Leg 6 - Stanley, Falklands Islands to Horta, Azores (cont)

Date: Sunday 9 May 2004

Day: 290, Day 58 Leg 6

Local time: 1200 GMT-2

Leg Number and name: Leg 6, Falklands to Azores


Position - Latitude, Longitude: 32/51'N, 33/43'W

Position relative to land: 870 (1,611 kilometres) miles west of Madeira

Distance travelled in last 24hrs: 135 miles (250 kilometres)

Distance sailed this Leg: 6,113 nm (11,321 kilometres)

Total distance from Ardmore: 26,145 miles (48,420 kilometres)

Course: 040T

Speed: 6.4 knots (Under engine)

Next Port: Horta, Azores

Approx distance to next port: 420nm (778 kilometres) (adjusted - straight
line - it'll be further the way we go to make the most of the wind)

Wind: Calm

Sea: Calm

Barometer: 1028 steady

Air Temp: 21C, with wind chill 20C

Sea temp: 21.8C

Cloud cover: 25%

Bird sightings over the day:

- Arctic Tern



Notes: Those readers who've managed to stagger through this log with us,
may remember the struggle we had in the calms of the "South Atlantic High",
while we were trying to "Tie the Knot" on our circumnavigation, back in
early April. 1022 mb was as high as it got with us. Well, now we are in
the "North Atlantic High" at 1028 mb on the barometer. It's also known as
the "Azores High".



We turned on the engine at 0645 and immediately began capsizing the small
blue and pink galleons of the Portugues Man o'War jelly fish which throng
this part of the ocean.



I'm glad we kept our diesel for this situation, we should manage all the
way to Horta if we have to.



Tim sighted a couple of Killer Whales a quarter of a mile off the Port beam
in mid-afternoon. But birds there were none, except for a fleeting shadow
in the moonlight, off the stern at three in the morning.



A big oil tanker in ballast en route from the Gulf of Mexico to Port Said
crossed our stern at 1600. The second ship came just after dark and taught
us a lesson. A cargo ship, she'd slipped out of Punta Delgada last night
bound SW for Guadeloupe in the Lesser Antilles. With a crew from Eastern
Europe: Ukraine, Latvia, Lithuania, they probably were not expecting to
meet a small sailing vessel in the dark. It was clear they had not seen us
and they didn't answer the radio either. Fine on the starboard bow they
were coming straight for us at our combined speeds.



Igor clambered up the ladder from the galley to take over the Watch. It
would be a little test.


"Cleopatra comin' atcha!" I grinned,"Near and closing fast - what's the
range and which is the giving way vessel?"



He peered at the screen, counting the rings "Five miles" he muttered, while
trying to remember the boats he had drawn for Nick's freshly printed Safety
Regulations that afternoon.



"Two power driven vessels - the one with the other on its starboard side is
the giving way vessel - THAT'S US!" he cried.
"Well done! Marie Christine alter course 070 compass" I said, pleased he'd
got it right. "Zero seven zero compass" called MC from the wheel. "And
after you've made the decision, check with the sheet that you are
correct" I said to Igor.


Then the ship came up on the radio and we had a pleasant half-understood
conversation.



Only four eggs left! But colossal mounds of chocolate cake which contain
many ancient eggs. Only Tim and Nick eat it. The rest of us have to face
the wall as we pass through the galley and think of England.



Then, a dramatic swing. Just after seven in the evening a great squeak came
from the helmsperson - after all the years trapped aboard this boat, Marie
Christine had finally seen the "Green Flash" at sunset. I never have, nor
Nick but Igor and Tim have both seen it elsewhere, several times.



When we came on at midnight we found a message of celebration in the
Log: "Have some cake, MC - I HAVE! I.A.".



Into the mist......



John Ridgway

Date: Monday 10 May 2004

Day: 291, Day 59 Leg 6

Local time: 1200 GMT-2

Leg Number and name: Leg 6, Falklands to Azores


Position - Latitude, Longitude: 35/09'N, 31/42'W

Position relative to land: 1,200 miles (2,222 kilometres) due west of Straits of Gibraltar

Distance travelled in last 24hrs: 170 miles (315 kilometres)

Distance sailed this Leg: 6,283 nm (11,636 kilometres)

Total distance from Ardmore: 26,315 miles (48,735 kilometres)

Course: 036T

Speed: 6.5 knots (Under engine)

Next Port: Horta, Azores

Approx distance to next port: 250nm (463 kilometres) (adjusted - straight line - it'll be further the way we go to make the most of the wind)

Wind: ENE F1-2 (1-5 knots)

Sea: Calm

Barometer: 1028 steady

Air Temp: 20C, with wind chill 17C

Sea temp: 20.1C

Cloud cover: 15%

Bird sightings over the day:

- Arctic Tern

- Band-rumped Storm Petrel



Notes: Just after midnight, dark and starry. First comes a slight lightening in the sky out to starboard, then a flick of orange on the very horizon becomes a monster's bloody red finger-tip clawing up over the rim of the world. Keep calm. Quickly it rises, transforming into a slice of lemon, a quarter moon, back-lighting the innocent clouds and turning them in turn, ominous black.



Foaming bubbles of our wake race through the cosy pool of golden light shed from our stern light. The rumble of the engine, the white steaming light against the quivering staysail and the red and green lights reflecting on the shiny steel on the bows, they all combine to bring to our eyes, unaccustomed to powered vessel lights, the impression of a speeding Christmas tree. At eight knots its no time to fall from a bough; as Igor knows after a nasty rope-burn from a mis-timed effort to catch a bucketful of sea water for the washing-up.



By contrast, the dawn brought all the balm of a fresh May morning in mid-Atlantic: blue sky, smoothest of slumbering seas, and spotted dolphins splashing to the forward horizon.



I wonder if the hanging tendrils from a Portuguese Man o' War jellyfish could burn a dolphin's eye, as the "scalders" burn the salmon at home.



How different is the North from the deserted South Atlantic. Back in civilisation there is much plastic floating on the water now. For several hours we passed through a concentration of white woolly things, much like the polystyrene worms used in packaging, we hoped they were some kind of fishes egg-sac.



Tim watched three large tuna leap ten feet or more into the air, not 200 yards off the port bow. "If they'd been close to the boat they'd have jumped clear over it!" he laughed. And Nick, on his lonely afternoon watch, saw a large whale, brown-backed in the bright sunlight, blow twice before sounding into the abyss. In fact we seemed to spend much of the day, up and down the main companionway, jumping like Jack-in-the-boxes, to the cry of "Dolphin!" or "Whale!" from the helmsman.



All the while we are roaring along, reeling off 170 miles in 24 hours.



Into the mist......



John Ridgway

Date: Tuesday 11 May 2004

Day: 292, Day 560 Leg 6

Local time: 1200 GMT-2

Leg Number and name: Leg 6, Falklands to Azores


Position - Latitude, Longitude: 37/21'N, 29/44'W

Position relative to land: 87 miles SSW of Horta, Azores

Distance travelled in last 24hrs: 165 miles (306 kilometres)

Distance sailed this Leg: 6,448 nm (11,942 kilometres)

Total distance from Ardmore: 26,480 miles (49,041 kilometres)

Course: 039T

Speed: 6.4 knots (Under engine)
Next Port: Horta, Azores

Approx distance to next port: 87nm (161 kilometres) (adjusted - straight
line - it'll be further the way we go to make the most of the wind)

Wind: SSE F4 (11-16 knots)

Sea: Light

Barometer: 1028 steady

Air Temp: n/a

Sea temp: 18.9C

Cloud cover: 10%

Bird sightings over the day:

- Arctic Jaeger

- Band runoed Storm Petrel

- Arctic Jaeger

- Cory Shearwarter

- Bulwer Petrel



Notes: Just after midnight I took over from Nick. Under the motor it is a long two hours for him. He can't leave the wheel for more than a few seconds or the old boat swings wildly off course. Difficult for him to do the hourly checks on engine meters and pump the header tank.



Around dawn a SSE breeze sprang up. I put up all plain sail and turned the engine off; a blessing after 49 hours of motoring through the 'Azores High'. Good to give it a run though, after nearly nine weeks of just weekly half-hours to bring the engine up to temperature. That Mercedes OM314 has done us proud over the years with its 80 horses.



Just before lunch we came upon a pair of big Sperm whales. The first raised its tail and sounded, diving down away to the abyss. But the second jumped clear of the water every half minute or so, five times it did this. Can you imagine the huge splash. How big? How heavy? A pity we couldn't have a man standing beside it to give scale to the scene but the splash was tremendous. I hope it wouldn't come and jump on the old shippy. I heard about just that happening to a sailing boat off Australia.



On a lesser scale, a turtle drifted by and Cory's Shearwater became
commonplace.



At 1700 Tim sighted Pico, a 7,613 foot extinct volcano with a nobble on the top. This is the whole island of Pico! It's twenty miles east of Horta. The beautiful symmetrical outline of the volcano's cone was especially sweet to see 60 miles ahead of us and it was already high in the sky. Thrilling, after 61 days from chilly Falkland Islands. We've come north from 50 degrees south to nearly 40 degrees north (Ardmore is 58N).



Darkness came and Nick slipped between two brightly lit fishing boats as
the lights of Horta spread out along the foot of Ilha do Faial before him. MC and I reduced sail and trickled gently toward the rocky coast, to lie off until dawn.



Into the mist...



John Ridgway

Date: Wednesday 12 May 2004

Day: 293, Day 57 Leg 6

Local time: 1200 GMT-2

Leg Number and name: Leg 6, Falklands to Azores


Position - Latitude, Longitude: 38/32'N, 28/36'W

Position relative to land: In Horta, Azores

Distance travelled in last 24hrs: 92 miles (306 kilometres)

Distance sailed this Leg: 6,550 nm (11,942 kilometres)

Total distance from Ardmore: 26,572 miles (49,041 kilometres)

Course: -

Speed: -

Next Port: Tower Bridge, London

Approx distance to next port: tbc nm (tbc kilometres) (adjusted - straight
line - it'll be further the way we go to make the most of the wind)

Wind: calm

Sea: calm

Barometer: 1028

Air Temp: n/a

Sea temp: n/a

Cloud cover: 10%

Bird sightings over the day:



Notes: By 9am we were back in civilisation with a bump. Horta. Westernmost
bastion of Europe and its Euro. Chain smoking chool children glued to
mobile phones in cafes with canned music. Affluenza, obesity, and
superiority complexes.



Marie Christine and I strolled round the harbour, famous for the names and
pictures of visiting sailboats on every inch of wharf and wall. Thousands
upon thousands of them. We were looking for the Red English Rose with its
Green leaves, painted by Marie Christine and Rebecca when we were last here
in 1995.



In a strange way it was a relief to find that all trace of the Rose had
vanished, been obliterated. It underscored our total un-importance. Even
the super-scrabbling of the visiting 34 year-old Russion billionaire in his
£29M 65 metre super yacht could leave no mark.



How important not to believe your own publicity.



How about simply trying to leave everything you touch a little better than
you found it? Please do save the Albatross. Do sign the Petition on the Web
today. www.savethealbatross.org.



Into the mist...



John Ridgway (pompous arse)

Now go on to the Horta Stopover 13-21 May 2004

Back to the Contents page