The Crossing
May 22nd - Jun 4th, 2019
Passage from Bermuda to Flores, Azores. It took us 12.9 days. And we averaged 5.3 Knots. The shortest great circle distance is 1671.7 Nautical Miles. We sailed 1956 Nautical Miles to get here.
Leaving Bermuda, next destination the Azores. ETA before the 13th ... At least that's what we told "Bermuda Radio" when they hailed us on the way out.
We [Anette] had collision course with this tanker. I called him several times on the VHF but no response. So I altered course to go behind him.
One of this calm days. Of course Anette has to go for a refreshing swim. The depth below me is around 4km.... The color is just amazing, sooo blue...
We found a lot of things out in the middle of the ocean. This is an old lobster trap, or at least the marker for it
Halfway to the Azores the Autopilot broke. This ball head pin broke off.
Luckily we have our Wind vane as a back up. Unfortunately we had taken the big heavy rudder off early in the passage due to too much Sargasso weed catching on the rudder. So now we had to put the rudder back on, in heavy seas [10 feet swell, 4 feet wind shop]. After at least an hour trying, we [Anette] finally came up with the smart idea of heaving too. That made it at least a little easier, and it freed the person who was steering [Anette]. After a total of two hours we managed to put the rudder back on, Success!!! After that the wind wane, which we named "Pettson", was steering beautifully the rest of the trip. From now on we will definitely use Pettson more often, it's so quiet and doesn't need electricity :-)
Today's dinner, beef stew...yummi
The ocean was full of these cute but dangerous creatures, looking like small sailboats. I [Anette] had to catch one to see what it was. They are called Portuguese Man o War. Very dangerous, stinging, jelly fish.
We were lucky with the wind. 15-20 knots, most of the time Beam reach. We were sailing with the poled out Genoa for days, doing 7-9 knots
This was funny. We passed the point where the Latitude and the Longitude was exactly the same :-)
One of those magical Sunsets
Today's dinner, Swedish Pancakes. Sometimes it's a little tough to try to eat. Anders is bracing himself against the counter top, happy to get pancakes .
Last sunrise on this passage. More to come...