For those who really like to know where we are, we are just leaving now to join the OCC rally to the Azores.  It calls itself a pursuit rally; the first boat across the finishing line in Horta after noon on the 18^th June “wins”, as long as they have sailed at least 500 miles without stopping.  The wind systems mean that pretty much nobody will be able to do it without using an engine for part of the way, so mysterious adjustments will be made to the finishing times.

We’ve been monitoring the weather for a while and it looks like we’ll be motoring at for least 1/3^rd of the 1,000nm journey, so we have no expectations of winning anything.  Indeed we are most likely to use the engine to get there early before the harbour becomes unbearable with an extra 50 boats in a normally seriously overcrowded marina.

We don’t have a satphone this time so won’t be posting updates on passage.  If you want to monitor our progress there are a couple of web sites to try:-

This one shows the entire rally fleet: https://oceancruisingclub.org/fleet-map-azores

But this one shows all boats: https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/home/shipid:2810924/zoom:14  You may need to search for vessel Goldcrest – there are several but we’re the only GB sailing boat called Goldcrest.

Both use a radio signal picked up by shore stations so you will lose us after we leave Cape St Vincent until we get near an Azores island.

Next post from the Azores!