Dolphins alongside Gyatso during Leg 2 of the ARC Europe Rally.
Dolphins alongside Gyatso during Leg 2 of the ARC Europe Rally.
Day 3 - Friday, 25 May
Bermuda is a difficult enough place to leave, but it is
even harder to leave the comfort of St. George's Harbour when the wind and waves
are against you. Several boats decided to delay their departure to Friday so
they could attend a local sailing regatta on Thursday and find more favorable
sailing conditions. One boat turned back several hours after the start because the conditions were so bad. On
Gyatso, we did a bit of soul
searching during the first 24 hours but decided to continue on.
Our onboard log entries for the past two days have been brief, and so we will
keep this brief as well. We had 25-30 knots of wind on the nose with 10-15' seas
for the first day and night. It was pretty rough going, so we just put a double
reef in the main, rolled out the staysail, and hung-on waiting for conditions to
improve. During the Thursday morning SSB radio net, we learned that we were not
the only ones having a rough go of it. The good news was that the skies were
sunny, no bad weather was in the immediate forecast, and everyone was reporting
reduced winds at 20-25 knots. As if it had listened to our Bermuda Weather
Service forecast or Herb on SSB, the wind settled down to 15-20 knots by sunset, the waves had also diminished to 8-10', but the wind
direction was still NE. By this morning (Friday), the winds have decreased
further to <15 out of the NE, and we are making slow, but steady progress
eastward, hoping for the wind to clock around to the N or NW so that we can make
more northward progress.
We took it easy last night and are now shaking out reefs in the sails in much
more pleasant conditions. After not eating much in the last few days, we are
slowly adding apples, bananas, granola bars, toast with honey and ginger tea
back into the diet. As always, we are sipping as much water as we can. We are
both feeling better, and the boat is sailing better today.
Day 4 - Saturday, 26 May
What a difference a day makes. By sunset last night, the wind was light
at 5 knots from the NE, and the sea was calm. We turned the engine on in
the afternoon and motor-sailed to the NE. Not only were we making progress
in the direction we wanted to go, we had the added benefit of attracting about a
dozen very playful dolphins.
Most of them splashed in and out of our bow wake while a few performed
acrobatics alongside Gyatso. One jumped 15' out of the water right next to
the boat, and another did several back flips just to show off. Lisa
clipped her safety harness on to the jackline, went forward, assumed her dolphin
watching position on the bow sprit, and enjoyed the show. The dolphins
stayed with us for almost two hours, occasionally wandering off and then
returning for more fun. We could still see them in the distance as the
bright red sun sank below the horizon to the west.
At about 2:00 a.m. (local time), we turned the engine off and were sailing again
in 8-10 knots of wind from the WNW making just over 4 knots in speed over the
ground. The sunrise this morning looked almost like the sunset last night:
a bright red-orange ball rose through hazy skies to the east. A bank of
clouds to the north spread over us, and we watched a few passing rain showers in
the distance. We were hoping one would pass over us to rinse some of the
salt off, but no luck yet. Winds increased throughout the morning to 12-15
knots and clocked around to the WSW. We are currently running before the
wind to the the NE.
By this morning, the boat motion was steady enough and the crew rested enough to
go forward and organize things on deck. In our last minutes rush to the
starting line, we were not able to lash the dinghy properly before waves started
breaking over the bow. By some miracle, it managed to stay on the foredeck
despite the repeated waves crashing over the bow the first two days. We could see that it had
shifted to the starboard side of the boat, so we took the first opportunity to
move it back to the center and to re-lash it. We also needed to tidy up a
few rigging lines and inspect the running rigging. All is well with the boat and
crew.
Day 5 - Sunday, 27 May
We sailed most of the day yesterday, but as the wind continued to clock
around from the WSW to the SSW and to drop off below 6 knots, we decided to turn
the engine on again. For a while, this helped stabilize the rolling motion
of the boat as we headed northeast in a northwesterly swell. A preventer
on the main helped quiet the slatting of the sails as we rolled over the swells
in light air, but our course kept veering to the north. Eventually, the
uncomfortable motion of the boat forced us to tack and try heading east instead
of north. This settled the boat down, and we were able to sail again for
several hours before turning the engine on and motor sailing through most of the
night.
During the evening chat on SSB, the main topic of discussion was a new low that
is expected to develop early next week near Bermuda. We discussed
strategies with the skippers from several boats, including Apparition, Bobo,
Kittiwake and Illusions. The daily weather report we received from the ARC
Office in Cowes forecasted that the low would move to the NE, and that by
Wednesday, the strongest winds would be west of 52W. Since Gyatso was
comfortably making progress east, we decided to continue heading east rather
than north. If it turns out that the low tracks toward us rather than to
the NE, then at least we can head south to avoid the heaviest weather on the
northern side of the low. Our main concern at the moment is not consuming
too much fuel before reaching the Azores high, an area notorious for light
winds, especially at our current latitude.
Last night, we experienced a 0.6 knot current against us. Low clouds
passed over and moist air condensed on the decks, but we had no rain.
Today, we have about a 0.7 knot current in our favor. The sun is out with
temperatures in the high 70's and not a cloud in the sky. Unfortunately,
there is very little wind. This morning we were motor sailing east in 4-5
knots of wind from the south and calm seas. We turned the engine off for
the radio net and are now sailing again hoping for the wind to fill in later
today (Sunday). In the meantime, we are enjoying the warm, sunny weather
and listening to Fado, David's favorite Portuguese music.
Day 6 - Monday, 28 May
Whales! We passed a pod of six whales at 06:30 a.m. (local time).
At first, Lisa thought it was another group of dolphins in the distance to the
northeast, but then she cleaned off her sunglasses and saw more clearly what
looked like several whales surfacing in the distance. She quickly shut
down the engine (we were motor sailing at the time), let the boat drift in light
wind and calm seas, and called down to David who was off-watch and sound asleep.
He quickly joined her on deck to watch as four of the whales passed within a
hundred yards and two more were further to the north. One tipped its tail
fluke above water briefly, and then dove. Another partially breached in
the distance. Lisa thought that they might be finback whales because of
the prominent dorsal fin which made them look like very large dolphins when
surfacing, but their motion was much slower. Often they would pause at the
surface before diving under again. After about 20 minutes, we had drifted
east, and they moved off to the northwest. Lisa's heart rate returned to
normal, David went back to his berth to continue his much needed sleep, and we
continued on our way.
Another sailboat! Until this morning, we had not seen another yacht in the
fleet since the morning of Day 2. We have been in regular contact with
most of them through the SSB radio nets and learned this morning during the roll
call that Re Shuanta was less than 10 miles away just two hours ago. We
confirmed that our courses were converging and agreed to try each other on VHF.
We heard them call on VHF radio to say they could see us, but we are not close
enough yet to chat. We'll keep trying throughout the day. Re Shuanta
was the yacht docked next to us at the Bermuda Dinghy and Sports Club, and
coincidentally, it was one of the last yachts we saw at the start of this leg of
the rally. On the first night out, they saw us crashing through the waves
making slow but steady progress. They decided to heave-to which is why we
lost sight of them by the next morning.
Shortly after the whale sighting, we were able to turn the engine off and sail
in 8-10 knots of wind from the ENE. A relief after motoring all night in
no wind and flat calm seas. We are still trying to make progress to the
east in order to stay ahead of the developing low pressure near Bermuda.
We are also trying to stay below 35N which is taking us to the southeast of our
planned course, but we should be able to resume a course to the NE after this
system passes through later in the week. By late morning, the wind started
to fill-in from the SE, and we are now on starboard tack heading east on
approximately the same course as Re Shuanta.
Day 7 - Tuesday, 29 May
Just after sunset last night, Gyatso’s course converged with
Re Shuanta’s
out here in the middle of the Atlantic. They were slightly ahead of us
motoring at about 6 knots, so we throttled up on our engine and with a favorable
current, caught up to them. When we were about a hundred feet away, we
both shifted into neutral and drifted alongside each other long enough to
exchange greetings and photo ops. Over the radio, we learned that they
wanted to offer us some freshly caught fish, but despite having a fishing line
out all day, they had not caught anything.
At midnight, we were able to roll out our headsails again and resume sailing.
We sailed throughout the night just in front of Re Shuanta. At dawn, they
rolled out their headsails, passed downwind of us, and slowly pulled away as the
sun rose through a partly cloudy sky. Another great photo op which
required that Lisa unpack her favorite 35 mm camera hopefully to capture the
moment better than her small digital one could.
Gyatso is now sailing east under mostly sunny skies at almost 6 knots in 10
knots wind from the SE. For the past three days, we pushed to get east of
longitude 52W which we will accomplish later today. We plan to keep
pushing east at approximately our current latitude of 34.30N until the low
pressure frontal system passes, and the conditions look favorable to head
northeast to the Azores.
Day 8 - Wednesday, 30 May
A very relaxed day yesterday as we sailed east at 6-7 knots in 12-15 knots of
wind from the SE. We even managed to make French toast for breakfast with
a yummy marmalade and cream cheese filling. Throughout the day, Re Shuanta
was still visible in front of us, but by sunset we finally lost sight of their
sails to the east.
Everyone on the informal evening "cocktail hour" SSB radio chat last
night was in good humor, especially since it seemed that we had all managed to
position ourselves quite well for the approaching weather. A day of
sailing and no motoring also helped lift everyone's spirits. We exchanged
lots of friendly bantering about our current positions, various hull speeds,
sail combinations, and also about what was being served for cocktail hour.
Depending on the yacht, the latter ranged from: salted nuts, gin and tonics,
whiskey, rum and beer. On Gyatso, we are among the "dry" boats
when underway, so we sampled French cheeses, ate salted nuts and split a ginger
ale while our bottles of liquor remained in the cupboard.
At the midnight change of watch, we were starting to experience passing squalls
with wind gusting up to 20 knots. We put the first reef in the main and
the yankee and continued ESE. After days of mostly sunny skies, clouds
moved in, and we could tell that the frontal system was now upon us.
Throughout the night, the wind settled in at 15 knots. By morning, we
reached our goal of staying south of latitude 35N and getting east of longitude
50W. It started to rain lightly at 09:30 a.m. An hour later, dark
clouds passed overhead and winds were up to 20-25 knots, gusting to 28. We
rolled in the yankee and put a second reef in the main just in time to catch
part of the morning roll call on SSB radio.
We learned that other boats in our immediate area were experiencing similar
conditions. Most are going to continue east until the front passes over,
and then begin moving north. A few of the larger and faster boats are
already beginning to move north. Brigand and Belle, both of which left
Bermuda two days after us, have now caught up to the rest of us and are
overtaking us one by one. Both are making better than 10 knots over the
ground today, and with their experienced, professional crew, will jump more
boldly in behind the frontal system to take advantage of the favorable SW wind.
By noon, our winds have settled back down to 13-15 knots. Since we are
still making a respectable 6 knots, we will take a more conservative approach
and wait for conditions to settle down before putting up more sail or changing
our course northward.
Day 9 - Thursday, 31 May
We are a few days delayed in filing this daily log mainly because it took two
full days to recover from dealing with the low pressure system of the previous
days. Although it only lasted for 36 hours from start to finish, and the worst
of it for only 10 hours, the bad weather sapped what was left of our already low
stores of energy. Even though it left us mentally and physically exhausted, we
are happy to report that both the boat and crew weathered the storm just fine.
We spent two full days afterward focused on recuperating and on monitoring the
situation with Cochise since we are one of the vessels behind their current
position.
As mentioned in our previous log, the weather system caught up with us during
the early morning hours on Wednesday and by 10:00 a.m. we had put a double reef
in the main. We continued throughout that day with bands of light rain and NW
wind at 18-24 knots. For awhile, we were hoping that we might escape anything
more serious, but when we compared notes with other yachts in the fleet during
the evening SSB radio chat, we realized that everyone in our area was just
starting to experience heavier weather. One boat just north of us was having
trouble putting in their third reef, and so they decided to drop their main
altogether for the night. Another boat nearby and also north of us had a double
reef and small working jib. We assessed our sail combination, a double reefed
main and staysail, and based on the weather forecast which called for only
isolated gusts to 35 knots, we decided to leave the rig as it was. If we had
reef points for a triple reef, we probably would have put it in, but with our
cutter rig, we figured that the main would help balance the sails and drive us
over the large seas. We also figured, as it turns out correctly, that we could
ride out the higher gusts.
As the system approached, we also gleaned from our weather reports and from the
advice on SSB weather nets that the conditions were marginally better south of
latitude 34N. The wind shifted, and we decided to drop south. This also seemed
to be the direction that Gyatso was leading us. Heading southeast form most of
the night seemed to give us the most comfortable point of sail and the safest
direction to the building seas. Another tactic we have used when conditions
deteriorate is to run before the wind. This can create the truly exhilarating experience of surfing down waves at 8-9 knots, but in this case, the winds were
stronger than forecast. We simply had too much sail up to run before the wind,
and by the time the sustained winds were blowing 30-35 knots, it would have been
more risky for David to go on deck and drop the main.
During Lisa's watch later that night, the winds began blowing a steady 26-30
knots. With a bit of had steering during the heavier gusts, she could handle the
boat just fine. When David came on watch at midnight, the first of three periods
of stronger winds began with wind speeds gusting regularly above 30 knots. The
steep, confused seas were at least 10-15 feet, with many waves higher than that.
As the night wore on, the rain became more steady.
Having dealt with the rain, sea spray and boarding seas all night, we were both
completely drenched by the time the really heavy rain began in the early morning
hours. The first band of the pelting rain passed, and we both prayed that this
was the beginning of the end. Based on our experience with the passage of
frontal systems in the past, we have found that the conditions usually abate
after these intense rain showers. It turned out that this was the case. By 8:00
a.m. (1100 UTC), the sky began to lift, visibility improved and patches of blue
sky peaked through the gray cloud cover. The winds dropped to 18-24 knots, and
we breathed a big sigh of relief. We had survived the miserable conditions of
the night before.
The highest gust we experienced was 38 knots. Yachts in the fleet that were
60-100 miles north of us reported gusts up to 48 knots. Now in hindsight, we
wished we had dropped our main before conditions deteriorated. We also wish we
had listened to our brilliant sailmaker, Scott Allen at UK Halsey sails in
Annapolis, when he suggested last summer that we consider adding a third reef in
our main sail. This would have been the ideal sail for the conditions we
experienced, leaving us with the staysail for conditions over 35 knots, and bare
poles for anything beyond that. On the positive side, we think that our strategy
in the days leading up to this weather event did help us to avoid much worse
conditions to the north. Once again, we have found that trying to avoid bad
weather is always the best tactic.
Day 10 - Friday, 1 June
After sleeping and standing watch for most of the day yesterday, we
finally checked our emails this morning and learned about what had
happened to Cochise. We contacted Belle on SSB radio and learned that they
were just a few miles from Cochise and tacking upwind to offer assistance.
By now, you have all read about the heroic efforts of both crews. We
certainly breathed a sigh of relief upon learning that the fuel transfer
was successful. In thinking about how events unfolded, Lisa commented,
"If something like that had happened to us, I would immediately feel
relieved at the sight of Belle tacking upwind to my rescue." Belle is
a sleek, Indigo Yachts 60 with the owner, four professional crew (known on
the SSB radio net as "George's boys") and a cook onboard. They
were well positioned, prepared and qualified to provide the highest level
of assistance out here.
On the evening SSB radio chat, we learned that after a job well done, the
crew of Belle was back onboard and treating themselves to a double-feature
movie and a feast of lasagna, French bread and extra Heinekens all around
-- very well deserved indeed. Aboard Gyatso, after not having eaten a real
meal in over two days, we thought this sounded really good. Lisa dug down
in the freezer, recovered a tray of lasagna, popped it in the oven, and an
hour and a half later, we were having a mini-feast of our own. Freshly
baked chocolate chip cooked topped off the treat.
During the day today, we gradually put up more sail. We shook out the
second reef in the main and rolled out the yankee to the first reef point.
At Lisa's request, we kept the first reef in the main on Friday night even
though it was not necessary for the 14-18 knots of wind we experienced at
the time. We both needed more rest before starting the final push to Horta.
Day 11 - Saturday, 2 June
The sun is out this morning, fulls are sails up, and we are sailing and
motor sailing in light and variable winds. Our course is as close as we
can sail the boat on a direct line to Horta. We have given up any idea of
going north to catch more favorable wind and currents. From the sounds of
it, this is what others intend to do as well.
Our spirits have been lifted further in the past two days with some
incredible marine life sightings. On Thursday, Lisa was on watch and
sailing along at 5 knots when she noticed a large object floating on the
surface just ahead. She jumped to switch off the autopilot and
hand-steered to avoid collision with a fairly large sperm whale that was
resting on the surface. From the whale's square snout to the lump in the
area of its dorsal fin was equal to the distance from our bow sprit to our
mast. Lisa wasn't sure how much more of it was below the surface, but she
figured that a collision would be painful to both parties. We passed so
closely to the whale that we could have reached out and touched it. The
whale seemed to look up and notice us when it was directly abeam and then
appeared to nod to us when we left it astern.
Today, we saw more whales, sea turtles and dolphins. It used to be that we
would rely on Lisa's eagle eyesight to see wildlife, but in the last two
days, we have needed to keep a sharp lookout to avoid running into these
magnificent sea creatures. While David was on watch, he suddenly noticed
two whales alongside, a mother and calf. We saw five sea turtles during
the day. All appeared to be resting on the surface as we passed within a
few feet of most. David saw one blowing bubbles as it snoozed. Lisa saw
another that was apparently sound asleep because it seemed oblivious to
the artic tern perched on its back.
Of the boats that we are in radio contact with, Gyatso has taken up a
position in the back of the fleet. During the bad weather two days ago,
our last minute dive to the south, while perhaps helping us avoid even
worse conditions, also put us further behind the other boats. After the
weather began to clear, yachts with more than two crew seemed to recover
quicker and resume their push to the Azores sooner than we could muster
with just the two of us. From the position report we received two days
ago, perhaps Thetis or Oread are nearby. We will certainly keep a sharp
lookout for their sails or masthead lights on the horizon. Re Shuanta, our
sailing partner a few days ago, is making good time and is now a half day
sail ahead of us. Besides that, only a few of the boats that left Bermuda
two days later than the rest of the fleet are behind us at the moment.
We are also be keeping an eye on Cochise's progress, although it seems at
this point that they will arrive in Horta a day before us. With under 700
miles to go, our thoughts are mostly focused on safe arrival in the Azores
whenever that is. Our current ETA is late Thursday or early Friday. If the
winds are light, our biggest challenge will be managing fuel consumption.
While outrunning the low pressure system, we consumed appromately 40-45
gallons of our 105 gallon supply. Since we are more than half way, we
should be okay. Time to go back on watch...
Day 13 - Monday, 4 June
With light to no wind for the past 48 hours, we have been motoring more
than we would like, but at least we are still making progress toward the
Azores. By late morning a northerly breeze started to build in, and we are
now sailing. The weather forecast looks good for the northerly winds to
continue throughout the day today. However, this morning's weather update mentioned a strong low that may develop east of the Azores
later this week with the possibility of gales and large seas by Friday. We
are hoping to make good time over the next few days so that we can be in
Horta by late Thursday or early Friday at the latest.
We shut the engine down for awhile this morning and changed the oil. We
have used the engine for 100 hours so far to charge the battery and for
propulsion. We estimate that Gyatso has 50 more hours of engine time based
on our remaining fuel supply. We also carry a small day tank with four
gallons, enough to get us into port in a pinch. To conserve fuel, we have
been running the engine at just above idle speed which moves us along at
about 4.5 knots. With a light breeze and motor sailing, we can increase
the speed to 5.0-5.5 knots. We sail whenever we can make 4.0 knots or more
without the help of the engine.
As of noon today (UTC -2:00) we have 460 miles to go. Dolphins continue to
make regular visits in groups ranging in size from 6 -25 individuals. We
saw only one turtle yesterday and have seen no whales since the wildlife
extravaganza on Thursday - Saturday. We enjoyed some spectacular moon
rises, sun rises, moon sets and sun sets over the past two days. We also managed to eat some real meals, including a tasty dinner
of coconut curried shrimp over basmati rice last night and chicken fajitas
the night before. We must be feeling better if our selection of spicy
foods is any indication.
Day 14 - Tuesday, 5 June
As of 16:00 UTC today, Gyatso's crew decided to slow the boat down and
wait until the developing low pressure system near the Azores begins to
move off to the east. We dropped the main and are drifting slowly SE under
staysail alone so that we can get some rest. We spent last night beating
into unexpected NE winds at 20-25 knots. After reading this morning's
forecast and chatting with other boats on the 14:00 UTC SSB radio roll
call, we learned that everyone near us was experiencing the same or worse
conditions, depending on how far east they were.
If the weather in the past three days had played out as forecast, our
original ETA in Horta was Thursday evening or Friday morning at the
latest. But now with the deep low developing east of the Azores, this
would have landed us in the middle of what looks like at least gale force,
and possibly storm force conditions, as we approached the Azores. So, we are disappointed to delay our arrival, but we always err on the
side of caution.
Tomorrow, if conditions allow, we may try to position ourselves a bit
further north before proceeding slowly towards Horta again tomorrow night
or Thursday. Our new ETA is Saturday evening or Sunday morning.
Day 15 - Wednesday, June 6
We heaved-to last night to hold our position, get some rest and wait for an update on the weather situation near Horta. It was the first time we used this strategy, and we both agreed that it was just the right thing to do at this point in our passage. Since we felt that we were already a safe distance from the developing low pressure system, we decided that tacking all night in a direction that would take us further from our destination would be not only tiring but a bit demoralizing.
We heaved-to last night to hold our position, get some rest and wait for
an update on the weather situation near Horta. It was the first time we
used this strategy, and we both agreed that it was just the right thing to
do at this point in our passage. Since we felt that we were already a safe
distance from the developing low pressure system, we decided that tacking
all night in a direction that would take us further from our destination
would be not only tiring but a bit demoralizing.
As soon as we rolled in the yankee, dropped the main and turned the wheel
hard to port, our full-keel vessel slowed right down and the motion of the
boat became quite comfortable. Under staysail alone, Gyatso was now gently
rocking over the waves which we had been crashing into only moments
before. We retreated to the protection of the cabin, set the guard alarm
on the radar to warn us if any other boats came within a 10 mile radius of
us, and immediately fell fast asleep. Lisa awoke briefly to check-in on
the evening SSB radio chat and to listen to Herb's advice for other boats
in our area on the SSB weather net. Feeling reassured that we had done all
we could for the moment, she slept soundly until morning. David awoke
several times to check on things up on deck, but he quickly returned to
his bunk for a very well earned rest. For both of us, it was the first
time we had slept for more than just a few hours at a time since leaving
Bermuda -- a total luxury out here!
Throughout the night, we drifted along at about 1.5 - 2.0 knots to the
southeast, putting us another 20 miles further south, but we figured that
we could make it up easily later on. We took a slow morning to organize
the boat and eat a full breakfast of eggs, bacon, toast, fresh grapefruit
and coffee. We added a jerry can of water to the main tank which should be enough to get us to Horta. After everything was squared
away and the crew was well rested and fed, we raised the main, put in a
second reef and started to sail slowly to the ENE. We will continue to
monitor the weather situation closely, and are prepared to slow down again
if necessary in order to stay out of harm's way. For now, we are sailing
along comfortably at 4.5 knots under mostly sunny skies.
Day 17 - Friday, 8 June
After making very little progress to the north and east two days ago and with dark, squally clouds approaching from the NE, we decided to drop the main as the sun went down on Wednesday. Once again, we just let the boat drift slowly to the ESE for several hours under staysail alone while we both got some more rest. Lisa made Irish oatmeal for breakfast topped with cinnamon, brown sugar and milk. This gave us the energy to hoist the main and try again to follow in behind the bad weather as it
moved east. We sailed hard on the wind in NNE 20-25 knots with higher gusts and 9-12's seas, but at least we were finally making slow progress toward Horta (about 3 - 3.5 knots over the ground). Our sails were still reefed down and the headsail furled to handle the higher gusts (up to 28 knots). This was fine with us since our goal for the day was to push north toward 37N and to stay west of 34W.
According to the weather reports, gale force conditions were expected east of 31-32W through early Friday. We preferred to keep our distance, but in fact, did not have much choice in the matter. After 16 days at sea with very little favorable wind during the passage and several nights with very trying conditions, our short-handed crew can only push so hard. Today, the weather is clearing, and our optimism is increasing along with our hull speed. The wind has dropped to 15- 20 knots and veered more to the north. The wind is expected to continue clocking around to the NW which would be even better. The seas have subsided to under 8' with much more distance between any of the larger swells. We are now making 5 - 6 knots over the ground with less than 250 miles to go and a new ETA of Sunday morning.
One of the consequences of our delay in reaching Horta is that we will be classified as "DNF" (did not finish) in the official rally results. Although this is a bit of a disappointment, we are mainly looking forward to a successful completion of this leg. We are also in good company out here. According to our count, there are still 8-10 boats in the fleet that are still at sea. It looks like four of those will make it to Horta before the cut-off time, but the rest of us will be getting in on Saturday evening, on Sunday, or later. The biggest disappointment is that the boats that are already in Horta will be departing on Sunday for an organized cruise in the Azores, and so we will miss most of them. Hopefully, we will be able to rejoin them on Tuesday or Wednesday, but we are looking forward to getting some rest and preparing the boat for the next leg first.
Today is Lisa's birthday, and she is very happy to be sailing in ideal conditions. On the SSB radio check-in this morning, Julian on Bobo sang Happy Birthday. This brought a big smile. Now it's time to shake out a reef in the main and sail on to Horta.
Day 18 - Saturday, 9 June
We sailed through the clear, starry night with full sails in 12 - 15 knots of NNW wind. Absolutely perfect sailing for the past 24 hours. As the wind dropped off this morning, we transferred the remaining 15 gallons of diesel fuel into the main tank, changed the Racor fuel filter, checked the oil, and re-lashed some of the gear on deck in preparation for the final push to Horta. At the 12:00 UTC deadline for finishing this leg of the rally, we cranked up the engine and are motor sailing at 5.5 knots with just the head sails in light winds and at relatively low RPMs on the engine to conserve fuel. ETA in Horta is now 08:00 UTC or earlier Sunday. It looks like we will be arriving within hours of Moonstruck and Oread, both are within 30 miles or so of us and are also motoring in at a slightly faster speed than us.
With the boat motion relatively stable for the first time in days, we made a big breakfast of buttermilk pancakes, bacon, yogurt, oranges and coffee. We still have plenty of food on board, but are running low or just ran out of some of our favorite grab-and-go things. This morning's inventory included: 2 granola bars, 3 chocolate bars, 0 yogurts (now), 0 apples, 4 oranges (saving for arrival celebration of Mimosas tomorrow morning) and 0 loaves of sandwich bread (have 4 tortillas and lots of crackers left). We still have water in the main tank and enough bottled water for several more days at least, although we are hoping that we won't need it!
We are really looking forward to seeing the Azores as the sun comes up tomorrow morning.
Day 19 - Sunday, 10 June
Gyatso crossed the finish line at 09:47 (local time) this morning missing the rally cut-off by almost a day. However, we were very proud to have completed the passage safely and happy to find several of the rally yachts still in Horta when we arrived. We rafted up next to Moonstruck on the inside of the marina breakwater wall. We shut down the engine and breathed a big sigh of relief.Upon arrival, we learned that the Azores Coast Guard was calling the storm of the past few days, "The worst weather they had seen in 22 years." Two boats were dismasted, two boats were abandoned and one trimaran was towed in with the hull turned upside down. Many other boats suffered from things like broken booms, torn sails and other minor damage. The marina was overflowing with yachts and humming with activity as crews worked hard to make repairs. A quick inspection of Gyatso revealed no significant problems and only a few minor repairs needed as a result of the long passage from Bermuda.
After clearing customs, we celebrated with Mimosas and freshly baked banana nut muffins before retiring to the cabin for some much needed rest. Later in the afternoon we both took long, hot showers in the clean marina facilities and then joined other rally participants at the famous Peter Sport Cafe for dinner and more celebration. Many bottles of Portuguese wine and port were consumed as we toasted each other's accomplishments.
On our approach to the Azores we talked about the history of the islands. Lisa also reminded David about how he used to refer to the Azores when we were sailing in our previous boat. During summer cruises from the Chesapeake Bay to New England waters, we would frequently find ourselves in bad weather on the overnight passage from Cape May, New Jersey, to Block Island, Rhode Island. As we beat into a northeast headwind, he would say, "Well, we can take a left to find protection behind Sandy Hook (at the entrance of New York Harbor), or we can take a right and head for the Azores!" Once the weather was strong enough that we actually did turn left and run before the wind to Sandy Hook, New Jersey. Lisa always laughed off the second option, but now it seems that we finally did make that big right turn because here we are in the Azores!
