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.
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