Firefly - Almost in Spain

We are on our last day of sailing for while,with around 60 nautical milesfrom the Ria Muros and Portosin- Firefly’s temporary home for a week orso.   As we approach the land the wind has come in as forecast from the Northmaking it a good reach in with speeds of 7 to 10 knots- its a good job  wewent North over the passage, otherwise it might have been a slog towindward.   This will most likely be our last log (for a while?) so hope you haveenjoyed our random thoughts and thank you to all those ashore particularlySusie, Jane,  Gráinne and Julie for their emails, love and supportand  juggling all the balls we left behind in the air .   Paul and Peter sailed off from Prickly Bay,Grenada in late May and havesailed over 4000 miles with lots of great experiences. read more...

Firefly - Firefly now heading to Portosin

Firefly left ARC Europe when the fleet departed to SantaMaria. We are heading independently to Portosin in Ria Muros on NW Spain....weleft Ponte Delgado on Sao Miguel at 1200 on Friday 8th June in order to getahead of the light winds now surrounding the Azores. We have sailed 310nm so farand have 540nm to go.   However, we are still in touch with the fleet via SSB Radioand via the earlier net we heard that Lumikki has all of the wind as usual....wewish everyone bon voyage.   Our intrepid crewman Mike was replaced by Steve just before weleft. In fact Firefly left the dock as Steve came aboard. Mike was a ‘greenhorn’long distance sailor .... and he was the author of the prize winning poet thatwe posted on our blog during the passage from Bermuda. Below is a copy of theletter we. read more...

Firefly - Firefly sets out for Spain

Sadly we said farewell to the rest of the ARC Europe fleet in PontaDelgada, Sao Miguel and are now heading out on our own to Northern Spain. Wealso parted company with Mike our star trans Atlantic crew who is heading backfor work and hello to fellow SYC member Steve . We have yet to see how goodSteve is at rhyming verse, it will be hard following the skills and humour ofMike but we shall see....   Our week long cruise of the Azores has been fun; beautiful countryside andcoastline, wonderful hospitality, great local food and always a smile.Highlights include walking/climbing to the top of Pico, cycling down from theCaldera on Faial, the historic town of Angra, on Terciera; a World Heritage siteand finally the gardens and hot water baths at Furnes, Sao Miguel. Hopefully wewill be. read more...

Firefly - Great sailing and interesting trivia...

The past 48 hours on board Firefly have been superb – we’ve seen the returnof the sun and some extremely favourable winds for sailing, meaning that we’vebeen able to relax and enjoy everything at our comparative ease.  We’vebeen on a comfortable broad reach most of the time, sailing at between 7 and 9knots directly towards the Azores.  The swell has been around 2 metres frombehind, but rolling very gently giving us a lovely smooth ride.  We’ve beenbasking in the sun, we’ve seen plenty of dolphins, and we even managed anafternoon tea with scones and jam – very civilised!  Winds have just easedslightly so 30 minutes ago we furled the jib and raised our gennaker, and we’rehoping that should bring us most of the way to the Azores.   Speaking of which..... During. read more...

Firefly - Sunshine and shorts

We have had a period of changing winds and weather over the last 48 hours ,in fact we experienced almost every point of sailing (while trying to sail in anEastwards direction) and wind  strength with plenty of rain showers.Fortunately  we are now settled into champagne sailing with clear blueskies and a good wind from behind pushing us towards Horta. Long may thiscontinue and our heavy weather sailing gear stays in the bag.   All doing well   Paul, Mike and Peter. read more...