Webcraft Madeira towards Azores

[machurley22]

Fairwinds' Position Report 18.00 ships time, 17.00 UTC 29th May 2007

33deg 02.4'N
017deg 40.6'W

Distance from Calheta 33nm
Distance to Santa Maria (approx) 435nm

Distance to first WP at 34deg 19'.0N 020deg 0'.0W : 139NM

We left Calheta at 11.00 in bright sunshine and sailed slowly and serenely down towards the SW corner of Madeira, where the wind suddenly got up to 25 knots from the NE as it found its way round the corner of the island - it seems M\adeira has a WAZ as well. Rapid reefing followed, and we continued on our course of 305degT at six knots with lots of crashing and banging.

After a couple of hours the wind moderated, and by four o'clock we were back to all plain sail We are expecting the wind to go round to head us over the next 24 hours, so we are trying to keep up to windward a little at the moment.

Have put an intermediate WP in to break up the journey a little and as a nod to great circle sailing. It is just over a third of the way there. If we sail that far and lose the wind completely we can motor into the predicted S. Westerlies nearer the Azores. The plan is to arrive Sunday if possible, but we have never sailed a plan yet. . . .

Crew well and in good spirits, weather light cloud, wind 8-11 knots NNE, track 305 for now. Will attempt to send a noon report tomorrow.

Fairwinds out.

 

[machurley22]

Fairwinds' Position Report 12.00 ships time, 11.00 UTC Weds 30th May 2007

33deg 34'.8N
019deg 08'.3W

Distance run from Calheta 118nm
Distance to Santa Maria (approx) 360nm

Sailed comfortably all night at an average of four knots in a light NNE
breeze with all plain sail. Unable to lay our course - by nine in the
morning we were about fifteen miles South of the direct track -
insignificant on a passage of this length, where you have to adjust your
plan from hour to hour and day to day to cope with the vagaries of the wind.
However, we are now an average of 35 degrees of our course so will probably burn some more diesel later today.

Saw no traffic all night. Ran under LED anchor light with the 25W filament
tricolour on standby . . .

Put the engine on at ten o'clock to charge up the batteries and fired up the laptop and Iridium to see if I could download mail, as I had difficulty
yesterday. Managed to download yesterday's email from Globalmarinenet' GRIB robot - have ordered one every day for a week.

The other good news is that the expensive new Targus power supply for the laptop that we bought in Funchal is working perfectly - although it too
appears to interfere with the VHF (it is quite close to it).

Will put the ships clocks back an hour at some point in the couple of days
as AZOST is an hour behind Madeira and the mainland.

 

[Sixpence]

Good to hear he's underway again , and thanks for the updates , at least I know where he is when I need him , lol

 

[Independence]

I'm about to start my first single handed passage from Falmouth to the Azores and plan to leave 9th June.
Is there anyone out there that can offer some help or advice on weather conditions. As it's my first time I'd like it all to go as smoothly as possible.
I've been keeping a keen eye on the weather and it looks as though things have recently improved. Does the 9th June look a sensible start date?
Thanks
Paul