Safe arrival
08 July 2014 | Ponta Delgada
Pip
Where are we going? There and back to see how far it is- 6 days and 600 miles of going north then turning round to come back again. Never mind, all safe, lovely big marina in a lovely big town with chandlers and welders near at hand, also our friend Stuart from Beyond who was here to take our lines and hand us fresh bread and cakes and help us drink a cleansing ale or two.
As adventures go, the rig breaking was a bit of a something and nothing really. It was potentially a very serious mast-falling-down type of break, but it happened in calm seas, was easily temporarily 'fixed' using some extra strong dyneema rope we had bought especially for such an eventuality, (although it is very scary climbing the mast at sea, it wangs about so much...!); and it was an easy decision to go back once we'd looked at the weather forecast. Well, not quite 'easy'- we both had been really looking forward to being on the European mainland and in striking distance of family; but 'man proposes....'
Saw a lot of dolphins and whales both going out and on the way back- a very expensive whale watching tour though!