Sat phone update 8 Monday 10 May
09 May 2022
by Ann MacNeill
Sat phone update Monday 10 May
Our position is 36 15.42N:45 29.05W. Horta is 814 miles away. Woo hoo and yay. Or it was....😢. We just got an update from Chris the weather which wasn't good news. There is a very low, low front with gales towards the Azores Friday/Saturday. He wants us to go very far SE to avoid it, essentially losing lots of the northward ground we have made over the last 10 days, and extending the trip much further. After we dodge the gales he envisages us motoring 400 miles to get to Horta. That could be Tues/Wed next week. No way surely this isn't happening....but yes it is. I will confess I shed a tear. I was so excited to be heading NE and eating up the miles. We have decided that as a compromise we will head south of east but not as far as he suggests, and we can see how far south the low is developing before we commit to going down as far as 31 degrees as he suggests. The last few days the sailing has been great. Wind behind us, no main sail but two poled out headsails. Great fun sailing, and two schools of dolphins and a couple of skuas to add to the excitement. It really has been fun, and we had been looking forward to more if the same this week. Apart from fun sailing we did another couple of important repairs. The very heavy wooden table in the main saloon was coming adrift from its fixings, so we removed it and used bonding compound and new screws to firmly relocate it. Also, One of the batten boxes on the main sail at the mast had broken away from the mast car, but a replacement bolt fixed that. You must think the boat is falling to bits, but she really is not. She is doing more sailing in a year than most cruisers do in 10 years, and the pounding she takes inevitably causes some extra wear and tear and damage. Hopefully the hull and rigging can stand up to it...even with an extra 4 or 5 days for this leg of the journey. We will need to regroup and replan a bit, but once the news has sunk in we will get on with it. I put a waypoint for Horta on the chart. You can choose the map symbols. Surprisingly and happily Horta is now marked by a martini....team Restless can dream of reaching port and chilling for a few days🥂, but for now it is back to keeping us and the boat safe. X
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