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 …
Distance covered in the past 24 hours 147 NM, distance to Horta, Azores 146 NM. The wind has picked up a little and for the past day we have been sailing nicely on a downwind passage direct to Horta. We are all getting excited that the arrival is imminent and we are crossing our fingers …
Distance covered in the past 24 hours 137 NM, distance to Horta, Azores 285 NM. We are sailing along at a steady pace. After the strong winds of the first half of the trip, our speed now seems painfully slow, but we are still averaging around five and a half knots. Cate, who is doing …
Distance coverd in past 24 hours 137 NM, distance to Horta, Azores 415 NM. Yesterday was a slow day motoring gently in light winds and calm seas. By night time the wind dropped to just five or six knots and, with an adverse tide, we were making headway at less than five knots. Fortunately from …
Distance covered in the past 24 hours 137 NM, distance to Horta, Azores 546 NM. The Azores are tantalisingly close but the wind keeps dropping and the boat slows down. It’s a bit frustrating and is forcing us to use the engine more and more. We have plenty of fuel and spare jerry cans on …
Distance travelled in the past 24 hours 136 NM, distance to Horta, Azores 688 NM. Conditions on our passage have now settled down with the wind a steady force 4 from the south west. Annoyingly, at times the wind strength drops below this and we have been forced to use the engine a little more …
Distance covered in the past 24 hours 155 NM, distance covered overall 1945 NM, distance to Horta, Azores 833 NM. We’ve had better winds in the past 24 hours and enjoyed a great broad reach sail. The favourable wind looks set to continue today so we’re hoping for more good progress. On the downside, when …
Distance covered in the past 24 hours 130 NM, distance to Horta, Azores 988 NM. After the previous 24 hours record run I think we all felt a bit over-optimistic about our arrival date in the Azores. We should have known better! The wind subsequently died and overnight we crawled along with the sails flapping …
Distance covered in the last 24 hours 168 NM, distance to Horta, Azores 1106 NM. Downwind sailing really suits Merryn and yesterday we recorded our greatest ever distance in 24 hours. Conditions were lively but not excessive and we had a great downwind sail. The forecast now is for the winds to ease and indeed …
Distance covered in the last 24 hours 154 NM, distance to Horta, Azores 1270 NM. The winds and sea state are quite exciting but, because the weather is all behind us, it feels very comfortable and we are making terrific progress. The boat is remarkably stable, sufficient for us to have had showers and even …