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| Jura is First Departing Horta Harbor |
Aboard Relish their new mate, Michel (formerly on Jura) got the immediate opportunity to
familiarize himself with the pilot house and nav/comm equipment as he took the
first shift at the helm. Michel is a
veteran seaman and Nordhavn owner himself – check out N50-26 Sea Turtle if you ever have the chance.
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| Leaving Horta in Our Wake |
Just before 1700 we passed
the eastern end of Sao Jorge and were treated to the sight of three waterfalls
spilling down the steep southern cliffs of the island. That was followed shortly by the light house
at its eastern most tip. Entering the open ocean waters between Sao Jorge and
Sao Miguel (20 miles in the distance) we had a pushing current giving us
between 8 and 9 knots SOG, along with gently rolling swells of no more than a
few feet and an almost imperceptible wind chop on top. It was a really nice ride under mostly sunny
skies and we had the stabilizers dialed way back with a 15 knot speed setting.
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| Passing Pico in the Distance |
By the time we reached
Terceira – the next Azorean island about 65 NM east of Horta – it was 1930
local time, and the ideal weather continued.
Terceira is one of the larger islands of the archipelago, with a
population of 56,000 and covering 153 square miles. Here you will find the Azores' oldest
city, Angra do Heroísmo, the historical capital of the island chain. (Documentation varies, but the islands were
first discovered in the 1300’s or 1400’s.) It is also the seat of the judicial
system and the main base of the Azores Air Zone Command, where the USAF also
keeps a remote detachment. In contrast,
Faial only has about 15,000 residents, many for only six months of the year,
and Horta’s population is just under 10,000 people. Throughout the nine islands
of the Azores archipelago the key industries are agriculture, dairy
farming, livestock, fishing, and tourism, with the latter being
the most dominant. Regardless of which island you may choose to visit, the
scenery is spectacular and their people are welcoming and friendly. We’ll miss them.
The remainder of this first
day enroute to Gibraltar continued to be uneventful, with superb weather and
sea conditions, with all boats reporting ops normal.
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| Waterfalls on Sao Jorge |
Dawn came early in this part
of the world on Tuesday 13-Jun, with the glint of first light glowing
dimly around 0500, highlighting only very scattered clouds low on the
horizon. Our three-ship formation was a
nice tight V-shape with one mile spacing.
We had been tracking two non-AIS targets on radar for most of the early
morning – one was Jura, holding
steady at 9 miles directly off our bow, as she had not yet reached her
northerly turn point. The other was a
slow moving blip bearing 118 that ARPA told us would cross our path and pass
within a mile of us, so we kept a close eye on that one. Eventually we got an AIS signal that identified
it as S/V Wolf, and she continued on a northerly heading as we passed by her
stern with ample clearance.
The sun peeked at us coming
above the horizon around 0620 revealing a partly cloudy sky and seas still with
a gentle following swell and light wind chop on top. Ambient air temp was 63F and SST at 67F, with
a 6-8 knot breeze out of the southwest.
We were still making good time with an average speed of 7.8K since we had
departed Horta.
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| Leaving the Azores Behind |
The seas picked up as the
day progressed with growing swells, some occasionally in the 6-7 foot range,
but once again at intervals that were quite tolerable. That is, of course, unless you bring the boat
to a stop and let them roll you while broadside-to. Which is what happened at 1000 when Relish hooked up with a feisty blackfin
tuna, and when Rick literally got rolled out of bed a few hours earlier than he
had planned.
But it was worth it – Silvio
slowed the boat and Chelle was on the rod.
She handed it over to our “other” Michel who reeled it in and then
leadered it into the boat. (He also
cleaned the fish.) Voila, fresh tuna for supper tonight! (Note to other anglers – this tuna swallowed a
Rattle-Jet XL lure that was being skipped at the surface.) This was going to be a good day.
We conducted our usual
afternoon fleet briefing, reported fuel stats, coordinated our timing for the
next two time zone changes, and confirmed that unlike Moxie, Relish did not
crack any toilet seats while fighting its fish in the swells. We had taken a slight detour to the north of
our originally planned course to manage some coming weather patterns – mostly
predicted wind and increasing swells that would likely come out of the north in
a few days, by which time we could take a more southerly track to keep that
stuff somewhat on our stern. All that
made our predicted arrival in Gibraltar at least a half day later than
originally planned.
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| Very Fresh Tuna for Dinner |
A short while later Relish
had another hookup – again on the same (green) Rattle-Jet lure; this one took
some line with it before Chelle got it tired enough to bring it to the
boat. As Michel grabbed the leader we
were treated to a close up view of a beautiful juvenile blue marlin –
approximately a 3-footer. It then spit
the hook and happily sprinted off into the swells. It was close enough for us to call it a
“catch and release” opportunity.
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| N55 Moxie on Our Port Side |
We ended this day knowing
that we’d passed our northernmost point of the entire journey (well above the
38th parallel and not quite to the 39th) which meant that
Relish was nearly 900 nautical miles
north of its Nassau departure point, and that Angela and Moxie were over
700 nautical miles to the north of their Palm Beach jump off point. More importantly, of course, was that we were
also 3,000 miles east of Florida and nearing Spain – about 650 miles west of
Lisbon. And we still had a nice current
and the wind at our backs.
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| We Went Considerably North of the Planned Route Between Azores & Gibraltar |
Aboard Relish we figured out this handy layman’s guide to sea conditions;
we call this the “Forward Shower Stall Scale” or FSS Scale. Over on Moxie they would probably convert the following
to various conditional states of the toilet seat in the forward head:
(1)
Mild
& comfortable seas: you can take a
shower standing up in the forward head.
(2)
Moderate
seas: you can still shower standing up
in the forward head but you bounce off the shower stall walls a few times.
(3)
Heavy
seas: you can shower in the forward head
if you’re sitting down.
(4)
Very
heavy seas: you’re not taking a shower
today, get used to the smell.
And as the sun rose just
before 0630 we had started out at #1 on the FSS, with gentle 4 foot rollers
pushing us from the northwest and a light wind chop on top from a light
southwesterly breeze. Air temp was 65F
and the SST had warmed slightly to 68F.
Skies were partly cloudy, providing a bit of eye relief from that early
morning brightness.
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| A Pod of Orcas Join Angela in Formation |
Fishing lines aboard Relish and Moxie got deployed early – yesterday’s success with green
Rattle-Jet lures trailing long (50 meters behind the boat) had our anglers’
hopes high. Green feathered things
seemed to be the winning ticket, so that’s what we rigged to start the
day. Relish
also had some unexpected bait to use – a very unfortunate squid had landed
on its teak table in the cockpit some time during the night. Just before noon
the crew of Angela got the rare
pleasure of seeing a pod of Orca killer whales playing in and around their bow
– a spectacular sight.
The fleet’s noontime weather
report was a mixed bag – relatively good for the next few days, but then about
the time we planned to reach the Straits of Gibraltar later in the week it was
looking pretty ugly. The straights are
known for nasty conditions when the inflow or outflow currents collide with strong
winds from the opposite direction, and that’s exactly what the forecast was
calling for. For now we decided to take
the weather router’s recommendation to continue on a mostly easterly heading
rather than direct to Gibraltar – basically we were aimed directly at
Lisbon. By the time we reached the coast
of Spain the strong north winds would be kicking in and we could then turn
south towards Gibraltar to put them on our stern.
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| This Poor Squid Boated Himself...Instant Bait |
If the next forecast for the
straits turns out to be as crappy as the current one then we would start
looking at holing up at an intermediate location to wait out better conditions
– Rota, Spain was a likely place for us to consider.
As sunset was nearing we
were still 450 miles west of Lisbon, with 650 miles to reach Rota…and at least
another day from there to reach Gibraltar.
Andre, taking a break aboard Angela, hooked up with a hard fighting fish
that took some time and considerable effort to reel in – a 36 inch blackfin
tuna. That is a big blackfin!
Sitting in the cockpit with
a warming sun on our faces – and seas at the lowest level of our FSS scale –
was a great way to end another good day.
At 0400 on Thursday 15-Jun the trip odometer on M/V Relish showed exactly 3,500 nautical
miles traveled since departing Nassau on 16-May. Angela
and Moxie had clocked just over 3,300 miles since departing Palm Beach on
17-May. For this final leg the fleet had
steamed 496 nautical miles since departing Horta, at an average speed of 7.68
knots. All three vessels were averaging
a minimum of 1.3 NMPG (including generator burn) so fuel reserves were more
than adequate.
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| View of Another Sunset from the Cockpit |
As we progressed further
east (our longitude was now squarely in the teens) we noted a gradual increase
in both air and sea temps – by sunrise we had 67F with an SST of 69F. Swells had built overnight to an occasional 9
footer, but intervals and direction remained quite comfortable, with WNW winds
at 10-12 knots and a mostly overcast sky.
By midday, however, it was
mostly clear and sunny, and Moxie had
hooked up with more fish as had Relish
– a marlin and a tuna on both vessels.
There was no further fishing action until very late in the day when Relish landed another small blackfin
just before sunset with Michel on the rod and reel. The seas were starting to churn a bit more,
initially about a #2 on the FSS scale, but that rapidly went to #3 as the winds
clocked around to the north with increasing velocity. We were getting anxious to see the next day’s
updated weather forecast.
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| Bow Goes Up |
By the early morning hours
of Friday 16-Jun the seas were just plain messy. The wind was out of the north at 25 knots with
gusts to 30, giving us nasty short-interval wind waves of 3 to 5 feet on top of
the larger swells. That pegged the FSS
scale, and the question instead became where one could sleep without getting levitated
or tossed. Answer: somewhere down low
and aft of the pilot house.
Around 0500, aboard lead
boat Angela, Bernie suggested – and
everyone concurred – that we make a slight turn to the southeast to cut the
next corner and put some of the wind and waves a tad more to our sterns. That definitely helped but the ride still
resembled boating in a washing machine, and the stabilizers (bless them) were
getting a workout. There would be no
fishing today.
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| Bow Goes Down |
As the sun rose to
illuminate a partly cloudy sky and an ocean of whitecaps, we were 220 NM due
west of Lisbon, Portugal. We had been
underway 90 hours since departing Horta in the Azores, and had averaged just
over 7.5 knots to this point. While
ambient air temp still hovered in the mid 60’s we noticed SST had decreased to
67F with the north wind and frontal passage.
At noon we received a
weather forecast update from Commanders via sat phone, and it was just as lousy
as the last one. It also appeared the
winds would be clocking around to the east starting tomorrow and on Sunday,
building further as we approached the Straits of Gibraltar. So we decided to plow ahead on our ESE
heading towards the coastline of Portugal at whatever pace we could comfortably
maintain, hoping to eventually find some protection in the lee of the land. After that we would update the forecast for
the straits and decide whether we should wait for a window at one of the
coastal marinas or just plow on through.
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| Sleeping in the Salon -- Sometimes a Necessity |
The afternoon brought more
of a high overcast to complement the wind and rough seas; everybody spent the
rest of the day just hanging on or napping in between the routine engine room
checks and helm shifts. And everyone
slowly got used to the new noises and vibrations such a vessel can make when
bouncing around in big seas.
Aboard Relish Rick passed the time building some new Maretron screens (in
the kneeling position), and somehow Chelle managed to find a braced position in
the galley to cook up the fresh tuna we had caught the night before for another
great supper. Not an easy feat given the
way we were pitching and rolling.
As the sun headed towards
the western horizon over a boiling ocean we had about 160 nautical miles and 21
hours to go on our ESE heading to reach the coast of Portugal….and hopefully
some calmer waters.
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| Building New Maretron Screens |
In the wee hours of the
morning of Saturday 17-Jun the seas were still churning: some furniture in Relish’s salon got rearranged courtesy of one big broadside
roller. But somewhat surprisingly the
waters calmed as the early morning progressed; by dawn the wind was northerly
but only at around 12-15 knots, and the swells shrunk to the 3-to-5 foot
range. Intervals remained tight with
wind chop on top, but it was considerably better than just a few hours ago.
By sunrise we had an air
temp of 66F and the SST was 67F with a gradually falling barometer but clearing
skies. We were hoping that the
forecasted stronger winds out of the east might be further delayed as we
continued heading towards the Portuguese coastline, which as of 0640 was now 90
nautical miles off the bow. If that were
true, and we got into the protected lee of the coast, we just might wet the
fishing lines later today. Or benefit
from some better sleeping conditions. By
early afternoon our sea conditions were downright pleasant, so we turned
further to the south nearer our original route, and started to close the
distance between us and Gibraltar.
We of course also noted an
increase in radio chatter on VHF channel 16 as we got closer to civilization
once again. It was a good reminder that
we needed to remain vigilant for traffic, as it would surely soon increase in
volume, especially compared to what we had been experiencing in the middle of
an ocean for the past week. And by early
afternoon our radar screens were getting cluttered with return blips and AIS
symbols.
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| AIS Traffic Builds as Land Gets Near |
Aboard Moxie they were also eyeing some sea floor features on the chart,
one seamount in particular seemed worth a detour for some drive-by trolling, so
that’s what we did. Nobody netted any
fish from that excursion, but it got us closer to the Portuguese coast. And shortly thereafter everyone had cell
phone service and plenty of spam email to sift through.
By 2030 we had turned the corner around Cape St. Vincent (Cabo de São Vicente) and Sagres Point at the far southwestern corner of Portugal with its cliffs and lighthouse within easy view. The issue now was what route to take into the Straits – direct and risk some headwind and head sea pounding, or continue hugging the coast. Regardless, eventually we would have to bash our way through the rough seas within the Straits.
Knowing that was coming we decided to enjoy our last sunset on this journey with some quiet time in the cockpit while on relatively calm waters.
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| Sunset -- Just Before 2200 Local Time |
And then we decided to experiment. Around midnight local time Angela and Moxie peeled off to the north to hug the coast a bit more, while Relish continued direct toward the Strait. At daybreak we had lost AIS contact with each other but were still within radar and VHF radio range. By midday it was clear that Angela and Moxie had the better ride and were making better time even with the added distance. Relish had slowed to make the ride more tolerable in the head seas where initially she encountered square waves of 4 to 6 feet at quick intervals. It was the proverbial “boating on a waffle iron” ride.
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| Land Ho -- We Found Portugal |
By the time we neared the actual Strait of Gibraltar, however, none of that really mattered much. While Relish was a few miles behind the other two boats, all three of us eventually got clobbered with 8-to-10 footers at wickedly close intervals as the 30K winds buffeted against the opposing current. Hugging the northern coastline helped minimize that somewhat, but it wasn't until we turned the corner at Tarifa to head northeast towards Gibraltar itself that we escaped the big waves.
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| About to Turn the Corner Out of the Straits & Towards GIB |
At that point we only had 15 miles to go, and relatively flat water in spite of the still howling winds. It was nearing 2100 and sunset, so we were hoping for calmer winds inside the marina. And a couple hours later as we cruised into the large harbor at Gibraltar we got our wish -- winds had calmed, and both Angela and Moxie had just finished docking using the last two alongside ties available. Silvio maneuvered Relish into the tight Med-mooring spot that remained, and by 2300 we were all secure at our intended destination on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean.
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| Approaching The Rock at Dusk |
We'll have at least one more blog entry to wrap this up....we'll try to summarize the stats on the journey itself, get some more shots of both our crews and Gibraltar, and put this whole thing into perspective.
But for right now we are going to clean up ourselves and our boats and go get some time on Terra Firma.
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| Moxie Moored at Gibraltar |
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| Angela Moored at Gibraltar |
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| Relish Med-Moored at Gibraltar |
