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.
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