constantly tired. Just after dinner, we spotted a pod of small whales. Two came over and swam under our bow, so we think that they were false killer whales. We could actually hear their song as they swam under the bow of Glencora. We had a pleasant sail at 3-4 knots up to midnight. Thankfully, we have no more mosquitoes – I hope that they’ve all flown off to their deaths!
15 July 1996 Horta to Dartmouth, UK (Day 3)
A very beautiful, starry night. It would only have been better if we had a full moon, but unfortunately we’ve timed it badly again and we are approaching a new moon. We had a slight bit of wind at dawn and dropped one of the jibs and put up the main. At midday, we were sailing straight at a big squall, so we reached on a course of 090°M for a couple of hours to avoid it. The rest of the afternoon was a pleasant broad reach. Nothing of note apart from my wonderful clarinet playing on the foredeck. Another pleasant sail until midnight.
16 July 1996 Horta to Dartmouth, UK (Day 4)
At three o’clock in the morning, we ran out of wind, so Glenys ran the engine until six o’clock. I spent 3 hours messing about trying to get some decent weather faxes. I’ve tried Offenbach, Northwood and Bracknell and I’ve got some good surface charts but not much in the way of projections. It looks like we are in the middle or west side of a high with a strong low tracking NE to the NW of us. There is a huge high over the UK. I expect to get light winds for the next day or so and then I think that we’ll get stronger winds associated with a front.
We spent all day bobbing along at 2-3 knots in very calm seas – very relaxing! At about seven o’clock, the wind died on us and we decided to motor through the night (unless the wind picks up).
17 July 1996 Horta to Dartmouth, UK (Day 5)
At midnight it looked like we had a bit of wind, so I turned the engine off and tried to sail. At one o’clock, I gave up and we motored until six o’clock, when we turned the engine off and stood still in a very glassy sea. Last night, the sea was so smooth that I could see the reflections of the stars in it. Very beautiful, but very frustrating!
I spent ages trying to get a weather forecast. It looks like we’ll have light winds for a while yet. We’re hoping to be home for Christmas! After breakfast, I cracked up when a Portuguese Man-of-War jelly fish overtook us and put the engine on again. At two o’clock, there was just enough wind to sail. We flopped along at 2-3 knots for an hour and then the wind died again and we hung around until dark.
I’ve started to do an hour’s clarinet practice before dinner, so this calm weather has some benefit! The boys keep asking “how many days until we get there?” - it’s the first time that they have taken a real interest in where we are going! The highlight of the day was spotting some whales breaching. They were too far away to identify correctly, but they were clearing the surface of the water so I suspect that they were false killer whales. At half past eight, we had just enough wind to sail but by eleven o’clock, Glenys had given up and started the engine again.
18 July 1996 Horta to Dartmouth, UK (Day 6)
At midnight, I managed to get us sailing again but only for an hour. We motored for the rest of the night. I was visited by a couple of dolphins who streaked through the water leaving a very bright phosphorescent trail behind them. Our tri-colour lamp on the top of the mast has failed so we had to run on our navigation lights. Dawn brought calm seas and blue skies (again!) There was a tantalising bank of clouds to the NE and the bit of wind that we had was from the north.
At half past six, we hadn’t reached 45°N, which is my current Holy Grail (I’m sure that there’s wind up there!). I’ve finally sussed out when and where to get some decent weather faxes covering current and 24 hour projections but 48 and 72 hour still elude me. I carried on motoring towards the line of cloud (4/8ths CuNi) in the hope of finding wind. At half past seven, I managed to start sailing in a N10 breeze just before the cloud line. By half past nine we had a big 2-3M swell from the NW with only a N10 breeze. There is a very big depression due at 45°N 60°W on the 20th (possibly the remnants of hurricane Bertha?) - I hope it swings North!
I had a busy morning, I went up the mast to change the tri-colour lamp, nearly caught a nice tuna but it jumped off the hook – oooh, I’m mad! Then I slept for 3½ hours – I needed that! We saw some big whales which we think were Sei whales. We put 4 containers of diesel in the tank. (I estimate that we have 165 litres in the tank and 24 litres in one container). We ran out of wind after lunch and slopped about, with no sails, all afternoon. We had a beer with dinner and started motoring at eight o’clock. No wind in sight, so just motoring NE at night to keep the morale up!
19 July 1996 Horta to Dartmouth, UK (Day 7)
We motored until three o’clock in the morning and then managed to start sailing at 2-3 knots. We had a beautiful sail North until dawn. The weather faxes show the SW12 wind that we have got – we’ve finally got to the North of the high (or rather, it’s gone South!) It looks like we’ll get a front through tomorrow with rain and a F4 wind from the South. The forward forecasts are for more fronts but with moderate wind – we’d better enjoy our last day of blue skies, I think.
The Magellan GPS has failed again – I suspect it needs a new power supply – my bodge job has obviously not worked. Again, thank God I bought the handheld Garmin GPS. We saw another pod of large whales, but we’ve no idea what they were – it was a big group of about 10-20 whales, but it was ¼ mile off and we only saw their backs and spouts.
After a lunch of tinned tuna sandwiches, we caught a 15lb tuna! I didn’t mess about with the net and landed it OK this time. It was a very hot afternoon, sailing along at 3 knots downwind - very, very pleasant. The wind stayed with us up to midnight, but it was very rolly.
20 July 1996 Horta to Dartmouth, UK (Day 8)
We rolled and rolled all bloody night with the main crashing and banging. Glenys picked up some weather faxes around ten o’clock and I analysed them at midnight . The first one (for the next 24 hours) shows a huge low at 45°N 65°W - we’re at 46°N 20°W. It’s <990mB and the Azores high is 1030mB so the isobars look terrible. This must be Hurricane Bertha – gulp! By the 22nd however, the Azores high should have dropped to 1016mb, diminishing the wind speeds considerably. I suppose air is rushing from the high into the low and equalising the pressures – fascinating and I’m glad it’s happening off Canada!
I sorted the sails out at daybreak. We had been sailing downwind with the genoa poled out to the leeward side. I steered 20° further upwind and gybed the main and voila! A lot less rolling – I must remember that. We had good wind all day and up to midnight. It’s about time that we got some miles in. I spent some of the day writing to-do-lists for the work we need to do over the next 4 months until the launch of Boat Net. It’s very frustrating waiting and waiting to get to Southampton.