Final Day - Noon June 17^th to 1500 June 18^th

There’s two types of ocean sailing. The easy passages where you celebrate half way with a party just because it’s manageable and you can. Then there’s the hard passages where that’s just not possible. Instead we have a last night at sea party because we know it’s all going to be over the following day.

This was definitely one of the tough legs of the return crossing. So that makes all 3 legs tough. If ever you want to brag about doing an Atlantic crossing make sure you tell people you did it West to East. Sorry Benji – East to West is for wimps.

Next morning at dawn we crossed the traffic separation zones. It’s a bit like crossing the M25 using a zimmer frame. There were two close calls. The tanker Captain Nihart actually changed his course at the last minute to avoid us. But we had to slam on the brakes to avoid hitting a monster container ship called Jennifer Vickers who didn’t seem at all interested in taking avoiding action.

And finally after 4,000 gruelling miles since leaving the Caribbean, at 0815 on June 18^th mainland Europe was spotted.

We crossed the finishing line at 13.10 on June 18^th and took down the sails for the last time. Then it was a case of motoring into the marina for a good rest.

And there was good old Lyle waiting to help with our mooring lines. He’s done a great job organising the rally and it was nice to have on the spot help as we arrived tired but triumphant.

Only 5 boats made it all the way across from the Caribbean to Europe. 4 carried on instead from the Azores to Plymouth. 3 made it who started in the USA. The rest either stopped in the Azores or changed their plans because they couldn’t continue or needed a rest before carrying on. One boat was abandoned after hitting a submerged object which caused a complete steering failure. Compare that to the over 200 who made it from the Canaries to the Caribbean in November!

We spoke to some of the other boats who did finish. All said it was the hardest of the 3 legs being upwind all the way. One couple ate nothing but pre-prepared sandwiches all the way across because they thought cooking in extreme conditions was too dangerous. But we had a secret weapon called Pat who did a magnificent job on the hot meals. Priceless.

Most had pretty damp boats by the time they arrived as water inevitably forced its way inside in those conditions. All found sleeping almost impossible. It was good to know that we weren’t the only ones who found it tough.

Facts and Figures

Horta, Azores to Lagos, Portugal

1 boat 4 crew

1003 miles sailed

8 days 1 hour 9 minutes 48 seconds

Upwind all the way

Good points

Pat’s fantastic cooking in the most difficult conditions of the entire crossing

Autopilot fixed and working again

Spray dodger invaluable in relentless upwind sailing  

The dolphin encounters – again!

Bad Points

Constant slamming into waves – sounded like the boat was going to break up

Lack of sleep – mainly because of the slamming

Boat damp inside – tough conditions

Thanks

To Pat – who didn’t really want to do this leg but who stepped in to make the crew number up to 4

To Pat – who kept us all going with hot food in extreme cooking conditions

To Barrie – who never complains and always gets the boat sailing to best advantage

To Nick – for rising to the challenge and doing watches on his own so that Barrie and I could at least attempt to sleep

To Lyle – for organising the whole thing – nice one mate.

Paul - Peejay