Ponta Delgado - off we go again
Ocean Gem
Geoff & Eileen Mander
Sun 18 Jun 2017 19:23
Time: 11.30am
Position: 37:44.28N 25:39.94W
After waiting in Ponta Delgado for what seemed ages for a fair wind to sail NEwards we can finally see a change in the weather coming. It looks as though a front will be passing through sometime Sunday night/Monday morning bringing N/NW winds for a couple of days. Thereafter the conditions could return to very light conditions again but we are keen to leave and this change could well be the best we will see for some time.
So after settling the marina bill and getting the boat ready to sail, no mean feat after being in harbour for nearly a couple of weeks, we dropped our lines, motored round to the fuel dock to fill up, then set out to sea.
Since we have been in The Azores there have been a couple of crew changes. Whilst we were in Terceira in early June Violeta had to return to Bulgaria to be with her mother. Nat also had urgent business back in the UK which meant that he could not wait with us any longer and he flew to England yesterday.
But we have a new crew member. Ferruccio Turek, aka Ooch, flew in from The Algarve where he now lives and will stay with us till we get to the UK or something else happens that drags him back home. I sailed with Ooch back in 2014 when we travelled from Norfolk, VA to Fort Lauderdale. It's good to have him on board again. So we are now three persons on board.
Other than Savarona (whose skipper is still suffering from the effects of the mauling by a bull) and Viva (who have mechanical boat problems) we are the last ARC boat to leave Ponta Delgado. From now on we are not participating in any ARC events.