Epiphany - Day 5

Weather is as forecast. 20-25kts steady from the W. 3m swell. So we are rocking and rolling but making excellent speed towards Portugal. The only challenge is to keep an eye out for squalls. We missed one today and got soaked while we quickly reefed the Genoa. No damages though except wet clothes. I was very glad I had kept 2 reefs in all day as a precaution. We are looking good to arrive tomorrow evening. Hopefully sight land in the afternoon and then we have to cross orca alley. We are getting all the advice from a guy called Rui who runs an information sharing group on telegram. There was an attack yesterday right where we plan to go but they think the orcas are moving N. Anyway not much we can do except get to 20m depth as quickly as possible (Orcas don’t seem to attack in. read more...

Epiphany - Day 4

Conditions couldn’t be much better, a nice wind, ok swell, suns out and it’s not too hot. While I am not taking anything for granted I am very relaxed considering we are still hundreds of miles from land. It’s really a result of little by little. Yes when I was 20 I was an excellent sailor having spent summer after summer in the Solent learning from some of the best British skippers there are. But then I have it up for work and didn’t return to the water till 5 or so years ago. By that point I had to build up again, we started with the easiest flotilla Sunsail have in Croatia. I still remember the feeling at the end of each day when the boat was safely moored - relief. We then gradually progressed to a bareboat charter, trying out a Sunsail catamaran, buying our own little HR26 to use in. read more...

Epiphany - Day 3

Lovely conditions today, finally some downwind sailing on our return to Europe. 15-20kts from the West, we are set up wing on wing and moving along nicely at 6-7knots. This wind is due to remain for a few days which will take us almost to Lagos. We just have a little front scheduled tonight as part of the low pressure over biscay. So will rain and gust a bit but then settle for a few days.  No routing issues either. We got a nice bit of North in day 1 so now headed straight for the cape. Everyone on board is well. Enjoying a reasonably flat boat to rest and relax. . read more...

Epiphany - Day 1

Coming to the end of day 1. The weather so far is much simpler than the previous passage. There is a high pressure centred roughly over the Azores. Yes finally the Azores high is in place!  This means we have nice winds to take us over to Portugal. On top of this finally all the forecasts align in terms of both wind strength and direction so the advised routes are also similar. Not much for the skipper to do!  Do we headed around the island and now a little NE. The reason for this is tonight/tomorrow there is some light winds E of Azores and it should be better further N. The other reason is that as you near Portugal the typical wind will be a strong N down the coast and it will be a lot easier on boat and crew if we approach that from the N and not the S. On the boat we. read more...

Epiphany - Departure day

It was a wonderful start. 10-15kts with and occasional gust to 20. Lovely sunny day and all away safely on our way to Lagos.image0image1image2image3. read more...