geem
Well-known member
Just wanted to say what a great trip. Antigua to Azores. 15 days. Light winds generally with one spell of bumpy weather as a low pressure went through. Looking forward to a beer or 2 in Peter Cafe Sport later
Land Ahoy!
- Thread starter geem
- Start date
Stingo
Well-known member
If you're coming to the Algarve, I'm currently anchored off Culatra.
geem
Well-known member
We are heading to the UK to freeze our nuts off for a winter then back to the Caribbean. Might catch you in Culatra on the way next season
capnsensible
Well-known member
Dunno if you have done this. Last time there I was in for a few days getting stuff fixed. We took the opportunity to hire a taxi with driver/guide who took us all over the island. It was a great day out. There is an old lighthouse over the other side you can climb up for fab views.
Hope you enjoy Peter Sport......and the beers!
geem
Well-known member
We did that the first time in 2005 with Stokey Woodall. This is our third trip here. We plan to spend 2 months here, mostly based in PDG. We will have a couple of weeks in Horta. Climb Pico. Not done that since 2005
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Stingo
Well-known member
Isn't there a VAT issue with taking your boat back to the UK after so many years away?
capnsensible
Well-known member
I like his plotting sheets!
geem
Well-known member
2005
Just to add we got a call on the VHF early this morning. A ben 473 was running on fumes. Could we spare any diesel. Yep, we happen to have 2x20L cans on deck. Tied them to a couple of empty cans and lobbed them over for them to pick up. That should easily get them into Horta. They said they had been motoring for 12 days. Up until the last couple of days, we had engined less than 2 days. Burning diesel now. 18nm to go!
Daydream believer
Well-known member
My 3 friends are on the ARC Europe heading for Horta. Very little wind & motoring with only enough fuel for 1/3 of the way. Have a 15 day cut off time to do the trip & are worried they will make it. Last time I looked they had 1311 miles to go in 11 days & making barely 120 miles / day in their Jeneau sunfast 41.
I am surprised how slow the passage times have been in the Atlantic ARC & in this trip. Even the bigger boats are not lighting up the logs.
I am surprised how slow the passage times have been in the Atlantic ARC & in this trip. Even the bigger boats are not lighting up the logs.
geem
Well-known member
We are fortunate that our boat sails very well in light wind. That is predominantly what we got. We left at the same time as a Westerly Oceanlord 41. They are over 500nm behind us.
Daydream believer
Well-known member
Some of the boats - in theory- should be performance orientated cruisers. But in reality they are not actually making much faster passages than others. Perhaps it shows how a long keeled boat that does not seem so fast round the Island just eats the miles as good as some other designs.
geem
Well-known member
Who has a long keel boat?
starfire
Well-known member
Enjoy the beer! 1st one always tastes good.
Don't do what one of the crew did on my first trip, asked the waiter if they have wifi, pronounced as 'wyfy' as said in the uk, not whiffy as said in Spain & Portugal.
We had fits watching the waiter searching all the bottles, who came back & said no, they don't have it.
B27
Well-known member
How much of that is the boat, and how much the sailors?
Some of these 'performance cruisers' have big fixed props on them.
A lot of long distance sailors just give up and put the autopilot on, then really give up and put the engine on.
Then there's the question of routing and forecasts.
Any fool can be blown along by half a gale.
Also what should be a reasonable expectation?
Back in the bad old days of long keel boats, people were probably passage planning at 4 or 5 knots in fair sized boats?
Now people throw their toys out the pram if they don't make 180 miles a day?
Nothing wrong with a long keel. Ideally, it comes with a long waterline and a tall mast....
geem
Well-known member
The oceanlord was 600nm behind when we made landfall in Horta. The problem seemed to be that we simply out performed it in light airs. We are fin and skeg, folding prop, ketch with tall rig, vectran sails, fully battened and a hull that is efficient in light airs. The Oceanlord has inmast reefing, fixed prop and not much sail area. In light airs we simply sailed away from them. They were motoring when we were sailing. After a few days of doing more than 20nm a day better than them we were in different weather. They got worried about fuel so dropped the revs even further. After the first week we had used the engine for 43 hrs. That didn't quite use the fuel we had in cans on deck. We still had 450L in the fuel tank. They had motored far more than us and not having the size of fuel tank were concerned about fuel. The forecast continued to predict very light conditions. We hooked in to good light airs and we're doing 140/160 nm per day. We then went through a LO. We entered the LO at the 4 o'clock position and came out at the 8 o'clock position. It wasn't a deep low but we got winds to about 32kts and some surprisingly nasty seas with big cross swell. Once the LO passed we got a further 3 days of good winds as we managed to keep up with the LO, doing up to 178nm per day. The oceanlord never got any of this weather and continued to have light winds with slow sailing or more motoring.
On the last day, we were motoring in zero wind at about 6.5kts. We had 450L of fuel in the tank, so why not. We were passing lots of boats doing 5kts on their engines as we headed the last 100nm in to Horta. Early on the last day we got a vhf call from a Swedish boat, almost out of fuel. We agreed to give them 2x20L, cans we had on deck as they wouldn't fit in the tank at the time we had put out other fuel in. If we had of put them in the tank, there wouldn't have been any way to give them fuel, so a bit of good luck there. They took 20 days from St Martin with 13 days on the engine.
We arrived in Horta after 15 days. A very good passage time by anyone's standards in a 44 year old Van de Stadt ketch with 91 hrs of motoring.
We met the Swedes off the Beneteau 473 later that evening after they motored in. Lovely people.
B27
Well-known member
I won't quote Geem's post.
Firstly, there's nothing wrong with the Oceanlord taking longer if they are happy with that.
But with information that was available, could they have routed better through the weather?
And could their light airs sailing be improved by either technique, or reasonable changes to the boat?
Information has moved on since I sailed to the Azores, but I think maybe the weather compensates for that by being less predictable?
Firstly, there's nothing wrong with the Oceanlord taking longer if they are happy with that.
But with information that was available, could they have routed better through the weather?
And could their light airs sailing be improved by either technique, or reasonable changes to the boat?
Information has moved on since I sailed to the Azores, but I think maybe the weather compensates for that by being less predictable?
srm
Well-known member
Would suggest you go in to Sao Jorge and Terceira on the way to PDG. After a couple of weeks in PDG I was more than ready to move on, Santa Maria provided a nice antidote, but then I am not a fan of cities and big marinas.
Daydream believer
Well-known member
Yesterday my friends in the Arc Europe only managed 114 miles in 24 hours. If they cannot better that then the Arc organisers will have b..gered off & they will be on their own. This sort of breaks the point of doing the Arc in my view.
geem
Well-known member
They are being weather routed. They just can't go any faster.
Speaking to the a few crews last night, we had an exceptionally fast passage. 20 days or more seems the norm for this seasons light air crossing. The oceanlord will be in good company, here in 20 or 21 days.
B27
Well-known member
Personally, being on a small boat with the engine running for 13 solid days is not an attractive proposition.