São Miguel to A Coruña

Ocean Gem
Geoff & Eileen Mander
Mon 19 Jun 2017 15:51
Date: Monday 19th June 2017
Time: 12:00 UTC
Position: 38:40.03N 22:57.16W

We left Ponta Delgado in bright sunny weather and very little wind. It was necessary to motor along the south side of the island, enjoying the stunning views of the mountainous interior and lush vegetation covering the slopes down to the sea.

Are rounded the SE corner we could make directly for NW Spain. We were helped on our way by an unexpectedly brisk SW wind which was very welcome. The rest of the afternoon was spent sailing under full main and either poled out jib or cruising chute. It was a dark night but the sky was clear with a stunning display of stars. The sea was smooth and the wind was fair for maintaining a good boat speed.

We kept the cruising chute till around midnight. Conditions were favourable for it to stay up but we were expecting a front to pass with a sharp wind veer so I decided that it would be safer to take it down, reef the main and continue under jib.

The expected front didn't appear until around 3:30am Monday but when it arrived it brought the expected wind shift, so we gybed and continued sailing along the rhumb line course to NW Spain. During the early morning the wind strength increased to around 17 knots from the NW allowing us to maintain good speed.