Aboard Dignity (Lagoon 420) Blog

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
SOG (Speed over Ground): 6.8 knots (motoring)
Heading: 077
Distance to Horta: 49.2nm
Distance from Bermuda: 1,745nm
ETA (Horta): 6pm Saturday May 31

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
SOG (Speed over Ground): 6.8 knots (motoring)
Heading: 075
Distance to Horta: 156nm
Distance from Bermuda: 1,640nm
ETA (Horta): 6pm Saturday May 31

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.

37°47.9’N 33°9.7’W
SOG (Speed over Ground): 6.6 knots (motoring)
Heading: 075
Distance to Horta: 219nm
Distance from Bermuda: 1,577nm
ETA (Horta): 6pm Saturday May 31

Ship time has now been changed to UTC so we can align our minds (and stomachs) to landfall. Using this new reference my watch last night was from 1am to 3am. Bob, who preceeded me wanted to shut off all the ships lights so he could see the phosphorescence better. Not that I could see any. It seems it stopped right at the beginning of my shift. He said it had been brilliant for his entire two hour shift. I wasn’t let down as 5 minutes into my shift we were escorted by yet another pod of dolphins. Each one generated a shimmer of phosphorescence around it’s body. They looked like ghosts. When they jumped out of the water for air, their landing would create an extra splash of light. Cool. For the rest of my watch I got rained on and saw a freighter which passed 4nm away. It was very overcast and hence the darkest watch I have had. By the end of my shift the wind was behind us and practically the same speed as we were motoring through the water. This led to a very strange sensation of feeling at stand-still with barely a breeze on my face. Despite the early hours, it felt quite warm.

This morning I was woken by thumping on my cabin roof. We were minutes from dawn. While the skies overhead were still cloudy, the horizon was clear. Every shade of red and orange was already visible. I made it on deck before the sun rose. When it did, it appeared as a brilliant point of orange-red on the horizon. Renewal. Another day had dawned but in the most spectacular way possible. The gap between horizon and cloud was barely the apparent width of sun so it was not long before we were back to gray skies and drizzle.

The wind has dropped to practically nothing and the sea is pretty flat. Again more dolphins this morning (beginning to sound old already). This mornings show was notable for a couple of reasons. One: this was probably the largest pod we have seen ? somewhere between 25 and 30 individuals. Two: the sea being so clear allowed us to see the dolphins very clearly beneath the surface, something we’ve not been able to do before.

Timing for tomorrows landfall is perfect. At dawn we’ll be somewhere between 60 and 80 nm from land. With Pico being a 2.3km high volcano being a spitting distance from Horta this may be the first thing we see. I’m sure all eyes will be on the horizon.

… 10 mins later …

I’ve just been interrupted by yet another dolphin show. This one you need to picture. Imagine a flat sea with the boat motoring along and six and a half knots. Now imagine five or six separate groups of dolphins at various points and distances around the boat all doing their thing. Then imagine most, but not all, of these groups coming over to investigate the boat and spend their few minutes dancing at the bow. No ? I am not yet tired of these shows in any way.

37°30.2’N 34°43.8’W
SOG (Speed over Ground): 6.9 knots (motoring)
Heading: 080
Distance from Bermuda: 1,502nm
Distance to Horta: 296nm
ETA (Horta): Saturday (evening) May 31

The weather started of great today. The sun was out and so were we. For a few hours, we were accompanied by some fish, about a foot long, swimming ahead of us at the bows of the boat. We tried to catch them using spear and net but to no avail. At one point Bob caught them jumping out of the water with smaller fish in their mouths as if to say our lures were no good. We caught sight of dolphin in the distance but no playful antics around the boat today. During dinner we rushed off to steer the boat towards a drifting float with a radar reflector on it. Bob managed to lift it out of the water and I spotted a crab. I flicked it off and it landed on Bob’s foot. We made a pigs ear of letting it go as it tangled with the fishing line. We had to stop the boat and haul it towards us and untangle the line lest we lose another lure. I guess you can tell, the fish have chalked down another day against the crew of Windancer IV.

After dinner we watched a little Monty Python.

Crew are beginning to shows of fatigue. Earlier today we passed near another sailing boat called Solaris. Jim hailed them on the radio to find they were 22 days out from Antigua on their way to the Azores. Hopefully we can meet up their and learn more of their travels. There must be quite a few boats out her for us to run into one out in the middle of nowhere. Apparently, Horta is the fourth most frequented marina in the world ? I guess it’s all the Atlantic crossers making their stop.

John changed the dinner schedule today so we are eating closer to Azores timing. Until now we have been keeping closer to ship time, set in Bermuda. Another sign we are two days from land. Thoughts of land begin to influence us more and more. It’s looking more and more certain we’ll be arriving on Saturday early evening in time to catch customs open. That will mean we can all go ashore. I wonder how that will feel.