I now know that it is not only the English that have a pre-occupation with the weather as it has been the primary subject under discussion among the whole ARC fleet, irrespective of nationality. We have been told that the Horta departure is delayed by 24 hours because of another gale and the rally will... Continue Reading →

Being rafted three out has its drawbacks especially when you have used a dozen lines to secure the yacht in the big winds. So we really didn't want to hear that the Finnish yacht inside of us wanted to leave. In the event, slipping and ‘standing off’ while the Fins extricated themselves was fairly painless... Continue Reading →

My mission was to visit the chandlers, get a haircut and a loaf of bread. In the event, people were queuing out of the door of the chandlers so it was off to find a barber. Obtaining a haircut while cruising has been a mixed bag of experiences. At the zenith of these experiences was... Continue Reading →

Our first glimpses of Faial were through a heavy mist and it was remarkable in its greenness. The islands are undoubtedly volcanic and the isthmus we had to round before heading up to Horta was clearly originally the rim of a volcano. The small fields were bordered by hedges and the whole impression was one... Continue Reading →

As we close in on the Azores, yachts crossing the Atlantic funnel towards the island of Faial and the harbour at Horta. It has become one of the four busiest yacht transit harbours in the world. Zooming out on the plotter I can see 13 vessels within AIS range homing in on the refuge and... Continue Reading →

Torrential rain, thunder and lightning, lumpy sea and semi darkness did not augur well for the day as we were forced to motor to try to beat the storm into Horta. We had spotted the threatening weather system on our long term weather forecast nearly a week ago but it has only just shown on... Continue Reading →

The settled windless weather has resulted in the sea eventually losing its boisterous attitude and we continued to motor while the crew stirred themselves. Our first job was to decant the diesel bladder (loaned to Hejira by Barry) contents into our fuel tank and it was very heartening to see the starboard tank needle rise... Continue Reading →

With the wind dropping and moving round to the west, it was not the best situation for sailing but we had to stick with it as our aggregate diesel stocks were still marginal with nearly 900 miles to Horta. So we sailed and periodically when the faster AWOL threatened to overhaul us, we jogged the... Continue Reading →