MAY-JUNE 2009
Trans Atlantic trip on Schooner Marguerite departing Cape Fear North Carolina on June 3, 2009
Thursday July 16 12-2PM watch
Arrival in Cadiz, Spain, the oldest established European city !! We are safe at a dock across from the city proper. Time for phase two of the trip that began on the 5th of Maywhew!!
We will be laundering, packing, looking for shipment of our boat gear to home, then train tickets to Lampolla Spain, 900 miles north up the coast. Jim and Barbara are meeting her brother Stephan and wife, Maria tomorrow night and they will stay the weekend, so we have gotta get off the boat.
Thursday, July 16 4-6AM watch
36.32.02/06.57.19/ c074/bs 5.0 motoring 33 nm to Cadiz, Spain.
Spook (ShpookBarbara is German), had five kittens, two still births. Note to my mom, two are tuxedo kitties. Barbara named them Nina, Pinta, and Maria or Nino, Pinto, and Mario, it is hard to tell the gender of newborn kittens. Mama kitty seemed to know what to do in spite of being a teen mom, she had them each clean and nursing before the next was out of the womb.
Coming to watch the radar alarm was going off and reading danger. Jim and I couldnt find a source of its angst so he turned it off and went down to bed at the end of his watch. It rang 20 more times for me, so I started to read the chart intensively and of course found a submarine zone, a firing ground area, and a whole lot of ship wrecks. Panic panic, but I just held my course. Very often there are areas of unexploded ordinances, dumping grounds, under ground cables, wrecks, etc. In this case it was nothing, just the entrance to Cadiz Harbor trying to scare us off from making landfall on the continentactually it was related to the US Naval base at Cadizmore like the Americans trying to scare us back home.
Wednesday, July 15 122PM watch
36.43.56/08.22.63/c110 motoring/ws 4.5/103 nm to Cadiz, Spain
Portuguese mountains and sand bluffs far away in the misty haze, our first sighting of the European continent. 11:30 greetings from a pod of 8-10 young dolphins jumping clear out of the water playing at the boats bow. Last night we rounded the tip of the Portuguese coast at the lighthouse on the tip of Sagre, Portugal
and four successive ships passing by on our starboard. On my 8PM watch we entered amongst four ships entering the channel and had to jog for position, a little challenging since we were strictly under sail. But it was quite magical under stars and a bright half moon.
Spook broke water just now (1:30 PM) so Barbara put a towel under her and is awaiting the arrival of the kids. We will no longer be only 4 mouths to feed.
Tuesday, July 14 8PM10PM watch
37.49.32/12.30.99/c 103/ ws 9.4/ d NW/ 311 to new waypoint,Cadiz, Spain
Stay sail, foresail, Fisherman, reefed main. Cool and clear.
Just want to recognize some people who have provided us with hours of greatly appreciated entertainment; Grace, our Albany neighbor who gave us a whole stack of British sailing magazines that are far superior to any that you can get in the US.
Practical Boater magazine is for small, less glamorous, and older boat owners and contains a great deal of ideas for upgrades on boats. To Steve and Bobbie who gave us Wm F Buckleys Atlantic High, a fun story, and the great Mystic Log pamphlets, and Good Old Boat issues.
Monday, July 13 46AM watch
38.04.45/14.12.11/c 105/bs 5.4/ws 5.5 N / 244 distance to Sagre, Portugal
Spectacular sunset last night at dinner time;.we eat at 8:30 trying to accustom ourselves to European ways.
Finally a clear night, wonderful to see the stars again. Sirius is seriously intense tonight, easy to mistaken her for an aft navigation light on a ship.
122 PM watch
38.31.84/16.13.63/ c n113/bs 6.2/ 344 distance to
Sagre, Portugal
Motoring. Day clearing with some blue sky. Mama kitty looking for a place to nest picked the anchor locker, gateway to the bilge, so Barbara has hustled her out and we have put a ban on her access to the forward part of the boat. The autopilot is doing its usual groan, Jim snoozing, Rob washing the morning dishes, Ratatoui left overs for breakfastsuch is the typical daily fare. Perhaps 2-3 days before landfall, then our lives change.
Sunday July 12 4AM6AM watch
38.56.00/16.25.22/c193/ws 12.4/d W/ 359 distance to Sagre, Portugal
Heading southwest because it keeps the point of sail better than direct downwind. We are turning westerly, but the course can be corrected in daylight and we will have made some southing.after over shooting to north. Seems a bit roundabout in thinking but is the way of sailing sometimes.
We are expecting to see more ships at night soon as we get nearer to the incoming and f outgoing lanes. Sting is on CD befitting the tenor of the scene, singing eerie melodies on a foggy night.
Saturday July 11, 12 noon2:00PM shift
Position: N 40.00.49 / W 17.36.32, Course over ground 115 degrees
Boat Speed: 7.3 knots, Wind direction: S Wind Speed: 14.3
432 miles to west of Sagra, Portugal
After 3 days of gray murky sunrise-less and sunset-less days, we are seeing glimpses of sunlight in thinning but not clear skies. A touch of listlessness is setting in. We have turned southeast in the last 48 hours, encouraging that we are now headed in the right direction. At the rate of 100 miles a day we should be making our way point in 4 days, perhaps Gibraltar in 2 more days and somewhere in Spain where we will depart Marguerite in another 2 days.
Friday July 10, 8PM shift
Position: N 40.37.45 / W 19.40.63, Course over ground 115 degrees
Boat Speed: 5.7 knots, Wind direction: S Wind Speed: 23
534 miles to west of Sagra, Portugal
Thursday July 9 8PM shift
Position: N 41.23.34 / W 22.54.35, Course over ground 124 degrees Boat Speed: 5.1 knots, Wind direction: SSE
Singing Ave Maria with Sarah Brightman on the i-Pod. The cockpit is almost sound proof from any cabin area, enabling music to be played all night long to accompany the helms person on duty. We have listened to books on CD as well.
Tonight is foggy so we have the radar up and running, it takes practice to determine what is clutter versus what is actually a gargantuan ship approachinga little daunting. Odds have been that a ship is not approaching since we have only seen 2 in the distance since we have left Horta.
Tuesday July 7
Position: N 40 47.56 / W 27.38.02,
888 miles to European waypoint just south of Lisbon Portugal
We have gone 187 unnecessary miles north in bumpy seas. I have been seasick I think because the regular doses of Bonine I took previously (1/2 tab 2Xdaily) hadnt really gotten into my system before I felt sick.
We are hand steering because winds are from many directions and the wind vane needs to be adjusted constantly, so instead of climbing the over the davits to reach out to the vanes sail, we are just using the wheel. If the boat is balanced well you can set the wheel on the correct compass heading and let go for periods of as long as 15 minutes without having to readjust or with making very minor tweaks, this enables one to read and write while steering.. I have been consuming books ravenously, for me, from the stack that cruiser/skipper Bonnie gave me to read. Bonnie and her first mate Tim departed for Scotland a week ago from Horta on her Benneteau 50.
Monday July 6
Were off for the continent, and as always sorry to leave our new found friends, always that heartbreak in the cruising life. Captains plan: to go north to go south; because of offshore winds predicted and offshore currents from the north. Rob and I are not sure we agree with that since all the advice weve gotten from the long timers is that you head straight east after leaving a southward passage through the rest of the Azore Island chain. Such is the life of the crew, we can only suggest, the final decision is up to the captain.
Seas are rough and there is a 20 knot steady wind, what a way to get back into the fray! ; Time for the Bonine pillscruising buddy Carla Reister suggested these for seasickness and they have turned out to be the best for he two of us so farand they are chewable; what a hassle in 20 knot seas to get ourselves water! We have to do the cabin dance, I have been threatening to do 30 second video clips from our digital camera of the cabin dance.
Horta, Faial in the Azores Islands
Atlantic Ocean
Sunday July 5, 2009
Still in Horta Faial in the Azores waiting for the captain to decide when to leave, it looks like maybe tomorrow. We are making the best of our time by visiting the island and integrating into the social patterns of the cruiser life. Somebody has to do it. We are awaiting lunch from our Venezuelan neighbors who are cooking up something that smells wonderful and is recipio de mi Abuela
Last night we celebrated our independence with other American cruisers, Betty and Bob on s/v Mallard; a good time was had by all yucking it up about the Brits and their passion for telling Americans that we never should have won that Revolutionary War. Bob and Betty have traveled from Seattlethrough the Panama Canal, the
Caribbean Sea, and around South America and they are now headed for
British Isles. We walked to a street festival and had a couple of dances after thatnight life on the island is from 10PM to 3:00AM and you see entire families out and about at that time every night of the week.
Two days ago we rented a car and toured the island, and did some hiking. It is magnificently lush and old European with narrow winding streets and villages of volcanic stone houses/ruins/farm outbuildings dotting the hills. Cattle grazes on steep patch work hillside pastures. The uppermost edges of the volcano craters are community grazing for any citizen of the island to use. Each island family is entitled to three free cows from the government.
We went to see the volcano that erupted and attached itself to the island in 1957. We toured a spectacular underground museum devoted to the geology of the islands. The eruption was associated with 425 earthquake tremors. Many families were evacuated and were given free visas to Canada
and the US at that time.
We stopped along the road at one of the many overlooks to just listen to the quiet cacophony of cows, roosters and dogs that filtered up the hills in the evening. We had decided to stop in a caf in a remote village to experience an evening with the locals.
Our caf of choice was empty at the beginning, the owner telling us that most activity didnt begin until after midnight. He said his daughter was a massage therapist and practiced downstairsso, aching from all of our hiking, we both had a massage and then came back upstairs to the bar. There were bullfights on the television and there was a family of twelve that had come in and were sitting at a long table. They ranged in ages from 8 months to 80 years and were there to sing Karoke. What a hootlittle girls to old men to middle aged women all coming up to sing to Portuguese songs with words posted on the television screen. So we joined in and did some American songs, with a little coaxing from the crowd. It was great fun. There was a single man at the bar who we invited to join our table; he was the Chief of Police for the island. He invited us to his house at the end of the evening for a glass of native winevery sweet but good. We didnt get back to the boat until 3AM. So we met the goals of our mission to get outside of the cruiser community and meet some islanders.
Our Venezuelan neighbor is now 16 minutes late in calling us over for lunchnot sure if it is due to difference in cultural interpretation or if he genuinely forgot the time
ursday July 2
We have been in Horta, Faial in the Azores Islands for the past 5 days we have had Marguerite opened up, cleaned and inspected for the trouble she gave us with the engine (turned out to need the raw water pump rebuilt) and the auto pilot, (installation fine, but perhaps the hydraulic pump is undersized).
In the meantime Jim and Barbara have been spit and polishing, I painted Marguerites message on the surrounding cement sea wall, a custom that voyagers do for good fortune for the rest of the journey. Artistry has become quite elaborate over the past thirty years and the level of competition is quite high. There are hundreds of graphics so room is made for new ones by finding an unreadable space and painting over it.
Barbara fell in love with a Portuguese stray pregnant kitty, so papers are being prepared for proper entry into
Europe . We most likely will be having kittens on the way over, Mama kitty is quite developed.
Rob and I have been meeting and playing with boaters who have traveled all over the worldwe are novices in the grand scheme of things. Many people are returning home after 10-15 years of sailing all over the world; the usual reason is to see about their elderly parents or their grandchildren.
In Horta we have hiked to the cow pastures which lie above the city proper, and discovered a banana plantation. We took an excursion with Pepijn, a wonderful thirty-something man from the Netherlands to visit a, (there are several), caldieron (volcano crater) and hike around its rim. Beautiful verdant fields with a variety of wild flowers and hydrangeas tumbling down the steep inclines of the volcano bowl; at the bottom a lake and another mini crater and a butte that formed some time in its process. In the afternoon we stopped to see our friends Kevin and Inness who are crewing on a 150 foot schooner from South Africa .
Kevin wanted to see the Horta Whaling museum/factory so we walked there with hima very sad video on whaling; I learned that a whale is a fairly docile being and is speared when it is incapacitated, lying on the waters surface for air.
Both of the Azorean islands we have visited are very European with ancient and modern structures. Compared to Flores, Faial is bigger, spread out, more populated (20,000), and more sophisticated.
Flores is a village island, beautiful and rugged and set back in time, full of ravines and wild flowers, narrow streets and homes with individual terraced vegetable gardens and terraced pastures of two to five cows and/or sheep. We walked up the typically narrow streets and stopped to talk with one of the residents working on his garage doors. He lived in Canada
for 25 years while maintaining his home on the island. As we departed from him, a woman (Maria) leaned out from her upstairs window and asked if we wanted to see her hometo which we replied sure and admired her one-room deep connecting rooms all facing a patio overlooking the ocean. Running but no hot water, a crude kitchen sink with just one tap, a modern bathroom. No screens, just shutters with glass curtains providing mosquito/fly barrier. Lovely. We had beer and juice, talked of her life in
Massachusetts
, took pictures, (taught her to use our digital camera), talked of her work and her children and grandchildren and her return to this beautiful island. Many Portuguese have a connection with
Massachusetts
and other parts of the US for education and work. The anchorage in Flores
was somewhat unprotected and rolly with ocean swells, so we took turns babysitting the boat while in harbor. We departed for Horta on a Friday (bad luck to leave port on a Friday), but we didnt realize the day and the trip was fine.
In Horta presently we are waiting for Clive, the electrician to do a European transformer conversion and then we will be off for Spain, most likely on Friday, again.
June 22 8 PM
Position: N 39 52.39 / W 34 49.89, Course over ground 110 degrees
Boat Speed: 6.7 knots, Wind direction: negligible SSE Wind Speed: 5.5
166 miles to Azores waypoint to
Flores. We have decided to make the island of Flores our first landfall. It is the most western island and is actually the most western part of Europe . We should be there by tomorrow morning.
For the past two days we have been steering by hand to give ourselves a break from the auto pilot and its horrible groaning noises that disturb the sleep of Jim and Barbara in the aft berth.
Seas are calm now; we spotted and circled a sea turtle floating along. Nights are clear once again and it is hard to tell ship lights on the horizon from rising planets and stars.
June 21 5:30 AM Our 19th day out
Position: N 39 54.60 / W 36 43.27, Course over ground 110 degrees
Boat Speed: 5.5 knots, Wind direction: SSE Wind Speed: 6.6.
365 miles to Azores waypoint
Motoring. A strange sight I try to capture with the camera. It is gray out everywhere in the four mile pond except what is in front of me that is an arch with blue sky and clouds ahead.
At the left side of the arch is a rain squall. I am going for the arch but the squall is catching up with me.
June
Position: N 39 53.38 / W 39 55.01, Course over ground 090 degrees
Boat Speed: 4.9 knots, Wind direction: NE, Wind Speed: 7.0
514 miles to Azores waypoint
Wind stopped around 10 PM the following morning, but seas are still up. We are forced to use the engine that Jim does not trust because our sails cannot hold anything with all the jerking around. The engine is doing quite well in spite of the excessive steam coming out of he exhaust, the indicator is not reading that it is running hot. We are also using the auto pilot that farts because we are not able to get all of the air out of the hydraulic steering system. So noisy it is.
At 4 AM the ocean is flattening but with irregular swells that throw the boat unexpectedly wildly. Steering for the rising sun.
June 19 5:30 AM
Position: N 39 16.32 / W 41 27.77 , Course over ground 049 degrees
Boat Speed: 8.2 knots, Wind direction: SW, Wind Speed: 16.8
589 miles to
Azores
waypoint
Rainy, windy, gray. We are 4-5 days from Horta harbor in Faial in
Azores
. Ocean is steely and loaded with whitecaps, the wind whistling through the mast is making a hollow eerie wail. A fitful night with bakeware, dishes, and silverware clanking in their cupboards along with many unknown noises from the deck above and a rolling sound from the bilge that sounds like a cocoanut. Rob climbed in bed and as the boat pitched and yawed our bodies lurched together in a strange dance.
June 16 4:43 AM and 8 PM watches
Position: N 35 53.22 / W 46 50.68 , Course over ground 113 degrees
Boat Speed: 6.4 knots, Wind direction: S, Wind Speed: 10
680 miles to
Azores
waypoint
Found the constellation of the Crown, Corona Borealis and the Summer Triangle of Altair, Deneb and Vega, very bright stars. The computer weather GRIB file tells us that we should expect winds of 20-25 for 48 hours and we have another 3 degrees and 880 miles of easting to do. Jim tightened the Triatic stay between masts in fairly heavy seas swinging around in the Boatswains chair he took ten turns on the turnbuckle. He also tightened the back stay and the rest of the shroudsrigging is new and is undergoing its initial stretch.
A pod of ten gray speckled dolphins accompanied us.
June 15, Monday
Time: 8PM, Position: N 35 24.17 / W 49 18.38, Course over ground 115 degrees
Boat Speed: 5.0 knots, Wind direction: SW, Wind Speed: 7.8
804 miles to
Azores
waypoint
Since nights are so dark we have been attempting to expand our knowledge of the stars and constellations. My mission for tonight was to find the summer triangle of three of the brightest stars: Altair, Deneb, and Vega. I quickly found that getting myself out of the cockpit (out of the canopy of the canvas) in the rolling seas with a star book in hand and then trying to locate stars of the eastern sky was impossible on two counts: staying still long enough to get a sense of the sky, and realizing the sails were in my way. So I got back in the cockpit and searched for a new bright star in the more accessible western sky and found one in the constellation of Bootes, just south of Ursa Minor. Its name, Arcturus. Tonights homework: constellation of Draco, .which should be in the west above Ursa Minor.
Ill have to find the summer triangle from a hilltop in the
Azores
.
.
June 13, Saturday
Time: 4:00 AM, Position: N 35 44.51/W 58 07.73, Course Over Ground 085 degrees
Boat speed: 6.3 knots, Wind direction: SW, Wind Speed: 14.0
1211 miles to Azores waypoint, 1004 miles from
Cape Fear
inlet, NC
Sunrises are changing, becoming later because of the easting. At 4:00AM
It used to be dark, now it is light but I still watch the liquid sun make its rise.
Likewise I do not see the moonrise anymore, due its own schedule of rising later each day, n. Skies are very dark and it seems as though we are headed for the great abyss in the murkiness ahead.
Time: 7:21 PM, Position: N 35 25.98 W 55 52.56, Course over ground 130 degrees
Boat Speed: 7.1 knots, Wind direction: S, Wind Speed: 17.5
1111 miles to
Azores
waypoint
Dark nights, fair seas, jib, foresail, and main up; sailing the four mile radius that never ceases. Clouds from behind pass overhead and then roll down over the horizon in front of us.
No ships have entered our circle for the past four days.
Days on end of getting up late after night watches, reading, sleeping, eating, and struggling to maintain balance against the bouncing boat. Making coffee is a chore, making sesame noodles is more challenging, making a salad is most challenging, chopped veggies everywhere.
June 12, Friday
We are approaching the mid Atlantic now; our
Genoa
sail is poled out to catch beam winds from starboard. We are on a broad reach making 8.5 knots with a 15 knot wind speed, three sails are up, the genny, the fore sail, and the main sail. There are currents in this vast ocean and we have definitely caught one, probably running at 2.5 knots in our favor.
Our generator is running to power up the batteries and I can use the AC on board to make this entry in Word which I will in a couple of weeks when we reach the
Azores
, be able to transcribe into our web site.
Since our departure on June 3 we have experienced a variety of wind and sea conditions. For the first 4 days we had strong winds 9 20-30 knots strong breeze to near gale Force 6-7) and high seas, 12 foot swells where we felt unsure whether the boat was going to make the climb without tumbling broadside into the sea--- a miraculous thing this buoyancy phenomenon, you just gotta trust it will work with the boat.
We reached latitude 33/longitude 64 just northwest of Bermuda (in the Triangle) and the wind just stoppedwe were in the Horse Latitudes,
Sargasso Sea
, notoriously calm. At that time it was a welcome relief to just drift and enjoy the sun. We took turns swimming alongside of the boat; the water was delightful. For the next couple of days we struggled to get out of the doldrums by going to a higher latitude in order to get more wind. We were advised by weather routers via SSB that above lat 36 were gale force winds, so we needed to stay between lats 34-35. When we reached there we found light winds at best and took out the asymmetrical spinnaker for a mild but pleasant day at only 2-4 knots boat speed---better than nothing or going backward. Unfortunately Spetz the cat, who loves to play on deck, got wild and wooly since the seas were down. Her playfulness with climbing the bow sprit, running up the roller furling and charging the length of the boat got the best of her. She vanished in the night, overboard. We are slowly recovering from the loss of such a sweet companion and have spent the last three days in silent grief not mentioning her name and packing up her bowls and toys.
We are currently at lat/long 35/60 having picked wind finally as we gybe-tack across our Rhomb line to the Azores, with only 1,345 miles to go, or given a conservative estimate of two weeks to the Azores. We are gybe tacking to stay on broad reaches because Marguerite is not terribly keen on a dead downwind run --as with most boats, they like to pitch and yaw while the sails flog. Winds have clocked around to a more southerly direction enabling us to make a better easting currently.
We contact weather routers Chris Parker frequency #8137.0 at 7:00 AM, and Herb Hillenberg 4 PM, frequency #12359 on the SSB radio. You can try to reach these frequencies but you most likely will not hear Herb since his signal is directional and reaches out into the ocean. Radio propagation is weak most of the time forcing us to hone our skills of interpreting crackle.
We have a 2 on and 6 hour off watch schedule that is round the clock so the daytime schedule is loose with everyone awake. Everyone goes to bed around 8PM while I take the first evening watch till 10PM. If there is an increase of wind or if sails need to be changed or emergencies arise, we get all hands on deck. Last night at 11:30 winds increased from 4 knots to 20 knots as a squall came through. We did a Chinese fire drill of taking down the large square sail at top called the Fisherman, then we gybed around to the alternative tack and furled in the jib (genny) sail. We have to undo/redo 2 preventers --blocks and tackle that hold booms to one side that prevent accidental gybing while underway. So it is an exercise that fits into the age old definition of sailing the seas as hours of boredom punctuated by moments of sheer terror.
We havent seen much traffic out here, an occasional ship coming by is first seen as a cacophony of lights on the horizon that tends to get brighter and brighter if it is coming toward you. The other night Rob and I saw a ship that was so long that we first wondered if it was a tug pulling a barge, the navigation lights were so far from the main body of the ship. It came by so closely that we had to pull in the jib and the main sail and head the wind vane down to make room for it to pass. The wind vane is a totally mechanical device that uses the wind direction to steer the rudder through the use of a tiny sail device on top of its own rudder that transmits mechanically to the boats rudder. It has performed flawlessly in winds from 4kn to 35kn, quite a miracle after all the fuss weve made over the amp-sucking autopilot backup.
Monday June 1, 2009
So you would think we would be way to the Azores, or at least in Bermuda refueling and re-topping our supplies. Well we arent. We sailed for four days through robust wind and seas (18-20 kn) with lots of lightning as well as a two hour 45 knot squall with wave swirls (I know there is a correct term), pounding at her dodger canvas. Marguerite performed grandly. Our watch schedule was running smoothly, 6 hours of off time for reading, listening to music, entertaining others who were awake, or sleeping.
What failed us was the autopilot interface with the hydraulic steering; were not sure what is causing the clunking and veering off and unwillingness to be our #1 helmsman, but it forced us at 184.9 miles out to sea, to decide once again turn back. We are now in Morehead City just outside of Beaufort NC having frustrating technical calls to Raymarine and having to exchange parts that we exchanged not a week ago, once again to the local West Marine storegood thing there is a great exchange policy, but are not so sure we are not taking that to the limit.
Anyway the crew remains hopeful and positive about all this. We couldnt ask for a better pair than Barbara and Jim to spend the last month with, and as of this moment we havent decided to bail out on the mission. We may just have to adjust dates at the European side of the water.
May 28
Happy Birthday Kimberly Jane
On Marguerite finishing our first 24 hours since we departed St. Augustine at 11:00 AM yesterday.
This was our 2nd attempt at crossing the ocean after discovering the failure of our newly-installed autopilot which made us add another 3 days of wait for another brain to come in and be installed and then be calibrated.
We broke our round the clock sea watches at the helm into 2 hours of duty with 6 hours of down time. My first night watch with full sails under following seas to the starboard in winds of 8-15 knots. Marguerite sails beautifully. I watched for and hour a spectacular light show of lightning striking above in the clouds to my port side and strikes to the water in front of me. I tightened the jib sail on the furler to make it smaller in case a strong wind would precede the impending storm ahead and this allowed me to turn upwind to starboard in hopes of avoiding it altogether. As it turned out, Jim who followed me on his shift reported that the lightning show lasted another 20 minutes and then dissipated.
Spetz has accompanied each helmsmen throughout the night with her feline wanderings around the cockpit. She normally on land is on the prowl for lizards until late morning, so this has been a big disruption of her life. She has managed to provision however by loading a few lizards on the boat; one raced up my leg in bed as I was sleeping the other night.
Winds clocked around to the south from east and are currently SSW and making their clockwise rotation to west, WNW, north, ENE, then east. Hopefully we will be away from the easting once we clear Bermuda on our way to the Azores .
.
May 18: Dreary Monday in St. Augustine
Now that the major equipment concerns of the schooner have been addressed , the weather has turned against us.
North winds over the southern currents of the Gulf Stream make for very steep wave heights and dangerous going. If we can control one thing about this journey it is when to start, the rest is up to mama nature. Rain and wind abound in St. Augustine, the first rain I have seen of any quantity in Florida.
Jim and Barbara are still great company and we have settled into a fairly predictable routine of boat work, cook, eat, drink, plan, strategize, and fall asleep to our own boat tales, get up at 6:30 to listen to Chris Parker's weather routing on the SSB radio and the start of a new day.
We hope to depart by Thursday or perhaps Sunday, we will check with Chris in the morning and Herb in the afternoons as well as NOAA weather and GRIB files and buoy reports throughout the day. It is very scienterrific..
May 4, 2009
Crossing the Atlantic
We are ready to go on our trans Atlantic voyage and will be leaving tomorrow night for Saint Augustine FL to rendezvous with Jim and Barbara on Schooner Marguerite.
The itinerary for Marguerite is to sail up the Gulf Stream some time around the 15th of May, and then go out toward Bermuda. We plan on spending a day or two there refreshing and refueling.
We will then do the 1700 mile leg which will take about 20 days or so to the Azores island chain that is 900 miles west of Portugal. We will spend a week there most likely enjoying the company of other cruisers making the trip across--Horta is the capital of the Azores and a popular stopping place before making the final leg to Europe.
We intend to go through Gibraltar, possibly stopping in Morocco, and then on to Spain, where Rob and I will depart Marguerite. Jim and Barbara intend to make Marguerite their home in Europe for an undetermined amount of time, so this voyage, for us is actually a boat delivery.
We have been invited to stay in a house in Lamposta, Spain, which is between Valencia and Barcelona and about 20 minutes from Spain's southeast coast. My brother's wife's sister Eleanor will be our hostess for a week or so. Then we will hitch trains through Spain and France for the next few weeks winding up in London for a few days. From there we will fly back on Air Icelandia with a two daylayover in Iceland. We arrive in Boston (Logan) Airport on the 30th of July.
The rest of the summer will be spent at camp with our grandchildren and hopefully I will see my siblings too. So that's the latest.
While we are at sea you can track our progress if you go to winlink.org, then click on "map" then click on "user". Look in the directory to your right for these HAM radio email call letters: KI6WLU@winlink.org. It will point to our position and if you click on "view position reports" you will get a short report and lattitude/longitude from Marguerite. Please check this out !!
Barbara wraps herself on a chilly morning
Our tiny wind vane that did a magnificent job of steering us across the ocean. This little "sail" is connected to its own rudder which transmits mechanically to the boat's rudder. No power but wind power is needed.
Wind generators and cattle among the hydrangeas. Fial is a self-sufficient community with few imports from the outside world. 
