Back in Blighty

I actually got back last Friday. Early. At 0300. After a hire car dash back from T2 at Heathrow.
Had to wake Tracy to let me in. Oops! But why did I need house keys at sea?

Glad I'm back. I was away for quite a long time when viewed from a four year old's perspective. And they all missed me. Tracy posted on Facebook that she was pleased I was back.

Eclipse is off on her tour of the islands with Greg. and his partner. Then she will be joined by her new crew for the trip back to the UK.

I may see them all at Cowes for the crew celebrations. I need to get my sleeping bag back!

This is all.
DBM

Horta At Last.

Position: 38N31.865 028W37.510

 

We're here. Just waiting for Rick to clear us through Customs.

Then it's beers all round -"empregado seis biero se faz favor, we've earned it"

 

This is Eclipse blog signing off.

 

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.- -. -.. / - .... .- -. -.- ... / ..-. --- .-. / -.-- --- ..- .-. / ... ..- .--. .--. --- .-. - /

 

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Land Ahoy.

Position: 38N34 29W07

 

Nearly there. 30 miles to go.

Faial is now big in front of us. Well we think it's big as the largest thing we've seen has been a whale!!

Horta. Beer. More beer. Sleep. Home.

 

Nearly the end. 1886 miles so far. 30 or so to go.

Sad and happy.

 

DBM

Downwind checks through to Final approach.

Position: 38N35 029W29

 

Brakes off. Undercarriage down. Carb heat hot. Mixture rich. Fuel on and sufficient.

Sorry, wrong type of flying.

 

The previous watch, Dean & Lucy, woke us up at 0440 this AM as the wind rose to 8Kn. Time to fly the kite.

Took time to set it all up properly before making a leisurely raise. All good.

 

Flew it until 0740 until the heavens threatened to open. Got it down just before the rain came.

And did it come!!

 

Heading DIRECTLY at the breakwater.

 

40 miles to go

 

We'll BE BACK SOON

 

L8r d00dz

DBM   =8-))

Steaming towards Horta

Position: 38N47 031W30

 

Yesterday there was NO WIND. Well as close to not enough to push a heavy boat along as to call it zero. So we put the motor on.

 

Did I tell you that we hit a whale. No. Well we were under sail and gybed. Thirty seconds later BANG. Just like hitting a road calming bump at speed. And a big black tail flipped us the fluke, as if to say "$(*&^%R£$ tourists, don't you know which side of the sea to drive on??" We checked the bilges and keel bolts for signs of water ingress / damage. There was neither.

 

Sooo when we put the motor on there was a horrid knocking coming from the propeller. We went along for a while until we decided to go and have a look underneath. After we'd put down the diving platform, Dean stuck his head under the boat. We have a bent propeller blade. The sound is probably cavitation. And there were lots of jellyfish suddenly came into view under the boat.

 

At dusk we got wind. Suddenly. So up went the Asymmetric Kite. And we got between 5 & 8 Knots for 9 hours. Free miles towards Horta. We now have enough fuel to motor all the way. Hoorah. Beer and the big silver freedom bird await.

 

We've just caught a fish. Then it got away. It was THIS BIG ... (At least 15 LB, Greg)

 

135 miles to go.

 

DBM

Where are they now ..

Position: 38N27 33W42

 

Yesterday was a showering and laundry day; we have sufficient water to use the fresh water supply for this. Hoorah. The greasy feeling left after washing in salt water is just not nice.

 

We've changed course. This is just so dissimilar from racing, where the sails are constantly being trimmed for maximum speed. Here we need a good average speed towards our destination. So we are heading north to get round the expected hole in the wind. The gybes are getting better. Fewer mistakes and lots of learning going on.

 

More dolphins  - this time their timing was better and we weren't in the middle of a gybe! So we got video and pictures.

 

Then, I'm not sure all this excitement is good for us, Dean spied a yacht on the horizon. We just had to catch it. At 7 knots we were there in about 2.5 hours. This was Jess, an IP350 - quite heavy and slow - on an independant passage from Miami to the UK, with a week stopover in the Azores. He seemed pleased for the call - another "fast boat" had passed by the previous day and had not raised them. We got pictures of them - they got pictures of us. We'll swap ix in Horta or by email. It's just fantastic to get within a couple of boatlengths of another vessel this far out at sea. Marvelous.

 

We're all well and looking forward to a cheeky beer in Horta.

Can't wait to get there now

 

Thanks for the comments and the emails.

DBM  

I don't know what day it is.

Position: 38N11 36W50

 

Another disaster.

We've run out of instant coffee.

And all we have is ground coffee.

But no coffee maker.

 

Have you seen the shenanigans that a Texan will go through to get his morning coffee.

We now have a pan on the stove heating water and coffee grounds. Then they'll strain it through the electric kettle.

Whatever.

 

We found a 4" squid on the sidedeck this morning. After looking at it for a few minutes. And taking a couple of pictures, we skewered it on a fishing hook and sent it for a swim. I'll get back to you if it snares us a bigger fish.

 

The 1.5 oz kite is still flying (and in one piece). We've had some good progress overnight.

But the gybe last night left something to be desired.

All had looked well on the initial hoist yesterday morning. All the sheets and guys looked correct and the kite was flying well. Only when we came to gybe did we find that the downhaul had been connected between the starboard sheet and guy and stopped the pole from coming back on the gybe. Fraught times. I should cocoa. So we had some knotty issues to sort out during a quite unstable point of sail. However the resourceful Anna managed to order us out of the mess.

 

Only 350 miles to go. But there is a hole in the wind between here and our destination. We do however have 150 miles of fuel. Hoorah.

 

I'll be home soon. I'm intending to take enough time in Horta to buy pressies, then I'm outa there.

DBM