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 15th. And, I left a day earlier than our June 1st 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.
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