We arrived in Ponta Delgada on 15th June after an overnight journey which we hoped would give us enough time to sail before the wind died. We were fortunate and managed to sail the entire journey on a very pleasant beam reach. We arrived at dawn to an overcast cloudy Ponta Delgada. The Marina is huge and has less swell than the one in Terceira and is in the vicinity of the largest and most developed town in the Azores. There are many high rises dotted between hundred year old buildings giving a varied appearance to the landscape.

The weather continues to be warm and humid with visibility over the island very poor due to low lying cloud. The boat is very hard to keep dry inside or out and we are constantly battling with mould which appears everywhere as quickly as we can remove it. At least we have an electric hook up here and can run the air conditioning when necessary.

Helen was a fantastic member of the crew to have on board and mucked in with everything. We were very proud of her abilities to do night shifts single handed and she was invaluable getting the gennaker flying. We hope that she realises not many teenagers have a transatlantic crossing under their belts!

We flew home on Monday to meet up with David and celebrate his graduation; yet another opportunity to be proud parents! We then left Helen in the UK and returned with David to complete the final leg of our journey. We have felt quite honoured that both David and Helen have wanted to come and spend some time on the boat with us.

Although still very humid, we have seen some sun since our arrival back on the boat and hope that this will remain.

We have had the main sail and the staysail repaired while we went home. Hopefully we caught the damage in time and the repairs will give us many miles of trouble free sailing! The boat has definitely lost its shiny new appearance over the year and is beginning to look like a well used but much loved vessel.

 

  

Squid fell out of the sky!!                                                                 Pete in the lead in the Segway Grand prix

 

David and Pete decided to have a go on the Segways that were for rent nearby and had fun whizzing around the local walkways.

We are probably going to head for Northern Spain from here but very light winds will again give us a slow journey. Avril’s main criteria is to catch at least one fish on the journey and may not allow the boat into harbour until this has been achieved.