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.

It’s Wednesday morning and we are underway, and bound for Bermuda, 850 miles to the north, the first big leg of my run to Horta in the Azores. 

The seas are very calm and the breeze light enough to use our big headsail, the Code 0.    According to the latest forecast, we should arrive in Bermuda sometime on Monday.

After only a few hours underway, the crew is settling into “passage mode” lounging around and enjoying the gentle roll of the swells.

George manning the helm.

Dave chilling…

And down below, Pandora in cruising mode with all the cushions covered with canvas.

When I think back to the last year and all that has gone into making plans and getting Pandora ready for the run, it amazes me that we are on our way.  Sailing north to Bermuda at 7kts in 9-12kts, just forward of the beam.   A beautiful start to a passage that is expected to be light wind sailing much of the way.

Between the trials of the last few weeks beginning with the last items to get Pandora ready to head north along with the ridiculous chain of events including engine issues and, who would have guessed it, an emergency root canal in St Martin, I can hardly believe that we are finally on our way to Bermuda.

Just deciding where Pandora will spend next winter, once I get to the Mediterranean, was hard enough.  I contacted perhaps two dozen marinas to find a place that I felt comfortable with and was at least sort of reasonably priced. 

Lining up nearly a dozen crew for the various legs, back and forth to Trinidad, twice, and from there north to St Maarten, onto Bermuda, Horta and finally Almeria Spain was a big deal.

And, I won’t even talk about the fear of my rudder being bitten off by an orca as we make our way from the Azores to Gibraltar.   I have no idea what the odds are of that happening but running into a guy on the beach in Falmouth Antigua, who had been attacked just a few months earlier, certainly made it seem plenty “real”. 

I cannot begin to describe the number of items that I had to purchase, from extra water pumps, spare autopilot driver, a remarkably complete medical kit and an alarming number of prescription drugs, mostly antibiotics, just in case.  They say that on a cruising boat everything is broken, you just don’t know it yet. 

And, on top of all of the medical supplies, as scary as all this sounds, how about a mechanical skin stapler.  Oh boy, I hope that never comes out of the bag.

The number of nights that I woke up thinking of “what have I missed” are too many to count and as recently as a few days ago I thought that I would have to bag the entire trip and head back to Trinidad when I was warned that the engine repairs might take weeks to sort out which would put me beyond a reasonable window to cross to the Azores.

Oh, that was fun to think about as hurricane season is coming up very soon and it was only about a year ago when the massive hurricane Beryl trashed the SE Caribbean.  If I was not going to Europe, I would be heading south to Trinidad yet again or perhaps home to New England.   If I could not go this year, who knows if there would be another chance.

And, all of this is just the planning for Pandora, and does not include all the details of being away from home until mid-August when Brenda and I return from Europe.  The last time I did not cut my own lawn was when Rob and Chris were kids. 

Oh yeah, and being away from Brenda for six weeks, including our 58^th anniversary, my 70^th birthday and, worse of all, MOTHER’S DAY, to top off the list has made this tough.

Brenda has said for years that our lives, are “way too crazy”.   And, while I generally resist that label, over the last few weeks it does seem that way.

However, I always fall back on the idea that we, in the words of our financial advisor, are in our “go-go years” that will in time be replaced by the “slow go years” and ultimately the dreaded “NO-GO years” all in due course.  With all that, and the craziness all of this seems to ladle on our lives, it is clear to me that we need to go-go while we can.  As near as I can figure, there are no “do-overs”. 

We were supposed to depart for Bermuda on the 18^th and with little wind in the forecast, we waited and waited for what seemed like a long time but finally, complete with forecasted wind for much of the trip, we have departed, three days late.

As crazy as this has been, I keep reminding myself that it was just a little more than a year ago when I contacted the Salty Dawg board of directors to see if there might be interest in running a new rally to the Azores as I wanted to go and would love to lead the fleet. 

Much to my surprise, they embraced the idea and more than a few jumped on board to do the planning.

A “bucket list” had never been something that I have focused on but I can still remember when Brenda and I were on vacation in Maine many years ago and visited briefly with a couple that lived on their boat for several months every summer, a lifestyle that seemed unattainable to me as I held down a very demanding full time job.

However, a few short years later retirement seemed within reach and suddenly I just had to have a boat that could “cross oceans”.  Of course, Brenda was not particularly amused but went along as we made plans to head to the Bahamas, then Cuba, the Caribbean and now…

Crossing the pond…

As I have mentioned a number of times recently, my dad, gone over ten years now, once remarked, “Bob, wouldn’t it be amazing to take Pandora through the straights of Gibraltar”.

Well, here I am, on my way and setting aside the 4,000 ocean miles and a menacing pod or pods of orcas between here and there, I might just do that.

Only 850 miles to Bermuda and one step at a time.  I cannot believe all of this is happening.

Editor:  I posted this while at sea and will continue to do so regularly so if you are interested in following along, and I hope you are, sign up on the upper right hand of this page and you’ll get an email when I put up another post.