Tuesday 16^th May 2023

North of Terceira, The Azores

North Atlantic Ocean 38^o 54.9N 27^o 41.0W 

Blog by David  (Time zone: BST -1)

So, we are back at sea again, bound for Gibraltar or environs a passage of circa 1,150 miles. (I know I said 950 a while ago, I can explain why, but I was wrong!).

Time to fess up

We haven’t previously mentioned it, but on our last passage, the mainsail furler motor stopped working so we couldn’t reef the mainsail.  Our Weatherguru routed us to keep out of too much trouble and we were able to make some good days’  runs of 190+  miles.  However, on our approach to Horta we had to drop and bag the mainsail before we arrived. 

On this passage we are expecting some quite strong (25-30 kts)  winds as the Portuguese Trade Wind blows down the coast of Portugal.  Therefore we decided not to hoist the mainsail for fear of being overpowered.  So we have just the Genoa and the staysail. Of course, as a consequence,  for much of the journey we will be underpowered. So progress is going to be slower than we are used to - until we find the Trade Winds on Friday.

The other problem about having no mainsail is that we will not be able to “point” close to the wind. If the wind goes ahead of us – as it is predicted to do on the approach to Gibraltar - our progress up wind will be slow.

Of course, we have the engine – but we have limited fuel AND, because the wind is light today and forecast tomorrow, we could potentially use half our fuel over the first 48 hours of our journey. Thereafter,  we should have good winds to get us round Cape St Vincent (SW corner of Portugal) and ought to be able to refuel in Lagos, which is about 25 miles round the corner.

All of which is a bit of scene setting to explain that we have no real idea when we will get there – 24^th ? - or 25^th if we are unlucky -  23^rd if we can average 150+miles per day.  

Time to Strap up

Those of you who have sailed on Serendipity when we have had no mainsail will recall that it can be quite noisy.  When the sail is wrapped round the furler, it cushions the furler against the mast. When there is no sail, the furler is a 20+metre aluminium tube which rattlers around in the lager aluminium tube – aka the mast.  And it is NOISY, and probably does neither the furler nor the mast much good.

Having spent some weeks without the mainsail when the furler itself broke a few weeks ago, and in contemplation of a 1,150 mile journey we decided to try to secure the furler and stop it banging around inside the mast.   When Helen and Lenie were aboard we experimented and did a lot to reduce the noise but the foil still banged around.

However, the following masterpiece of engineering appears to have eliminated almost all of the noise/banging and there for hopefully reducing/eliminating potential damage.

Rope round the furler – knotted at each spreader - tensioned down to the backstay (the three orange lines).  This masterpiece of engineering seems to have  eliminated the noise.

Whether we can ever unravel it is a different question entirely!

Time to sign off!

So … that’s about it for today.