It is dark outside and we are half-way to Sao Miguel. This is just a totally fabulous sail; not a drop of water on the decks, no waves, and we are averaging better than 6 knots. Of course, that is not an accident. These days sailors have the ability to plan their passages to maximize comfort and speed and minimize wet and scared. Let's see how that is done: first, we have so much weather information at our fingertips now. In addition to weather FAX charts of the whole North Atlantic, the internet has staggering amounts of weather data. To make this trip, I used a webpage called WeatherGURU that gives wind speed and direction for all the islands in the Azores (as well as everywhere else in Europe). So I was able to see what the predicted winds were at our departure and at our projected arrival. For the last 3 days, we've had winds so strong that at times we were unable to go ashore, so finally it lightened up and we saw that, if we left today, we would have winds of the perfect speed and direction. And so we are! We're loving it.
It wasn't always like this. My first boat was made of wood and had little electricity aboard. You cranked up the diesel by hand; you lit the kerosene navigation lights after dark; you figured out where you were by keeping track of how far you had gone and on what course by the compass. Right now I am sitting at my desk typing this out and the boat is steering itself - the autopilot is heading for a waypoint that I set off Ponta Delgada. If a current comes along that carries us off course, the autopilot automatically corrects for that. When we arrive at the waypoint, an alarm sounds. All I have to do is be sure that the sails are trimmed to the winds and make sure that we don't hit anything hard. So I'll go up and look around now.
OK, I'm back. A little adjustment to the sails and the speed is up 2 tenths of a knot. Great. So I was talking about how planning and modern equipment have made voyaging safer and more comfortable. But there are still some old salts out there - the "arghh, matey" kind who like to sail just like they did in the old days. You throw some groceries in the boat and when you are done with that, you cast off and go out to take what the sea dishes out.
I ran into a guy in Horta who had done just that. He had lovingly rebuilt and old classic boat and when he was done, he drew a line on his chart from the Chesapeake to Bantry Bay, Ireland and started out. Unfortunately, a straight line took him directly over the Grand Banks, an area where the cold Labrador Current meets the warm Gulf Stream with exciting meteorological consequences. In other words, there are lots of storms up there. This guy got beat up for days and days. He finally decided that he couldn't take it any longer and headed South for the Azores. It took him 40 days to reach Horta. When he got in, he was so exhausted that he had to have the marina staff move his boat into a slip. He learned that a little route planning and weather research makes a big difference.
We have a lot of pictures that we took in Praia da Vitoria and we'll put them up when we have internet in Ponto Delgada, our harbor on Sao Miguel. This will come to you via ship-to-shore radio. Cheers.
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