Antigua to Faial was the longest passage we’ve done – and it certainly had it’s challenges: general advise is to head north towards Bermuda using the easterly trades – which hopefully have a southerly component in them – up to about 36 – 40 degrees latitude and then hook around to the east towards the Azores.
Unfortunately, when we set out, the trades had a northerly component in them, so we were forced to head slightly west of north in strong winds (20 – 25) with large seas (10 – 12ft) making
Planned route (green circles). Actual route – blue line
for a very uncomfortable, very wet but very fast first 4 days. When we reached the northern boundary of the trades at about 28 degrees north, the wind started to veer to the south and we were able to make a gradual turn to the east, easing our point of sail and having a much more comfortable (and drier) time of it. We were receiving weather information from Chris Parker and also from GRIB files via the SSB radio. Our course kept us out of the strong winds to our north and the calms to our south – so when we made our turn east just 300 miles south of Bermuda, we were able to make close to a direct course towards Horta. As our track shows (blue line) we stayed well south of the ‘normal’ route (green circles).
Laurie fixing the engine
We had one afternoon with very light wind, necessitating a 10 hour engine run – which in the early hours of the following morning I discovered was trying to sink the boat! A hose clamp having given up the ghost was spewing water into the bilge, filling it nearly to the floorboards! (Earlier, the electric bilge pump switch had decided to stay in the ON position – so we had been forced to operate the switch manually… Toodle-oo! has a very dry bilge, so we were not as diligent as perhaps we should have been in monitoring the water level there!!!). Having located the source of the leak I turned off the engine and pumped the bilge. In the morning we replaced the hose clamp…
Poled out Genoa, ‘Boomed Out’ Code Zero
As the wind moved further south and west, we played with all sorts of sail combinations going deep (and sometimes dead-) downwind and used all sails in our inventory – including the storm jib in an attempt to stop the infernal rolling as we made our way, but we managed good progress even in relatively light wind conditions, happy to make 3 and 4 knots, provided that the sails didn’t flog.
At the end of our 2nd week, the electronics started acting up – AIS quit, various screens quit, the autopilot gave up the ghost (fortunately we were relying on Gail, our mechanical Monitor wind vane). The problems appeared to be intermittent – things would come and go, but every time they went, the event was accompanied by an annoying beeping alarm – so in the end we turned most of the electronics off. Fortunately, the chart plotter never failed.
Arriving in Horta
The last couple of days the wind returned again and we had full on sailing all the way in to Horta, where we raised the OCC Rally flag and sailed into the harbor just before 6:00am local time (16 days, 14 hours and 56 minutes!) and anchored. After a couple hours of blissful sleep, we moved into the inner harbor and rafted up on the wall – third boat out. Wonderful to not be rocking and rolling anymore! We took a stroll ashore – making it as far as Peter ‘Café Sport’ (sponsor of the OCC’s Azores Pursuit Rally) and enjoyed a few beers before returning to Toodle-oo! for a well-earned full night’s sleep.
Arrival Cocktails – 3:00am!
Toodle-oo! crosses the finish line!
Not good!
It’s taken quite a while to recover from the trip so we’ve stayed close to home and made various repairs: The electronics problem turned out to be a burned out connector on the rear bulkhead located right beside a wire run that went through the bulkhead to the radar pole – the hole was not sealed, so the connector took a seawater bath every time a big wave hit us on the stern!! I cleared out the bilge – which as a consequence of being so full, had brought all manner of flotsam down – including what appeared to be original manufacturing stuff – teak shavings, etc.
The OCC Pursuit rally is now underway and boats will begin arriving soon, so we’re expecting some lively parties and gatherings – in the meantime, we’ve had a couple of very enjoyable evenings with Phil and Norma and crew Des from Minnie B and Norman and Sara from Norsa – both boats having completed their circumnavigations.