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Persistent Lady - Tuesday, June 10, 2014



We are back in touch! It has been a while, but I won’t bore you with the details of everything; suffice it to say we had no power (a manual switch to select which battery bank failed and it looked like we were charging, but we were not). We were able to sail on to Horta (almost … we were becalmed 35 miles out and was lucky enough to get a tow from another sailboat for the last part, good thing because we had lost all the meat in the freezer and fresh vegs and we were looking at cooking pasta in seawater for our evening meal as we stared at the peak of PICO just 35 miles away). Our weather router said we had 24 hours with no wind then we would be able to sail on in, but we gladly accepted the offer of a tow for the last part. We had plenty of beans, rice, pasta, etc. but we felt like we were out of food when we ate the last roast, and had to ditch the rest overboard.

Horta is beautiful, everyone should come here; magnificent views, friendly people, and some excellent boat mechanics!!! I was pleased to see two marine electricians and an interpreter come on board at 8:00PM and work till midnight to resolve my issues; unfortunately, it took several additional days to get the batteries back up to snuff and do some work on the motor and a hydraulic leak. But in the end, all is fixed and we are ready to enjoy a beautiful sail to Gibraltar, about a thousand miles of mostly broad reaching (we expect to have about 36 hours of calm that we will motor through followed by more winds and a close reach). After some R&R at Gibraltar we will sail on to Spain’s Balearic Islands where we will spend a few weeks and wind down and really get into ‘cruising’ mode. Will keep in touch as we sail along.

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