Our Atlantic circuit is complete. I have copied a screenshot from our chart plotter that shows our route. From Gibraltar up to Rota on the Portuguese coast, from where we set sail first to Porto Santo, then onto Madeira. From there to several of the Canary Islands before reaching Gran Canaria. There we met up …
Our first sight of land! (Well, ok, we did see the lights of distant towns earlier as we approached the Portuguese coastline at night). Our final day was a bit fraught and a bit exciting. We approached Cabo Sao Vicente at dusk and our first task was to negotiate the shipping lanes. The screenshot from …
Our fast pace continues! In the last 24 hours we have covered 151NM, and now have less than 100NM to go before we reach the cape. The skies remain resolutely cloudy with grey seas, but still calm and great sailing conditions. Our weather professional’s forecast remains good to get us to (probably) Vilamoura marina. On …
Still sailing, and still cloudy! The weather is reminiscent of sailing around Cornwall, with cloudy skies and steely grey seas. But… the sailing conditions could not be better – force 4 winds on a broad reach in relatively gentle seas that will hopefully take us all the way to the Cape. In fact, progress is …
Distance covered in the last 24hrs: 156NM, distance to Cabo Sao Vicente 383NM. Yesterday was a frustrating day of non-sailing! The winds would pick up to around 15 knots and we would duly unfurl the sails and stop the engine, only to see the winds fall back after just five minutes, forcing us to revert …
Distance covered in the last 24 hours:135NM, 527NM to our destination. Progress in the past day has been a little slow. The winds remain light, and often in the wrong direction. We had one attempt at sailing, but found ourselves making almost no headway as we beat against an easterly wind, so quickly reverted to …
Distance covered in the past 24 hours 145 NM, distance to Cabo Sao Vincent 674 NM. Wow! We have had an exciting and varied time in the past day. Most exciting (and scary) was an encounter yesterday afternoon with a pod of Orca whales. About six Orca emerged from the sea, coming within just a …
Distance covered in the past 24 hours 143 NM, distance to landfall at Cabo San Vincent 796 NM. Our first day back at sea has been pretty uneventful. We set off in dense fog that took until midday to lift, and the winds have been light with calm seas. This has been entirely as predicted …
Atlantic crossing leg two: Horta, Faial, Azores to Gibraltar. Distance to Gibraltar 1140 Nautical Miles. We are off! After two short days in Horta, where we have changed sails, serviced the engine, replaced the faulty water pump, topped up with fuel and water, re-provisioned, and generally cleaned and tidied, we finally set sail at 7am …
Land Ahoy! We have arrived at Faial in the Azores after exactly 19 days at sea covering a distance of 2788 nautical miles! It is a fantastic feeling, a great relief and a wonderful sense of achievement. Arriving in Horta, we have docked on the fuel pontoon and gone through the immigration formalities. We’ve topped …