Wednesday 03 June – Day One – Leg Two, Bermuda to Azores

Making our “off” today from Bermuda so last chores were to fuel & water and clear out. Mark bought a bottle of gin as we think we will run low on route. I think we will run out of tonic water first!?

1215 weighed anchor, stowed dinghy on foredeck and made for sea through St. George’s Town Cut channel. Flat calm conditions outside the reef and with a forecast of <10knots variable wind we are expecting to motor for at least the first 24 hours?

We have already waited 24 hours for a more favorable forecast but wind above 15knots is still 2-3 days away and given time constraints at the UK end of the journey we have had to push on – albeit at the expense of leaving a carbon footprint!

Approx distance Bermuda to Azores is 1800nm. We intend to head NE-ish until about Lat 38N where we expect to pick up some SW or W flow and then turn directly E and run for our landfall destination of Horta on the island of Faial. At an average speed of 5knots this will take us 16-18 days?

Thursday 04 June – Day Two

0900 - Beautiful sea conditions – absolutely flat calm, glassy sea with virtually no swell. Horizon is very clear and no signs of squalls. Quiet watches last night with no sign of other vessels. I would expect us to see something along the way as Bermuda is a stopover for yachts leaving the Caribbean/US for Europe/UK. There are several yachts that left 24 hours ahead of us and we know of at least one leaving 24 hours after us.

“Adventuress” is not fast under motor, averaging around 5knots, but at least the flat sea conditions are allowing her to maintain this.

Everyone is in good spirits after our sojourn in Bermuda – only a few days there but long enough to view the islands, have a swim or two, meet some locals, share sundowners with visiting yotties and lighten our wallets in the most expensive part of the British Empire!!!

Midday position – 34:02N 63:23W – have run 120nm in last 24 hours – all under motor.

2000hrs

Stopped motor for first time in 28 hours. Wind is moving from E thru to S to SW. Has been very light all day but increased now to 10-15kn allowing us to sail (albeit @ 3.5kn!) for first time this leg.

Mark cooked supper tonight – spag bol. Very nice too. Then just as we were finishing up supper we had a visit from a whale (species unconfirmed). It blew once close to the boat then didn’t surface again. Also, we had a visit today from a large pod of bottlenose dolphins. They were travelling south past us so did not hang around long but they looked fabulous with the very clear blue water here.