Wednesday May 22, 2024
Today we started our long journey to the Azores. It’s almost 1900nm, and according to current weather, it will be a slow start. According to the rules of the ARC, boats are supposed to cross the starting line and finish line under sail power. Today that will not be possible for two reasons. First of all there is only 3 knots of wind. Second, the little wind we do have will be directly on our nose crossing the starting line and leaving the harbor. So we won’t even bother with it.
The channel to leave the harbor is fairly narrow so we decided that we would bring up the rear of the pack, since we don’t expect to finish anywhere near the top anyway. Noon arrives and the starting whistle blows. Everyone slowly makes their way across the starting line and out of the harbor. Finally, it’s our turn.
Before leaving on our journey, we consulted our weather guru, Chris Parker, who will be advising us along the way of the route we should take to get the best wind and weather conditions. And while almost all of the other boats have decided to follow the great circle rhumb line, we have been advised to head north. There are apparently 3 other Americans who also use Chris Parker, because there are only 4 of us on the northbound path. We have resolved to spend the next 24-48 hours motoring. Although wind is what we really want, the calm ocean and glassy water covering the entire Atlantic Ocean was spectacular.
We even got a visit from some local dolphins
We even spotted a pod of Orcas, but they didn’t want to come over for a photo shoot. It was awesome, none the less.
Thursday night Mike got in a trivia game with several of the other boats. Lema was good enough to host it. We all communicate through WhatsApp. Mike lost miserably, but our friends on Bistari won, so we were happy for them.
Friday morning, we got an updated route from Chris Parker. It was time to start heading East. Hallelujah, we finally found wind. Not much, but enough to put our headsails out and turn the engines off. We now are on a nice downwind sail and making way toward our destination. Apparently no one else has hit wind yet, so we feel quite fortunate. We continued heading NE and also found the Gulf Stream, which has been giving us an extra knot of speed. We’re so far behind everyone, we’ll take whatever help we can get.
It’s now Sunday morning and we are still sailing. With the good wind and current we found, we have caught up to or overtaken many boats that chose the rhumb line. Thank you Chris Parker! We will now continue to make our way east, keeping an eye on the weather and altering our course accordingly. So far this has been a truly amazing journey and I am beyond blessed to have Mike here beside me.
There aren’t many people that would take the chances that are involved in boating/sailing on the open seas. You two are fortunate to have found one another, to have the same interests and adventurous spirits. Be safe and have fun. Remember to raise a glass on Memorial Day to those that have sacrificed everything so that we can enjoy the opportunities that we are blessed to have. 👍🇺🇸