Transatlantic: Azores to Portugal: Day 2 [Day 50]

Our first day out, we made it 64 nautical miles before noon. I don’t like to factor my speed on the first day because I wasn’t always sailing since noon! We usually leave a harbor when the winds are right and not when the clock says “GO!” so the first day is never a 24 hour run.

The first day also had some added drama. As we left the harbor, we noticed that the steering was acting funny. We could turn to port well but not quickly to starboard. Eventually, the helm would be hard over and we were no longer able to turn into downwind. We thought it was weatherhelm, but the helm was very light. Eventually, we were unable to fight the slight weatherhelm we had and were forced to tack. Then, with time, the helm would gradually switch and we would no longer be able to turn to port and only to starboard. The mystery was baffling until my imagination began to wonder (a dangerous thing).

I knew the rudder was still attached to the boat because we still had some steerage, but the fact that it was switching sides made me think that the rudder was slowly slipping around the rudder post. This can occur when the welds to the frame inside the rudder corrodes and the only thing keeping the rudder in position is the friction of the fiberglass of the rudder onto the stainless steel rudder post. This kind of slippage will eventually wear out and the rudder will begin to swing uncontrollably around giving us no steerage.

We made the discovery just after making our way out of the narrow and complicated breakwater in Angra do Heroismo. With questionable steerage, we would not be able to safely sail through the breakwater again, so our only choice was to keep going and head to Portugal, 1,200 nautical miles away without a rudder!

My mind was rushing and I was coming up with solutions to give us steerage. If the rudder was broken, the emergency tiller would be worthless since the connection to the rudder was the failure. We could drag a line on a yoke behind the boat to keep the stern pointed where we want it, steering with winches that pull the line more to the starboard or port side of the stern. We could also rig up the sculling oar and use it as an emergency rudder.

Then I thought, “let me check the rudder quadrant”, what if the key slipped out? I put my fingers on the rudder quadrant and post and felt the key way but no key! The key slipped out and the rudder quadrant was slipping around the rudder post, which was making the rudder slip relative to the helm. Thankfully, the key was right next to the post sitting in the bilge and repairs could be completed.

We lowered the mainsail and ran under just the staysail. This took out any helm and allowed the boat to sail straight through the water down wind with the rudder trailing. I loosened the bolts to the quadrant and Maddie turned the helm port or starboard according to my yelled directions until she got the quadrant lined up perfectly with the key slot on the rudder post. With them all lined up, I slipped the key into the keyway and we once again had steerage! I then adjusted the quadrant height so that the cables would not rub oddly on the bronze and tightened everything down. We left Terceira with sadness since we really didn’t want to leave, and almost had to turn around because of mechanical problems, but these problems precluded us from being able to return! Away we sailed until the repairs were carried out and then we officially left the archipelago.

We continued our Northward journey, making 99 miles from noon to noon. If we tried to sail straight towards Portugal, we would come into a totally calm section, followed by winds that still look advantageous, but the guarantee that they would still be present in a few weeks is a risky bet!

On such a long voyage as this, there is no real point in fighting the winds for just a few more degrees of course to windward. We only sail on a beam to broad reach. If the wind is slightly forward of our beam, we just fall off until it is at our beam. Eventually, the winds will shift and we will makeup those lost degrees. Sailing off the wind is much more comfortable than beating, and on a long passage, what difference does it make? If you have to sail 20 days, what’s one extra day? Would you rather have 20 horrible days or 21 comfortable days?

Transatlantic: Azores to Portugal: Day 1 [Day 49]

Ten months have passed since we slipped through the breakwater and tied up at Angra do Heroismo. Now, we finally slipped out through the same breakwater and made our way North. Our goal is to sail way North to go around the Azores High that is parked right between the Azores and Portugal.

We are heading from the little islands out in the middle of the ocean and heading towards the top of Portugal. While it looks like we could sail easily on a beam reach all the way across, the route is not that simple. If we were to risk this route, we run into a few problems.

The high can generate some very calm conditions. This is not normally an issue, but the current combined with becalmed conditions means that we would be carried South every day without any means of combating this. Along the coast of Portugal, the Portuguese Trade Winds blow strongly and straight out of the North. This means that if we drift South, we will have to sail upwind and up current to make it to our destination!

To be safe, our route is very North so that we can drift down onto our destination with the wind and current. This was explicitly done to avoid the common story we hear of people sailing to Lisbon. They have a great calm sail/motor all the way there and then spend the last few days (when they enter the trade winds and current) beating into 25 knots of wind with high waves! To counteract the current, they need to turn North a little. This means that beam wind becomes ‘forward’ of the beam wind, which means beating. Suddenly, a pleasant cruise ends with a horrible nightmare! We are preparing for these powerful winds and current, but it will be a run or broad reach for us!

With our obscenely long route planned, we were setting out to sail 1,200 nautical miles to travel 800 nautical miles East. As you can see from the screenshot of Navionics, we held close to the plan, but sailed to the wind and not to the course.

Transatlantic: A long stopover

We arrived at Terceira and rushed to get hauled out but thought nothing of it really. We had a family reunion to get to in the states and needed a safe place to leave Wisdom while we flew away. We thought we would spend a few weeks in Terceira and then start sailing through the other islands to visit during the winter. Then after a few months, we would sail off to mainland Portugal.

HAHA!

We ended up staying there for 10 months! While on the hard, we decided to take on some refit projects that we had been discussing and always saying “we will tackle it later”. Well, now was later, and we decided to start the small projects.

One project was to strip out and rebuild the head, the other project was to strip out and rebuild the galley.

The head was just the tip of the iceberg, during the strip down process, we discovered a lot of rot in the bulkhead and therefore the “cosmetic refit” became a structural repair. The galley, thankfully was not a structural refit, and remained as a cosmetic refit.

The shower floor was lowered about 6 inches, allowing me to stand up in the shower for the first time in 7 years! The shower area was expanded and the storage lockers were made more usable for our blue water cruising lifestyle.

The galley countertop was switched from plywood and formica to butcherblock mahogany. The sink was switched out from a rusting stainless steel double sink to a very large single composite granite sink with an integrated drying rack. The stove was also switched out for a gimballed stove/oven.

All these modifications made cruising and living aboard so much better, but it took a very long time. I anticipated about 2 weeks for the head, but it took 6 months! The galley managed to remain on schedule and was finished in about 3 weeks.

By the way, we also had our topsides spray painted.

When all was said and done, we launched and just didn’t want to leave! We spent 8 months working on the boat, and then lingered for an extra 2 months before we realized that we were about to fall into the same trap that has snared so many cruisers we had met there. The common story is: “I pulled in for a few weeks, and now 10 years later, I’m still here!”

We finally made the conscious choice to set sail and head on for our voyage towards mainland Portugal.

Transatlantic: Faial to Terceira [Day 48]

We crossed the Atlantic and made landfall in the tiny archipelago called The Azores on the island of Faial in the port of Horta. According to the marina manager, this port is the 4th most visited marina in the world; though they were not able to tell me who the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd were. Regardless, this marina was packed and we needed to find a place to leave the boat for a few months while we flew home to visit with family in the states. This marina was completely full, but they were kind enough to communicate and coordinate with the marina in Angra do Heroismo in Terceira for us.

Angra had space available for us to leave the boat on the hard while we flew back to the states. At this point, we thought we were going to spend a short period of time on the hard while we did some minor maintenance on the boat before sailing on; little did we know!

The sail from Horta to Angra do Heroismo was short and sweet. We made the passage in a full day, starting at around 8am in Horta and arriving at around 8am in Angra, then next day. Sometimes we do dream we were that fast, and then we wake up from that dream and realize that reality is much slower on a sailboat.

The interesting thing with this passage is how quickly we made it given the predicted winds and times given by Predict Wind. No, we do not pay for it or use it, but a friend of ours in Horta did pay for the full version and ran the numbers for us. I looked at the sky and based on the barometric pressure and the cloud formations decided that it would be a good time to make that passage, but Predict Wind warned otherwise!

Well, Predict Wind anticipated us having a head wind the whole way and taking around 1.5 days to make the passage. The truth is we had a beam wind most of the time and managed to make the passage in only 24 hours! The winds were much stronger than forecasted and blowing in a very favorable direction. This let us sail safely and quickly through the islands and arrive at the beginning of the day instead of coming into port in the dark like Predict Wind anticipated we would.

This is my gripe with weather routing programs: They are only as good as the data that is put into the program, and that data is not very good. The weather is finicky and there are way too many variables to possibly calculate exactly what is going to occur on ever square unit of the entire surface of the world!

I have many friends who have found themselves in very dangerous situation simply because Predict Wind said it was safe to go or if they left at a certain moment they would have “X” conditions. The truth is, forecasts tend to be wrong which means your planned route will be wrong as well!

I am not saying that my brain is better at planning out the weather by simply looking at the sky and fully comprehending everything around me. No! What I’m saying is that I can look at the sky and see that it is good to go, or not good to go. We always leave somewhere early so that if it takes us all day and all night to get somewhere, we then have all following day to arrive and get into the harbor! It’s not that we “know” what specific time we need to come and go, and especially what specific hour we will arrive! All of that is a mystery to me and I won’t know until I get there.

I strongly feel that people blindly follow what technology tells them without doing something as simple as looking at the sky and seeing what the clouds are doing. Are the clouds speeding by really fast? Are they streaked out across the sky? Are they whispy? All of these indicate that the winds up there are moving really fast and the surface winds will eventually follow. They also mean that the weather is changing as this weather is going away and something else is going to fill in the void. With skies like that, I think twice before deciding to go out to sea. I know that if we go, it will be a rough and wet ride, and definitely not a comfortable sail!

If I look up at the sky and see fluffy white clouds that are gracefully floating along in the sky, not moving too fast but also not stationary; then I know that the weather out there will be calm and settled. If there is wind, the wind will probably hold steadily for as long as the clouds remain. If the clouds start to move faster, I know that the winds will pick up speed. If the clouds start to rocket up into the sky, I know that a squall is going to form and we should prepare while it is still calm.

I do not fully understand everything that is going to happen in the weather, and I do not know what the weather will do in the future. I do know what the weather is doing now, and what the clouds are saying the weather will be doing in the next few days. If it looks like weather I want to sail in with winds in the right direction, then we will set sail and ride the winds that blow. No programs, no electronics, no computers. Sailing in its simplest form with its simplest of properties: a sailor and a yacht.

Sintra, Portugal

If you ever thought the Magic Kingdom was magical, then just you wait! When Disney was looking around for inspiration, this palace was visited and used as inspiration. Overlooking the Atlantic Ocean, endless plains, and an unhampered view of the sky, this castle really is king of the hill.