It may have been something to do with hearing from Mike and Alexandra, who are coming back with the ARC Europe, and are about 10 days behind us. When sending our weather report to Chris this morning, we got a message from them telling us they had responded to a Mayday call yesterday from a fellow ARC traveller. The yacht Outer Limits had struck a whale about 3 hours away from them, was taking on a lot of water, and needed help. As it happened, a large container vessel was within an hour’s distance and arrived in time to evacuate the 4 crew safely to leave the yacht to sink.

As Ali would put it, I went a bit Corporal Fraser. When Chris sent back his weather forecast, the timeframe for the nasty front hitting Horta was 2200-2400 tonight, and his evaluation of our chances of getting there beforehand )my estimate was 20-2100) was that “it will be tight”! Never much of a gambler, that was good enough for me, and after a discussion with Ali I changed course around 0830, heading for Flores.

My estimate was that we could make Flores by early Monday morning, thus avoiding the risk of being out in squalls gusting to 45 knots when approaching an unfamiliar harbour. Even though the front will hit Flores earlier than Horta – probably mid-afternoon Monday – it was a no-brainer for safety of boat and complement.

The crew took it differently: Lorraine was clearly unhappy, questioning the decision, the arithmetic, and the benefits of a Flores passage; Jim was sanguine and saw the sense once the facts were presented.

We are bang on target to be making an approach after dawn, and being tucked up safely by 0900. Making 6 knots as a minimum, by sailing, motor sailing or motoring is the plan, and we are doing fine.  

Ah well, another island to see,

Watergaw