Leg 2 Start; Shazam Leading Way Through St. George's Town Cut

With Shazam reprovisioned and all other last minute checklist items completed, we were now ready for the next leg of the ARC Europe which would take us from Bermuda to the Azores. Of the three legs in the Atlantic crossing, this was by far the longest at nearly 2000 miles, and we expected it to be the most challenging. The rally start for this leg was inside St. George's harbour and the fleet had to pass through the narrow entrance, Town Cut, that connected the harbour with the Atlantic Ocean. It was great seeing all the rally boats sailing around the harbour prior to the start and we crossed the line in 3rd place. From our position at the far leeward end of the line, we were able to then point up to the harbour entrance with good speed passing through the narrow gap into first place, leading the fleet out into the Atlantic Ocean. It was an amazing sight as we looked back and saw the rest of the fleet bunching up through the Cut. There was a lot of shouting between the boats as they maneuvered to avoid contact, but as far as we could see, everyone passed through without incident.

Once out into the Atlantic the fleet began to separate as some boats headed north and some south, while others strictly followed the rhumb line. After studying the weather patterns for the next few days it appeared that winds would be stronger north and lighter south. We decided that we did not want to be fighting strong winds in the north or end up becalmed in the south, so we would sail along the rhumb line. For the first few days after leaving Bermuda we had virtually perfect conditions with a southerly wind around 20 knots allowing us to make good headway to our destination. As we closed in on the halfway mark, the wind dropped and we decided to head north to pick up the stronger westerly winds above the high pressure system.

Soon after, we received a weather forecast from a routing company which took us by surprise stating that there was a developing storm system to the north of us which would produce winds up to 55 knots on our current path. After much discussion we decided to try and avoid the worst of this developing storm system if it was possible to do so. The weather routers advised us that heading south of latitude 33 would avoid the strongest winds. We decided that, sailing double handed, this was probably good advice and we spent the next 24 hours heading south. The next day we received another communication from the weather routers that the storm system was much larger than first thought and that going south was not recommended as the winds could be even stronger. We had now spent the last two days making very little headway to the Azores. One day heading north for more wind and another heading south to avoid the wind. We were beginning to feel rather tired and frustrated by our fruitless effort of playing the weather systems. We decided that the current weather system was too large to avoid and that we should get back to heading for the Azores.

Over the next couple of days, winds steadily increased, reaching 40 knots with stronger winds forecasted for the night the worst of the system was to reach us. At that point, we decided to reduce sail to the storm jib and trysail. The boat felt much more comfortable although, as day turned to night, the winds continued to increase and the rain which was almost horizontal began to sting our faces. It was very difficult to see much beyond the bow of the boat or to anticipate the approaching waves. With winds well over 40 knots and gusts probably well into the fifties, Shazam was over-powered. We dropped the trysail and continued sailing on storm jib alone. With the conditions showing no sign of abating and the seas continuing to build, we decided to put out our drogue. Once the drogue filled, the boat slowed and became far more stable. This storm jib-drogue setup even allowed us to get a little sleep. During the next day, the wind gradually dropped to the low forties and then the low thirties which allowed us to go back to a reefed main and eventually back to a reefed jib. We were now feeling much more comfortable with the conditions and making good progress towards the Azores.

During the couple days of heavy weather, we had received an email from rally headquarters in England which rather shook us. The email was sent out to all rally boats stating that "Setantii", another rally boat, had been hit by a submerged object and that a May Day had been sent. Our first thought was to plot Setantii's location on our charts to see if we were close enough to help, but we discovered that we were a long way south. "Gilly of London", another rally boat that was close to the incident, turned around and headed to their rescue. However, in the meantime, a ship crossing the Atlantic had been contacted and was able to pick up the four crew members delivering them safely to Plymouth, the ship's next port of call, leaving the yacht to sink.

This incident made us think about our current position in the middle of the Atlantic with the nearest land 1000 miles away. However, finding out that the crew of Setantii was safe made us feel much better, and we soon got back to enjoying the final few days sailing into the Azores with much better conditions.

It was great seeing the island of Faial appear on the horizon after two weeks at sea. With the wind around 25 knots on our port quarter, it was a fast trip around the island to Horta where we arrived just as daylight faded. Once the sails were packed up, we motored to the harbour where we were spotted by the ARC Rally Organizers (always there day or night anytime to guide us in to our destination - they are amazing!!) who directed us by radio to our mooring alongside the harbour wall. As we arrived, rally boats that had arrived earlier were there to welcome us in and were pouring the wine to join in the celebration. We learned a lot on this leg - about our boat, our heavy weather gear, about weather forecasting, and ourselves. I think we also have a lot more confidence having gone through the experience - yet are still in awe/respect of the ocean's mighty power.