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.