Here is a video of us throwing a bottle into the ocean half way between Bermuda and The Azores.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9LUheKc3bA[/youtube]
|
||||
|
Here is a video of us throwing a bottle into the ocean half way between Bermuda and The Azores. [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9LUheKc3bA[/youtube] I have uploaded more photos to the trip web album. At about 5:20pm on Saturday, May 31st we arrived in Horta. Horta. As I have discovered you haven’t sailed until you’ve sailed to Horta. This isn’t just any old marina. Boats are rafted up four deep, all mostly transients. This is the fourth most frequented marina in the world – many boats passing through – nobody staying long – everyone has come from the Caribbean or Bermuda. We are surrounded by sailors who have crossed the Atlantic. Everyone you say hello to has done the same. It’s a shared camaraderie which is priceless. Since arrival we’ve put 110% into decompressing. Saturday night went into Sunday morning as we filled our skins at Peter Sports Bar – a must stop visit for all sailors. We met other ARC sailors as well as many none ARC sailors including the crew of Summer Breeze we had passed in the oceon. The conversation and beer flowed. Sunday morning was one of discovery. I won’t name names but one crew member discovered he had fallen on his face the night before. One discovered he really was not at all well. Fortunately I remembered to put down a couple of pints of water before sleeping so I was pretty good in the morning. John and I went to the supermarket for groceries. We now have a full fridge and fresh fruit and bread on the table. The evening descended into a party starting on Windancer and ending on Kalliope, the ARC boat that finished first. Today we are going to climb a nearby hill the return to boat chores. Laundry, cleaning and fixing are all in order. The following is the missing piece from our trip. For everyone’s views please visit the Windancer blog at http://www.sailblogs.com/member/windancer/ 38°21.7’N 29°38.8’W My 10pm shift was fairly uneventful. I spotted two other vessels on the radar, one barely moving relative to ourselves all through my shift. In fact I noticed it first as a light in the corner of my eye. It was very hard to see if I looked straight at it but it could be easily seen in periphery vision. At 7nm showed only occasionally on the radar. At the start of my 6am shift the sun had not yet risen. The sky was overcast yet there was a narrow band of orange red sky right on the horizon. Right where it should be, there was the top of Pico poking over the horizon 80nm away. ìLand Ho.î As I watched over the next few minutes the top of Pico merged with the clouds. Half an hour later the sun appeared in that narrow gap. The gap was so narrow that only about a third of the sun could be seen between the horizon and cloud cover. Soon it was gone. The boat we had been paralleling was now a mere 1nm away. We chatted on the radio and discovered they were also going from Bermuda to Horta and had left a day before us. At time of writing Pico has disappeared completely into the haze and cloud. A new land sighting should be expected later today when hopefully we’ll also see Faial, the island on which the port of Horta resides. For now it’s time to rest up, catch up on some sleep in preparation of liberation and libation this evening. 38°0.1’N 31°51.3’W After this morning’s dolphinfest I think we saw only one more today. Still no fish. Two points of interest today. The first was coming upon ìSummer Breezeî which has been traveling all the way from St Martin. They have been on the road, so to speak, for 16 days which is pretty impressive. We little passed within shouting distance. We’re all heading to Horta so suffice to say, we’ve agreed which bar to meet at. Night highlight was coming upon a 30-40ft fin whale right next to the boat. It circled us twice, sussing us out we reckon, while we ran about shouting and taking pictures ñ far fewer than buttons clicked unfortunately. I’ve done some trigonometry. With Pico being listed as 2.3km high, I reckon the top of it should, in theory, be visible from 100nm away. That’s of course if the atmospheric visibility allows it. Practically it won’t. Nevertheless, at dawn tomorrow we’ll be a good bit less than 100nm from Pico. Therefore, it is possible, that at dawn we could just see an outline of Pico ñ our first sight of land. If dawn tomorrow is anything like this morning then we’ll nail our first sighting of land at sun up. Wow. Now that would be cool. |
||||
|
Copyright © 2024 Aboard Dignity (Lagoon 420) Blog - All Rights Reserved Powered by WordPress & Atahualpa |
||||