Ocean Sailors

Arrival Falmouth.

All fast in Falmouth was at 0900 on the 15th June giving us a passage time of just under 8 days.

So the statistics for the leg from Terceira to Falmouth
Total miles sailed 1324M
Average speed 7 knots
Engine hours 74
Generator hours 6
Fuel burnt 170 litres
Liferafts sunk 1

We managed to avoid any headwinds until we reached Lizard Point when we had a good beat in light conditions for the last 15 miles up into Falmouth Harbour.

The total distance that the boat has sailed since the beginning of the Atlantic Circuit is 10,075 NM. I had to reset the Garmin GPS log as it would not read distances over 10,000 NM.

As we were approaching the Lizard there were 38 yachts heading the other way! It turned out that it was the 'solitaire du figaro' race heading to the Fastnet rock from Plymouth. It was quite a shock to see so many yachts after seeing none since leaving Terceira.

After arriving we cleaned up the boat, had a snooze, and went to a pub for dinner. It was one of my favourite pubs actually, the Pandora up Restronguet creek (a quick RIB ride away). It was a lovely summers evening with a Jazz band playing, a fantastic end to the day and indeed the trip.

It had been a fairly uneventful passage up until Friday 13th! I was on deck in the afternoon and noticed a black shape in the water about 300m away on the port bow. I went over to investigate and found it was an empty liferaft. The conditions were dead calm so we reversed up to it and got the serial number and make. We approached very slowly being careful not to let any of the lines get anywhere near our propeller. I then phoned Falmouth Coastguard, on the sat phone,who took down all the details and said they would get back to us.
In the meantime we set about trying to sink it to remove the hazard to other vessels. Tom put a long slit in each of the chambers but a couple of pockets kept it afloat. These turned out to be part of the survival thermal protective aids with their bubble wrap coating being particularly buoyant. After extracting this kit it eventually went down. I have never had to sink a liferaft before and it is more difficult than you would think!

We managed to salvage a lot of the survival equipment before sinking it which we will sort out in Falmouth and see what is worth keeping.
After 20 mins Falmouth Coastguard phoned back and said that the liferaft was lost from a ship in heavy weather on May 23rd. The serial number we gave them matched the one they had on file. So with this information we were content there was nobody in distress and we got on our way. Photos of the liferaft and it sinking will follow once we get to Falmouth. It took two hours from spotting it to getting on our way again.

All our other news is far less exciting than the liferaft saga.....
There has been very little wind so we have been motoring with a little help from the sails on occasions for the past few days. Reassuringly we still have plenty of diesel.
Last night the wind filled in from the north and the fog cleared around 1900 giving us a great close reach in flat seas and good boat speed until now. It's good not to hear the engine.
We have just crossed the continental shelf so we are now in shallower water with more traffic around. It can be quite rough on the continental shelf when the wind is blowing as the depth changes from 3600m to 100m in as distance of approximately 60 miles. With these calm conditions we have hardly noticed it.
As we approach the English Channel the water has been changing colour from that deep blue you get in the tropics to the grey murk you get in the channel. A sure sign that we are nearing home.
Having been away from tidal waters for quite some time it will be quite a shock to get back into it. There will be no gentle introduction either as the day we arrive will be springs.
Tom's latest excuse for his bread being less than artisan quality is the fact we had to change the gas bottle halfway through baking.
ETA Falmouth is Sunday 15th (tomorrow).

48 30N 011 17W Days run 170 (mainly due to a bit of favourable current and motor sailing)
Patchy fog
Light airs
Let's hope Friday 13th is not too unlucky for us!

All good on board, just finished pancakes for brunch.
1200 UT position 47 22 N 014 48W Days run 175
Distance to Falmouth 450 miles
We managed to sail from 1300 yesterday until 1030 this morning. The wind picked up to 15-20 knots overnight so we were able to get some good speed. The wind is now down to 6 knots and we are motor sailing again.
We have seen no other vessels since leaving Terceira.

Terceira to Falmouth

1420 UT 45 53.7N 017 43W days run 163. 600 miles to go.

"Lizard activated". No, this isn't the set-up for an episode of Dr Who but the navigation equipment telling us that we're now heading for the UK and a waypoint just off Lizard point. (Tom is still looking for a Lizard running around the boat)

We left Terceira after lunch a few days ago on Saturday the 7th of June along with four other yachts all heading in the same direction. As we cleared the island it began to get a bit rough! Whilst the wind was only 20 knots there was a big swell left behind from the storm which has just passed. We made good progress with a good breeze just abaft the beam and the sea gradually flattened out to give us some great sailing conditions to start with.

Each day we download the weather forecast (or 'GRIB') at lunchtime and it has changed quite significantly from the forecasts we were looking at before leaving. As a result we've just spent 36 hours motor sailing in light airs. It seems we had all our luck with the wind on the leg from Bermuda to Horta. It could be a lot worse, we are still able to make some progress whilst enjoying the calmer conditions!
Having previously snapped the Hydrovane rudder shaft we thought we would miss it on this leg but actually it has not been a problem so far, with light conditions in which we would not have used it anyway.
We have been receiving a good fresh water wash down over the past few days with some persistent periods of rain, drizzle and fog.
Two humpback whales appeared only 10m ahead of us on Monday. Will had to take some avoiding action to ensure we did not collide! It looked like they were parent and child judging by the sizes. Tom was, unfortunately, in the shower at the time and missed the whole performance.

The wind has now picked up to 11 knots on the starboard quarter. This has given us the opportunity to set the spinnaker and try to get to Falmouth before the looming north easterly wind builds too much.

Our current position is 43 51N 020 23.5W 
Distance to go 730nm Days run 132
Currently motoring at 1800 RPM into a 3 kt headwind but hope to make better progress with more breeze soon. We sailed up until 2200 last night when we started motoring / motor sailing. It was very foggy and damp over night but better now.I have calculated that we have enough diesel on board to motor all the way to Falmouth if necessary, let's hope we don't have to do that! All well on board.