I realize that I’m going backwards but I would be remiss if I did not tell you about the final island that we visited in the Azores, Sao Miguel. It would have been a shame if we had bypassed it altogether…which we had considered doing. Besides the stunning natural beauty which is so indicative of […]
Read the full post »In Horta there is a tradition that all arriving mariners should paint the name of their vessel on one of the marina walls. As a result all of the walls and walkways throughout the entire marina make up a colorful patchwork mural. To ignore this tradition is considered to be bad luck. Some paintings display […]
Read the full post »We made it! We are now officially on the European Continent…terra firma and it feels so good! Our last leg took exactly six days. It was a tough one (surprise, surprise). In part b/c we were just so close that we could taste it and in part b/c our rotten luck continued. We started feeling […]
Read the full post »We are slowly making our way through the wonderful archipelago of the Azores. After Flores, we headed roughly 130 miles east to Horta on the island of Faial – our original destination for making landfall. After 18 days at sea, it was a breeze of an overnight sail. At 18 hours, just about a third […]
Read the full post »As we were about to make landfall in Flores, we were greeted by a welcoming committee of no less than 100 dolphins. It was unbelievable, they came from every direction jumping, swimming, and racing to dance in our bow wake. I kid you not, it was straight out of a Disney movie! And now, some […]
Read the full post »Here are some more photos taken during the crossing…
Read the full post »I’m sitting in a small restaurant two streets back from the waterfront waiting for the rest of the crew to meet for lunch. David, Tni, and Jeff went back to Rosario to move her so that a boat rafted inside of us on the quay can depart for points unknown. We were three out from […]
Read the full post »38 deg, 50 min north latitude, 29 deg, 38 min west longitude. I just woke up from a couple of hours of sleeping for the 12:00am to 2:00am watch, my first watch in four nights. It was awfully nice to sleep through the night in a largely unmoving bed for the three nights we were […]
Read the full post »Landfall!!!! Diverted by a strong low pressure system, we managed to sneak into Flores. Flores is about 130 miles from our original destination of Horta. All of us feel incredibly lucky to arrive here ahead of the strong wind and waves. It´s also a treat to visit one of the islands that most skip enroute […]
Read the full post »Land Ho! Smiling faces all around as we sited land about 2 hours ago and will arrive in another 2! We can see a beautiful (though still kind of fuzzy from here) mountain rising 2000 feet into the sky. The Azores are made up of three sets of islands. The largest city, Horta, our main […]
Read the full post »Last night’s weather report from Herb contained more bad news for us. He’s still predicting near gale force winds from the afternoon of Monday (today) through Tuesday and maybe Wednesday. We listened to the communications betweeen Herb and other boats in our area and one in particular was very interested. A boat about 60 miles […]
Read the full post »We have decided to take a detour and will make landfall in Flores in lieu of Horta. We don’t know anything about the island beyond what we can garner from our charts. What we do know is that it is 100 miles west of Horta which means that we will be there TOMORROW!!! Whooo hooo. […]
Read the full post »By now you have read the previous posting from Jeff. It was so deflating to be dealt that bit of news given all of our previous delays at the beginning of this passage. Yesterday was the first day that I had dared to allow myself to feel the excitement of the anticipation of having completed […]
Read the full post »First Mate Golden reporting: Yesterday was a real doozy for us. While it was not so bad for me compared to a few days ago — I played the guitar a lot — generally I think it was a low morale-wise for everyone. It’s mostly the monotony and how long this trip has ended up […]
Read the full post »Things change quick over night. David downloaded current weather reports over night during his watch and spent some time reviewing them and so in the morning Captain David made the decision that we’d continue on, keeping as much sail up as possible, trying to maintain seven plus knots in order to get into Horta before […]
Read the full post »