[s]
[c1]p:43°22.00'N:008°23.11'W
[c2]pd:000|0.0
[d]2013-06-27 18:20Z
[t]Testing this system & update of plans
[l]La Coruna, Spain
[a]Janice
[b]
From what we see on the weather reports as of tonight we are hoping to start moving north again either
Monday or Tuesday next week. That is a few days off so things can change, but that is the tentative plan for
now. We have changed our destination and will go straight across the Bay of Biscay and go to Camaret and
then explore Brittany by car, train and/or bus.
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Thursday, June 27, 2013
Thursday, May 23, 2013
tsamaya
[s]
[c1]p:42°15.64'N:008°46.96'E
[c2]pd:000|0.0
[d]2013-05-23 21:47Z
[t]test of position report by SSB
[l]Cangas Spain
[a]Janice
[b]
We are still in Cangas but hope to move this coming Sunday. This is a test of putting in a position report via
the SSB.
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[c1]p:42°15.64'N:008°46.96'E
[c2]pd:000|0.0
[d]2013-05-23 21:47Z
[t]test of position report by SSB
[l]Cangas Spain
[a]Janice
[b]
We are still in Cangas but hope to move this coming Sunday. This is a test of putting in a position report via
the SSB.
###
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Tuesday, May 7, 2013
Morning of May 7th
We are still at sea with winds of about 17-20 knots and seas of about 3-4 feet and things are going well even though we are "rocking and rolling some". With the direction of the wind we had to go farther out to sea to get a more comfortable ride, now that it is daylight we have adjusted the sails again and heading toward our destination. The estimated time of arrival now is anywhere between 9-11 hours from now. I am writing this at 7:30 AM our time.
We saw lots of freighters and fishing boats out last night and had a couple of hard downpours in the early, dark hours of the morning. It is much clearer now and we are looking forward to getting in to port later today.
It is funny how even though we have been to sea before there sometimes are things that "tumble" with the movement of the boat. We had a couple of very small items that we never would have thought would have fallen fall - each time you never know what movements the boat will actually make and we haven't seem to figure them all out yet. Sleeping last night was a challenge as we were rocking back and forth as well as from side to side - we definitely didn't get sound sleep, but we rested. I am sure we will sleep well tonight when at anchor. I think we will welcome a few days of "bad" weather for sailing so we can stay put for a couple of days and do alittle exploring as well. Will keep you all posted as best we can.
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We saw lots of freighters and fishing boats out last night and had a couple of hard downpours in the early, dark hours of the morning. It is much clearer now and we are looking forward to getting in to port later today.
It is funny how even though we have been to sea before there sometimes are things that "tumble" with the movement of the boat. We had a couple of very small items that we never would have thought would have fallen fall - each time you never know what movements the boat will actually make and we haven't seem to figure them all out yet. Sleeping last night was a challenge as we were rocking back and forth as well as from side to side - we definitely didn't get sound sleep, but we rested. I am sure we will sleep well tonight when at anchor. I think we will welcome a few days of "bad" weather for sailing so we can stay put for a couple of days and do alittle exploring as well. Will keep you all posted as best we can.
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Saturday, May 4, 2013
We have left Lagos!
Well, we are on our way and are really enjoying being back on the water again. We left Lagos Marina on Friday, May 3rd about 1PM and headed down the coast about 20 miles to Sagres. We anchored there for a few hours and then got moving at 2AM on Saturday May 4th as the north winds had died down. We were fortunate in finding another boat heading in our direction so we have company going up the coast. It is always nice to have another boat out here with us as we check in with each other during the day. We had to motor a good part of the day and felt as if we were sitting in a washing machine, but then later on in the day we were able to have a very pleasant sail - what a great day! We made it to Sines about 5PM and checked into the marina here. We quickly got changed and headed into town to do alittle exploring. As Bob said we are now back into our explorer mode and are enjoying it already. As we were at the dock we also go a chance to meet Chris and Toni on the other boat (Gazelle) that is traveling north with us. It was nice to put a face with a voice and start to get to know them better. Our plan is to leave here about 6AM tomorrow and head to Cascais which is close to Lisbon (about a 10-11 hour trip for us) . We will anchor out there and then the next day more again for 14 hours to Nazare. We are pushing quickly now as we have a good weather window and trying to get some northing done. It looks like some weather will be stopping our move north soon and picked Nazare to stop in as it looks like there are some things to do and see there. Hopefully the information we have read will hold true.
Take care & will stay in touch as much as we can.
May 5 - Looks like my message above did not get sent so will update you. We did leave Sines at 6:30AM this AM with absolutely no wind and it turned out to be a nice, sunny day. We had absolutely flat seas so started motoring north. While the sea was calm we had a very large pod of dolphin around the boat which was great. As Bob says I am like a little kid every time I get a sighting as love to have them play around the boat. There were quite a few and we could even see them jumping completely out of the water as well as silver streaks going under the boat. We always take a sighting as a good omen. Only problem was that about 12 noon the winds picked up in the wrong direction and the seas came along with it. It wasn't too bad and we actually did get to have our sails up and sailed for a large part of the way (but with the motor on too). It turned out to be a long day as we got to the anchorage in Cascais about 6:45PM. All in all a good day. A bonus was that Chris & Toni on Gazelle got very close to us while we had our sails up so we will share some photos with each other. It has been very nice to have company on the trip. The plan is to sleep for a few hours and then leave here at 1:00AM as we have quite a long distance to the next stop in Nazare. We picked that location as we have heard we may have bad weather for a few days and it sounds like a nice place to explore.
Best wishes - by the way we have now traveled 190 nautical miles since leaving Lagos on Friday.
Monday - May 6 - just checked my email outbox and it appears that this didn't get sent. I am not positive so hope this will not duplicate a previous blog entry, but in case it didn't go, I'll try to send again tonight.
Plans always have to be flexible with this lifestyle. As mentioned above we planned on doing a day hope up to Nazare today. When we left at 1:30AM there was no wind so we started our motoring trip north on a very flat sea. At times it is hard to remember that this is still the Atlantic Ocean! We were making good progress toward Nazare and were only about 3 hours from our goal when plans changed. The other boat we were traveling with and ourselves looked at new weather reports and it looks like the weather is going to stay calm for another day. After talking it over on each boat we both agreed that we should "make hay while the sunshines" and make as much northing as possible with good weather. We have heard and read too many horror stories of what this coast can be when there are strong north winds. This plan now will take us overnight and we should get into the Bayone, Spain (just north of the Portugal/Spain border) by tomorrow afternoon. The other boat (Gazelle) have been there before and said it is a nice stop.
About 1:30PM today we had another good omen when a pod of dolphin came and played again. I tried to capture some of it on film so will see how it turned out and share it later with you if I got any good footage. Today we have had a mixture of weather - the moon came up about 4AM today but didn't see it too long as it became overcast and very foggy. We are happy to have our radar and AIS in these situations to be able to still see where other boats are. It works very well. We had a few sprinkles but nothing much (at least not yet at 6:30PM) and better yet we got some wind out of the south so we have been able to get quite a bit of help from the wind today boosting our speed.
Yes, plans have changed, but things are working out very well and it will get us to Spain by tomorrow, much earlier than we thought we would be able to accomplish this. We hope the weather forecast hold true through the night and into tomorrow. I'll report again tomorrow.
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Take care & will stay in touch as much as we can.
May 5 - Looks like my message above did not get sent so will update you. We did leave Sines at 6:30AM this AM with absolutely no wind and it turned out to be a nice, sunny day. We had absolutely flat seas so started motoring north. While the sea was calm we had a very large pod of dolphin around the boat which was great. As Bob says I am like a little kid every time I get a sighting as love to have them play around the boat. There were quite a few and we could even see them jumping completely out of the water as well as silver streaks going under the boat. We always take a sighting as a good omen. Only problem was that about 12 noon the winds picked up in the wrong direction and the seas came along with it. It wasn't too bad and we actually did get to have our sails up and sailed for a large part of the way (but with the motor on too). It turned out to be a long day as we got to the anchorage in Cascais about 6:45PM. All in all a good day. A bonus was that Chris & Toni on Gazelle got very close to us while we had our sails up so we will share some photos with each other. It has been very nice to have company on the trip. The plan is to sleep for a few hours and then leave here at 1:00AM as we have quite a long distance to the next stop in Nazare. We picked that location as we have heard we may have bad weather for a few days and it sounds like a nice place to explore.
Best wishes - by the way we have now traveled 190 nautical miles since leaving Lagos on Friday.
Monday - May 6 - just checked my email outbox and it appears that this didn't get sent. I am not positive so hope this will not duplicate a previous blog entry, but in case it didn't go, I'll try to send again tonight.
Plans always have to be flexible with this lifestyle. As mentioned above we planned on doing a day hope up to Nazare today. When we left at 1:30AM there was no wind so we started our motoring trip north on a very flat sea. At times it is hard to remember that this is still the Atlantic Ocean! We were making good progress toward Nazare and were only about 3 hours from our goal when plans changed. The other boat we were traveling with and ourselves looked at new weather reports and it looks like the weather is going to stay calm for another day. After talking it over on each boat we both agreed that we should "make hay while the sunshines" and make as much northing as possible with good weather. We have heard and read too many horror stories of what this coast can be when there are strong north winds. This plan now will take us overnight and we should get into the Bayone, Spain (just north of the Portugal/Spain border) by tomorrow afternoon. The other boat (Gazelle) have been there before and said it is a nice stop.
About 1:30PM today we had another good omen when a pod of dolphin came and played again. I tried to capture some of it on film so will see how it turned out and share it later with you if I got any good footage. Today we have had a mixture of weather - the moon came up about 4AM today but didn't see it too long as it became overcast and very foggy. We are happy to have our radar and AIS in these situations to be able to still see where other boats are. It works very well. We had a few sprinkles but nothing much (at least not yet at 6:30PM) and better yet we got some wind out of the south so we have been able to get quite a bit of help from the wind today boosting our speed.
Yes, plans have changed, but things are working out very well and it will get us to Spain by tomorrow, much earlier than we thought we would be able to accomplish this. We hope the weather forecast hold true through the night and into tomorrow. I'll report again tomorrow.
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Wednesday, October 3, 2012
We are here in Lagos, Portugal - October 3rd
Sorry I didn't get this posted earlier, but we are safely settled into the marina in Lagos, Portugal. We had a fabulous day yesterday, Oct 2nd with great winds and with a hull speed averaging at 6 knots. The sun was out and we knew this was our final day before reaching land. About 4PM we were welcomed to the Portuguese coast by a pod of dolphin. They gave us a great show for about 15 minutes - what a treat going under the boat and jumping all around us. Just a few minutes later we could see the coast of Portugal. What a welome! Just because we could see the coast however did not mean that we were getting to land soon as that happened around 4:15PM and we didn't arrive into port until 1:30AM. The seas calmed down as we were coming into the harbor which was helpful and we had a beautiful full, orange moon to guide us in - what else could you ask for!!
As soon as we got tied up to the reception dock we got some sleep - we couldn't believe how calm it was and how the boat didn't move at all as the marina is located up a river and away from the movement of the ocean. Hard to believe the boat could be so still.
This morning, October 3rd we had another treat in being able to see our friends, Kay and Dan from Ithaca - we had been hoping that it would work out to see each other and it did - we are so pleased. Again, another great way to come into a country. We went out to lunch with them which was a treat as it was definitely more than a one pot meal that we have been eating on the crossing. Getting together again tonight as they leave this area to explore more of Portugal. We will then take our time to explore Lagos and get some of the basics done like laundry and turning the boat back into a home for the time that we will be here.
We will be returning to our regular blog and will not use this one again until another long crossing which won't be until next year. We will be here in Portugal until mid-December when we will be flying back to the US for 3 months. We are looking forward to getting a chance to seeing some of you when we do.
Take care and best wishes to you all from both of us! Hard to believe that we are finally on mainland Europe and got here by our own sailboat - quite amazing if we do say so ourselves!
Tuesday, October 2, 2012
Day 7 Report
Well, day 7 ended at 10:30AM on October 2nd with 149 nm traveled. We have been flying at 6-7 knots. The wind has not changed much in that it is still about 15-20 knots, but we have changed angle with the wind which increased our hull speed. We had to be sure that we were north enough before turning southeast in order to round the southwest point of Portugal. It is currentl 1:30PM on October 2nd and we are at 37.06N, 9.47W getting near to the traffic separation lanes. These are lanes that are used by the large freighters which we as a private sailboat need to cross at right angles. These lanes are about 10 miles across and fortunately as we have AIS we can easily see where the freighters are located. More importantly using that same technology they can see us! We had hoped to cross it at night as it is easier to see the ships with their lights, but this will be fine.
At our present speed it appears that we will probably get to our destination of Lagos at midnight or after. We usually like to get to a harbor during the day, but this is a wide open one so should not present any problems. We have been in contact with the marina as well to let them know we are coming late.
The sun is out and the moon has been full which has made the night duties very pleasant. Last night we had our full genoa and 1 reef in the main out, but as we were heeling at 20 degrees all the time it was difficult to make dinner,etc. As a result we took in some of the genoa but with our change of angle we didn't slow down. It is amazing how your speed can change based on the angle to the wind and waves. We have had a few waves come over the bow and into the cockpit - that definitely gets our attention, but fortunately it isn't too much.
First thing when we get to Lagos after the official business of checking in will be getting a shower and then giving Tsamaya a fresh water bath as everything is covered with salt.
All in all it hasn't been a bad passage - a few days rougher than others but not bad. We will be glad to get our feet on terra ferma again for a while however and explore a new place. This definitely reminds us that the Azores really are out in the "middle of the Atlantic" - really about 985 miles off shore!
Will let you know when we get there and then will change back to our regular blog. Hope things are well with everyone - best wishes from us both.
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At our present speed it appears that we will probably get to our destination of Lagos at midnight or after. We usually like to get to a harbor during the day, but this is a wide open one so should not present any problems. We have been in contact with the marina as well to let them know we are coming late.
The sun is out and the moon has been full which has made the night duties very pleasant. Last night we had our full genoa and 1 reef in the main out, but as we were heeling at 20 degrees all the time it was difficult to make dinner,etc. As a result we took in some of the genoa but with our change of angle we didn't slow down. It is amazing how your speed can change based on the angle to the wind and waves. We have had a few waves come over the bow and into the cockpit - that definitely gets our attention, but fortunately it isn't too much.
First thing when we get to Lagos after the official business of checking in will be getting a shower and then giving Tsamaya a fresh water bath as everything is covered with salt.
All in all it hasn't been a bad passage - a few days rougher than others but not bad. We will be glad to get our feet on terra ferma again for a while however and explore a new place. This definitely reminds us that the Azores really are out in the "middle of the Atlantic" - really about 985 miles off shore!
Will let you know when we get there and then will change back to our regular blog. Hope things are well with everyone - best wishes from us both.
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Monday, October 1, 2012
One Day Closer
It is Monday, October 1st which means that we have been "at sea" for a total of 5 days now. We had a good day yesterday with a total of 125 nm traveled. This is good news! We had heavy cloud cover with a few bits of blue sky and no rain so things are going well. We have been using "monty" (our wind vane monitor) and "otto" (our autopilot) for steering. It is sure nice to have them as extra crew members as we do not have to hand steer. The wind has been much steadier now running between 14-18 knots out of the north/north east. We are starting to see more large ships out here and have talked to a few of them. One that just passed us is headed to Turkey and came from Charleston SC. He wanted to know if we wanted him to adjust his course for us as he was close to us. We are always surprised when we see these large ships adjust for a 40 foot sailboat, but very glad that they do!
We figure that we have about 231 miles to go. If we can keep the pace that we have been for the last couple of days, we should be in Lagos, Portugal on Wednesday, October 3rd. We are keeping our fingers crossed that the winds stay with us and that will be the case.
Our friends, Kay and Dan are in Portugal right now on vacation and they fly back on Oct 9th so hope to catch up with them before they leave - it sure would be nice to get together with friends from home.
Our position as of 12:00 noon (UTC) is 37.18N, 12.52W with a hull speed of 5.5-6knots. Winds are running 14 knots and our heading is 108 degrees. Keep your fingers crossed for us that we can stay with 125 nm days so we can make port on Wednesday. It will be great to be able to sleep in our own bed again, cook a meal without strapping ourselves in at the stove and have a decent shower! We have gotten into the routine however and the days are flying by which is good. We are both getting some reading done and between naps during the day and our 4 hour on/4 hour off duty schedule the days blend into one another. At least trying to update this daily keeps us on track of what day it is!
Take care & will keep you posted.
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We figure that we have about 231 miles to go. If we can keep the pace that we have been for the last couple of days, we should be in Lagos, Portugal on Wednesday, October 3rd. We are keeping our fingers crossed that the winds stay with us and that will be the case.
Our friends, Kay and Dan are in Portugal right now on vacation and they fly back on Oct 9th so hope to catch up with them before they leave - it sure would be nice to get together with friends from home.
Our position as of 12:00 noon (UTC) is 37.18N, 12.52W with a hull speed of 5.5-6knots. Winds are running 14 knots and our heading is 108 degrees. Keep your fingers crossed for us that we can stay with 125 nm days so we can make port on Wednesday. It will be great to be able to sleep in our own bed again, cook a meal without strapping ourselves in at the stove and have a decent shower! We have gotten into the routine however and the days are flying by which is good. We are both getting some reading done and between naps during the day and our 4 hour on/4 hour off duty schedule the days blend into one another. At least trying to update this daily keeps us on track of what day it is!
Take care & will keep you posted.
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