Transatlantic: Azores to Portugal: Day 8 [Day 56]

June 20, 2019 and we made 109 nautical miles made good!

The winds shifted to be blowing out of the South which let us finally return to our Northern course on a downwind sail. This meant fast and easy miles as we sliced through the waves.

Fast miles in stormy conditions does cut down on morale, but we made pizza! The gimballed oven we installed during the refit in the Azores worked wonderfully. We simply made the pizza dough out of flour, salt, sugar, and water, then added the toppings and put it in the oven. Shortly thereafter we had ourselves some oven-fresh pizza while hundreds of miles away from any pizzeria!

Instead of fighting for those Northern miles over the past few days, we simply sailed East for a while. Then the winds finally came around and we were once again able to head North in much more comfort and style (and with pizza)!

How to Inspect Your Own Rigging

Rigging inspections should be carried out often to catch potential problems before they turn into realized problems. Sadly, rigging is often ignored until something breaks and big problems come to be!

This video tells you the basics involved in inspecting your standing rigging. It will show you what to look for and where to find it, as well as the signs that the rigging is reaching the end of its life and is in need of being replaced.

Boat Dog Intelligence Test

If you have a boat and want to get a dog, or you want to get a boat and a dog, or you already have a dog and want to get a boat, then you are entering the wonderful world of having a Boat Dog!

In this video, we pit a Welsh Corgi up against a Samoyed to find out which is the smarter boat dog.

Transatlantic: Azores to Portugal: Day 7 [Day 55]

91 nautical miles made good!

The winds shifted again and started blowing out of the South, and we made some more miles Easterly.

In the morning, the winds were still out of the North, but as the day progressed, the winds clocked around and slowly made their way to the South.

The constant overcast sky and rough seas did wonders for lifting the morale on board as we sailed along towards Portugal. The entire journey could be summed up as this photo: Cold, drizzly, windy, and rough.

Transatlantic: Azores to Portugal: Day 6 [Day 54]

June 18, 2018 and we sailed 78 nautical miles noon to noon in the right direction.

The winds finally calmed down, but are still blowing out of the North. This meant that we had the option of sailing on a close reach into the leftover seas, or sail on a beam reach going either East or West. West is back towards the US, and East takes us to Portugal!

The decision was simple, continue on the same tack in the same direction and on the same course as yesterday. We are fine going East at this point in time, but we do need to keep in mind that we still need to go further North to avoid sailing into the calm region between the Azores and Portugal, as well as getting swept South by the current that runs further to the East.

Like I said before, we are still far out so we are just trying to make it in either North or East directions. The winds will always shift at some point so we will never be going in one direction for very long.