sailing to azores

[RupertW]

What, is non-perishable food?

That's if the OP is going basic without a fridge and even then I still like to have a good pile of non-perishable from tins of sweet corn, sliced mushrooms and pulses, to the dried goods like rice and pasta and of course lots of savoury cracker/toast things. And olive pastes, jams and so on.

 

[LadyInBed]

I have a power hungry boat, so plenty of solar. Wind gen doesn't work too well Sailing down wind!

 

[Fr J Hackett]

Thanks for all these replies. This must be great info for all of us wanting to sail to the Azores.

My boat is an old steel Feltz (German not at all like a Bavaria!!) which I refitted in Poland and have now taken to Vigo. Some of that was quite long singlehanded passages but I crossed Biscay with a friend as crew. I’m not so bothered about fridge/not fridge. I have one but the wife won't be on board so the fridge will be turned off. I will be stocking in the old timers’ way like the Hiscocks – tins (non perishable food), vaseline on fresh eggs (slow to go off at sea), flour to bake bread. If I do crave the occasional beer I’m hoping it will have kept cool in the bilge.
Self steering? I have a home made vane and an autohelm, the former unreliable and the latter limited to compass courses and a bad draw on the batteries. Long keel makes her stable so I’m hoping I sail a course even if the vane won't work.
Rugged steel hull so I’m hoping that the flotsam and jetsam will bounce off and that the skeg protects the rudder and prop – that was scary stuff from saab96’s article!! – and have already discovered how much more sleep I get from having an AIS alarm.
I’ll take water in 5 gallon bottles but I hate seeing fuel (or much else bulky) stowed on deck so my one spare can will be in a locker. I’ll keep a close eye on my two main fuel tanks if I have to do a lot of motoring. I can motor for 200 plus miles on my tanks and if that isn’t enough I’ll sit and wait for a breeze. I’m not in a hurry to get off the ocean. A breeze always comes, doesn’t it?
Route? Being in Vigo means I’ve done a lot of the southing so I’m planning to sail direct to Sao Miguel and hope to carry the Portuguese Trades on the beam. Will I be lucky? I certainly don’t want 17 gales in 19 days. That has to be unusually unlucky (even by Jester standards!!) but I do know the weather has been changing in the last few years and there have been unusual summer storms around the Azores. Any experiences? Are the forecasts good out there?
And if I can't make Ponta Delgado, what about the shelter in Santa Maria harbour?
The San Francisco club link makes interesting reading so thanks, GHA. I’ll look over their stuff more slowly but I think it may be a case of “it’s sailing but not as we know it, Jim”. I don’t have the kind of boat that would win any of their races and I never hoist a spinny when alone!!

If you are in Vigo even with a slow boat then the passage should not be that long probably no more than 5 to 8 days at worst so Vaseline on the eggs and stuff, I wouldn't worry about it. you can stock with normal food and bread some part baked supermarket bread is going to be easier than making from scratch on such a short journey.

 

[Balticfly]

True but I'm treating the azores and back as a shakedown for an atlantic crossing hence the hairshirt approach. I'll try the part baked bread too

 

[[70521]]

There has just been a Greg Wallace programme about bread & the 'expert' said that putting it in a fridge, made it go stale quicker, something to do with the gluten changing.

We put it in the freezer and pull out what we need and let it defrost. If it is frozen it cannot go stale.

 

[Neil_Y]

Interesting approach, we ran a small fridge but we had excess electric as we used a towed gen'. Thinking of an azores/jester sail myself and would use the towed gen again.

Bread, I've always made my own. Fresh bread or a large pizza base nearly every day. Can't see the point in buying any apart from the first day or two. Eggs don't need to be cooled, we coated them in vaseline. Dried veggy mince is great instead of meat.

 

[Neil_Y]

Take seeds, nuts, sundried tomatoes in oil dried herbs and you can make some tasty nutritious bread. You'll have the time, I've cooked it in the oven or in a pan.

 

[saab96]

Feltz built great boats and their keel to rudder plate is unequalled. No fears from driving over floating garden fences for you (www.lesweatheritt.com/articles.html )

Are forecasts good for that area? Probably but beware of asking big ships for updates. I’ve learnt that they don’t really care about weather, they just follow their weather router’s advice. On my way to the Azores one big ship said there was nothing to worry about to the west. A day later I sailed into four days of gales. And then on the way back, four hours out from Ponta Delgada, still in the sweet zone of a 90% chance of the forecast being right, I discovered that the forecast was already wrong.

All the sailors I met said 2018 weather was definitely unusual. The four days of near gale as I approached Sao Miguel surprised them as well as me. The winds around the islands the month I was there were unusually strong (not frightening; just not usual). But the wind coming back was ideal (apart from the days of calm) and better than when I came that way a decade or more earlier. I caught the Portuguese Trades about 400 miles offshore and romped home in flat seas, although I knew a big storm was way up north and heading for the Channel. Try https://ocean.weather.gov/ for the big picture.

If you are heading for somewhere in Portugal on your return be careful not to be set down too far south by the current.

Windvane or autohelm? My windvane wasn’t working well so I came back all the way on the autohelm. At night when I had no solar charge I turned it off and relied on the sails to keep me beam reaching. I think the ability of the boat to more or less self steer under working sails allowed me to sail all day on the autohelm. Your long keel should allow you to sail close hauled without anything on your wheel/tiller and pretty straight even on a beam reach.

The shelter in Santa Maria harbour is good and if the wind is heading you for Ponta Delgado Santa Maria is a sensible option.

 

[adri_cubs]

Thanks for all these replies. This must be great info for all of us wanting to sail to the Azores.

My boat is an old steel Feltz (German not at all like a Bavaria!!) which I refitted in Poland and have now taken to Vigo. Some of that was quite long singlehanded passages but I crossed Biscay with a friend as crew. I’m not so bothered about fridge/not fridge. I have one but the wife won't be on board so the fridge will be turned off. I will be stocking in the old timers’ way like the Hiscocks – tins (non perishable food), vaseline on fresh eggs (slow to go off at sea), flour to bake bread. If I do crave the occasional beer I’m hoping it will have kept cool in the bilge.
Self steering? I have a home made vane and an autohelm, the former unreliable and the latter limited to compass courses and a bad draw on the batteries. Long keel makes her stable so I’m hoping I sail a course even if the vane won't work.
Rugged steel hull so I’m hoping that the flotsam and jetsam will bounce off and that the skeg protects the rudder and prop – that was scary stuff from saab96’s article!! – and have already discovered how much more sleep I get from having an AIS alarm.
I’ll take water in 5 gallon bottles but I hate seeing fuel (or much else bulky) stowed on deck so my one spare can will be in a locker. I’ll keep a close eye on my two main fuel tanks if I have to do a lot of motoring. I can motor for 200 plus miles on my tanks and if that isn’t enough I’ll sit and wait for a breeze. I’m not in a hurry to get off the ocean. A breeze always comes, doesn’t it?
Route? Being in Vigo means I’ve done a lot of the southing so I’m planning to sail direct to Sao Miguel and hope to carry the Portuguese Trades on the beam. Will I be lucky? I certainly don’t want 17 gales in 19 days. That has to be unusually unlucky (even by Jester standards!!) but I do know the weather has been changing in the last few years and there have been unusual summer storms around the Azores. Any experiences? Are the forecasts good out there?
And if I can't make Ponta Delgado, what about the shelter in Santa Maria harbour?
The San Francisco club link makes interesting reading so thanks, GHA. I’ll look over their stuff more slowly but I think it may be a case of “it’s sailing but not as we know it, Jim”. I don’t have the kind of boat that would win any of their races and I never hoist a spinny when alone!!

I am planning something similar but I cannot get insurance for Azores, and they ask to have insurance when you arrive in there, even if it is 3rd party. Any thoughts on how to get 3rd party insurance in Azores? Any thoughts you had about this matter would be much appreciated, I worries me a bit

 

[Spuddy]

3rd party insurance: for my few trips offshore single-handed I used Basic Boat Insurance.
Santa Maria harbour is a good mooring.
We were heading south from Vigo in May of 2015 and Portuguese Trades semmed to be just establishing themselves.
I wouldn't bother with a fridge either.
flatbread types are easy to do; try looking up roti or paratha.
Might not be your cup of stodge but my fallback is corned beef rosti; parboil the spud then grate equally with corned beef and onion, squash flat and fry.
Pressure cooker is good.
I seemed to do better than Moitessier who relied on rice and lentils it seems.

 

[adri_cubs]

Thanks for the tip on the insurance best of luck in your plan

 

[jdc]

+1 to Fr J H.

I have found that I always over provision for oceanic passages: how much does one person actually eat in 6 days? Also one will have plenty of time to do stuff like make bread on passage, so I think that all the talk of freezers full of food is ott. It's only a week ( = mean time between Tesco visits in suburbia).

For weather, my experience fwiw has been on the AZAB: there is usually one depression coming through on the outward leg (first week of June) but infrequently on the return leg (after about the 21st of June). Becalmed in unlikely. From NW Spain it should be a very enjoyable trip: take something to occupy yourself: fishing (not that god with only one mouth to feed), sextant for astro practice, teach yourself Portuguese tapes etc. Ponta Delgada is a good first stop.

 

[ColinR]

I did it singlehanded from Dartmouth, going via NW Spain both ways. The forecast wasn't ideal for doing it in one so rather than hang around waiting for a perfect weather window I went across Biscay (always an adventure in itself ) and waited for a good forecast from there to the Azores. Singlehanded, the most important bit of kit is bulletproof windvane self steering. You wont be steering at all unless you really feel like it and you certainly don't want something that relies on batteries except for when motoring. AIS transceiver would be good but the reality is that once away from the Channel you don't see much traffic. But singlehanded you want all the help you can get knowing what is around and knowing that you can be seen, especially in poor vis. Do allow time to explore the Azores, its a magical place. I arrived to Ponta Delgada, rather a big impersonal harbour but delightful town and island. Then went on the central group. Dont miss Angra in Terceira, or Horta. Good luck!

 

[AndrewB]

Personal safety equipment - is there any point at all in a lifejacket or harnessing up if you'd only be dragged alongside the boat or be left watching it sail away?

Think this one through - provide yourself with a chance should the worst happen.

(I reckoned to be able to reach the wind-vane if falling in with a life-line attached. First push the blade to turn the boat up-wind, then climb up using the blade and a rope strop. Never tested in earnest though!)

 

[ColinR]

I wear a lifejacket with personal epirb wherever there's enough shipping about to make rescue a reasonable possibility. Ocean sailing I use a harness to clip on when leaving the cockpit and I've rigged emergency boarding ladders amidships both sides that I can reach to release from the water. I try to use them for boarding when I go for a swim to keep in practice, not easy but at least it offers a chance.

 

[Neil_Y]

Electric auto helm and a towed generator has worked well for me, wind vane is nice if you can afford it and it does give you more options, but in semi surfing dead downwind the electric autohelm 6000 is a great piece of kit. We always had excess power.

 

[saab96]

I did it singlehanded from Dartmouth, going via NW Spain both ways. The forecast wasn't ideal for doing it in one so rather than hang around waiting for a perfect weather window I went across Biscay (always an adventure in itself ) and waited for a good forecast from there to the Azores. Singlehanded, the most important bit of kit is bulletproof windvane self steering. You wont be steering at all unless you really feel like it and you certainly don't want something that relies on batteries except for when motoring. AIS transceiver would be good but the reality is that once away from the Channel you don't see much traffic. But singlehanded you want all the help you can get knowing what is around and knowing that you can be seen, especially in poor vis. Do allow time to explore the Azores, its a magical place. I arrived to Ponta Delgada, rather a big impersonal harbour but delightful town and island. Then went on the central group. Dont miss Angra in Terceira, or Horta. Good luck!

I used to think there wasnt much shipping out there till i got AIS. Plenty; and there are places in deep ocean where it seems to congregate
see http://www.lesweatheritt.com/the-azores.html

and i agree about self steering and corned beef hash

 

[ColinR]

but mostly the shipping is where you'd expect, in the TSS off Ushant, Finisterre etc and in a straight line between them. Once away from that I didn't see much, but I totally agree about the value of AIS. Great blog by the way!

 

[GHA]

I used to think there wasnt much shipping out there till i got AIS. Plenty; and there are places in deep ocean where it seems to congregate
see http://www.lesweatheritt.com/the-azores.html

and i agree about self steering and corned beef hash

Where the busy bits are can be seen on marine traffic - really useful!
https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/home/centerx:-8.7/centery:36.9/zoom:10

Not many miles change of route could make a big difference for a single hander getting woken with AIS alarms.

(Nice blog :encouragement

 

[LadyInBed]

Electric auto helm and a towed generator has worked well for me, wind vane is nice if you can afford it and it does give you more options, but in semi surfing dead downwind the electric autohelm 6000 is a great piece of kit. We always had excess power.

I've also had no problem with an electric autohelm, but I use 2x80W solars to keep the batteries up.