Thursday 13 September 2012

Praia de Vitoria

I slowed down so as to arrive off the harbour after dawn. Even in the outer harbour there was a lot of surge. By the time I got lines and fenders ready on both sides of the boat it 8 AM local time and there were yatchies around who take my lines. The docks are full and visitors are rafted two out. It was great to be in. It had not been an easy trip. An average run of 106 mile per day, compared to the usual 135 miles/day. Far too much time spent hard on the wind tacking north and south into the SW wind on the top side of all those lows. That's how it can be. Just think I could find those same SW winds next year to go back to England.

Tuesday 11 September 2012

Day 12 Careful what you ask fo

Shades of the Southern Ocean. Running before 35 knots of wind with just a quarter of the number 2 genoa. Big seas. Albert doing a superb job of holding course of 20 to 10 degrees off dead down wind, making 6.5 - 7 knots. Noon position 40 15N 26 05 W. Noon-to-noon run was 161 miles.

It was all going well until around 20:00 when the north wind at the back of the low started to increase. I dropped to three reefs in the main and four rolls in the genoa. Then the barometer began a more rapid ascent. By 22:00 it was getting out of hand so I took the main down, lashed it up onto the boom gallows. took the genoa down to about a quarter size, shut everything up went to bed. Not a lot of sleep. But not to worry. Great boat just kept tracking. A high is coming in behind the low so the wind will continue to veer, but not lighten. Only 101 miles to Terceira and it looks like I'll get here early in the morning. The entrance through the outer breakwater is 1/3 mile wide and well lit, so I'll go in, round up into the north quarter, anchor, and wait til dawn. Though I suspect that it may be too windy to go to the inner harbour.

Monday 10 September 2012

Day 11 The Last Low....I hope

The forecast low started making its presence felt, Barometer dropping, wind shifting to the west. By 0200 I had to tack and head west with the plan of sailing into the low and across to the favourable NW winds on its west side. It was a long bouncy, slammy night and for much of it Taonui was bent off to steer 300, 70 degrees away from the required course. However by 09:00 it all worked out. Into the centre of the low, sloppy huge seas, no wind. I motored, sailed, anything to keep some motion on. At 11:00 a squall went over, lovely cleaning rain, on the other side was NW wind and sunshine. So back on course, up down screwing around in the junked up seas, but driving forward. This should settle down in an hour or so and the wind will keep veering and eventually, tomorrow be an east wind south of an approaching cell of high pressure.

I count seven lows that I have had to deal with on this trip. There has been some lovely sailing in the NW wind at the back of the low, but for the most part it has been 1,400 miles hard on the wind. And that is what a pilot chart would have forecast. Which explains the low daily runs.

Noon position 42 01N 23 23W Noon-to-noon 80 miles. 260 miles to go. Wednesday afternoon, if Huey allows.

Sunday 9 September 2012

Day 10 Easy Sailing

Yesterday's low is gone. Sailed across the front at 8 PM last night. Seas were very confused and lumpy. Initially very light wind, but gradually the expected NW wind strengthened and we off! On course and after an hour so the speed was up to six knots. And so it stayed all last night. Today, lighter winds and from W of SW but still able to make 210 - 215. So Easy sailing for now, full main and #1 genoa, dry decks (though very salty) and smooth seas. Perfect. The GRIB files show one last low to get past and the signs are showing in the upper clouds. It is forecast to take a different track, going SE, instead of NE so I'll go straight to it as so as There is a sign of the wind shift. After that it looks good, with a high forming to the north and east winds for the final leg. Noon position 43N 22W, noon-to-noon 110 miles (lost an hour), 340 miles to go.
Coryn has been keeping track of two Hurricanes, Leslie and Michael, and both seem to be staying safely to the west, so no worries there.

Saturday 8 September 2012

Day 9 Hard on the wind yet again

For the past three days a low has been hanging around to the NE of the Azores and it now has decided to move east. He could have waited! So last nigh around 02:00 the wind veered and built, the barometer dropped and before too long Taonui was hard on the wind struggling to make south and actually being bent off to a course of 165. Required course 230. I stuck it out until noon hoping to get south of the low. At noon I tacked over to head west with the plan of going through the bottom of the tightest part and out into the NW winds that are hopefully on the other side.

Just spoke a ship, the first that I've seen in days, the "Star Best" carrying containers filled with bananas from Columbia heading for Antwerp. He was this far north because of bad weather in the Mona Passage.

Noon to noon run was 113 miles, but only made good 101. 468 miles to go . Three days If the wind freed off.

Friday 7 September 2012

Day 8 Broad Reaching

The motor was grinding along at 5 knots until around midnight when a light east wind appeared. The barometer had dropped a miniscule. We were on the other side of the High. Slowly the wind filled in and, with all sails up, Taonui's speed increased. By dawn it was up to four knots. By 10:00 we were charging along at 6 - 7 knots, one reef in the main and the #1 genoa bellowed out and pulling like a train. Only 14 or so knots of wind, but on a beam reach Taonui just loves it. 130 miles noon-to-noon, with 569 miles to go.

The forecast is for Hurricane Michael to turn north in a few days so no problem there, though I hope some poor sailor making an end of season Atlantic crossing doesn't get an unwanted surprise.

Thursday 6 September 2012

Day 7 Motoring across the High

Boring. Noisey. But nothing for it and the forecasts show no major movement in this semi-stationary blob over the next few days. Brings to mind the Rhyme the Ancient Mariner. Flat sea. No wind. But I suppose some might build in as I get over the top and find east - NE on the other side, but they will be light. Had a sad visit from a lost little bird this afternoon. A female Redstart with a lovely red rump. An insect eater. She didn't stay. The book shows migration from Europe to Spain and Africa each winter. GPS failure.

I'm keeping a watch on Hurricane Michael now at 29N 43W, 1,600 miles to the SW. It is said to be heading NE ( 45 +/-) As such it would clip the the western end of the Azores group of islands. Earlier this season Hurricane Gordon went over the top of the the eastern end of the Islands. Who ever heard of hurricanes in the Azores!!

Day 7 Motoring across the High

Boring. Noisey. But nothing for it and the forecasts show no major movement in this semi-stationary blob over the next few days. Brings to mind the Rhyme the Ancient Mariner. Flat sea. No wind. But I suppose some might build in as I get over the top and find east - NE on the other side, but they will be light. Had a sad visit from a lost little bird this afternoon. A female Redstart with a lovely red rump. An insect eater. She didn't stay. The book shows migration from Europe to Spain and Africa each winter. GPS failure.

I'm keeping a watch on Hurricane Michael now at 29N 43W, 1,600 miles to the SW. It is said to be heading NE ( 45 +/-) As such it would clip the the western end of the Azores group of islands. Earlier this season Hurricane Gordon went over the top of the the eastern end of the Islands. Who ever heard of hurricanes in the Azores!!

Wednesday 5 September 2012

Day 6 Huey can be wonderous kind

The high southwest of the UK has seen fit to become elongated and the centre of pressure has moved to the NE of Taonui. The wind followed suit and progressively veered from yesterday's north to the east and now southeast giving a lovely broad reach in 12-14 knots of wind over seas that are becoming smoother. Noon-to-noon run was 137 miles which is her normal run in these conditions. All is peaceful. Albert quietly does his job and I get to spend plenty of reading, sleeping and eating. Haven't seen a ship in past thirty-six hours, but was woken this morning by the radar squawking about a "underwater work platform" that was 12 miles away. The search for oil goes expensively on!

The barometer is stable and the weather fax shows the sausage of high extending all the way to the Azores. If I can just stay in the SW quadrant (can a sausage have a quadrant) these winds could last for days. 812 miles to go.

Tuesday 4 September 2012

Day 5 Perfect sailing

At last I'm south of the seemingly perpetual band of lows flowing across the Atlantic to the UK. Ah, the joy of high pressure. Warm sunshine. A broad reach with a northerly wind. Full main and big genoa. Albert can easily handle it, so all is quiet. Taonui slides and chuckles along making an easy 6.5 - 7 knots. Clothes drying in the cockpit. Hatches open. The pleasure of a wide ocean. And, at night a full moon and bright stars playing amongst the clouds.

Noon-to-noon was 115 miles, not bad seeing that I didn't turn south and get sailing until 16:00. Slowly I could add more sail as the SW wind shifted to the north and slowly subsided as I made southing. Glad to be out of all of that. 949 miles to go to Terceira.

Monday 3 September 2012

Day 4 Still on the slant

Only 84 miles made good noon-to-noon as the strong South wind just wont let go. A 979 low has moved north to the west of the UK and is hammering northern Scotland. Storm Force 11 between Iceland and Scotland. It is a big area of low that extends all the way south to 50 N. At noon I was at 52 50 N and 11 32 W. All day I've been just jogging along under very little sail heading west (the best I can make in the SSW wind) waiting for the low to move a bit to the NE and for a front to pass indicating the start of the back side of the low and the beginning of a wind shift to the west. Now, 17:00, I think it has started. The barometer has flattened out. So I just tacked to head south. Only making 160. The required course to Terceira is 230, but I think things are about to improve. Immediately to the south (47 N - 49N ) is a high and if I can get to it there should be lighter winds and south of it will be east winds. Can't wait to see what tomorrow brings. By now I would have expected to be well south of here but, Huey rules.

Sunday 2 September 2012

Day 3 Coast of Ireland

The little bomb of a low that gave me strife yesterday moved quickly NE and by 16:00 I was under way again over very lumpy, confused seas, but with a SW wind. By noon today I was at 54 08N 10 25W having made good 85 miles in the past 24 days. Not too bad having lost all those miles drifting backward while lying hove-to. Now Taonui is off the coast of Ireland. Too close for comfort. Black Island Light, the most westerly point of northern Ireland was only 4 miles away. A slight wind shift to the west gave a bit of relief and the land falls away around Galloway Bay so I have a better margin of safety now. The west coast of Ireland is a bad lee shore, but the lighter weather is to the south and the sooner I can get there the better. There is high in the Western Approaches while lows are tracking NE to the north. Malin, the sea area I just left has gales tonight. I'm hard on the wind, trying to go due south, but being pushed east. Nothing that a wind shift or a tack wouldn't fix. The next sticking out bit of land is Great Foze Rocks, off the Dingle Penisular, the SW point of southern Ireland about 85 miles to the south. I should be past that tomorrow. one way or the other.

Meantime, its a good chance to catch up on some sleep lost yesterday. Very little traffic on this coast. Have only seen two ships in past 24 hours. Not much bird life either, fulmars, the odd gannet and Manx shearwater. Its a pity that its overcast. Last night was clear for a while. Lovely full moon and bright stars.

Saturday 1 September 2012

Noon Day 2 Hove-to

Have been hove-to since 10:00. Three reefs in main + staysail. Wind 30 - 35 from SW, gusts to 40. Seas not so high as to be unsafe. Quite comfortable. Initially was drifting towards Northern Ireland, so tacked to drift NW back where I came from last night. For the past 24 hours only made good 35 miles towards Terceira. Barometer dropping like a stone so this should pass before the evening, hopefully with a wind shift into the west.