This passage also feels different because it is sailing in home waters again. We are monitoring the low pressure systems, there is a chill in the air, the possibility of big seas. The weather routing says we should be ok. In fact there may be a few days of motoring around the half way point. And then a big low pressure system develops that we hope will be kept at bay by high pressure to the east. The eastern edge of the low will be good for us but a low pressure system stretching from the Azores to north of the UK could bring wind and big seas if it moves across to the east. All can and probably will change over 12 days.

While creating our work of art on the harbour wall we met in interesting lady from Lithuania who is a translator and also a documentary film maker. She is working on a project to record the experiences of yachties she is meeting in the Azores. Despite coming across some clearly eccentric and interesting people she was keen to record a conversation with us and did so over coffee on board Vega. Her partner and photographer colleague came and took pictures of Annie and me working on the boat using 35mm transparency film. Their idea is to make a film that is a series of still photographs with the subjects speaking about their experiences. We used to call them slideshows when 35mm was the norm but in this digital age what was the norm for us a few years ago is now “retro”.

As ever getting the boat ready for the passage took longer than anticipated although in part because we were genuinely reluctant to leave. When putting the rudder onto its stock on the Hydrovane it didn’t slide up as far as normal. There was no blockage in the recess in the rudder and it looked like the rudder stock had dropped an inch. A puzzle because it hadn’t dropped at the top. The manual wasn’t helpful other than confirming that the rudder stock and its casing came as a sealed unit. So I sent an email to Hydrovane who quickly got back to me to say that the bottom collar on the rudder stock had fallen off. The collar is like an inch thick stainless washer to prevent the rudder and stock from lifting in strong wind but, subject to this, the Hydrovane can be used without the collar until a replacement is fitted. As it happens the stock is a similar diameter to our propshaft and a couple of spare shaft seals could be pushed up onto the Hydrovane rudder stock to act as a collar.

It is now 0300UTC which is also local time. We have Prime Evil of Malden about 4nm to leeward sailing under just mainsail at a similar speed. Annie called them on the radio earlier but there was no reply. At 39ft they are likely to be slightly faster than Vega but it will be interesting to see how long we can maintain AIS contact.