can we help
+44(0)1983 296060
+1 757-788-8872
tell me moreJoin a rally

Menu

Webster - The search goes on.......



Tuesday 3rd June 2014 Terceira to São Miguel 92nm

Terceira is a lovely island and Angra a lovely port, a bit rolly, but otherwise alright. Glad to leave again though as it gives the liver a rest for a short while at least.

The next leg is to Ponta Delgada on the island of São Miguel, the largest in the group by some way. I visited this port on the AZAB race back in June 1999 so was looking forward to reacquainting myself. The wind though was looking light from behind all the way and this was to be a night passage. Still, we had a working chart plotter so no problems in navigation for us this time. WRONG!

Neal had been fiddling in the aft lazzerette pumping expandable foam into the cable holes, which had allowed water into the boat from the aft locker, having now discounted incontinence as a probable, if not contributory cause of his damp mattress. As the plotter had worked without any problem at all from Horta we thought it was cured, but when Neal was inputting some waypoints to São Miguel it froze again. However, when we set off at 1730 in a reasonable 10 knot NW breeze it refused to open past the introductory screen and what's more I could not get the auto pilot to hold a course. Something had clearly gone awry and the only possible cause was a wire had been pushed/ pulled by the foam or by Neal fiddling. So a hour or so back in the lazzerette still revealed nothing so we gave up on both the CP and the auto helm. This meant hand steering downwind all night.

To make matters worse, Neal had been up to Shenannigans last night and had ripped the muscles in his lower back. Before you jump to the obvious conclusion, he was helping the yacht Shenannigan tighten her lines in the swell and pulled too hard, with the present consequence. He was completely pole axed and had to lay flat on his bunk for much of the night on pain killers (pill version as opposed to the rum one - I suppose anyway!)

The wind was dead behind so to keep any speed at all we had to steer high. Many boats had resorted to engine and headed direct but because hand steering under engine is a nuisance we continued sailing off course through the night. We put the spinnaker up at first light having gybed onto a decent angle for Ponta Delgada but naturally after a couple of hours the wind veered behind us so we had to drop it again.

1130 "Land Ahoy", Blue Peter Badge to yours truly today. It took some convincing of the others that what I had correctly spotted was the western-most tip of the island and not a dark cloud, being a very cloudy day, so my claim to fame stood.

There was by now a decent breeze if still from dead behind so we sailed on and along the coast into the harbour entrance that we reached at around 1500 having sailed over 106 nm with our at best erratic weaving about. Igor definitely makes up for a lack of auto pilot with his enthusiasm to steer all the time; he is our own home grown auto pilot and like the electronic version never complains. I should rightly rename 'George' to 'Igor'.

We tied up on the reception dock where Doug Rivers and I had landed all those years ago and into the Customs office where we then had been properly welcomed by a young Customs Girly with a short skirt and four blouse buttons undone; sorry, some memories die hard......sadly she wasn't there this time (not that I was looking of course).

As we were one of very few boats that had sailed all the way we had missed the bus tour round the island which was a shame so we had to find beer to compensate. The bus tour was not that long so soon saw the crowd returning and we went for a rum and coke or three on Arcarius who happened to have the local electronics chap on board sorting out his sat phone. He promised to come over to Webster once he had been across to Ballytrim to have a look at the auto helm etc. which he did in no time. He went straight to the problem and sorted the pilot, a duff connection, and rebooted the plotter, saying it was getting old - like the rest of us then! 40 euros he charged, brilliant.

Went out to a fish restaurant in the evening and had a Cataplana, absolutely lovely and as it was for two and I was sharing with Anita from Arcarius who didn't eat much, I had loads! Dave had to share his with Igor and likewise fared no better than Anita....good job Igor and I didn't try to share, there would have been a fight!

Ponta Delgada is much as I remember it with lots of narrow streets and interesting architecture. But they have also since built a new shopping centre which extends over into the harbour with many more bars and restaurants than before plus a ten pin bowling lane which we visited on Thursday evening with the Arc crowd - great fun. Dave confessed to spending the last couple of years finding something I was rubbish at and a last here it was - I was truly awful scoring 58 points and last by a country mile. He could tell by my body language and false smile that I was not happy which made him so very smug. So I had to have another go to redeem myself and no doubt Dave put money on me getting thrashed again but unluckily to him, I won with 132 points! Hehee, sorry mate the search goes on!

The weather forecast for the next few days has been looking decidedly dodgy and several boats were considering their options as to delay departure from Friday to Saturday and even missing out the next port of call, Santa Maria, completely. 25+ knots and 5 metre waves were showing but these were to decrease by Friday evening. Later gribs showed 20 knots and 3.2 metre waves which was more like it so our decision was made to go!

It may be lumpy but hey, that's what we're here for -great sailing!

Hi Hoooo!

Charlie



Chas Baynes
Sent from my iPad

Previous | Next