Azores to UK - N041:13:6112 W027:15:4311

Superted V
Jean & Matt Findlay
Thu 21 Jul 2016 08:55

Day 1

 

So we’re finally heading back to the UK!  Quite exiting, but weather wise we have to take a long way round for a short cut! At least it looks like the seas won’t be too bad. So far so good!

 

To get into westerly winds we have to head well north of the rumb line for a couple of days to get on the north side of a long ridge of high pressure stretching from the Azores to the Bay of Biscay. Even then, we will have to keep going NNE for another 3 days to about 50N before we can finally swing east, for the final 4 days to Plymouth. There is no wind in the middle of the ridge and adverse wind south of it.  We picked our departure time so that we could make the most of a brief zone of westerly winds near the Azores, knowing that they would die out after a day and leave us with no wind that we would have to motor through. For the first 18 hours of the passage we had stronger winds than forecast from the WNW and made good speed until the wind dropped and went to the north at around 1.30am. So now we are motor sailing north in a dying breeze.  We have to keep heading north for another day then the gribs are showing the wind turning to the west/north-west so we should be able to sail again and start to head in a better direction.

 

Not seen any wildlife – even birds are few and far between but as always we get the feeling that there’s something just lurking beneath the surface!  A couple of large ships have passed within sight of us but that’s it.

 

Position 21 July 06.30 GMT: 041:13:6112N 027:15:4311W

24 hour distance:  161 miles