The Run into Praia 38:43.99N 26:56.00W
Ellatrout3
Thu 2 Jun 2016 11:40
|
The final run into Terceira, Praia de Vitoria
lived up to all the foregoing bad weather. All day I had been sailing into the
next deep depression with the winds getting stronger. As they strengthened they
were forecast to swing further south, my present best course was due west and
Terceira was to the south west so I hoped the forecasters were right. As
predicted they went south and increased to 25 knots but I could just lay Praia
de Vitoria. At 20.00 Monday evening I had 34 miles to go and
hoping the wind would hold it's direction. As it got dark I could see
the glow of the island and the next time I came on deck the
bright lights of the American airbase made it look ike a christmas
decoration sat on the sea.
Terceira is eliptical in shape and Praia de
Vitoria is in the middle of the eastern side and by
03.00 hours, Tuesday, I was 13 miles off and desparate for sleep.
Unfortunately the wind had got stronger, now over 30 Kts, forcing me north of my
course which would mean if I kept staight on I would hit the middle of the north
side of the Island. When I reached the north side of the island,
however, it would give me shelter from the southerly gale and then
hopefully I could work my way along the north coast back to the eastern
side. At my present rate of progress I would reach the coast in about 3
hours. My choice was turn south east away from the island while I slept or carry
on and rely on the alarm to wake me in time. I had slept throught the alarm a
couple of times before but having fought my way west for so long I was very
reluctant to turn away so I set the ships alarm and my phone alarm to wake me in
an hour and a half and got into my pit. Even though Ella Trout was crashing and
banging along I was asleep almost immediately. It's amazing how the hightened
tension of the situation is in your mind even though you are sound asleep
because suddenly, after only an hour, I was wide awake; something had changed!
There had been a lull in the storm, consequently ET had wandered off course and
she was now drifting north. It took me a while to work out what was going on
before I realized I could alter course and sail directly back towards
Praia and get to the east of the island. I tentatively raised more sail,
this change had not been forecast, and set off back in 15 Kts of wind. The lull
lasted about two hours before the strong winds returned to 25 to 30 kts
from the south but by then I was 5 miles east of Praia de Vitoria and could
easily lay the harbour. Somebody was smiling on me that day because without
that totally unforseen lull in the storm it would have had at least another days
hard sailing, as it was I entered the harbour at 09.05 Tueday
morning. Phew!!!!!
It's a big harbour and even inside it was quite
rough and it took me an hour to get the sails down and drop the anchor at
the south end under the harbour wall. Having got safely anchored and
sorted out I thought I was there for at least the next 24 hours before the wind
died down and it was safe to enter the marina in the north western corner of the
harbour. But no! At midday Oui Oui arrived and made immediate radio
contact and Julien (Bula) told him to come staight in and they would catch
him and help him moor safely. So I
called up and was told the same, come in, we have a berth for you and will help
you. So by 13.00 I was safely moored alongside with a very excited and happy
bunch of sailors. These are really joyous times because only those who have been
out there really know what they have come through and it all overflows.
Poppa/Dad/Roger
Ps I do not know when you will recieve this as I
cannot get an internet connection, the marina wifi is hopeless and the satalite
phone cannot see the satalites from under the hill where the marina is so I may
have to go into town and find a cafe to send it when I'm sorted
out.
I will try to summarise the whole trip but I'm not
sure if circumstances will allow to quietly sit and rationalise but I'll send a
message whenever there is something that may be of interest and of course I will
blog on the way home.
P/D/R
|