Newport to the Azores
We arrived on the island of Flores in the Azores after sixteen and a half days at sea. For a long Atlantic passage, it has been amazingly uneventful.
We set off from Newport with light winds and calm seas but after a winter of being tied up in a marina, it took a couple of days to find our sea legs.
Jackie took Stugeron tablets before we left and remained invincible. Dave and Jay were both fine but ate rather less than normal.
Katie became very clingy and wanted frequent bouts of feeding. Maybe as a result of this, I felt dreadful and, after fighting it all day, finally found myself hanging over the rail for the first time ever.
Thankfully, this state of affairs soon passed and we all got into the swing of things.
Thanks to Jackie’s husband, Robin, we used the services of a weather expert to give us a good start to the trip. We had expected the Gulf Stream to give us a bit of a rough ride, but with light winds from behind we found the complete opposite and were able to ‘ride’ the Gulf Stream for several days, consistently clocking speeds of 8-9 knots. Apart from one day where the swell picked up and the wind reached force 5, we had calm conditions and near-flat seas.
Despite all assurances that ‘you can’t fail to catch a fish’ in the Gulf Stream, we dragged a fishing line for over 700 miles and failed to catch a thing! Perhaps ‘Ros Ailither’ knows she’s not a fishing boat any more.
Along with the weather information, we were given the positions of the warm and cold eddies that spin off each side of the Gulf Stream. Each eddy can stretch up to 200-300 miles across, flowing either clockwise or anticlockwise at up to two knots. We were given a route taking us on a slightly zig-zag course to hit each eddy in the right place and take advantage of favorable currents as much as possible.
In theory you can double-check your position by testing the temperature of the seawater. The Gulf Stream should be in the 70’s, warm eddies in the 60’s and cold eddies in the 50’s. In practice, every time we threw our plastic thermometer over the back with a fishing weight attached to it, it came back reading 64 degrees!
However, we could confirm we had favourable current as the GPS showed we were moving along at faster speed than we knew we were sailing.
Katie did a lot of sleeping for the first two days then she wanted to explore her new floating world. I had made material ‘lee-cloth’ enclosures that Katie could use as a playpen while underway but in fact we didn’t use them much, except on the odd occasions when I climbed in with her.
She was quite happy to potter around the wheelhouse floor, boarded in by a stair-gate and removable wire mesh on the open doorway. This gave her a great space to practice walking on a lurching boat, and she was soon getting into all the nooks and crannies – her favourite game became emptying out the suncream cupboard.
We plotted our position on the chart each day at noon and all took a guess at the number of miles run. The winner got free pick from the goodie bag. Our best day’s run was 176 nautical miles (under sail in the Gulf Stream) and the worst was 73 (motor-sailing against head winds and counter-current).
We had planned a half-way celebration of ice cream on deck so were disappointed to find it came on the one and only day of heavy rain. We sat in the wheelhouse and shared a big bar of Cadbury’s chocolate instead...
We were within the maximum ice limit at this stage and heard over the VHF an ice patrol vessel asking passing ships (including the QE2) if they had seen any icebergs. We radioed the patrol vessel ourselves and were glad to learn we were at least 100 miles south of the southernmost iceberg.
As we headed east and away from the threat of ice, we came into the ‘Azores high’, a huge area of high pressure, which gives light winds and calm seas for hundreds of miles.
This was Dave’s opportunity to try out his newly-acquired spinnakers. Jackie and I had trying to talk him out of using them for days, as we were nervous about the sheer size of them. They turned out to be perfect light wind sails and not as unmanageable as we’d feared. Unfortunately the bigger one ripped right down the length of a seam the first time we got it up but the smaller one was brilliant and kept us going in mimimal wind.
We were happy to sail along gently until the speed dropped below 3 knots. Then the sails started slatting and the boat rolled uncomfortably. This is generally what happened when the sun went down so for the last week we motor-sailed at night. This also meant better sleep for those below and less to worry about for the person on watch.
We all enjoyed our night watches. Doing one three-hour shift each meant we got plenty of sleep and so we weren’t struggling to stay awake. It was warm enough to sit out on deck and just enjoy being surrounded by the stars and the ocean.
The water rushing past the boat sparkles with phosphorescence and the turning propeller leaves a ten-foot luminous trail behind. This is caused by tiny organisms in the water which are disturbed by the boat and glow in self-defence.
Dave woke me one night to come and watch a pod of dolphins playing in front of our bow wave. There were up to nine of them, all weaving in and out, crossing over each other and swapping sides of the boat. But the amazing thing was the stream of phosphorescence they left in their wake. You could clearly see the track of each dolphin as they darted away from the boat and double-backed on themselves, weaving back in with the pack. They looked like glowing torpedoes. We all sat on the bowsprit looking down as they effortlessly kept up with our 5-knot speed. They stayed with us for over an hour. Absolutely magical.
The calm seas and warm weather made for lazy days on deck. The boat rolled so little Katie was able to walk around fairly easily. After experimenting with bulky lifejackets and her frustration at being pulled back by a short tether, we found a good compromise. We put a harness on her and attached the other end to whoever was walking her around the deck. She liked to carry something in one hand and helped us with the daily chore of changing icepacks in the cooler on deck.
Otherwise, lots of books were read. We made a token effort to learn some Portuguese.
Jackie and Jay both started knitting a hat each. There was an element of competition to it so we were surprised when both hats were nearly finished and they both unraveled the lot and started all over again!
We watched as Portuguese men-of war drifted by and pods of dolphins fed in formation.
A whale surfaced thirty feet from the boat then disappeared.
In the afternoons we got the paddling pool out for Katie. One balmy evening we had a BBQ on deck. I would never have believed how flat it could be in the middle of an ocean.
We were able to run the water-maker and the washing machine. One day we had every available ounce of sail set and strings of washing flapping on the line!
Our crew have been great on the trip. Jay seems to have survived being the only American on board. He stuck a small Stars & Stripes flag by his bunk to remind him of home, only to find it was made in China!
He had the biggest appetite on board and woke several times from a nap with the horrible feeling that he’d slept through lunch. I wouldn’t say we played on this but we did put the clocks forward two hours one day and pretend we’d already eaten!
Jackie impressed us all with her dedication to her knitting and we are confident that her first ever hat will eventually be finished despite many false starts, dropped stitches and tantrums along the way. As Dave says, knit one, purl one, drop two…
She was brilliant with Katie, they are now the best of friends and Katie has honoured this by trying to call Jackie by her name - a real first.
A hundred miles from Flores, the peace was disturbed by the gaff on the main sail coming down. The tongue of metal holding one end of our gaff up had shattered, probably from all the swinging in light airs. We immediately got the sails down and lashed safely, Dave climbed the mast, retrieved the sheet block and replaced the broken fitting, and within half an hour we were relaxing on deck again. Luckily it broke when it did and not in bad conditions or at the start of the trip…
It was almost an anticlimax when the faint outline of land appeared ahead but we got excited as it grew clearer and we could make out the lush green hillsides. We saw yachts’ masts from behind the breakwater and as the picturesque harbour opened up we were amazed to see our old friend Nick, (who has sailed around the world since we last saw him in the Caribbean two years ago!). He came alongside in his dinghy, showed us the best place to anchor and joined us in a celebratory glass of bubbly and a cooked dinner. A nice welcome to the Azores!
We set off from Newport with light winds and calm seas but after a winter of being tied up in a marina, it took a couple of days to find our sea legs.
Jackie took Stugeron tablets before we left and remained invincible. Dave and Jay were both fine but ate rather less than normal.
Katie became very clingy and wanted frequent bouts of feeding. Maybe as a result of this, I felt dreadful and, after fighting it all day, finally found myself hanging over the rail for the first time ever.
Thankfully, this state of affairs soon passed and we all got into the swing of things.
Thanks to Jackie’s husband, Robin, we used the services of a weather expert to give us a good start to the trip. We had expected the Gulf Stream to give us a bit of a rough ride, but with light winds from behind we found the complete opposite and were able to ‘ride’ the Gulf Stream for several days, consistently clocking speeds of 8-9 knots. Apart from one day where the swell picked up and the wind reached force 5, we had calm conditions and near-flat seas.
Despite all assurances that ‘you can’t fail to catch a fish’ in the Gulf Stream, we dragged a fishing line for over 700 miles and failed to catch a thing! Perhaps ‘Ros Ailither’ knows she’s not a fishing boat any more.
Along with the weather information, we were given the positions of the warm and cold eddies that spin off each side of the Gulf Stream. Each eddy can stretch up to 200-300 miles across, flowing either clockwise or anticlockwise at up to two knots. We were given a route taking us on a slightly zig-zag course to hit each eddy in the right place and take advantage of favorable currents as much as possible.
In theory you can double-check your position by testing the temperature of the seawater. The Gulf Stream should be in the 70’s, warm eddies in the 60’s and cold eddies in the 50’s. In practice, every time we threw our plastic thermometer over the back with a fishing weight attached to it, it came back reading 64 degrees!
However, we could confirm we had favourable current as the GPS showed we were moving along at faster speed than we knew we were sailing.
Katie did a lot of sleeping for the first two days then she wanted to explore her new floating world. I had made material ‘lee-cloth’ enclosures that Katie could use as a playpen while underway but in fact we didn’t use them much, except on the odd occasions when I climbed in with her.
She was quite happy to potter around the wheelhouse floor, boarded in by a stair-gate and removable wire mesh on the open doorway. This gave her a great space to practice walking on a lurching boat, and she was soon getting into all the nooks and crannies – her favourite game became emptying out the suncream cupboard.
We plotted our position on the chart each day at noon and all took a guess at the number of miles run. The winner got free pick from the goodie bag. Our best day’s run was 176 nautical miles (under sail in the Gulf Stream) and the worst was 73 (motor-sailing against head winds and counter-current).
We had planned a half-way celebration of ice cream on deck so were disappointed to find it came on the one and only day of heavy rain. We sat in the wheelhouse and shared a big bar of Cadbury’s chocolate instead...
We were within the maximum ice limit at this stage and heard over the VHF an ice patrol vessel asking passing ships (including the QE2) if they had seen any icebergs. We radioed the patrol vessel ourselves and were glad to learn we were at least 100 miles south of the southernmost iceberg.
As we headed east and away from the threat of ice, we came into the ‘Azores high’, a huge area of high pressure, which gives light winds and calm seas for hundreds of miles.
This was Dave’s opportunity to try out his newly-acquired spinnakers. Jackie and I had trying to talk him out of using them for days, as we were nervous about the sheer size of them. They turned out to be perfect light wind sails and not as unmanageable as we’d feared. Unfortunately the bigger one ripped right down the length of a seam the first time we got it up but the smaller one was brilliant and kept us going in mimimal wind.
We were happy to sail along gently until the speed dropped below 3 knots. Then the sails started slatting and the boat rolled uncomfortably. This is generally what happened when the sun went down so for the last week we motor-sailed at night. This also meant better sleep for those below and less to worry about for the person on watch.
We all enjoyed our night watches. Doing one three-hour shift each meant we got plenty of sleep and so we weren’t struggling to stay awake. It was warm enough to sit out on deck and just enjoy being surrounded by the stars and the ocean.
The water rushing past the boat sparkles with phosphorescence and the turning propeller leaves a ten-foot luminous trail behind. This is caused by tiny organisms in the water which are disturbed by the boat and glow in self-defence.
Dave woke me one night to come and watch a pod of dolphins playing in front of our bow wave. There were up to nine of them, all weaving in and out, crossing over each other and swapping sides of the boat. But the amazing thing was the stream of phosphorescence they left in their wake. You could clearly see the track of each dolphin as they darted away from the boat and double-backed on themselves, weaving back in with the pack. They looked like glowing torpedoes. We all sat on the bowsprit looking down as they effortlessly kept up with our 5-knot speed. They stayed with us for over an hour. Absolutely magical.
The calm seas and warm weather made for lazy days on deck. The boat rolled so little Katie was able to walk around fairly easily. After experimenting with bulky lifejackets and her frustration at being pulled back by a short tether, we found a good compromise. We put a harness on her and attached the other end to whoever was walking her around the deck. She liked to carry something in one hand and helped us with the daily chore of changing icepacks in the cooler on deck.
Otherwise, lots of books were read. We made a token effort to learn some Portuguese.
Jackie and Jay both started knitting a hat each. There was an element of competition to it so we were surprised when both hats were nearly finished and they both unraveled the lot and started all over again!
We watched as Portuguese men-of war drifted by and pods of dolphins fed in formation.
A whale surfaced thirty feet from the boat then disappeared.
In the afternoons we got the paddling pool out for Katie. One balmy evening we had a BBQ on deck. I would never have believed how flat it could be in the middle of an ocean.
We were able to run the water-maker and the washing machine. One day we had every available ounce of sail set and strings of washing flapping on the line!
Our crew have been great on the trip. Jay seems to have survived being the only American on board. He stuck a small Stars & Stripes flag by his bunk to remind him of home, only to find it was made in China!He had the biggest appetite on board and woke several times from a nap with the horrible feeling that he’d slept through lunch. I wouldn’t say we played on this but we did put the clocks forward two hours one day and pretend we’d already eaten!
Jackie impressed us all with her dedication to her knitting and we are confident that her first ever hat will eventually be finished despite many false starts, dropped stitches and tantrums along the way. As Dave says, knit one, purl one, drop two…
She was brilliant with Katie, they are now the best of friends and Katie has honoured this by trying to call Jackie by her name - a real first.
A hundred miles from Flores, the peace was disturbed by the gaff on the main sail coming down. The tongue of metal holding one end of our gaff up had shattered, probably from all the swinging in light airs. We immediately got the sails down and lashed safely, Dave climbed the mast, retrieved the sheet block and replaced the broken fitting, and within half an hour we were relaxing on deck again. Luckily it broke when it did and not in bad conditions or at the start of the trip…
It was almost an anticlimax when the faint outline of land appeared ahead but we got excited as it grew clearer and we could make out the lush green hillsides. We saw yachts’ masts from behind the breakwater and as the picturesque harbour opened up we were amazed to see our old friend Nick, (who has sailed around the world since we last saw him in the Caribbean two years ago!). He came alongside in his dinghy, showed us the best place to anchor and joined us in a celebratory glass of bubbly and a cooked dinner. A nice welcome to the Azores!
posted by Katie at 5:06 PM
2 Comments:
Great to have some contact again and what fantastic photo's , can wait to see You All again and good luck with the rest of the trip back Home.
With Love Jill & Nikita xxx
p.s Hope You read the comment for the reporter wanting to speak to You Both on Your return.
hi.my father used to owe the ros ailither.she used to fish out of kilronan aran islands co galway west of ireland.its nice to see that she is still on the going strong.if you are ever on the west coast of ireland call in to inismor aran islands we will look after you.
Post a Comment
<< Home