201005 Bermuda to Azores, Atlantic Crossing

20100519 Bermuda departure day. BobS and MarkL arrive at 3PM, and the weather prediction says we must depart asap upon their arrival, or wait for at least 1 week. The difference could be favorable vs unfavorable winds, comfortable vs uncomfortable conditions, and possibly 15 night voyage vs the 10 nights planned. None of us are happy about it.
MarkJ does not depart until tomorrow, so after a breakfast ashore in a true "locals" spot, we get MarkJ checked into Aunt Annies Inn, and Mark and I do some more provisioning while Rita does boat cleaning and prep.
Our friend, MarkR who sailed with us from Galapagos to Panama is also coming in tomorrow coincidentally to help sail another boat back to the US- and we will greatly miss seeing him.
Bob and MarkL (too many Marks!) arrive in Bermuda and get to the dock aobut 3:30PM, and we head directly to the Customs House on the dock to clear aVida and ourselves out of Bermuda. 5 people in the dinghy plus luggage, we get back to aVida, get settled in, hoist the dinghy onto the aft deck, and make way for the Shell fuel dock to top off the tanks. Diesel here is Expensive- by far the most yet. $1.60 per liter or about $6.40/gallon x 200 gallons is a lot of bucks.

17H30 (5:30PM). We push off the fuel dock, and head out the Town Cut for the open ocean once again, setting the sails once we are in deep water. Winds are 15-18 knots on the Stb beam, and the sailing is good. Night falls quickly.
We always put 1 reef in the main and genoa (25% reduction of sail area) for night sailing to be safe, but this slows boat speed by only about 10%.
Today at about noon, 20 sailing yachts departed Bermuda before us as part of the ARC (Atlantic Race for Cruisers)- about 5 hours before us. By 2AM, we begin to pass ½ of the ARC fleet. The boats seem to be spread apart with 2 mile gaps, and any way we go we have to weave our way, at night, through this picket fence of obstacles. We can spot them on radar at about 6-8NM, and at night can see their lights at about 2-3 miles. We pass boats with less than 1 NM clearance- a bit close for night work- we would never do that with a freighter. With new crew on board, I don't get much sleep this night, even when it is my time off watch

Dawn comes about 5am, Bermuda time. We will keep our systems and logs on Bermuda time until we arrive in Azores. By 5PM, we pass 6 more ARC boats.
We make 227NM first day (24 hours)

20100520 17H30 Day 2. MarkL and Rita make an excellent dinner, with vino of course. After dinner, we play the card game Euker (sp??)

What great sailing. Winds build to 17-24 knots true. Boat speeds increase from typ 10 knots, up to 13-17.4 knots. This is a Lot of Fun, but I feel that it is a bit too close to the edge for this crew, our purpose, and for relaxation. If we were racing and wanted to babysit the sheets for safety, ok,, but we are not. And it is hard on the boat and crew. So we reef the main, and still maintain 10 knots with bursts to 13 in 16-18 knots of true wind for a while. Of course, once we reef, the winds soften again, but we keep the reef in for the night.
The night sky is fairly clear, and the number of stars visible out here is amazing. Every 15 minutes when on watch, we go outside to visually look for lights (boats), and it is often awesome to gaze at the stars.

Dawn comes earlier each day as we push eastward. Dawn is about 5am- the fist light when you can clearly see the horizon, and the cloud line above it in the distance, about 40 minutes before the sun actually comes up.
Winds are still strong, and we continue on making good time with reefs in the sails.

After another great breakfast with the last of DaveK's home-made smoked bacon and sausages. I comment to the guys that there is probably a lot of sea life that we pass by because we are not looking, Moments later, Bob shouts out- "There's a Big Splash, might be a whale". Sure enough, 2 or more whales are broaching in the distance off the port bow, their bodies leaving the water until they crash with a great splash.

Another presumably ARC boat comes up on the horizon, just off our port bow. Our radar target tracking shows he is doing 6.5 knots; we are doing 11. We saw a J110 or J-something way in front of the fleet at the starting line yesterday- this is probably the last of the ARC boats.
We make 246NM this day.

20100521 17H30 Day 3. Weather forecast shows a cold front advancing on us from the NW. For the night we reef again, just in case this front brings wind gusts.
It is an uneventful night. No targets on radar or visual sightings.

During the day, we see a few dolphins, a few man of wars, and several birds, but not much life otherwise. Winds are softening, while we wait for the advancing cold front to pass through from the NW- it should have been here by now, but winds continue as they have been.. The sky is very overcast, and some rain clouds pass us and wash some of the salt off the boat.
We download "GRIB" weather data from the internet each day, and can superimpose the wind, wave and currents data on the chartplotter on my PC. Our course is plotted, and we can move the timeline 10 days in advance, to see what the predicted weather will be at each point on our estimated course. This helps us plan our route to avoid unfavorable winds (too strong, too weak, or on the nose). Each day we do 1 or more course adjustments to optimize.

Bob tries some fishing while we are sailing at 8 knots. No strikes after a few hours, no instant gratification, so Bob pulls the line in. Rita and I have lost the excitement for catching, killing and carving up fish- we would rather buy fish from fishermen who do all the dirty work, and they need the money. But any crew who wants to fish can have at it, so long as they kill and clean it.

We spend a lot of time reading books and magazines. Rita is still working (most days) on planning for the AVID 25th anniversary event- guest list, event details, pics for a slide show, music for the band breaks, anniversary polo shirts, etc.
We make 214NM this day.

20100522 17H30 Day 4
Each of our 24 hour "days" begins at 5:30PM, the time we left Bermuda. We have another excellent dinner and play more cards.
And another night on watch with no radar targets or visual sightings. Nobody else is out here! Winds soften further, and once we make less than 7 knots, we tend to motorsail with 1 engine on. So, we motorsail through the night.

Dawn comes in at about 4:30AM, earlier each day.
The GRIB weather data we download is a prediction of course, and generally is fairly indicative of what happens within 24 hours. 48 often changes. And 10 days out is a far fetched guess- but it does show the presence of high and low pressure cells around us, their direction of travel, and a likelihood of what will happen- not exactly when though.
The coming cold front is now late by about 1 day. Not that we are complaining. This has given continued favorable broad reaching conditions and good speed.
But right after dawn, the winds shift from Stb to Port, and increase gradually to 22 knots true. Great! We are sailing again!! The problem is, the winds are from the ENE, and that is the direction we want to go. A sailboat can only sail to within about 45 degrees of the true wind angle. So we sail as close to the wind as we can, which takes us ESE, well off or our desired course.
We are making about 7.5-8 knots of boat speed, going the wrong way. The waves are 6 foot sloppy chop, and some of them pound into aVida, sometimes slowing forward motion to under 6 knots.
We had been on track to have an 8-9 night voyage, arriving May 28- most sailboats do this trip in 15-20. Now our ETA says May 30-31. 9 days.
So, we turn on one engine and motorsail at 20 degrees apparent wind angle to avoid going so far off our course. This wind is expected to continue through tomorrow, and that would be a long way off course.


20100523 17H30 Day5 The watch system we have been using is 2 hour shifts, starting at 10PM. 10-12, 12-2, 2-4, 4-6. Bob and MarkL take turns with shifts 1 and 2. Rita takes shift 3, and I take shift 4. As we move eastward, we are crossing at least 2 time zones (need find out what time zone Azores is), and dawn comes earlier each day.
So tonight we move the shifts up 1 hour, starting at 9pm. Shifts 1 and 4 are the best- they get 6 hours of uninterrupted sleep.
There are no radar targets or sudden wind changes to deal with, so I am not woken up all through the night as often happens when we are in high traffic areas. The sleep is good, and we nap during the day also.
Dawn comes 4am (still on Bermuda time); actual sunrise is about 4:40. We spot a whale in the distance. Several dolphins near the boat.


20100524 17H30 Day6 The winds are still too close to our course, and too light to sail, so we are motor sailing still, with mainsail only, for 3 days now. We are down to 40% of our diesel now, and do not have enough to motor the rest of the way if we had to.
We are banking on the weather forecasts that predict we will have good wind for the last 3 days of the trip. This high pressure cell we are in is supposed to be displaced by a giant low pressure cell tomorrow afternoon, that will bring us 19-27 knot winds on our aft quarter, all the way to Azores. This should provide an exciting ride.

In the meantime, there is not much to do. We eat, we read, we sleep, we play cards a lot.
Bob pulled out the trash bin in the galley, to find out why it was binding when you try to open it. He found a ball bearing slide out of place, cleaned and lubricated the 4 sets of slides, and it works great now.

Rita is reading a book about an 18 year old girl who sails around the world solo.
I am downloading weather, planning our course, calculating fuel budget. Also studying the pilot books for Spain to find harbors and marinas that can take a big catamaran during high season in the Med. One book says that there are 20,000 boats on waiting lists to get into marinas in the Med- and most boats are smaller monohulls and powerboats, due to the shortage of dock and mooring space. This, and the language barriers, are a bit of a concern.

Each sunset and sunrise is a beautiful thing, hanging above the dark sea and waves.
Dawn comes at 3:40am (Bermuda time). We will change our clocks to Azores time when we arrive.
ETA is May 29 morning, at present speed. But with the expected winds at the end of the voyage, we will likely arrive May 28. That is 9 days, for a voyage that takes most sailboats 15 to 20 days.

With the dawn, we must have woken up on the wrong side of our bunks. In the daylight we notice that many of the battens in the mainsail have come apart. We need to motor into the wind, well off course, lower the main, then raise it batten by batten to do the repairs. Bob and I work together to do this; fight to get the 2 sections of each batten out of the pocket in the main; Mark helps me epoxy the joining metal link to one of each batten sections (they were taped together and the tape separated); then Bob and I reinstall each batten and he lashes each one in. Etc. This takes about 2 hours.
While we are doing this, the port engine begins running erratically and rough- so we switch to the stb engine, and put off that issue until later.
While we are working with the main, I pull too hard on the lazy jack control line and pull the pulley out of the mast at the bottom. A jury rig solves that for now.
And while we are raising the main, Rita torques down on the main topping lift with a bad lead angle, and breaks a part of the Spinlock cleat.
What a morning. Using a metal strap from a hose clamp and some bolts, am able
to fix the Spinlock so it stays together.
Then Bob and I look at the port engine. Fluids are good. Vacuum guage on the Racor fuel filter does not show a clog there. We prime the fuel system- it does not appear to have air in it. We replace the secondary fuel filter on the engine itself, in the chance that it might be clogged. The engine starts and runs fine. No way to tell if this demon has been banished, or if it is still waiting to surprise us at the worst moment. (in Spain we learn that bad Galapgos diesel is growing bacteria cultures and our diesel tanks look like septic tanks inside- another story later..)

Our winds have come in, 18-31 knots from the west, over the stern. We should be able to sail the rest of the voyage. This boat does not like to sail directly downwind, unless we set the spinnaker. And with night coming, we don't want to nurse this sensitive sail. So we head into the wind again, douse the main and secure it, head back downwind, and set the genoa and the jib "wing in wing", each sail on opposite tacks. This is a very stable configuration for night sailing downwind, and we are still making 9-13 knots, in 16 to 30 knots of wind.

Not exactly a relaxing day, but as evening approaches, the boat is stable and comfortable.


20100525 17H30 Day 7 begins.
We have moved dinner up to 6pm Bermuda time, and watches start at 8pm, because we have actually moved 2 time zones ahead. Darkness falls before first watch, and the sun has been rising in the 4th and last watch. We are crossing 3 time zones sailing to Azores (Azores is GMT-1). Dawn brings dolphins off the bows, and later shark sightings.



2000526 17H30 Day 8 begins.
Good winds, lots of dolphins. Bob never played cards before, but he is now a card shark, and he and Mark play cards most of the day. We all run out of cigarettes, but Bob has like 2 packs left. So Bob rules the boat now, and he rations very fairly to everyone.
We fly the spinnaker for exciting broad reach sailing. Back to wing-in-wing for the night. A great pork chop dinner cooked by Rita.

20100527 17H30 Day 9 begins.
Sailing the spinnaker through the afternoon, we keep it sailing into the night watches- something was usually say we will not do. Of course, the winds build, and the boat speed goes over 20+ knots. Bob is on watch, I am trying to sleep, and the boat sounds are getting a bit loud and intense trying to sleep below. Rita and Bob are on watch and they agree to wake me up, because of their due condern. When I come up to the pilothouse, Bob is sitting there with bulging eyes and a look of well justified concern on his face. Yep, its time to take the spinnaker down. Up on the trampoline, I am just not heavy enough to pull the spinnaker sock down over the sail, even with the sheet eased all the way- Bob comes forward and it takes the 2 of us to get the sock down over the spinnaker. As Rita is easing the halyard to drop the spinnaker onto the trampoline, it gets away from her totally, and the beam winds blow the whole sail and sock over the port beam into the water, dragging behind the boat now. Bob and I struggle to pull the sail back over the lifelines onto the deck, and we hear a "crack" sound that is another stanchion base separating from the hull. (this is probably the primary design/ construction weakness in the whole boat). Finally we get the sail into the forward bow locker, and all the lines cleaned up. What a night.
The next day brings lots of card playing, some fun conversations, Bob and Mark take a ride in the dinghy on the aft deck for a funny photo-opp.


20100528 17H30 Day 10 begins.
Good winds, 26T, speed 8-10 with 16 Kt bursts. 2 reefs in main and genoa. Dolphins. Cards. Watched Captain Ron, our role model. Played music and danced.
Sunrise brings Land Ho. We dock at the customs dock, fuel, move to our berth. Take laundry in. Naps. Clean up the boat. Dinner ashore. Night out with Bob and Mark at the local cultural center for music and dancing. :)


20100529 08H00 arrival in Sao Miguel, Azore. 9 days + 15 hours.
Overall, it was a Great voyate! It was a safe, with several exciting moments, and no disasters. A great time was had by all. Bob and MarkL, who had never met before we introduced them, became great friends on board and back in USA. It was a very positive experience for all.

Seymour and Linda arrive today to join us for the voyage to the Med. Will have a few days with a full house- Bob, MarkL, Seymour and Linda. Next blog entry covers exploring Sao Miguel, Azores.