We ended up leaving Bermuda the day after our last minute crew Lawrence arrived, two days behind the European ARC Rally. The "plan" (they tend not to work) was to be ahead of the 30+ boats that were in the Rally, but we had fun listening into their net and slowly catching up and passing a fair number of them. We became boat "buddies" across the pond with numerous boats, the majority of whom were ARC boats that we were able to talk to over our VHF radio as long as they were within approx. 30 miles. It has been fun getting to know them since we have been in Horta.
The trip took 15 days, instead of the 13 we anticipated. It would have been 12 to Flores, but we decided the winds were more favourable to head straight to Horta on Faial Island (132 miles East), the most Westerly of the Central group of the Azores Islands. Our new Furuno 3D Navigator, AIS and Radar worked well and we were seen (and saw) quite a few tankers who we enjoyed chatting to. One was full of boats going to Southampton.
Winds? Well we had a bit of everything, apparently very unusual for this time of year. The Westerlies we needed tended to be from the East (we were happy when they went North East) and the wind was all over the place, one minute at 90 degrees 10 knots the next minute 360 at 20!! We were becalmed twice, the first time we did a bit of motoring, but the second we just sat it out, enjoyed playing cribbage and learned how to be patient waiting for the wind to catch us up. The most wind we had was for about a day when we got a steady 30-35 knots gusting to 44 maximum; although the seas luckily never got more than approximately 15 feet. It was exciting stuff and Ta-b looked after us really well. The maximum she clocked was 15.7 knots and our best days sailing was 211 miles.
It was cold, half way across Russell and I joked about turning around and heading back to Bonaire. I got up to wearing seven layers and wore the same two fleece tops for most of the journey, as they were all I had!! So much for the one tack, shorts and T-shirt trip that our friends had last year!!
Dick and Russell did the two hardest watches and I got the second to easiest as I did most of the cooking. I am not a morning person, but I must admit I really enjoyed the quiet time from 4 to 7 am and lucked out most of the trip getting to see some incredible sunrises (see photos). The sea was beautiful, sapphire blue turning to turquoise when it was rough and breaking. We saw also lots of flotsam and are now the owners of a huge pink fender we picked up on the way.
There were always birds (even at night which surprised us), turtles, porpoises, dolphins and lots of Portuguese men of war jellyfish. At the beginning the nights were pitch black, but towards the end we started to have some moon lit nights (my favorite) and the phosphorescence off the back of the boat was amazing. Ta-b became lovingly known as the freight train; with her two hulls steaming along when at 10 knots you looked aft she left tracks behind her.
It was an amazing experience, different for each of us, but for myself I enjoyed the excitement, the peacefulness, the time for reflection and relaxation, the lessons learned and of course being able to get so close to nature. Quite something and one I look forward to doing again. Russell was an awesome skipper and did a terrific job of preparing the boat. Unlike probably 50% of the ARC boats that came limping in with problems after problems we had none.
We are currently in Horta and are planning on moving on shortly when Lawrence flies back to Vancouver. It is a lovely island, reminding us of Cornwall in England, although it is still .... Cold!! We are keen to move on to warmer waters and will probably sail for Portugal within a week, once we have checked out a couple more islands.
Our next blog will be from there. In the meantime enjoy the photographs, please remember to leave a comment - we do so love them and makes doing this worthwhile. Much love from Ta-b