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Last evening I spoke with both Brenda and our son Christopher on WhatsApp at the same time.  While we have done these many times at home, it was a first for me aboard Pandora. 

Being on the phone with both “in the middle of nowhere” was a big deal and a first for me.    

It was so nice to talk to them and while the call did not last all that long, we covered a lot of ground.

The call got me thinking about how things have changed since Brenda and I began cruising together back in the 80s.

And, if you are curious, here I am in my “office.”   Sorry, no sunrise photo today.  Too cloudy at dawn.

But, before I get to that, a bit of a progress update.   And, please indulge me on this as I too am bored to distraction by blogs that give a detailed description of miles made, nights anchored, average speed and other “details” that only an accountant would love.   And no, I do not have a thing against accountants, as somebody must make sure that it all adds up.

Anyway, since we departed Bermuda, we have traveled a bit over 500 miles at an average speed of a little over 7kts, a good showing for a cruising boat.

Chris Parker, our weather router has us continuing to the ENE and assumes that we will begin to lose the wind after about another 300 miles or so on this course.   After that we will turn more easterly and will likely have very light wind for a few days.

He cautions us not to motor as that will keep us ahead of the wind that should fill in behind us and if we continue to move forward even a little bit, it will be that much longer until the wind catches up with us. 

I do not do well with “wallow” when there is very little wind, we wallow so we will have to see how that goes.

The good news is that if we endure the slow speeds for a few days, we may be rewarded by decent wind to sail much of the rest of the way to Horta.  Fingers crossed…

Details to come, I guess.

So, back to the topic of staying in touch and my call with Brenda and Christopher last night.

When Brenda and I began weekend and vacation cruising aboard our 20’ Cape Cod catboat in the 80s, communication aboard was very crude.

To be aboard a boat meant that the only way to talk to anyone was to talk on the VHF radio so if we wanted to talk to a “land person,” we had to go ashore and use a pay phone.

We were generally isolated when we were on the boat.

By the time we headed down the ICW to Florida and the Bahamas we had cell phones but even then, there were many areas along the coast that had no coverage so keeping in touch was hit or miss. 

And, if we wanted to do a blog post, we had to contend with limited data on our phones or to head ashore and find wi-fi. 

While cellular coverage in the Bahamas was pretty good, calls back to the US were expensive and phone data was scarce.  As a result, we were constantly trying to find a Wi-Fi network.  I had a Wi-Fi booster aboard but it was a cat and mouse effort to find an unsecured Wi-Fi or to find a way to get a password. 

After a few seasons in the Bahamas, we headed to Cuba where our cellular service was totally cut off and if we tried to log into the local carrier, all we got was a message “forbidden.” 

During those years in the Bahamas and the months in Cuba in 2016, one of the only ways to get messages in more remote areas or when I was offshore was with the Single Sideband Radio, a sort of HAM radio on boats.

This expensive and complicated device, which I still have aboard, was difficult to use and to get good reception was more of a “black art” than anything else.  For email I relied on an obscure device, a pactor modem, that interfaced between my radio and laptop. 

Getting “online” was a slow process that relied on a few widely spaced base stations, Panama, Trinidad, and Rocky Hill, NC.  I used propagation tables on my laptop that would guide me as to which station would work at any given time of day based on the height of the sun and current sun spots that effect radio transmission.

And, to make matters even more complex, only one user could log onto a base station at any given time so it was a constant game of “cat and mouse” to slip in when the station was free.   I hated it but there was not really any other option.   

Until just a few years ago, the SSB was really the only way that I could stay in touch when I was offshore and even the simplest email could sometimes take 10-15 minutes to send or receive.  

Then Starlink was born and it changed everything.

I think that it was three seasons ago that I first heard of Starlink.  I was participating in a rally from Hampton VA to Antigua and the fleet was terribly delayed and ended up leaving 11 days late. 

Knowing that there was likely going to be a long delay, I rented a car and headed back to CT from Hampton.   Most all boats lost crew, who were unwilling to risk missing Thanksgiving with their family and it was a mad scramble to find replacements.

So, with that nearly two weeks delay we scheduled several additional zoom weather briefings with Chris Parker.  As we dialed in from home or with local Wi-Fi you could see in the background home offices, kitchens, and the interior of boats.

However, suddenly, there was one boat that showed the skipper aboard his boat with a view of his wake streaming off to the horizon.  He was aboard one of the Bahamas boats that had not been delayed. 

I was stunned.  How could someone have video offshore?   It was Starlink.  Amazing.

When I arrived in Antigua and tied up in Nelson’s Dockyard a boat next to me had this crazy looking rectangular Starlink “dish” sitting on his cabin top.   He offered for me to log in and try it. 

I could not believe how fast it was and after chasing Wi-Fi for years, I HAD TO HAVE ONE.

The bad news is that I was in Antigua and the only way to get one was to have it brought down from the US.  As luck would have it, one of the Salty Dawgs had family flying to Antigua and they offered to bring it down to me.

Anyway, I got one about two weeks later and set it up.  The setup process was so easy and within 15 minutes we had broadband.  I was hooked.  

A few years earlier I had crewed on a 140’ motor yacht from the Hamptons to Ft Lauderdale and had a taste of broadband on passage and it worked well enough to do blog posts but was not nearly as fast as Starlink.  And, the service cost $5,000 a month, clearly beyond the reach of “mere mortals”. 

As great as that service was, I never imagined that I would ever be able to do a simple phone call or a video call aboard Pandora.

But, now I can. 

We live in a connected world and while I do my best to avoid “doom scrolling” I do spend a lot of time checking email to be sure that I do not miss anything but until Starlink, all that stopped when I was “off the grid.”

Some cruisers look forward to being “away from it all” when they are at sea but I need to be in touch. As Brenda is not with me for the “long stuff,” I miss her terribly and need a “Brenda fix” often.

I need to be connected!

So, last night’s call with Brenda and Chris was a milestone of sorts where we had a nearly seamless call that sounded as though they were nearby.  Sure, there can be dropouts but that is because I only boot up the system briefly, make calls and turn it off and it takes a while for the service to stabilize.

Starlink, well at least the antenna that I have, is power hungry and to use the service offshore can be pricey.  In addition to the $165 a month for basic service, I pay $2 a gigabyte for data offshore.   

That does not sound like much but it can add up to several GB per day, even if the calls are brief and it would be quite easy to run up a $300 bill after a few weeks at sea. 

And, speaking of power, having lithium batteries that take a charge much faster than the old lead acid batteries, plus 1,050 watts of solar and the wind generator, mean that I can mostly keep up with the power requirements of refrigeration, instruments, computers, water maker and an assortment of devices that need to be charged along with Starlink.    

So far, and on other passages since upgrading to more solar, wind and lithium, I can generally handle all of this without mechanical charging.  Before all of this I had to run the engine twice daily.  And, each year the power requirements continue to grow so we will see what the future holds.

Sure, in the grand scheme of things, Starlink is not very expensive but the offshore “by the Gig” charges and heavy power requirements, combine to keep usage in check.

Over the last decade things have changed so much it is hard to imagine what the future will hold.

However, for me, staying in touch is key. 

And that goes double for June 4^th, Brenda’s and my 48^th wedding anniversary and on the 8^th, my 70^th birthday. 

Unlike some, I do not want to be off the grid, ever…  Well, perhaps for a few hours…

I think that I will try to ring up Brenda, just to say Hi!

Editor:  You can see where Pandora and the others in the Salty Dawg Azores 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.

It is noon on the third day of our passage from Bermuda to Horta in the Azores and I will admit that I feel that we have been traveling for quite some time. 

Question:  So Bob, how far away is Horta?

Answer:  NOT EVEN CLOSE!

For sure, we have been sailing at a good clip since we left Bermuda and should continue to carry favorable winds for the next 500 miles or so, several days NE from here.   After that, we will likely turn more to the east and farther north to try and avoid the windless high on the latitude of the Azores.

We must be careful not to go too far north as that will add a lot of miles and will have to balance the stronger winds up north against a shorter, more direct route, with little or no wind.  And that will require days of motoring, which I prefer to avoid.   Remember, I sail much faster than I motor.  Try twice as fast.

There is no practical way to avoid some motoring but if I can keep that to say, 500 miles, that is probably all I can hope for.  

We will have to see how things evolve in the coming days and see what Chris recommends.

When you consider the full run of about 2,000 NM, we have hardly scratched the surface, only covering about 400 miles, or 20% of the distance.

400 miles is a smidge.  

In the “olden days,” with our 20’ Cape Cod Catboat, a big trip was the 17 NM run from Norwalk, CT to Pt Jefferson, on Long Island Sound.  The 400 miles, so far, is very likely more distance than we covered in the entire season of weekend runs back then.

After many years of local sailing on Long Island Sound, we graduated to Martha’s Vineyard and then on to Maine but it was not until I retired in 2012 that we went any real distance, heading down the Intra Costal Waterway to Florida and onto The Bahamas.

So, with 80% of the run to Horta still in front of us, we really have not covered much ground.

Ok, we are 400 miles into the trip but how far are we from other places we have cruised?

The answer is way far…

Such as…

800 NM from our home near the Connecticut River.

1,500 NM from Trinidad:  Where I began this run about a month ago.

1,050 NM from St Maarten:  Where I departed from to make the run to Bermuda.

1,500 NM from Horta:  Of course, where we will end up within two weeks, I hope…

And finally, 1,000 NM from the Azores to Almeria Spain:  Where we plan to leave Pandora for the season until we re-join her next April.

Yikes.  A long way to go.  Best not to think about that today…

Instead, I will think about today, sailing along at 8kts, the sun is shining and nothing major has broken, yet…

Things have been stable aboard for the last day.  Well, if you set aside the squall that enveloped us for more than an hour last night, complete with lightening.   The squall, according to our radar, was about 10 miles across and it was not until after nearly an hour in the middle of it that we decided to reverse course and were able to finally sail out of it. 

All is well that ends well and so far, that is the only squall that we have encountered.

So, now you know how far it is to Horta, and several other places, for that matter.  What we do not know is how long it will take for us to get there.

I suppose the answer is anyone’s guess. 

Probably longer than I expect.  Me?  Ever the optimist…

Instead, I will focus on the sunrise today. 

What a nice way to start the day.

Note:  You can see where Pandora and the others in the 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.

One day into the run from Bermuda to Horta, things are going well.  

And, as the sun peaked over the horizon,  I was a bit surprised to see the sun coming up over our bow. 

For every other offshore trip, north and south, it has always been on the beam.  Now, heading generally east, it rose in front of us.  Obvious but I had not thought of that.

For those that follow this blog know that I am not a big fan of passage making and after a decade of heading south in the fall and back north at the end of season, the sameness,  after a decade, has gotten a bit old.  

On the run south to the Caribbean every fall, the passage is somewhat predictable.   The first third of the run is a mix of cold fronts that can make for challenging routing, with SW winds clocking as cold fronts crash off of the US east coast.  It is a constant battle to find decent winds.

The second third, the “Bermuda High” where there is very little wind.  This area, several hundred miles wide is the transition zone between the SW prevailing winds to the north and the easterly trades to the south.   Passing through this area can be very frustrating and often involves a lot of motoring and a fair number of squalls. 

Finally, the easterly trade winds, but that can also be frustrating as you never really know if they will be pushed south by a big low up north or allow for spirited sailing for upwards of a third of the 1,500-mile run from New England and Antigua.  While most of the time we end up with great sailing for this part of the run, I have had passages where the trades were suppressed until the last 200 miles.  And, to make matters worse, the winds are often south of east so it is not easy sailing and sometimes can be downright “salty.”

The unpredictability of the run is frustrating enough but add to that the fact that as we move farther south, it gets hotter, especially when I am motoring, to a point of where the cabin is over 90 degrees for much of the time, making it very difficult to get rest.

Now, I will say that I have no previous experience with a Trans-Atlantic run but so far it is going quite well. 

And, even when we enter windless areas, I will be able to motor some distance instead of waiting for wind.   However, it should stay cooler below as we are so much farther north.

Pandora has quite good motoring range as she carries 95 gallons of diesel in three tanks below deck as well as six 5-gallon jugs and a 50-gallon bladder, in vented lockers.  That gives me approximately 180 gallons of usable fuel, good for motoring more than 1,000 miles.

That means if we are becalmed for days, I can keep moving, if not particularly fast as motoring is about half as fast as sailing in good conditions.

Another issue that detracts from the fun of passage making has been chasing leaks and it seems that every time I fix one, another pops up. 

When we purchased Pandora 9 years ago, the owner proudly declared that there is only one place that leaked, the big salon plexiglass windows. He told me that when it got cold the panels shrank a bit and the ends started dripping. 

Well, I dealt with that by replacing them with PPG commercial building glass and by adding a center expansion joint so that any expansion or contraction was no longer an issue.  This glass, designed for office buildings, has a very low expansion coefficient, much like fiberglass and epoxy.   Years later, no leaks.

Unfortunately, that was just the beginning of leaks and as I used the boat offshore in rough conditions, leaks multiplied as I was putting the boat in much wetter conditions.   Alas, loads of leaks.

I also had issues with the three large hatches and while the gaskets were fine, for a few years anyway,  water was getting under the metal base and leaking down below.  I pulled the whole hatch off as well as most of the other deck fittings and re-sealed everything.

One way or the other, a boat that is used hard gets leaks and I hear from many other cruisers that their “no leak” boat ends up like a washing machine down below when they are in rough conditions offshore.

After 9 seasons of chasing leaks, I had finally narrowed it down to a single, impossible to fix leak, the mast boot.  And that was particularly frustrating as any salt water that got below ended up on our bunk. 

When I took Pandora back to Trinidad last month, I asked Amos to find the leak, not mater what, and it seems that he did.  He told me that they found a small hole in the rubber boot where water was getting in.

Well, so far, for this passage, no leaks so far which would make this the VERY FIRST PASSAGE, EVER.  Fingers crossed that I am no jinxing the deal by writing this.   Perhaps it has not been rough enough yet.  We will see.

While it has been plenty sporty, and there has been plenty of water on deck, no water down below. 

In our two pre-departure weather briefings Chris described conditions that were unusually good for this run and that we should be able to have good sailing for at least half of the trip with near perfect sailing with 15-20 kts on the beam before we encounter any light wind conditions. 

So far, so good and in our first 24 hours since leaving Bermuda yesterday morning at 06:30 we have clocked about 185 miles, an impressive feat for a boat like Pandora, and faster than most comparably sized cruising boats.  My best 24hr runs have been in the 195-mile range but it is a rare cruising boat that can go 200 miles in a day unless there is a favorable current. 

Who knows how things will go over the next week but we believe that we have several more days, at least with excellent sailing.

Perhaps I will beat Brenda’s arrival on the 15^th.   And, I left a day earlier than our June 1^st planned departure date.  That would be nice.

It is probably too early to speculate but I am hoping that I will complete the run in 12-13 days if I am lucky.  I actually have no idea… but hope….

And, as far as comfort is concerned, I am also sleeping a lot better as it is much cooler than the run to the Caribbean and will surely get cooler still as we make our way north.   

Due to the prevailing westerly winds, we will be heading somewhat north of the latitude of Horta to avoid the windless zone and perhaps as far north as the same latitude as Boston or Cape Cod. 

Finally, I interviewed quite a few crew for this run and after one day I am happy to report that I chose well.  Ted, who has a lot of offshore experience including time with high-latitude sailing in the southern and Indian oceans, has sailed in some of the most challenging conditions in the world and really knows his stuff.

And Jason, true to what I was told by his references, is eager to learn, and with his club racing experience, knows his way around a boat.

I am happy to have them both aboard and we are learning from each other.

Of course, it helps that we are making miles.  Ask me again if the wind poops out.  

Good wind or not, perhaps the one thing that is making this run more fun is that I am heading toward an adventure that I would never have imagined, even a few years ago.

To sail in the Mediterranean is so far from what seemed possible that I never even speculated that I would someday be heading “across the Pond”.   

So far, one day in, I am enjoying this passage. 

There, I said it.  Let’s hope that I have not jinxed it.

Every day, a bit closer…  I hope…

Editor: I expect to continue to post most days for our run to Horta, and a fair amount after that, so consider signing up to get a reminder when I publish.

You can also see where Pandora and the others in the 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.

This is it. Today we weigh anchor, head out from Bermuda, destination Horta in the Azores.

At the risk of being corny, this photo as the sun sets on our visit to Bermuda.

The only thing that is more amazing than the fact that I am heading out today to cross the Atlantic, is that I actually feel, mostly, ready for the run.

My crew, Jason and Ted, arrived a few days ago, provisioning is done so I do feel like we are ready to “take the plunge” and get going.

Yesterday was a whirlwind with a bus ride to the market, a massive haul of provisions and a cab back to the waterfront, securing the boat, clearing customs and hosting a weather briefing. I have to say that I have never purchased quite so many sandwich wraps, several dozen and exactly how many yogurts can three guys eat in two to three weeks? We’ll see but we have two dozen on top of loads of other food.

We really don’t know how long this 2,000 mile run will take but I have tried to have enough food to last three weeks, I think…

However, on the bright side, our latest briefing from Chris Parker, our weather router, suggests that we will have really great sailing for at least the first week which may very well take us a full 2/3rds of the way to Horta until we find ourselves in an area with very little wind.

Anyway, at least we have lots of food. And fuel, as we filled up the boat a few days ago and should have enough to motor perhaps as long as 1,000 miles, which should not be necessary based on the forecast so far. I calculate that if I go slow I burn about .7 to .8 gallons per hour and with 175 gallons of fuel available, that’s over 200 miles and perhaps 1,000 miles or more. If we have good winds, we should be able to sail much of the way. Fingers crossed.

It’s been a very pleasant, if busy, time here in Bermuda and I am very pleased to be heading out early, if only by a day.

It’s hard to say how long the run will take but with all of the favorable winds, for at least the next week, perhaps the run will take about two weeks.

From the beginning of planning, I have been focused on two weeks for the trip, suggesting that we will arrive in Horta around the 15th which is when Brenda arrives.

She has booked a hotel for a week so hopefully I will be able to stay there with her. That would be nice.

It’s been nearly a month since I headed to Trinidad and I am anxious to begin this next leg and be back together with Brenda.

For the last decade of moving Pandora around, Brenda and I have been apart for a month or more in both the spring and fall as I move the boat south or back home in the spring but this year will have been the longest, six weeks. That’s a long time to be apart.

Along the way I will miss our 48th anniversary, June 4th if you want to know, and my 70th birthday, June 8th, not to put too fine a point on it. Hard to believe that so much water has gone under Brenda’s and my keel’s, bridges, whatever…

We’ve been together for a long time and I am excited about getting underway and back together again.

If you are curious about where Pandora is or to follow the other boats that are participating in this rally, the first Salty Dawg Rally to the Azores, follow the links below.

Where in the world is Pandora? Or click on the link above.

The Salty Dawg Azores bound fleet.

And, you can sign up to get an email alert when I post, which if history is any guide, will be frequently as we move along our path to Horta. See the link at the top of this page.

I will be using Predict Wind for routing along with Chris Parker as a way to have a graphic representation of what Chris has in his forecast.

As of this morning, here’s what it looks like. We will be looking for medium red conditions with wind from the SW and green from the South so and you can see that there is plenty forecast along our route.

The various lines are based on a number of different weather scenarios and the track that we will take is likely to be somewhere between the upper and lower tracks.

The sections we want to avoid is dark red, very windy, or blue, way to light for sailing.

It’s all a bit complex but we will be focused on what you might call the “Goldilocks winds”, not too strong, and not too light and from the right direction.

And, with a little luck in about two weeks, Horta, our next stop.

Wish us luck.

Bermuda is really beautiful. The last time that I was here was when I helped take a friend’s boat home from the Bermuda Race. That was a very long time ago and perhaps I was in my 20s. This visit brings me full circle as I am now heading across the Atlantic. First time, my first offshore passage. Second visit, my first transatlantic. Get it?

Before I move on, I should note that my code zero sail is mort. I took it to the sail repair guy yesterday and he declared it “dumpster ready”. What a blow. However, after speaking with Chris Parker he said that the sail wouldn’t be of much use for a good amount of the trip as the wind will be too far aft for such a sail to be effective. I plan to put it back up and to use it until it blows out. Perhaps it will last till the end of the run. Doubtful but I will try.

When we finished up the trip yesterday around 09:00 it was blowing pretty hard out of the SW and we had pushed hard to get in before the forecasted wind shift to the north came through. Amazingly, within about 90 minutes of our arrival the wind shifted 180 degrees and piped up to 25-30 kts. The rapidity of the change was stunning and boats were dragging. It wasn’t pretty. However, today it’s lovely with a light north wind. Pandora at anchor.

Pandora is in good company. Here’s Ticonderoga, a beautiful yawl designed and built by Francis Herishoff and launched in 1936. I sailed for an afternoon on her years ago but she wasn’t in as amazing shape as she is now. I believe that she sailed in the Antigua Classic Yacht Regatta recently and is heading back to Newport for the summer.

Anyway, it is looking like a departure for Horta over the weekend, on time.

My crew, Jason and Ted, arrived today and we have a weather briefing and cocktail reception this evening so that will give us a good feel for what to expect, at least for the early part of the trip.

This morning I went for a walk in Georgetown to enjoy the views. It is a beautiful place. Unfortunately, the prices of everything are sky high as there are very high tariffs on everything. We had a light lunch yesterday in a burger place and it was $120 for two. Stunning.

While the prices are stunning, the beauty is as well.

The first thing that you see when you leave the dock is the town hall, which sets the tone. What a beautiful building. And, everything is perfectly maintained.

It is a school day and I saw two different groups from a school out for a tour.

It reminded me of a similar moment in Cuba when Brenda and I visited that island in 2016. Follow this link to a view not very different from the image above, but in Cuba.

All of the buildings here have whitewashed roofs to catch the rain as natural waster is in short supply here.

Everything is brightly painted and all perfect.

Of course, what would a beautiful city be without carefully maintained ruins?

Or more of the shabby chic kind…

Or a park…

I love flowers and there are loads here. Morning glories?

And what says Bermuda more than bougainvillea?

Lots of churches. Pink.

And other colors.

I have to say that this place is one of the most beautiful places that I have visited. Seeing the sights like this makes me wonder if perhaps the Med will be even more amazing. I am counting on it as getting there is not simple.

Here’s to a promising weather window. Fingers crossed. Details to come.

I am loving Bermuda, expensive or not.

As I write this It is Monday afternoon and we hopeful that we are less than 24 hours from making landfall in Bermuda. 

There is a nice, if light, breeze on the beam but with only my small jib and main but we cannot risk going even a little bit slower so we must continue to run the engine.

After posting several sunrises, how about this sunset from last night?  The sun was setting under a huge thunderhead cloud.  To me it looks a bit like the goose that laid the golden egg. 

Later that evening, the cloud came over us and dropped some rain but fortunately, it was not particularly windy and no lightening.

And speaking of clouds that look like an animal.  I cannot quite decide what this one reminds me of.  Whatever it is, it looks happy.  Hmm…

I have not turned off the motor for several days now except to address a bit of an “issue” last evening around dusk, when the belts on the power take-off that run the large alternator to charge the battery along with enough electricity to run the forward AC, began to disintegrate.  

After thousands of miles aboard Pandora, I can immediately tell if something is not quite right and when I heard a rumbling and a different vibration I took a look.  Seeing one of the tandem belts shredding itself, tossing pieces everywhere confirmed that I had to shut the engine down.

As with just about every critical component, I have spares and in this case, enough belts to replace both twice more.  Getting them off and replacing them with new ones was not easy but as I had done the job in the past and was able to complete the job in about a half hour.  Having said that, working on a hot engine while the boat was rolling in windless conditions was not fun but with Dave holding a light so I could see what I was doing, mission accomplished and we were soon underway.

By the time I had the job completed, I was dripping with sweat.

One of the frustrating things about passage making is that the wind, while often consistent for days on end, can often be very uncooperative and last night as a particular low point.

For much of yesterday we had a decent breeze that allowed us to motor sail but as the sun went down the breeze shifted to our stern and dropped to less than 5kts.  As we motored forward at about the same speed, that meant that we had a slight headwind, slowing us further.   It was excruciating.

I took in the jib but left the main up with the hope of getting a bit of a lift from the sail.  However, that was not to be and for much of the night the sail just flapped slowly, and we crawled along at less than 5kts. 

Fortunately, later in the morning a 10kt breeze came up on our beam and we are now motor-sailing along at a good clip.  There is almost enough wind to sail but not quite without the big code zero.   The lack of a proper light air sail has made it necessary to run the engine for an additional 24 hour or more.

And, speaking of that sail, when we arrive in Bermuda, I will deliver it to a sailmaker with the hope of getting it repaired.  However, as I expect that it will be windy when we arrive, we decided to take it down this morning when the wind was light. 

Given the sun damage to the aft end of the sail, I was very concerned that it might catch on something as we dropped it on deck and receive even more damage.

After about a half hour of strategizing on how to get it down and folded up, we decided to slowly motor slightly off the wind and to drop it onto the leeward deck.  George tended the aft end of the sail and Dave clawed the sail onto the deck as I lowered it. 

This is a big sail, about 60’ tall and about 35’ on the foot.  A lot of fabric to muscle onto the deck without it ending up in the water.  When pulling down a big sail, if a gust of wind catches it and you hold on too tight, it can jerk you right off the deck. 

Well, we got it done, stuffed it into a sail bag and stowed it in the forward head, where it will live until we take it to the sailmaker tomorrow afternoon.

So, that is done and there is one less thing to worry about.

Getting that sail fixed is critical as without it we will have to motor a lot more or go unreasonably slowly on the run to the Azores when the wind is light, perhaps adding days to a trip that is likely to take more than two weeks, even with good conditions. 

The difference in an average speed of six knots vs four can make a big difference.

2,000 miles at an average speed of 6kts is 14 days.   The same distance at 5kts is three days longer.

As it is, we are estimating that the trip will take between 13-17 days and to not have a sail that can handle light wind would put us at a major disadvantage.

To that point, I estimated that the lack of the code zero sail on this run has cost us upwards of an extra half day or more.

That might not sound like a lot but there are often deadlines where you “have to get there” to avoid bad weather and the difference of a knot or even a half knot, can mean the difference of hitting bad weather or not.

This passage is a case in point, as if we do not get to Bermuda by mid-morning on Tuesday, we may be hit by strong headwinds that could cost us another day at sea.

Some say that watching a boat sail is like watching grass grow but having good sails and wind is like a lawn with no rain verses rain and lots of fertilizer.  You cannot see it grow but it gets tall fast.

So, here we are at noon on Monday and we positively must get to Bermuda by mid-morning tomorrow, so we motor.

I think that we can make it based on the wind that we have now, but after last night, inching along with no wind, who knows.

As we approach Bermuda it has turned into a race to the finish if for now other reason than to avoid running into major headwinds. 

I suppose that is a metaphor for life, avoiding headwinds.

After a few days in Bermuda, off again for the Azores, that destination is 2.5x farther than this leg, nearly 2,000 miles.

Let us hope we have good wind and no major broken stuff.

But first I need to get to Bermuda, soon…

It is Sunday morning and the wind is directly behind us and too light to sail.   The engine is droning on and on, nearly 40 hours so far, with no end in sight.

It is incredibly calm with only gentle rollers and wind of less than 10kts directly behind us.  We are far from anything, 260 miles from Bermuda and nearly 1,000 miles from the US east coast.

During my watch this morning, as the horizon began to brighten, I was treated to a lovely view of a crescent moon, setting to the east.

Later, a magnificent sunrise.  It is not hard to imagine early cultures, believing that the sun was something to worship.     

We hope to arrive in Bermuda mid-morning on Tuesday but that is a guess as we cannot be certain as our speed varies from under 5kts to over 6.5 for brief periods as the light wind pushes us forward to help the engine, or not.

To give that some context, if we were sailing with good wind, we would be running between 7-8.5kts and a difference of only one knot would mean arriving 12 hours sooner.  Two knots and that is a full 24 hours, a big difference.

With 260 miles standing between us and Bermuda, and no meaningful wind in the forecast, our current speed suggests that we will be motoring for another 48 hours, for a total of about 85 hours.

To give that some context, for the run to the Caribbean, which is about 1,600 miles, nearly twice this distance, I generally run the engine for upwards of 100 hours and on one trip 130 hours.  This means that this run, relative to the length, is nearly twice the motoring time.

They say that the most dangerous piece of equipment on a sailboat is a calendar and when you try to follow a schedule you can get into trouble.

To that point, when we were preparing to leave St Maarten, Chris Parker, our weather router, told us that we would likely be motoring half or more of the distance.  However, if we could wait a week, it was likely that we would be able to sail nearly the entire way.  And, this run, if we were sailing more, would likely take a full day less.

However, with my “calendar” requiring that I had to get to Bermuda in time to have George and David fly out and Ted and Jason, my crew to the Azores, fly in, I had to go.

So we motor…

The good news is that even if we must motor upwards of 80+ hours, we will still have more than half of our fuel when we arrive.

Conserving fuel is key as the difference of only 100 RPM can mean a fuel consumption rate of 20% more and yet not a lot more speed.

One of the boats in the rally to Bermuda is at risk of running out of fuel and there is just no way to get more except perhaps from passing boat and let me tell you, there are not many passing boats out here.

It is not all that uncommon for those new to long distance sailing to underestimate their fuel consumption and to find that they do not have enough to go the full distance, forcing them to wait, and wait, for the wind to fill in.  And, eventually it does…

One year, a boat in the fall Caribbean rally to Antigua had problems with their starter motor so they could not start their engine as they approached Barbuda, about 30 miles from Antigua and just drifted for a few days until we could find someone to run a new starter motor out to them.

So, here we are, motoring along and I am more than a little relieved that I had taken the time to be sure that the injectors were properly installed and all the fuel leaks addressed.

As frustrating as that was, not to talk about my pesky root canal, making sure that the engine was in near perfect condition, was time and money well spent.  For the record, my tooth does not hurt.  That is good.

And speaking of clouds, which I was not, those of you that have been following my blog for a while  know that I am a member of the Cloud Appreciation Society, a group with tens of thousands of members, that celebrate clouds.

Every day the society sends out a photo of a cloud that was submitted by a member and when I looked at this cloud today, I found myself wondering if I should submit this photo.   For the record, I have had 4-5 of my photos chosen, which seems like a lot.  Perhaps one more?

This cloud reminds me of a baker, complete with chef hat, riding on a cart.  What do you see?

Oh well, perhaps I have been listening to the drone of the motor for too long and am beginning to see things.

I do love clouds, and sunrise, and sunsets… 

But you already know that.

And yes, this endless motoring is indeed getting annoying but at least we are moving in the right direction. 

And, there are clouds…

Of course, if you are curious about where we are, take a look at “where in the world is Pandora”. Better yet, sign up to get a ping when I post. Don’t worry, I won’t share your email with some nasty Korean hackers.

What a difference a day makes.  Being less than half way there was not my favorite but now that we have passed the point where we are closer to Bermuda than St Maarten, I am happy now.  

Happy to see a lovely sunrise this morning.

Even better up close.

I am still not happy about the code zero needing work as we have had to resort to motor sailing in conditions when a larger headsail would have allowed us to sail.   However, diesel is cheaper than a blown out, unrepairable, sail and if that were to happen, I doubt that it would be practical to repair. 

Better safe than sorry so engine on.

While having the engine is under the sink in the galley and in the middle of the boat makes for great weight distribution and good sailing, it also makes things HOT down below.

As the wind has become lighter, we finally resorted to turning the engine on and have been motoring for 12 hours now, since last evening at 7:00.  Chris Parker had said from the beginning that we would likely be motoring about half of the distance and while I expect that we will be able to sail some during the last day of the run, it seems to be working out about as he predicted.

When it is calm and we are motor sailing, it is very comfortable below as I can run the forward AC off the engine alternator.   A few years ago, I installed a vent into the main cabin from the forward AC unit and it does a passable job at keeping things cool in the main cabin despite the hot engine.   The AC unit in the main cabin is much larger and I am not comfortable putting that big of a load on the alternator for hours on end.

Overnight it was very calm with a few scattered squalls but they were mild and I slept through the only one that came over us while Dave was on watch.    Fortunately, this run has been relatively squall free.  I recall a passage a few years ago when we had upwards of two dozen squalls which was very stressful. 

After a small squall passed us just after dawn, a sliver of a rainbow.

The clouds out in the ocean are endlessly fascinating.     A 360 horizon, and a particularly dramatic view in or wake.

As of now it looks like we will make our way into Bermuda in the early hours of Tuesday morning, and likely in the dark.   I will admit that I am a bit anxious about entering the harbor in the dark as the channel is only about 200’ wide and there are a lot of shallow reefs on either side.  However, it is well marked and between the plotter, iPad charts and radar, we should be able to pick our way through it

George has been through the cut and feels that it will be fine so that is good.  Once we are inside the harbor it is very protected and we will drop the anchor and wait till dawn.

With regards to the code zero, we plan on waiting until the wind gets very light, probably later today, and will pull it down so that we will be ready to take it ashore as soon as we clear in, hopefully on Tuesday morning.

So, there you have it, more than half way there, it is calm and we are making progress.

Still over 400 miles to go so perhaps it is a bit premature to say “yahoo!”

Fingers crossed…

It is Friday morning and we have gone about 300 of the 850 miles to Bermuda and by sometime tomorrow we will have made it half way. 

We continue to sail along in light to moderate winds, generally on the beam and are making fairly good time.

From the beginning of the trip, we have estimated that we will arrive in Bermuda some time on Tuesday and I guess that is still the case. 

Yesterday, shortly after discovering that the code zero sail was not in great shape, I was able to contact a sailmaker in Bermuda and have arranged to have it inspected and hopefully repaired in time to make the run to the Azores.

I was surprised to see the condition, the wear just adjacent to the sun cover panel on the aft part and foot of the sail, as it had been inspected and cleaned just last fall. 

It appears that the sun cover panel was just not quite wide enough to completely protect the sail from sun damage.  I fear that the sailmaker will say that it is not worth fixing and there is not time to secure a replacement.

It does look pretty nasty with worn areas much of the way up the aft part, or leach of the sail.  This photo shows one example of the wear.  Not great

It is an old sail that came with the boat and over the years I have hardly used as it is quite large and only useful in a narrow range of wind.  However, for the run to the Azores, I expect that it will, or should I say would if it’s fixed, get a fair amount of use.

In the Caribbean the winds are generally too strong for such a large sail but the Mediterranean is known for light winds so I expect that it will come in handy.  Additionally, for the run to the Azores, the wind is likely to be behind us which is a good direction for the sail.

Anyway, we will see what he says and while he will likely say that it is not worth fixing, there is no way to get something better in time so fixing it, if that’s practical, is really the only option.

Getting near the half way point of a passage is a frustrating time for me as to be less than half way there can feel fairly defeating given the fact that we still have more miles ahead of us than behind. 

I do know that there are many who really enjoy passage making and prefer it to the sort of island-to-island cruising that we prefer.  However, I suppose that if Brenda was on board with me perhaps I would feel differently. 

But, to add the time away from her and the uncertainty of when we will arrive in Bermuda passage making is just not my favorite.

All and all, the passage has been uneventful and to be able to talk briefly with Brenda every day via Starlink is a real treat and something to look forward to.  

The last time I took a long passage was a few years ago when Starlink was very new and once we were at sea getting a signal was difficult and sometimes impossible.   On this run it is taking upwards of 15 minutes to get the unit connected to satellites but it always connects.

The plan that I have allows me, in addition to the $165/month fee, to toggle a $2/GB plan when more than 15 miles from land and it seems that our limited usage, checking email, downloading weather and brief calls home adds up to 1-2GB of usage per day which is very reasonable.   However, I expect that it will add up to more than that but in the grand scheme of things, a few dollars a day in extra charges is a very good deal compared to the “olden days”.

For me to discover a sail problem, go on line and speak directly to a sailmaker was a first for me and gives me the confidence that with a few days’ notice, I may be able to get the sail repaired.  Well, I hope so.

Well, with about 550 miles to go, that is still a long way off but at least we are moving in the right direction.

Fingers crossed that the wind keeps up for at least half of the time remaining as forecast.

Well, with new injectors and plenty of fuel, that is good so at least I can take comfort knowing that we will be half way through our journey by sometime tomorrow.

Editor:  as always, you can follow Pandora’s track by clicking on the “where in the world is Pandora” button and you can follow the Azores fleet, all heading to Bermuda on this link as well.

It’s Thursday afternoon on day two of our 5-6 day passage to Bermuda, about 180 miles under our keel and another 670 to go. 

I always enjoy sunrise at sea.  Today at dawn, very peaceful sailing on nearly flat seas.   Somehow, I can never seem to get the horizon level.

The seas have been remarkably calm and we are moving along about 6kts in 10kts of breeze on the beam.  As the run progresses, we expect that the winds will back and get lighter so we will end up motoring, perhaps for two days or so as we get closer to Bermuda. 

However, for now, we are moving along nicely with the big code zero and have not used the engine since shortly after we left the harbor yesterday morning.

I expect that good sailing conditions will continue through perhaps Friday afternoon.   Having said that, it is hard to say what will happen with the wind as the two weather models that we use, the Euro and GFS are not in agreement for the last 200 miles into Bermuda so we may find that we have a bit more wind.   Hard to say.

With some luck, we will arrive sometime late on Monday or Tuesday morning.  We will see.

For now, I am happy to be sailing. 

One issue with motoring is that the engine is under the galley sink and when it heats up, the cabin becomes unbearably hot, upwards of 95 degrees.   Once the batteries are charged, and there is less load on the engine, I can run smaller forward AC off of the main engine inverter and that helps keep things a bit cooler.  It is possible that I could run the main AC unit but am a bit afraid of putting too much strain on the alternator as if it failed from being overworked, that would be a pain.

Last night, as the engine cooled down from our departure, I had a lot of trouble sleeping down below but around 23:00 it was finally cool enough to sleep.  I was out until my alarm went off at 03:50 when I had to get ready for my 03:00 to 07:00 watch. 

It is rare to have “just enough” wind to use the code zero, a large headsail that only works in a fairly narrow range of wind, say 6-14kts.  But it does make a lot of difference when the wind is light, like now.  We deployed it soon after departure yesterday and this is the first time that I have ever used the sail at night.

We will see how long the wind holds but for now we are having a wonderful sail and the crew seems to have settled in nicely.

Oh yeah, under the “it’s always something” category, I just discovered that my code zero sail needs some love and there is a lot of sun damage near the sun cover on the leech, near the back of the sail.   Not sure how that happened and it just looks like the sun cover fabric was not quite wide enough to protect the sail.  Oh well, I guess I will have that fixed in Bermuda.  I sure hope that they can fix it in time.  Worse, I hope that they do not tell me that it is too far gone.  Fingers crossed.

The fleet heading to Bermuda and then to the Azores is about a dozen boats and you can follow them on this link.  https://sdsatracking.com/azores2025/

Of course, Pandora’s track alone can be accessed on the “where in the world is Pandora” button up on the top of this page.

I’ll surely post again soon but for now I am happy to say that the crew is settling in nicely.  I, for one, will be happy when half of the run is behind us.