There is a long history of sailors visiting Horta doing a personalized painting on the docks to commemorate their visit. What I did not know is that this tradition grows out of a long held superstition and a fear of shipwreck.
The marina and harbor here in Horta consist of a large horseshoe shaped stone bulkhead to protect the harbor from storms. Additionally, there are two massive bulkheads that face the sea and keep things from getting dangerous in the harbor when the weather gets rough.
I have put a white mark to show where Pandora is anchored.
You can see how busy it is in the harbor and this is nothing like it was when we arrived a week ago. Again, Pandora marked with an arrow. We are very close to the docks, which is very convenient.
The harbor is very busy, especially when boats are migrating from the Caribbean and the US east coast for summering in Europe and the Med.
It is amazing how many yachts are crammed into the harbor, seemingly thousands, well hundreds for sure, rafted three deep on the bulkhead and the anchorage is way too tight in the harbor.
On the walls of the marina are thousands of paintings, commemorating those yachts that have made Horta a port of call as they crossed the Atlantic on their way to Northern Europe and the Mediterranean.
Legend has it that by doing a painting on the dock, commemorating their visit that they will have good luck on their next voyage and to not do so should be done at your own peril.
It is said that to ignore this tradition would be done at great risk to boat and crew. Ok, I am not taking any chances so paint we did.
Ted, Jason and I had a hand in the finished product.
Sadly, later that day someone slid down the piece, smearing the paint all over the place. Today I went back and restored it to near glory. Sorry, to cheap to purchase three more cans of paint but fixed the white. Painting in place will insure, I hope, Pandora’s safety to the next port.
The shear variety of these carefully painted pictures is remarkable, with some clearly new and others faded to the weather and history. Pandora’s neighbors…
It is said that these paintings are the largest collection of marine painting in the world, with examples on a nearly every space you can imagine, vertical on bulkheads and on the sidewalks.
A friend of mine, and fellow Salty Dawg, left this one in 2019. It looks new…
Another Salty Dawg family from the rally, the good ship Spring.
No end to the places that are covered with paintings. Even the garbage crib is fair game.
Very creative and clearly international pieces.
This clearly tells a story that is meaningful to the artists.
Some are pretty creative and artistic. I watched this one being painted a few days ago.
Many years represented on a single wall.
Horta harbor is most popular marina in the Azores where the bulk of yachts clear in and out of the archipelago. They say that with1,500 yachts making landfall in Horta that it is the 4th busiest marina in the world. And no, I have no idea what the three are that have more traffic. Having said that, I doubt that any have a greater number of blue water cruisers making landfall than Horta.
It is said that the yacht, “Cleopatra’s Barge,” the first American pleasure craft to sail across the Atlantic, tied up at Horta in 1817. She was built in MA in 1816 and was wrecked, under different ownership in Hawaii in 1824. It is unclear if there was a painting on a wall here commemorating her visit to Horta. Unlikely…
Well, the crew of Pandora isn’t taking any chances so our painting is completed.
Interestingly, a few hours after we completed the painting, someone slid down the wall and smeared a lot of the paint. So, I spent an hour yesterday touching up the smears. Within a few hours there was yet another “smearer” nearby, a small boy, sliding down the wall, again and again.
I waved him off but doubt that he was going to stay gone for long. I went back to the boat and got some tape and skewers to build a protective tent while the paint dried.
Not pretty… I’ll know if it kept the “smearers” at bay long enough to dry…
Smeared or not, there will be a piece of Pandora here in Horta for years to come.
Brenda arrived a few days ago after what turned out to be challenging Uber ride to JFK and a way-delayed flight to the Azores. She had booked the car days in advance only to have it canceled one hour before her pickup time. Anxious? You bet.
Oddly, the exact same driver re-booked less than an hour later and ended up arriving nearly an hour after that. Well, at least he arrived. The good news is that Brenda had allowed several extra hours, just in case. Smart girl…
Her driver, pleasant enough, spent much of the ride (four hours worth) sharing his life story, including his ongoing battle with schizophrenia, how he was doing well off of his meds (yikes!), his difficulties with ADHD, PTSD and his long and turbulent “history” with his mother. She came close to saying “ok, drop me at the next corner” but persevered and arrived at JFK without incident. The bad news is that the run from CT to JFK took twice as long as expected.
Her plane was then delayed by four hours, departing for the Azores at midnight and then, to add insult to injury, they lost one of her bags, the one with her “vitals”. Anyway, here we are two days later, her bag arrived and she has, mostly, recovered.
I say “mostly” as she picked up a bug on the plane. As Rosanne Rosannadanna often said, “It’s always something”
But she is here, only a little worse for wear, and I am thrilled.
We moved into a hotel for a few days and it is beautiful. Our room is the top floor center on the right, the double windows.
Our view of the nearby park from our room.
On Saturday there will be a festival in the park. Lots of booths going up and it will be fun to see what it’s all about.
Last evening we had our Salty Dawg Azores Rally arrival dinner at Pete’s Sport Bar, the iconic sailor bar that is usually the very first stop for anyone arriving by boat in Horta.
Every wall and the ceiling are totally crammed with burgees from every imaginable yacht and sailing club. Burgees on burgees…
We had a very nice event with about 18 attending, representing all but one of the 11 boats in the rally.
Boat number 11 has suffered a lot of delays and is not expected to arrive until the middle of next week. I feel for them as their trip, beginning in Florida, with a brief stop in Bermuda may end up totaling nearly a month underway.
I did a free raffle for several SDSA shirts and a bottle of Pete’s special gin which was enthusiastically received. Pete was a good sport about the whole thing. I presented him with a rally flag.
Which he promptly displayed on the wall.
Pete’s has been in business now for 4 generations and is always packed with many sailors, some so look the part as a “vagabond of the sea” and extensive tattoos are the norm. The bar, and it’s not a very big space, is so crowded on most evenings that they have a large tented pavilion outside to handle overflow patrons. I expect that the 3 euro beer, pints, have something to do with the popularity of the place.
After dinner, we assembled outside for a “photo opp” with the iconic Mt Pico in the distance. Pico is the tallest mountain, at nearly 8,000′ in the Atlantic basin. Note: It is WAY bigger than it appears…
Assuming that Brenda has sufficiently recovered from her bug, we plan to rent a car to tour the island in the next few days. Lots to share, I am sure.
One way or the other, we are settling into life here in Horta as many of the Dawgs move on.
And, speaking of “moving on” there is a tradition, here in Horta, of the crew of visiting yachts to paint a mural on the dock which is supposed to give good luck and ensure that they make it safely to their next landfall and the crew of Pandora are happy to oblige.
There are thousands of paintings and Pandora’s crew will be adding our own piece to the collection. To learn more and see our “art” check back soon. If you want to be “warned” when I post, sign up at the top of this page.
And speaking of “getting there safely”, I am pretty concerned about being attacked by an Orca as I make my way to Spain in July so I am painting away… I want to get there safely and am not taking any chances.
But, for now, I am happy to celebrate with the Dawgs and the successful completion of what I hope is the first of many Salty Dawg Rallies to the Azores.
I have been here in Horta for a few days trying to decide what I say about this place.
The problem is that it is just so amazing that I really don’t know where to start.
No wait, I’ll start with a view of Mt Pico, across the way on the island of Pico. The mountain, nearly 8,000 tall is the highest of any mountain in the Atlantic basin. Until today it has been shrouded in clouds since we arrived. Not this morning. It last erupted in 1562. A bit about the history of this remarkable island.
Perhaps not as dramatic as Pico, but Pandora looks great juxtaposed against the Horta waterfront. This may be the most beautiful place that I have ever anchored.
There are plenty of harbors that are full of boats, cruising, racing, fishing and others. However, unlike most, for someone to be here means that they have crossed an ocean. No day sailors here or charter boats. The closest place to this harbor is nearly 1,000 miles and that’s Portugal. The rest of the world…farther.
And, this passage was the first I have ever had where I crossed more than a single time zone. Here we are four hours ahead of the US East Coast. In the ocean there is a question of were to change the clock. Well, the answer is that the iPad knows… Of course…
About 1,500 boats pass through Horta every year, basically most of the cruising boats that cross the Atlantic. Compare those that cross the ocean with the number of midsize cruising boats in the US which probably number in the hundreds of thousands. As we all know, most boats in marinas never go anywhere except perhaps a two week trip and a few weekends each season. To sail thousands of miles, that’s a big deal.
Random fact: The number of small boats that cross the Atlantic every year is about the same number that attempt to scale Mt Everest.
All I am saying is that crossing the Atlantic seems like a big deal to me and I did it. I won’t think about the fact that there is still another 900 miles to go to Gibraltar and I am not there yet.
Pandora is anchored at the head of the harbor. It was remarkably busy when we came in but is now a lot more open with a decent amount of space around us. For the first two days I had to move three times because as the wind shifted I ended up on top of someone.
When I say “move” it was just about 15′ so that when the wind shifted I had at least a boat length from anyone. Note the fenders in case we bump into someone when the wind shifts, which is does regularly.
Somehow it looks open, but the boats are closer than they seem. When the breeze is about 180 degrees from what this photo shows, I am a bit more than a boat length from the boats tied up on the dock.
How about this view of shore from Pandora this morning.
Of course, the boats… From all over. Tied up four deep at the docks.
All the buildings on shore have beautiful tile roofs and are painted all sorts of pastel colors. It’s amazing.
And so green… With parks and lovely spots to just sit and watch the world go by.
The view down the harbor. Note the massive breakwater on the right that protects the harbor from the ocean. Just beyond the old fort is another breakwater so the opening to the ocean is a few hundred yards wide.
And all along the waterfront is a wide promenade, all intricately tiled. In fact, all the sidewalks also sport mosaic tiles, mostly in white and black. It is worth noting that I had to wait several days until I was able to take a photo in the sunshine as there is often a light mist falling.
I don’t know any details about the local fishing but there are a lot of small commercial boats that look very seaworthy. Most sport the colorful orange tops.
Of course, with all these boats, visiting and otherwise, comes a lot of stuff that needs to be fixed. There are a number of mobile repair shops. I like this one in particular, as it is similar to my own little micro truck. My truck, a small Suzuki Carry, wants to grow up to be this truck.
The interior of one of these mobile workshops. Pretty neat setup.
Today I spent time doing laundry in a laundromat that was so clean that you would feel fine folding your sheets on the floor. It was quite modern with a volcanic rock arch and super clean machines.
Back in the day this harbor was a stopping place for flying boats that had to refuel during transatlantic flights. I saw this photo in the laundromat, of all places.
This was the view out from the front door of the laundromat.
A close up of one of the two beautiful bronze bells on each side at the top of the building.
And the long “living wall” that goes in front of the building, part of a lovely flower lined park.
This island, and all of the others in the Azores, are volcanic and some of the peaks rise very abruptly from the sea. Near the harbor is a 850′ tall “hill?” and Ted, Jason and I hiked up and over it yesterday. Trust me, it’s bigger than it looks.
This is the back side, with the harbor on the other end. You can see the trail that comes down the back.
A closeup of some hikers, in the photo above, to give it scale.
The views from the top were quite impressive. A lovely old fort adjacent to a residential area.
And the old whaling station, now an aquarium and place to get a snack. This place immediately adjacent to a sloping beach where whales were dragged up to be rendered into oil.
The coastline is very rugged and the visibility amazing.
This image is of the largest documented wave to hit Horta, in February 1986, during a major storm. Local photographer Jose Henrique took this photo of a wave nearly 60 meters high.
As big as that wave was, these pansy like flowers are tiny, on a stone wall. From these tiny pansies on the top of a stone wall.
To a riot of nasturtiums, growing everywhere.
Cascading over walls. They do love it here.
And wild lilies that look like they belong at a funeral pop up in the middle of a meadow.
No need to get fennel at the market here. It grows everywhere and is huge.
Perhaps I will close with the sunrise today.
It has been a remarkable day. Lots of chores and we are beginning to design and paint a small mural on the marina wall to commemorate Pandora and her arrival in Horta. It is a tradition that thousands of boats celebrate every year.
Want to see more? You will have to come back.
Oh yeah. One more thing. I have to post a photo of this adorable puppy I saw yesterday. Yes, he is a puppy but is already two months old and will not get much bigger. I hear that he is a chihuahua mix. Perhaps there is a bit of pit bull. Couldn’t be…
Tomorrow Brenda arrives. I’m excited.
With her here Horta will be even an even more amazing place, and that’s saying something.
When Brenda and I purchased our SAGA 43, the first boat we did extended cruising on, beginning around 2010, the goal, for me anyway, was to have a boat that could “cross an ocean” and while that boat was certainly capable of such a journey, I can say with certainty, that I NEVER expected that I would ever be able to say, “I am almost to Horta.”
After years of sailing in Long Island Sound and venturing to Maine for summer vacations, the idea that I would someday cross the Atlantic Ocean, seemed to be an unattainable goal.
Who knew?
As I begin this post, we are less than 50nm from Horta and if the story of our cruising life so far tells us anything, there will be a lot more chapters to this story.
I do not really know what is next after I leave Pandora in Spain and fly home with Brenda in August but I have already made it farther than I ever imagined.
Well, here we are…almost.
For much of this passage, we really thought that we might be able to sail nearly the entire way but as we moved into the last part of the run it has been tougher to keep moving as the wind has become lighter and moved aft.
Motoring or not, compared to other runs I have made over the years, we have sailed the bulk of this run, and surely more than any previous passage.
When we are offshore, on a long passage, we can adjust our heading to keep moving, even if it points us in the wrong direction for a while as we can always wait for wind from a different direction and get back on track.
However, once we are near our destination, we have limited ability to adjust our course and still make it into the harbor and today is a good example. If we could just adjust our course by as little as 20 degrees, we would be sailing but to get into Horta before dark today we do not have a lot of flexibility.
For the morning I struggled to sail, as we were dead downwind but now, as we make our final approach, the wind has freshened and veered so we are now on a solid broad reach and moving along nicely.
While we have been able to sail most of the last few hundred miles, the wind has not been terribly cooperative recently and we have had to resort to the engine for a few hours, from time to time.
While we had hoped for a mid-morning arrival, it is now looking like we will not make it until later in the afternoon. Fortunately, it does not get dark until around 9:00 so there is little risk of arriving in the dark.
And, speaking of “time of the day” we made our final adjustment to the clocks earlier today and are now four hours ahead of Brenda in Connecticut. Not a lot of risk of jet lag when you are going so S-L-O-W-L-Y…
There is a lot of boat activity approaching Horta as this is “the” place to make landfall. This shot of AIS on my plotter shows so I can see that we are not the only boat heading that way.
Based on some information from boats that are already in the harbor, we learned that it is very crowded and that there is a wait list to get on a dock or to tie up at the cement wall. Having said that, there is a lot of movement every day as boats depart and spots open quickly.
A shot of the harbor on Marine Traffic, the AIS tracking site, shows just how crowded it is. Oh boy, good luck anchoring.
When we were planning dates for departure from Bermuda we tried to take into account the schedule for the Atlantic Rally for Cruisers, ARC, to Horta, a large group that has been doing this run for years. As their numbers really strain the local facilities, we wanted to arrive at least a week after they did but given how busy the harbor is, I am wondering if perhaps their passage was not a fast one suggesting that we will have arrived before many of them have moved on.
We probably will not arrive in the harbor in time to clear customs today but I will ask around and see if it is ok to head ashore for a beer and dinner. I am so ready to do that…
I reached out to the sailmaker to arrange to have the mainsail leech cord replaced and a few other minor repairs and was told that they have daily pickup from the waterfront. I hope that the repairs are completed before the guys fly out as it is a handful to get it back on the boom.
When we arrive, the plan is to drop the anchor and put out fenders to protect us from other nearby boats. I have to say that I have never deployed fenders when I am anchored. With so many boats crammed into the harbor, I expect that this will be a whole new experience as “Close” does not begin to describe how tight boats are anchored near one another. I hope that my brand-new paintjob does not get violated immediately.
Fortunately, I have the large inflatable fenders as well as a half dozen smaller ones that should help cushion the blow from nearby boats.
After nearly two weeks on passage from Bermuda I am really looking forward to being at anchor and going ashore.
I can’t believe that I am nearly to Horta, a place that I only imagined that I would one day visit.
To be here… I really wasn’t expecting this…
Editor: While the Salty Dawg rally from Bermuda to the Azores is drawing to an close you can see where Pandora and the other boats are located in real time at the Salty Dawg Azores Rally Map.
Brenda and I will remain in the Azores for a month and we will both be posting regularly while we are here. In mid July I will depart the Azores, heading for Spain and will continue to post along the way.
Five weeks ago, I left home, and Brenda, to join Pandora in Trinidad where I had left her earlier in the spring to have some additional work done to complete the refit that began last summer.
Along the way north I stopped in various islands in the eastern Caribbean. Hung out with friends and said my goodbyes knowing that I would not be back for at least a few years.
As of today, my journey north, and for the most recent leg, from Bermuda to Horta is nearly complete.
We are finally within 200nm of our destination, Horta, in the Azores, a journey that had its’ beginnings more than a year ago when Brenda declared that nine seasons in the Caribbean was just about enough.
She did not say where we were going to head next except it became clear that unless I could find something compelling to do next that I would find myself sailing a 14’ Beetle Cat back and forth on the CT River in front of the Essex Yacht Club, while Brenda waved (Queen style, of course) to me from the deck.
Having sailed with Brenda much of the US East coast from Eastern Maine all the way to Key West, the Bahamas, much of Cuba and just about all the islands from The US Virgins and south to Trinidad since we began seasonal cruising back in 2012, I had run out of cruising grounds to explore on this side of the Atlantic.
After more than a decade I was out of ideas so it seemed that the only real option was to investigate “crossing the pond” and see what we might do there.
Yikes, I knew nothing about that except that my Dad, now gone for over 10 years, once said (and you have heard this before), “Bob, wouldn’t it be great to take Pandora through the Straights of Gibraltar?”
So, I got on the phone and found folks to talk to that had done all that to get their thoughts.
After a few Zoom meetings with fellow cruisers and a number of YouTube travel videos of the Med, Brenda was convinced enough to give a “guarded OK” so that became the plan.
I was president of The Salty Dawg Sailing Association at that time and asked the board if there was interest in doing a rally to the Azores. Much to my surprise, they liked the idea, very much and several fellow board members even raised their hands, offering to do much of the planning.
So, fast forward a year plus and here I am, about to make landfall after nearly two weeks at sea from Bermuda, in the company of ten boats participating in the first Salty Dawg Rally to the Azores.
I will admit that it is surreal to be doing this and I do wish that Dad was around so I could share the experience. Even being in Bermuda, where we departed on this leg, was a landmark for me as that was where I departed decades ago, on my first offshore passage, helping a friend bring his boat back from the Bermuda Race.
We have been blessed with a swift passage of under two weeks, never seeing winds more than 20-25kts, and usually much less. To do this trip in under two weeks is unusual, I am told, and Chris Parker, our weather router, had warned us months ago to expect to spend perhaps as long as 2½ weeks and to encounter perhaps two gales along the way.
My crew Jason and Ted have been wonderful and their easygoing nature and competence has given me comfort, knowing that Pandora was in good hands while I was down below getting plenty of rest. Of course, the benign conditions, “champagne sailing” as Ted has described it, helped too.
As I write this we are moving along at about 6-7kts with 22-15kts on the beam, healing about 3-5 degrees. It does not get any better than this and a fitting way to end the longest passage I have taken despite sailing more than 25,000 blue water miles over the years.
With such mild conditions, meals have been easy to prepare and with much cooler temperatures, think 70s at night, than the Caribbean, I have even baked muffins and biscuits 4 times.
Here are todays’ biscuits, my third batch, in addition to some muffins, on this trip. No complaints from the crew.
Brenda does not arrive until next Monday and by that time I will have been away from her for six weeks, the longest that we have been separated since we became inseparable in Highschool 53 years ago.
Brenda has booked a hotel for a week when she arrives in downtown Horta and it will be fun to kick back and enjoy the scenery.
Our plan is to hang out in the Azores for a month, perhaps cruising to some of the other islands before I welcome crew in mid-July when we will head east to Gibraltar and onto Almeria, Spain where Pandora will be hauled for the season.
And, for the next several seasons, Brenda and I will spend two months in the spring and two in the fall, cruising the Med.
I really do not know what to expect but based on the many cruisers that we have talked to about these cruising grounds, we should be for quite a treat.
Now, if I can only get past the Orcas as I approach the coast of Portugal. You know, the orcas that bite off the bottoms of boats rudders…
I won’t think about that today, I will think about that WHEN I HAVE TO, and that will not be until sometime in late July when we get close to their “chomping grounds”.
Until then, a bit more champagne sailing and sometime tomorrow we will be in Horta.
This lovely tern landed aboard Pandora earlier today. Perhaps he is here to welcome us to Horta.
And, of course, what is a post without a picture of beautiful clouds?
And next Monday, after six weeks away and over 3,000 miles of sailing, I will be back with Brenda.
I am getting excited!
Editor: As part of the first ever Salty Dawg Rally to the Azores, you can see where Pandora and the other boats are located in real time at the Salty Dawg Azores Rally Map.
If you want to see where Pandora is alone, check out “where in the world is Pandora” at the top of the page or click on this link.
And, as always, you can register to receive a notice when I post, Which I do regularly, at the top of this page.
And, if you want to learn more about Salty Dawg and the rallies and educational programs that we sponsor, and you should, check out www.saltydawgsailing.org. It is a really great group.
After more than a week of sailing and never needing to turn on the motor, yesterday the wind died. And after nearly a day of nursing Pandora along in ever lighter wind…
I finally reached the end of my rope when the log said that we had only gone 11 miles in three hours. ENOUGH! Engine on…
It does not take a lot of wind to sail Pandora at a good clip, pretty much 11kts on the beam and we will do around 6.5 to 7kts with her jib and full main, but with wind, if you could call it that, under 6kts, we were just wallowing along. Not acceptable.
Chris Parker works hard to help us stay in the “sweet spot” on passage, enough wind to avoid motoring and yet not so much, that the passage becomes unpleasant.
Slow sailing or not, both Ted and Jason built a lot of extra time into their schedules so their answer to being nearly becalmed is “we will get there someday”. That is a refreshing position to take but late yesterday afternoon, hoping against hope, for just a little bit more wind, and still more than 400 miles to go, it was time to turn on the motor.
I will admit that the “we want to keep sailing” attitude was refreshing as, on several passages, I had crew that were all about keeping the speed up to make what was seeming like an impossible deadline and sometimes that meant running the engine even though we could probably have sailed. More than once, we dropped the hook in Antigua and I ran crew ashore to catch a flight home that same day. Was it something I said?
Fortunately, after motoring overnight the wind picked up again this morning, and we are making good time again. I’m happy…
Our constant companions have been dolphins, and there are several species that have dropped by for a visit, keeping us entertained for much of the last few days.
I know that I have already posted several photos but indulge me as we have had dozens cavorting at the bow. They arrive in a rush, dozens of them, hang out for about 15-20 minutes only to be on their way in a moment.
My SLR camera has “sports mode” that takes two frames a second and with image stabilization makes it possible to catch their antics.
As in much of life, try hard enough, and in the case of photos, take enough of them, and you will end up with a few good ones.
Jason, on the other hand, was easy to catch in action as he watched the dolphin show. It is hard to say who was having more fun, Jason, or the dolphins.
It is very hard to get a photo that shows the beautiful patterns on their sides. Caught one…
Ted has a favorite spot to watch for whales. “Bob, come quick, I saw a whale.” Quick was not quick enough as the best I could get is a blurry shot of steam on the water, and a crooked horizon. Trust me, it was a whale…
Of course, sunrises are always cooperative.
Motoring? Well, for a while, but at least I can say that I sailed most of the way…
From what I have heard about this passage, “only a little motoring” is saying something.
Two more days to go, I think…
Of course, that depends on the wind.
Editor: As part of the first ever Salty Dawg Rally to the Azores, you can see where Pandora and the other boats are located in real time at the Salty Dawg Azores Rally Map.
If you want to see where Pandora is alone, check out “where in the world is Pandora” at the top of the page or click on this link.
And, as always, you can register to receive a notice when I post, Which I do regularly, at the top of this page.
Today I turned 70 and we are still over 400 miles from Horta. Progress today has been glacial, with very little wind. All is not lost as the wind is supposed to pick up by tomorrow.
The good news is that with light wind comes calm seas, all the better for baking a birthday cake.
With my “special day” I had to think that this beautiful sunset was just for me.
Or the large pod dolphins that stopped to say Hi! and the Humpback Whale waving his fin in the distance, wishing me a special day.
Given the fact that there is NOBODY nearby, who else could they be here for?
The stars were out in force, a nearly full moon, and this beautiful sunrise.
And Portuguese Man-O-War passing us by every few minutes. This photo is a bit clearer than the one I posted the other day. What a remarkable creature. Hard to believe that they are so deadly.
Here I am, yet another year older and firmly in the category where special medical considerations are directed to people like me, the “frail and elderly.” Ok, I cannot deny (mostly) that I am elderly but I do not accept the label of “frail” quite yet.
During my last Medicare checkup, the clinician asked me if I had fallen recently. That is a tough one. Was she talking about getting off the toilet or from the top of the mast when I was fixing a wind instrument? Negative on both, BTW.
She also asked me if I had been threatened recently by my partner. Hmm… Had to think about that one. Only when I first brought up the idea of sailing across the Atlantic.
I have always been a big fan of bran cereal so I can say with confidence that, according to “age appropriate” dietary recommendations, my preference of cereal has finally caught up with my age.
And then there is the whole you are “only as old as you feel” thing. Not sure how I fit that… Today, when my alarm went off at 02:45 to go on watch, I did not feel great and moved a bit slowly, well only until I suddenly realized how badly I had to “go.” and then I moved barely quick enough. Whew!
Ok, ok, my bladder is getting a bit frail but the rest of me feels ok, well mostly. Besides, what better place for a guy with a bladder that has shrunk to the size of a dry garbanzo bean, than on a boat where the head is only steps away. Very practical, if you ask me.
Give me a minute… I’ll be right back…
Ok, better. Just had to pee…
Where was I?
Oh yeah, today is my 70th birthday and here I am at sea, coming up on the end of the longest ocean run ever.
I will admit that I would prefer to be with Brenda, the same thing I said on Mother’s Day, and our 48th wedding anniversary recently. Perhaps others but I can’t recall right now. We will have to catch up and celebrate all those missed events when she arrives in Horta.
Now it seems that I am deep into the age group when folks like me are referred to as “the elderly” I find the whole thing quite unsettling and it was not all that long ago, when I was in the “upper middle age” category, that I would have loudly scoffed at anyone at 70 decided to sail across the Atlantic.
Perhaps in honor of my advanced age and coming frailty, the wind overnight lightened considerably so now I am not as confident that we will arrive during daylight on the 11th. That is Ok as I do not like the idea of arriving in a strange port with poor visibility.
So, slowly, we continue to sail along, 450 miles from our destination. Now the only real question, aside from how old I will be once we get there, is how long it will be until better wind conditions catch up with us and we can get moving again.
Besides, what better way for an old guy to get around than on a machine that only goes 5 miles per hour?
It was nice to talk to Brenda today via Starlink but for some reason it took a lot longer to boot up and, for about 20 minutes, I feared the worse. Perhaps it is getting old. Hmm…
Next stop, with as good visibility as possible and before I get any older, Horta.
Editor: As part of the first ever Salty Dawg Rally to the Azores, you can see where Pandora and the other boats are located in real time at the Salty Dawg Azores Rally Map.
If you want to see where Pandora is alone, check out “where in the world is Pandora” at the top of the page or click on this link.
And, as always, you can register to receive a notice when I post, Which I do regularly, at the top of this page.
We are just over 600 miles from Horta and moving along nicely at 6-8kts over the bottom in about 9-12kts of wind. With a slight current in our favor, we continue to make good time.
I am tempted to say that we are “almost there” as having “only” 600 miles left on a run of 2,000 miles seems like “close” even if it is still quite far away. Think New York to Chicago far.
Anyway, I am going with close as we are currently sailing along at a good clip so life is good. Ask me how far it is if the wind drops and we are just flopping around making no progress. Then I can assure you, I will feel that we are nowhere near Horta.
The sunrise this morning, and there is not a lot, other than that, to take pictures of out here, was, well, it was a sunrise. We had showers and a lot of clouds but now it is sunny.
I also discovered that I am just about out of clean underwear so it was time to do a bit of washing. Actually, I washed them yesterday and they did not dry. It is breezy but humid. I hope that they dry today. Jason and Ted have made it clear that they hope so as well…
I wrote yesterday about how Chris Parker, our weather router, commented that Pandora was in just about the perfect spot to take advantage of light to moderate winds as we make our way east and said that if things continue as they are, we may not have to motor at all. Here we are, a few days later, and it is looking good that the run will play out as predicted. Of course, that assumes no broken stuff.
To that point, we do a “walk around” every day to be sure that there are no signs of chafe or imminent breakage and at least three times now we have made a few modifications to line leads or repairs to address chafe.
And speaking of chafe, I will be contacting a sailmaker in Horta to get some repairs done on my mainsail and perhaps the jib. It is amazing how much wear and tear there is on a boat that is run 24/7 for two weeks at sea.
Someone once told me that there is more wear and tear on a boat that is lived aboard, in a single year, than one that is “day sailed” on weekends and vacations for a full decade. And, Pandora has surely been used plenty. This season alone I will have covered well over 5,000nm by the time she is hauled in Almeria, Spain.
I am also confident, and not in a good way, that we have spent way more on Pandora than most will ever spend on their boats in a single year. Best not to think about that right now…
So, back to Chris’s routing suggestions to avoid a lot of motoring.
He instructed us to make our way to 41 degrees north and to head east from that point. We reached 40N yesterday afternoon and are now running due east down the parallel. By taking this approach, we hope to skirt just north of the windless zone and just south of the strong winds to our north. The goal is to stay in what I will call the “goldilocks zone”, not too much or too little wind.
The hope is that we will have enough wind to sail on a beam to broad reach (wind from beam to stern quarter) to continue to push us east. So far, so good…
The dilemma is that if we go too fast, we will outrun the wind as it fills in from the west. In a way it is self-correcting as our speed is based on the wind. And, if we go to fast, less wind will slow us down and allow the better winds to catch up. In theory anyway…
So far, so good. Details to come…
Fortunately, the most recent run of the GRIBS (graphic wind files) suggest that this strategy will play out and we should, I hope, I really hope, be able to make the entire run with little or no motoring.
The plan is to continue to move eastward along, or slightly north of, the 41st parallel until the wind clocks from the south to the west and fills in out of the northwest. At that point, when we are perhaps 200nm from our destination, we will turn to the SE and head directly for Horta.
As we enter the second week of our passage we have covered a bit more than 1,200 miles at an average speed of a bit over 7kts, which is amazing. To that point, that is the farthest that I have ever sailed without turning on the engine, by a lot.
Unlike passages to the Caribbean, where we tend to turn on the engine every time the wind gets light, to keep on schedule, on this passage we have been encouraged to be patient so that we will not outrun the wind and end up having to motor through the windless zones. To try and keep moving would force us ahead of the wind and put us in a position where we would be forced to motor beyond our fuel range.
All of this goes against my grain as I am generally an impatient person so the experience has been a learning experience. So far, in a positive way. Ask me again if the wind dies 🙁
As I mentioned before, a number of boats left a day ahead of us and given our good fortune we have closed the gap with them, well at least with those that have not turned on their motors to keep moving. So, as they lost their wind, we gained ours.
Over the next few days Chris feels that the fleet will tighten up and most of the boats should arrive within a day or two of the same date. There are now a total of 10 boats in the fleet with one just leaving Bermuda, a week after the rest of us due to personal timing issues and weather delays. Another has been forced to drop out of the rally as they had to turn back and are now stuck in Bermuda waiting for parts for a broken sail furler.
I heard earlier today that because of his delay, he has lost his crew as they “timed out” and need to head home. I can only imagine how frustrating that must be for the skipper as he does his best to organize the arrival of repair parts, a new crew, that he has not even identified yet, along with a new weather window once everyone arrives.
And, as June is the beginning of the hurricane season, there is also the issue of an early season storm spooling up toward Bermuda and into his path to the Azores. Sounds very complicated and I would be stressing. All of this reminds me of the anxiety I was feeling in St Maarten with my own mechanical issues, thinking that I might have to bag the entire trip.
However, we are well on our way and given the growing certainty that the bulk of the fleet will arrive sometime between next Tuesday and Thursday, it will soon be time to consider scheduling arrival events.
In addition to some informal happy-hour events, we will have an arrival diner as well as an event at a friend’s home on the nearby island, Pico, a short, 15-20 minute, ferry ride from Horta.
With Brenda arriving on the 16th, it may be hard to hold off on those two events to allow for her to participate as she will not be there until perhaps as much as 5-6 days after the fleet has made landfall.
A lot of this will depend on what the other boats are planning, how long they will remain in Horta before heading east to the Med or to northern Europe or if they have crew changes that will keep them in Horta for a while.
When we booked Brenda’s flight months ago, I never imagined that we would be in Horta before her arrival, now perhaps by a full week, as Chris told us that this run usually takes between two and two and a half weeks, involves lots of motoring and probably a gale or two.
Fingers crossed that things will continue to go well with the weather and that nothing breaks.
So, for now, as we have for the last week, we continue to sail along, making good progress toward Horta.
Oh yeah, one more thing.
As all of my long-distance passages have been north and south, I have never had to think about time zone changes, beyond the seasonal “daylight savings time” issue and going from east coast and Atlantic zone.
On this passage we will make our way through three time zones, from Atlantic Time to Horta, which is four hours ahead of New York. This means that we have had to estimate when to turn the clocks forward to ensure that when we approach Horta we well be acclimated.
So, where to change the clock? Well, I am glad you asked and here is how we decided to handle things.
The world is round, 360 degrees, and there are 24 hours in a day. So, divide 360 by 24 and you get 15 degrees of longitude between time zones. I think that is right. Anyway, we took the degrees between Bermuda, 64 degrees west, and Horta 28 degrees west, divided by 3 which is the number of time zones and you get 12 degrees, sort of what we are looking for. We know what time it is in Bermuda and also in Horta so the real issue is where to change the clocks. So, to divide things up we chose, perhaps a bit arbitrability, that we will move the clock forward by an hour at 42W and 35W.
To that point, we just passed 42W and my iPad has automatically changed so I guess I am right. It’s magic. Sort of like a thermos, I guess.
Ok. Time to move the other clocks ahead and again one more time in about 300 more miles to get on the same time zone as Horta.
One more thing. Jason has his heart set on catching a fish and we have trailed a line for three days now and not a single bite.
We did see a humpback whale though but it was too far away for a photo. All we saw was his big pectoral fin splashing the water a few times.
I am told that near the Azores is a hotbed for whale watching so perhaps we will get lucky and have a closer encounter. Not too close…I Hope.
Somehow 600 miles does not seem all that far away, for now anyway. Ask me again tomorrow…
Editor: As part of the first ever Salty Dawg Rally to the Azores, you can see where Pandora and the other boats are located in real time at the Salty Dawg Azores Rally Map.
If you want to see where Pandora is alone, check out “where in the world is Pandora” at the top of the page or click on this link.
And, as always, you can register to receive a notice when I post, Which I do regularly, at the top of this page.
Today started out mostly cloudy but now it’s become a beautiful sunny day. The clouds to the north were quite dramatic shortly after sunrise today.
A natural question to ask on passage, beyond “when will we get there?” is how far from land are you. While the answer to the first question is perhaps next Wednesday, the answer to the second question is clearer, close to Point Nemo.
Later this afternoon, Pandora will be at her furthest point from land in any direction than she will find herself at any point during this passage. The traditional definition of “Point Nemo” is the point on the planet that is farthest from land in any direction.
The actual Point Nemo is in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, near Pitcarin Island where Fletcher Christian of Mutiny on the Bounty fame, made landfall.
Another definition has to do with finding the most inaccessible point on the planet, such as the North or South Pole. I’m going with Point Nemo.
Interestingly, “Nemo” means Nobody in Latin, but that’s another story.
This is named after the fictional character, Captain Nemo, in the book by Jules Vern “20 leagues under the sea.”
While Pandora’s Point Nemo is not technically the world’s most remote place, it is Pandora’s most remote place now and EVER as I have no illusion that I will be crossing the Pacific Ocean.
It is Friday morning and it definitely, totally, for sure, feels like we are in the middle of nowhere, 500 miles from the closest land, in this case Newfoundland.
For all practical purposes, we are completely alone except for the occasional ship that passes on the horizon and even the dolphins have abandoned us today.
And speaking of ships, if we had any difficulty and had to activate our EPIRB, Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon, they would be asked to divert and assist us.
No chopper to come to someone’s rescue out here as their operating radius is about 350 miles from shore.
So, exactly where in the world is Pandora?
We are 1,000nm from our home in CT and 2,000nm from Trinidad, where I began this journey in April.
To continue with distances…
We are closer to Horta, 770nm than from Bermuda, 1,100nm, where we departed for this leg last Saturday.
It is safe to say that we are really, really far from everything but the most unsettling distance of all is the distance from Pandora to the ocean floor, over 16,500 feet down.
I wonder how long it would take for a penny tossed overboard to fall that distance? A boat? Best not to think about that…
Setting that aside, and I must, there is not much going on today unless you count that the wind direction and speed instruments that stopped working.
It took a while but I was able to solve the problem after fussing with wires for about and hour. I am not certain what the actual fix was beyond a bad connection but they do work now.
With the operative phrase “for now”.
As is often said, “everything on a boat is broken, you just don’t know it yet.”
Sadly, no truer words have been spoken.
Wherever we are, it is nice to know that the “end is near”, of the trip that is, and that we can begin to have confidence about when we will arrive in Horta.
One thing that I am becoming more confident of is that we will likely beat Brenda’s arrival on the 16th by a few days.
For now, where are we? Near Pandora’s Point Nemo. Of that I am certain.
Editor: As part of the first ever Salty Dawg Rally to the Azores, you can see where Pandora and the other boats are located in real time at the Salty Dawg Azores Rally Map.
If you want to see where Pandora is alone, check out “where in the world is Pandora” at the top of the page or click on this link.
And, as always, you can register to receive a notice when I post, Which I do regularly, at the top of this page.
So far, so good and Pandora has made it to the half way point of our 1,800nm run to Horta.
Since departing from Bermuda, we have been doing very well with daily runs of just under 180 miles, at an average speed of 7.5 kts. That is quite respectable but the second half is likely to be a LOT slower.
The crew is getting along well and meal planning seems to be acceptable with a decent, I think, variety. How many ways can you eat pasta?
Some live-to-eat and others, eat-to-live. Fortunately, the crew of Pandora are in the latter camp which simplifies meal planning, a lot.
There is not a lot to see out here except water but several times today we were treated to a show by some curious dolphins. They arrived in a rush, danced around the bow, and were gone just as quickly as they arrived.
It is remarkably difficult to get a shot of them despite their constant antics.
A few shots, if a bit blurry…
Jason and Ted were also trying their best to get a good photo.
We have also seen loads of Portuguese Man-O-War jellyfish.
Earlier today we had to pull down the mainsail as the line that tensions the leech, the aft end of the sail, had chafed through. Without this line in place, we could not put tension on the leech and the aft end of the sail was fluttering badly. In the grand scheme of things, it is a minor issue, but the constant fluttering of the fabric would have weakened it badly.
We were able to prepare a temporary fix but the sail will need servicing in Horta. Oh Well…
At night we split watches with the first beginning when it gets dark, until 22:00. The second watch from 22:00 to 03:00 and then I take over until the crew wakes up, generally between 07:00 and 08:00. During the day, nothing formal is needed as someone is always in the cockpit.
For sleeping, I have modified the aft cabin with a board in the middle to allow for comfortable sea berths. It is a bit tight, but is working out well.
As I write this, Thursday morning, we continue to head ENE to a waypoint of about 41N, which will put us far enough north to catch better wind and yet not so far north to make for a lot of extra miles or run into gales.
Horta is located at 38N so we are heading a bit north of that and then will turn to the East and then back down toward Horta to take advantage of a better wind angle. I hope that this strategy will pay off.
From the beginning of the run Chris has focused on the importance of being in what I will call the “Goldilocks zone” where we are far enough north to catch favorable winds and yet not too far north to add extra miles to the passage or put us in winds that are too strong.
As of this morning, Chris has become more specific about the best strategy depending on where each of the boats in the fleet is located and given the large windless zone between us and Horta, where each boat lies is particularly important.
Some of the boats left the afternoon before we did and a few others after us. So, now that we are into our 5th day from Bermuda the “best” place to be is becoming clearer and, as luck would have it, that is pretty much where Pandora is. Lucky us…
Because we decided to delay our departure from Bermuda by 12 hours to let a band of squalls clear out, we seem to have the good fortune of finding ourselves in the “sweet spot” for catching the best wind.
If things play out as expected, Chris believes that we may only have to motor for the last 24 hours of the trip and will have sailed almost the entire 2,000 miles. Well, we will see about that…
In past years I have motored for as much as 130 hours to make the 1,500-mile run from Hampton, VA to Antigua, the prospect of only 24 hours of motoring on a 2,000-mile-long passage sounds unbelievably lucky.
Had we been even 100 miles farther north, or south, of our current position we would not be as well positioned to catch the best conditions and our motoring time would likely be at least several days, a big difference for sure.
Who knows when we will arrive in Horta, but for planning purposes, I am estimating somewhere between June 11th or 12th, for a passage time of under two weeks. That would be amazing as I was expecting the run to be somewhere between 14 and 17 days.
Of course, it is hard to say exactly what will happen, but for now, based on what Chris has suggested, that is my best guess.
As of now, both the Euro and US weather models are in pretty good agreement so that suggests that conditions will play out as Chris is suggesting.
Are we in the right place at the right time, what I will call the Goldilocks zone?
Time will tell.
It always does.
Editor: You can see where Pandora and the others in the Salty Dawg Rally fleet are in real time, at the Salty Dawg Azores Rally Map.
If you want to see where Pandora is alone, check out “where in the world is Pandora” at the top of the page or click on this link.
And, as always, you can register to receive a notice when I post, Which I do regularly, at the top of this page.
