We said goodbye to Bermuda on June 22. It was a hot day with light winds which we like for starting a passage. Gentle breezes help us to relax into our at-sea routine and adjust to round-the-clock watchkeeping more quickly, but 20 miles offshore we saw an ugly twisted cloud on the horizon and watched in horror as a waterspout reached down from the sky and started skimming across the water towards us! A waterspout is basically a tornado on the sea and can lift boats out of the water and turn them into airplanes. Our restful day turned to panic as we began tearing down canvas and got the motor started so we could do our best to dodge the thing. When the spout touched down it sucked water up 20 feet into the air! But the friction of the sea was too great for it. It arched and dragged then finally vanished back up into the clouds. We sat looking at each other, hearts racing, but the day was back to normal as if nothing had happened. We carried on.

Throughout our voyage, we were in touch with the Mississauga Maritime Net daily (thanks Doug and Ernie and Ron, et al) and during the next 2-weeks at sea were able to converse with friends participating in the Newfoundland Flotilla. We were a lot warmer than them! The Ham radio really makes the sea less lonely. We also spoke daily with Herb Hilgenberg who gave us excellent weather information. His forecasts helped us avoid a couple of miserable fronts and we rarely had winds ahead of the beam. The Windpilot was a dream, handling all conditions and not draining the battery. We made landfall in the Azores at Flores in 14 days instead of a very stormy 18 days like our passage in 1990. This time we only had 2 days of rain and squalls at the end.

There are so many things to tell you about our time in these beautiful Azorean islands - cooking stew in the steam of a volcano, religious processions from hilltops to the sea, bull runs in the streets, sailing in traditional whaling canoes, diving with octopus - so we are going to tell you about our favourite day, a voyage to the Joao Castro Bank.

The JC Bank is a sea mount half way between the islands of Terceira and Sao Miguel that in a few thousand more years might be the next island in the group. It is the source of a number of recent earthquakes (June 97) (and Aug. 28!) and is basically a volcano 4000 feet high. The dive master in Faial said it was his favourite place to dive because the fumaroles attracted so many fish and the gas bubbles were beautiful. We waited for a calm day and took 2 local friends along, Joao-Angelo and his cousin Carla, leaving at 7:30 a.m. and arriving at 2:30 p.m. Our chart shows an area there that is just 20 feet deep. We motored around in a grid pattern looking for it and finally found a place that was 20meters (not feet) deep. There were bubbles coming up from the bottom so we figured that was the place and dropped our anchor.

The plan had been to dive in 20 feet so we had not brought scuba gear, but wanted to video the bottom and try to get a glimpse of the source of the bubbles. We both got into our wetsuits and into the dinghy tied to Two-Step. Joao-Angelo and Carla stayed on board. As soon as we were in the water we were surrounded by huge schools of ocean triggerfish and chubs. Chubs are roughly fish-shaped, the triggerfish are like dinnerplates with fins top and bottom. We also saw a school of tuna and several wahoo! Paul, who can hold his breath longer and free-dive deeper than I, did 4-5 dives down toward the bottom and was able to get some brief video of a fissure in the bottom with lines of bubbles streaming out! Very exciting! It was some 10-15 feet long and made almost a curtain of bubbles heading to the surface some 60 feet above! Unfortunately the 60 feet is really too deep for him without scuba gear, and when pushing the camera. There was also a current varying between 1/2 and 1 knot.

Back on the surface we were packing everything up and raising the anchor when Carla yelled "shark!" as a large fin cut the surface of the sea just 40 feet away. But it wasn't a shark, it was the biggest manta ray we've ever seen between 3 and 4 meters across. I got back in the water and managed to get some decent film of it as it swam lazy circles near the boat before sinking into the deep! But the day wasn't over! As we were heading back for Terceira we saw a sperm whale and were able to get our best surface footage to date of this big fellow swimming slowly along and then diving. He was 50 feet long - at least a dozen feet longer than Two-Step! A starry night with lots of phosphorescence (neither Joao Angelo nor Carla had ever seen that before) completed a magic day and we hove into the harbour here at 1:30am.

Despite being out of the hurricane belt, Hurricane Erika came our way on September 15. To save the boat we hauled Two-Step out at the port of Angra do Heroismo in Terceira. The locals helped us build a cradle for her out of telephone poles someone found drifting in the sea and local eucalyptus lumber. Boy is it solid and it stood the test! By the time you read this we will probably be home to edit the footage we shot and to share a drink with you at the club. There are direct flights from Terceira to Toronto. We’ll be back to the Azores in a few months to continue our voyage to the Med.