Although the Sun was not much in evidence during our short stay on Terceira, we have none-the-less very much enjoyed the stop. Angra Do Herosimo has been a UNESCO world heritage site since 1983 by virtue of its importance during the maritime discoveries Renaissance period that allowed trade between the Orient, Americas and Europe. It was twice the capital of Portugal, would you believe! The architecture is quite curious, clearly.. Read More
Failal
It’s hard to believe we have been in Failal for over 3 days; it has been very nice not to have to spend too much of it fixing things, for a change. The focus seems to have been on getting to know a little bit about the island and the folks on the other boats, particularly those whom we have heard regularly on the SSB nets each day. The.. Read More
Arrived in Horta
We are still pinching ourselves …. We made it over 1900 miles from Bermuda to Horta on Failal in the Azores! It feels very good to have our feet back on dry land again …. and surprisingly, it doesn’t seem to be rocking. We met up with folks from the other ARC Europe boats at Peters Cafe, a sailors must in Horta that is celebrating 100 years this year. Pete’s.. Read More
Day 14 – Approaching Horta
The anticipation onboard is rising…. Horta is now only 32 miles away … unfortunately almost directly into the rising Sun so we haven’t spotted land yet. We expect to make landfall this afternoon. A strange phenomenon is occurring with the AIS. Normally we only see other boats out to maybe 30 miles for large ships and around 4-5 miles for yachts as the signal is sent and received by VHF.. Read More
Day 12 – More Whales and Dolphins
As dawn is breaking on Day 13, I just had to jot down yesterday’s highlights. Not only was it a great sailing day but we also spotted whales breaching about a quarter of a mile away and there seemed to be dolphins all over the place, some that seemed to be on a mission, ahead of the whales, and others who were in a more playful mood, especially around our.. Read More
Days 11 and 12 – First Whale Spotted
I finally spotted my first whale! It wasn’t overly spectacular but so good to see the water spouts and the rounded beige-colored hump that was blowing the spout. No photos, sadly. Another boat reported having a whale breach not far in front of them earlier in the trip. Other wildlife seen has included dolphins fairly regularly, plenty of Portugese Man O’ War jellyfish with their pink-rimmed, crescent-shaped “sails” above the.. Read More
Days 9 and 10 – Picking up Some Speed
Having been somewhat frustrated that we have not been not making good headway towards our destination, we finally poled out the genoa yesterday morning and made much better progress , a passage record of 152 miles in 24 hours. The boat felt comfortable, even in building seas and with wind around 16-18 knots, our speed picked up to around 7 knots. The mood onboard was distinctly improved! Gradually the wind.. Read More
Day 8 – More Interesting Sailing
Another good day …. but with more varied wind conditions, still mostly from the WSW or SW. We put one reef in the mainsail overnight even though conditions didn’t seem to warrant it but just to be on the safe side. We also decided that we had gone farther south than we wanted to be so we gybed and sailed almost due north overnight. For me (Hope), the day began.. Read More
Day 7 – Time Change and Celebrations onboard
We passed the eastern edge of Atlantic Standard Time yesterday so decided to change our onboard clocks in between our double night shifts, curtailing by half an hour. We are now on GMT (a.k.a. UTC) -2, a sure sign we are making progress. Mike was treated to a spectacular triple rainbow during his 0800 – 1200 watch.. at the expense of getting just a tad damp. For us, it was.. Read More
Day 6 – Practicing Ancient Mariner Skills (with a modern twist)
Today was another glorious sunny day, making good progress with following winds. Life doesn’t get much better. So it was that we managed to turn our attention to obtaining weather faxes and trying my hand at a little celestial navigation. We had been poring through various publications to try and obtain weather faxes but had until today come up short. Finally as I dug a little deeper into information on.. Read More