Day 19 – Heading to Flores!
Yesterday wound up being a 137 mile day bringing our grand total of miles traveled to 2,327. It appears from everything we can see if everything goes as planned (ie – weather, etc) we should be safely in the marina at Flores by tomorrow afternoon. Time will tell. If we realize that we would be getting there after dark we will wait until the next morning as we will not enter at night.
Yesterday was not the most comfortable of days due to very large seas and high winds. We have resorted to having dinners out of a can as it makes it easy with very little clean up or effort as you have to strap yourself in to the galley so you don't get thrown around. It is an interesting way to cook! The funny thing is that we continue to see Sailor walking around seemingly without much effort going for water & food – she even comes by to remind us to pet her. She has gotten into the swing of the boat and as Bob says she is in a perfect position - very low to the floor with 2 extra feet to steady her.
Last night we got in to quite a squall. Previous to this we had 15 foot seas and winds generally at the 20-25 knot range. We knew that there were possibilities of some squalls so we were ready with severely reduced sail and our foul weather gear complete with sea boots on. It hit hard with lots of pounding rain and winds sustained at 30-35 with gust up into the low 40's. At this time our autopilot decided to blow a fuse so Janice held the wheel steady while Bob quickly went down to the nav station and replaced the fuse. Things were getting quite crazy so even decided to drop our mainsail. Only problem was that it wouldn't drop completely so we had to deal with it still being partial up, luckily it was de-powered. Once the squall was finishing we wanted to get the main sail back up so we could maintains stability and speed due to the high waves, but of course it wouldn't go up. Bob had to go forward (clipped on to the safety line of course) and found out that the line to the main sail was caught around 2 of the steps on the mast. We turned the boat into the wind, allowed the sail to straighten and pulled it back up. Turned around again, put out some of the genoa and got back on course. All of this took from about 10:15PM to midnight. Luckily we only had a few rain showers after that, but the night definitely took its toll. As Bob says, who needs an exercise program when you have these kinds of things happen where you are pulling in sails in heavy winds, manning the wheel without power all while trying to balance yourself in a heeling boat. The good thing was that we were able to handle it safely and everything is OK. This AM we have quite a bit of blue sky and at 5AM this morning we were able to change our heading from mainly north to a heading taking us directly to Flores in the Azores. The seas have reduced some but are still about 8-10 feet and we have winds of 20-22 knots giving us quite a pleasant sail. We keep wondering, why is it that it always seems that the squalls happen in the middle of very dark nights??
It is now 3PM EST and our position is 38.31N, 34.05W – we are moving along at about 7 knots with winds maintaining at 25-30 knots. At this rate it appears that we should make it to Flores about this same time tomorrow.
We figure it will take a couple of days just to clean the boat, inside and out and then of course it would be nice to have a full night of sleep for a change. Janice used to think she couldn't take naps – well, she has learned that you sleep when the schedule says you should as you never know if things will happen that you won't be able to get your next rest – always want to be prepared for the next wind gust, squall or just sitting on a pleasant evening of night duty. This trip has definitely covered the gammit from calm seas to raging ones. We just feel good about being able to handle them all and will be glad to have a few days in port before we move on again. Will be back in normal email contact when we reach the Azores so will also take some time to catch up on computer work as well as time to explore the island of Flores.
Best wishes to you all!



----
This e-mail was delivered via satellite phone using IRIDIUM's AxcessPoint Mail & Web software.
Please be kind and keep your replies short.