Day 1: Azores -> Lagos - Fast sailing

Blue Note
Marco M.
Tue 18 Jun 2013 12:09
Date: Tuesday 18/06/13 - Time: 12:00 Blue Note Time - 12:00 UTC
Position 37:45.84N 22:40.35W
COG 90T SOG 6.7 kt, Wind 354T 15 kt, Barometer 1019.5 stable
Temperatures: Air 18.8C, Sea 12.5C
Last 24h Sailed Distance: 145 NM
Last 24h Decrease Distance on rhumb line: 141 NM
Sailed distance since departure: 146.1 NM
Time since departure: 1d 0h 15m
Average Speed since departure: 6.01 kt
Intention: sail to Lagos
Distance to End on rhumb line: 669 NM
ETA: Sunday June 23 at 6:00
Detailed Track (50 is the maximum number of point, i.e. once the last point reaches 50, the last point always is 50): <http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0EIVGO9oiEYLjqAfRxhderm34cEEF9dMP>http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0EIVGO9oiEYLjqAfRxhderm34cEEF9dMP

Yesterday we left with a beautiful sunny day in the Azores.
We followed Sao Miguel heading east and had a beautiful view of its rugged south coast with the small village and houses.
Quite of a contrast with yesterday weather when low clouds and a mist was covering the Island.
Unfortunately it was yesterday afternoon in the afternoon, after provisioning the boat, when I went for a bike tour with a climb to see the Lagoa Azul and Lagoa Verde.
The climb was beautiful and the road excellent, however was a climb right into the clouds and there was not much of a view of the lakes and surrounding
and I just had to imagine the green fields with the blue waters of the Atlantic as a background.
Oh well, maybe next time, I will stay longer enough to catch a good weather day for a bike ride.

I wanted to leave on Monday for two reason. First the weather forecast looks good, and is always better to leave with a sunny warm day,
second, given what happen to the previous stage, I wanted to make sure to get to the final destination in time to catch the flight.

Given the current wind direction, from the North, and speed, about 15 kts, we are sailing at 6.5-7.0 kts on a rhumb line.
I'm not used anymore to such speed. We had a last 24 hours sail distance (on the rhumb line) of 140 NM.
That will give us an ETA to Lagos for Sunday morning !!
So fast and so quick.
It should leave us even more time to explore different marina on the south of Portugal and Spain and spend few days in Gibraltar.

As for fishing, yesterday we dropped (but without success) the tuna-catcher lure, but today fishing is on hold because the Italian crew (the one with only the Italian passport and the one who
had insisted that he never get sea sick) is a bit sea sick.
In any case, as the French fisherman Damien had rightly pointed out, at this high speed of sailing the tuna-catch lure might not be effective.

Weather forecast are for the wind to stay from the north and perhaps to increase a bit in strength, so it should be indeed a fast sail to mainland Europe.

Emacs!

June 16, view of the Lagoa Azul (on the right) and Lagoa Verde (on the left)
separated by a small bridge.
Because of the low clouds, they both look of the same color.

Emacs!

June 17, sailing on the south side of Sao Miguel with beautiful sunny day.


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