Overpromised, under delivered.
Scot Free III
Frank & Anne
Thu 19 Sep 2024 15:00
The harbour wall on Madalena did not look very inviting, so once more decided to anchor. F feeling very under the weather, with flu or Covid- where he picked that up? no idea.
Plan was to have an early start on Thursday, pick up hire car, explore half the island, a route already stored in the phone. It was not to be. After a bad night running a temperature, F spent most of Thursday in bed, really poorly.
Finally made contact with the guy who was going to fill the dive bottle, wanting bank details so we could pay him, only to discover it hadn’t even been collected in the first place. Why promise if you can’t deliver!! So infuriating, having endured the rocking and rolling all day.
So launched the dinghy again and back on shore, F collected the useless bottle, A did emergency shop at supermarket for something easy for supper- pizza. Have to go with what’s available. No quiches in the Azores.
Had already made the decision to set off in the evening for Santa Maria, 200 miles away. Very heavy weather due Tuesday-Wednesday and no wind if we’d left on Saturday. Poor F! Between lie downs we got the boat ready and set off just before 7pm.
Sailed down the east side of Pico and had very strong winds before we left this middle group of islands. Accepted practice is to reef early, ie shorten the sails, normally first reef at 15 knots of wind. Suddenly without warning, we had 20-25 sustained wind and F had to be called up to help! He realised the wind was up, when he was almost thrown out of his bunk, the boat was heeling so much. Lee cloth next time!
Benefitted from the Harvest Moon again, almost like sailing in daylight. Wonderful.
Soon, no wind, so had to resort to the engine, needing to maintain our speed to keep up with the forecast wind.
During F’s watch the wind and seas settled and she sailed beautifully again, making very good progress.
A appeared in the morning to enjoy the sunrise.
A fast trip in the end, 36 hours in total we’d expected at least 40. Anchored at 7am in the bay. What a difference a month makes, the secluded beach was virtually empty.
Slept for 4 hours, before coming into our favourite berth in the marina, next to the police boat.
F has shared his lurgy. Oh joy!