Azores to Home
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The trip home from the
Azores (with Andrew, Barry & Berend) seemed as if it might be a bit of an
anticlimax after the longer windward trip up from the Cabo Verde islands. In
fact this was not the case as several factors combined to enliven
it: 1. The "Azores High" has
not yet materialised this year, so the weather on the way home consisted of a
rapidly deepening small low (the barometer fell at 1 mBar per hour for twenty
hours - worrying!) followed by two deep troughs with ridges between them. We
adopted the rig of having a pole permanently guyed out to starboard so that when
it blew hard and SW we could sail wing-and-wing with a reefed genoa and a
triple-reefed main held out on a preventer line. When the wind veered to NW on
the cold front we could simply cross the genoa to the starboard side and let
reefs off as needed.Winds were mostly F5 to F7 with a few spells of F8
occasionally gusting to over 40 Kt. Sea-states weren't too bad (mainly 3-4m
getting up to 5m in the livelier bits) so downwind was a bit rolly while the
broad reaches resulted in the odd ankle-deep "goffer" in the
cockpit. 2. On day 2 the head
plumbing blocked in a terminal way, so we had to resort to "bucket and chuck it"
for most of the passage. 3. After thousands of miles
of faithful service from our Monitor windvane self-steering gear "Monica",
we rewarded her by delaying 3rd reef for too long on a downwind section
when it suddenly puffed up to F8. The sacrifice tube attaching the pendulum oar
to the rest of the gear gave way under the strain of rapidly reversing and
excessive pressure (as it is designed to do). Installing a spare tube takes 10
minutes in harbour, but hanging upside-down over the water by the feet with
a spanner in one hand and a socket wrench in the other didn't seem a
particularly bright idea in an Atlantic near-gale, so we hand-steered
for the second half of the passage. This wasn't really a hardship as there
were four of us so we had plenty of time off to criticise each other's
technique. The crew got plenty of
sleep and food (not feijoada com chourico again!) and were
rewarded when Poseidon allowed Iris to arrange a perfect full-arch double
rainbow after the final trough went through:
Finally we passed the
Lizard and crossed in darkness to
We had showers and a great
fry-up, digesting this just in time for a magnificent last-night crew
dinner at Piermasters in the Barbican. Next morning Andrew and I saw Berend
and Barry off to the station then left at lunchtime for a fine overnight sail (a
reach all the way) to the start of the Needles Channel. As usual we enjoyed the
Devon coast seamarks and were impressed by the unpredictable close
approaches of big ships entering the marshalling area off
Finally we motored into the
At the end of this blog
about Amoret's "Atlantic Short-Circuit" of over 6000M, I find myself remembering
the cabbie's story about the day he had Bertrand Russell in his cab: "So I says
- Lord Russell, sir, you're a great philosopher. What's it all about? And do you
know, the blighter couldn't tell me!" I don't know what it's about either but
I'm glad that Amoret's crews and I were able to share it. The experts
all advised that doing a short circuit by going straight from the Cabo
Verde Is to the Azores was somewhere between horrible and impossible, but we did
it and I know that Eric, Brian and I will remember that thirteen days for the
rest of our lives. Thanks to all the crews who made this journey pleasurable by
joining for one or more legs of it: Sal to Azores to
To them and to all the
friends who have followed this blog and sent their support - I gratefully
drink the sailors' toast - "Fair winds and safe havens!" |
