There was still a bit of a wave outside and the wind was blowing force 5. Since we had the waves on the beam it was a bit uncomfortable but soon got better as wind and waves diminished towards sunset. We went past Brighton and Beachy Head. Then it it became dark but the moon came out. It was a lovely sail. I had expected having to motor for at least the second half of the night but we were able to sail all the way to the western entrance of Dover harbour.
I am beginning to believe that the weather is trying to make fun of me. Friday had been a great sunny day with no clouds. I wasn’t even out of the harbour when it began to get dark, foggy and rainy. We had to motor against the wind but with the tide out of the Goulet de Brest but were going to have a nice wind on the beam when we turned the corner and sailed the Chenal du Four between Ushant and the coast. Of course it didn’t turn out that way. What we did have was no wind and fog that was so thick and moist that it felt like rain.
The Harbor Festival was in full swing. I borrowed a bicycle from the harbor office to make a run into Brest and have a look. There was a huge crowd and hardly anything to see. Most was taking place out on the water.
I went to the local Decathlon store and bought a pair of deck shoes. My old one had disintegrated in the UV light. For the next day I had an invitation to go out sailing with the Altensa crew from Wales and I didn’t want to show up with those rags of shoes of mine. We went out around noon and I think I’ve never seen so many ships in one place.
I had originally wanted to make another movie of this passage and I do have a bit of footage. In the majority of the shots you would have seen me whining and complaining about the weather. So I decided to write about the trip instead and try to be a bit more matter-of-fact and less emotional about it.
I left Angra on Thursday, June 27 in the afternoon for the 1200 nautical passage to the Scilly Islands in England. I had gone for a swim at the city beach, the weather was beautiful and I was ready to go. I had said goodbye to Andi and Kudi who had left a few hours before and to Gerrit and Manuel who were staying.
We were going to have the wind on the nose for quite some time. That much was clear but I was hoping to be able to sail against it without too much tacking and the weather didn’t look like it was going to get any better soon.
I am in the marina in Angra waiting for the Customs officers to check Amy and me and give us permission to travel to England. Our plan is to leave today in the afternoon for the Isles of Scilly.
The sail over here from Horta was rougher than expected and I arrived very tired on Sunday around noon. The harbour master was very friendly and told me with a smile that because of the celebration week of San Ioannis there would be no sleep possible between 12 midnight and 6am for the next week. I thought he was joking and happily accepted being overjoyed to get a berth in the marina despite the huge fiesta.
Horta is a magic place. There are so many people on boats coming from and going to all sorts of directions and the harbour is full of energy. The first few days I got even less sleep than at sea because I was constantly meeting people, hanging out in bars or boats or just on the pontoon and exchanging stories. I guess this must be like Mekka for yachties. Some people I had already met elsewhere like Andi and Kudi of course or Manuel from Switzerland whom I had met in Bermuda and Alex from South Africa. I had met her first in Tobago and then again in Antigua. Her crew had left here and she was looking for new crew. But just as new boats are arriving daily from everywhere, so are hitchhikers roaming the harbour and looking to crew on boats for a ride home or to far away destinations.
We left Bermuda on Monday night, May 21. It took four weeks to arrive in Horta, Faial. More than I had expected. The weather window turned out to be much less than perfect but in retrospect there weren’t (and aren’t at the moment) any good weather windows so I don’t regret having left when we did.
We had total calms for 6 1/2 days in which we just lowered the sails and waited for wind. With 60l of Diesel we had no other choice. We drifted backwards towards Bermuda. Later we had to tack into the wind and waves for over 24h only to find ourselves at the same spot where we had started tacking a day earlier.
I will probably leave from Bermuda tomorrow (Monday) night or Tuesday morning. The Great Circle distance is around 1800 nm. Hopefully I can post some short updates from updates from underway.
See you soon
Kai
When I returned to the CBP office, I learned that I wouldn’t have had to come by to check out of the country. O well. I took the bus back to Key Biscayne and asked the park ranger about sharks in the area because I needed to clean the bottom of the boat. “There are bull sharks in the bay – and a few weeks ago we spotted a great white in the area, so just don’t make any hectic movements and make sure no one is fishing while you are diving” The hull cleaning went faster than usual and probably less thorough, too.
Outside of the canal the wind was still pretty strong and after a few hours we entered the Gulfstream. I had been a bit scared of this stream that flows very fast from west to east in the south of Florida and then turns left towards the north to flow along the coast in the strait of Florida between the US and the Bahamas. I had read and heard a lot abut the waves that develop in the stream and that you should by all means avoid a situation where the wind would blow against the stream. Well, for the first part of the trip where stream flows eastward it couldn’t be avoided. Southeasterly winds just wouldn’t arrive and so be had to beat into easterly winds and very rough waves. Amy and I got hammered. Two large waves made it into the cockpit and down the companionway and flooded the salon. I pumped out the water and tried to dry as much as possible. The water in the stream is very warm and extremely salty. Everywhere the water went there was a white crust afterwards. Fortunately this lasted only for the first night. Then the wind let off bait and we were turning north with the stream and the waves immediately got smaller.
