Bermuda to Azores - Final Day

Peejay
Paul and Pat Marriage
Tue 8 Jun 2010 16:49

Day 16 – Noon 3rd June to Noon 4th June

 

24 hours to go and nothing was going to stop us now. We celebrated with a bottle of bubbly during our last night at sea party.

 

 

 

The wind did it’s best to keep us guessing until the end but we finally crossed the finish line with just over an hour before the deadline. And then amidst a fanfare of cheering and foghorns being sounded by the rest of the ARCE fleet we arrived in the harbour at Horta.

 

It had been a real battle and we were all tired but very happy.

 

Even Peter Pan has to rest sometimes

 

 

 

 

Facts and Figures

 

1 boat 4 crew

 

15 Days 22 Hours 27 Minutes and 31 Seconds

 

2,016 miles sailed

 

Maximum wind speed 52 knots

 

Minimum wind speed 0 knots

 

5 days of gales

 

5 days becalmed

 

Used 750 litres of water of which we made 450 litres on the way

 

Used 250 litres of diesel

 

 

Good Points

 

Never seen so many dolphins – they were magnificent

 

Watching shearwaters in a gale

 

Nick fixing the steering cables during bad weather

 

Overcoming the gales

 

The laughter on board

 

5 metre waves – awesome

 

Making the finish line before the cut off

 

 

 

Bad Points

 

Steering cables coming adrift

 

Autopilot packing up with 1,250 miles still to go

 

Hand steering for over 1,000 miles

 

Not seeing any whales

 

Gales that went on for 96 hours

 

Sleep deprivation

 

5 metre waves - scary

 

Nick feeling seasick near to the start

 

The weather never did what was forecast

 

Getting thrown around like a cork

 

 

 

Thanks

 

Special thanks have to go to Graham this leg for pitching in and providing us with hot food in difficult conditions. Brilliant job mate – thanks

 

To Nick for fixing the steering cables in rough weather

 

To Barrie for being the other watch leader in horrible conditions

 

To Pat for organising things back at home so that we could carry on with the crossing.

 

 

Paul - Peejay