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The World Cruise of Veleda IV |
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Bermuda to the Azores Days 14 through 22 I left off the last log when we were becalmed again after the heavy upwind sail. Being becalmed is O.K. for a short while, but after a day or so one starts to wonder if the trip will ever end. However, the break from the heavy sailing was like a holiday. We slept together and slept in for the first time in two weeks! We sewed up tears in the sails, read, had a sun shower on deck, cleaned up a bit below deck, lazed, read, and generally relaxed. It seemed like a holiday. Day 15 We attempted to sail but with 4 knots of wind we were not going anywhere fast. However, come mid morning we were visited by two sperm whales surfacing about 150 yards off our starboard. They would blow on the surface for about ten minutes, then nose down flipping their tails in the air for a deep dive. After another ten minutes they would surface to blow again for a while before diving again. We eased over towards them, but did not want to get closer than about 100 yards as they were both longer than Veleda. The darker grey one (we think the mother) was about 40 to 45 feet long and the other, more brownish, was about 30 feet long. We did not want to disturb them. We were privileged to watch them surfacing for over half an hour until the wind finally came up and we could sail more. However the 5 knot wind only held for a couple of hours and we drifted some more until the next morning at about 0530. During this time, Judy revived a bit, but did not appreciate working on the holding tank, which was stopped up, building up pressure because the breather was clogged up. However it was a relief from the heavy upwind sailing that we had been doing for the last several days. DAY 16 A light 10 knot north east wind started at 0530 and we hoisted genny and main, balancing them so Veleda steered herself at 4.5 knots. During the morning we were visited by a pod of three dolphins who played around Veleda for about 15 minutes. During the evening the wind increased to 15 knots and by the morning was at 20 knots. Judy was again not well and curled up on the downwind settee below. DAY 17 Before noon hour the wind had worked up to 25 to 30 knots. At noon, we hove to in order to have lunch and double reefed the main and furled the genny in by 50%. That evening we had a very pleasant conversation with the Endurance, a large container ship. The watch officer called us and was interested and envious of our sailing plans. He also let us know that the strong north easterly would continue for at least another two days! DAY 18 The wind died a bit and we were not making much headway, so we unreefed the main and genny and tacked from a course of 130 to 010. We needed to go 080 to the Azores. Murphy's Law! Later in the day the wind picked up to 20, causing me to reef the main and genny again, but with the wind veering we were now able to sail 050 at 6.5 knots! DAY 19 The wind continued strong, working up to 30 knots from the east south east, letting me steer 070 and giving a day's run for the last 24 hours of 140 nautical miles. However in mid afternoon a tear was noted in a seam of the genny! We hove to and tried to stitch it in place, but the pressure of the wind was too much. Instead we knotted another set of sheets at the first reef point on the genny, above the torn seam, and continued sailing with the partially furled and reefed genny. While hove to a school of about a dozen dolphins played around the boat in the ten foot swells as if watching what we were doing out there in the middle of the Atlantic in 30 knots of wind and 10 to 15 foot swells. They had a great time leaping out of the crests of the swells and diving into the troughs. It was almost as frustrating to watch them enjoying themselves in such rough conditions as it is watching the shearwaters skim over the wave tops regardless of wave size or wind conditions. Also during the day we made VHF contact with two other boats in the vicinity. Cyan, a French catamaran, was not able to point into the wind very well and was going to an anchorage on the north west tip of Flores. Nick in Wild Thing, a 55 foot Peterson on a delivery to the Med was enquiring if we had a weather fax. They both commiserated with Judy's discomfort. DAY 20 We overshot our waypoint to Flores as we were making good speed and we could not steer directly for it. This was my third consecutive day of being on watch as Judy was still ill below. Thank heaven I was able to balance the sails heading into these headwinds, otherwise I would have had to heave to in order to get some sleep. With the genny controlled by the reefed position of the sheets, we were not able to point into the wind as well as we should. At this rate it would take several more days of tacking through these headwinds to get down to Flores. As it was, it should only have taken 16 to 18 days to get there from Bermuda, and here it was Day 20 and at least two more days to go! So much for the pilot charts we consulted which said June was the best month to cross with predominantly west to south west winds. Why had we been going into north easterlies for the last two weeks? Murphy's Law! We hove to again at 1900 in about 10 knots of wind. With the genny controlled by the sheets at the first reef point, the wind pressure on the torn seam was reduced, and Judy and I spent an hour stitching the 5 or 6 feet of torn seams. Towards the end of this time, the wind had worked up to over 20 knots again. However we got it sewn and were able to use the better shaped albeit reefed genny, thus giving us an ability to point higher into the wind. We altered course around midnight hoping to make about 120 which would take us closer to Flores. Guess what? A wind shift that would allow us to make good only about 190. We were going into another headwind! Day 21 After the wind shift, I was not able to balance the sails and had to hand steer. Then the wind dropped and died. At 0545 after flogging around and trying different courses to keep up some speed I decided to turn the engine on. It died! An air leak had to be bled before we could start it again. Once it was going I decided to add the last gerry can of fuel and to motor sail the rest of the 40 miles directly to Lajes in Flores. At 0700 we sighted land, Corvo, the island north east of Flores. At 0830 we sighted the north tip of Flores. Judy started recovering rapidly with the reduced wind and waves and was able to eat something and to take a watch at the helm. At 1100 we were greeted by a pod of dolphins. About 1540 we went alongside a hazardous concrete wall, about 30 feet high with large solid tractor tire bumpers to complicate the landing, in Lajes harbour. I scampered up a bent steel ladder to secure lines and to clear Customs. Meanwhile Judy was below fending off the wall in the 5 foot swells. No problems with Customs. We were glad to clear away from that horrible wall and went out to anchor in the harbour. Here in the Azores at last! Next Log |
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