I had two options. To go more to the East, and at first this was the main plan. Yet, as usually in such situations, the feminine intuition decided ?

 

Week 37: 30.04-06.05.2018

 

I passed the central group of Azores from the West. Since the Azores are Portuguese islands, the great number of Portuguese sailors did not amaze me. In spite of the fact, that talking to them directly was not the most pleasant thing to do, it was kind of nice to meet other sailing… units.

 

 

Since it looked like I was going to be very close to the islands, I also assumed I was going to have mobile phone signal. And so it was. I almost lost my voice from talking on the phone so much ? Unfortunately it turned out, that using the Internet did not go so well. I wanted to download some weather information, a newspaper to read, etc., but it turned out that the social media website “ground” the best (although also awfully slowly). But anyway, except for one comment, I was only a passive reader there. I have to say, that the moment of passing by the archipelago was very difficult for me. It might have been the saddest moment of the cruise. Not because this is just a piece of land, because of people, food, shower etc. For me, the Azores are in top 3 of the most beautiful places on Earth. I love them. And so rarely are there on my way. Some crazy thoughts were wandering inside my head, that lrenach is down and I have no tracking (it happened before). That in spite of failure-free electric installation I have a blackout and AIS, which allows for locating me, does not work. And I am entering the coolest harbour in the world (that is Horta) and I am going for a baguette with butter. It doesn’t have to be a baguette, because in Horta you can buy a decent bread, at which even a Pole will look with approval. But no way, the Big Brother is watching… Maybe had it been 40-50 years ago? It was very dark when I was sailing north from Faial, the moon was going to rise only in couple of hours. Additionally I was blinded by the light of the telephone, so I didn’t really see what is going on around the boat. And then it got kind of weird. Sort of a commotion. A weird wave, swinging and all of a sudden along my right side 3 bright beams overtook me. I was mesmerised. It couldn’t have been a wave with 3 crests, because the waves were coming from the stern, so they would have been perpendicular, not parallel. Well yes, this must have been an animal. A big one. A torpedo ;).

 

 

 

 

It is Saturday, long May weeeekend. I am sunbathing on the deck. The sun suits me well. It’s heating nicely, and the temperature is no higher than 25 degrees Celsius. Music from the speaker, I am steering and Puffin is dashing pretty briskly under spinnaker. It is delightful. The dolphins dropped me a visit, I caught up with a tortoise, who was just starting his transatlantic race. It was really tiny, fist-size, and it didn’t even look at me, all busy with paddling. Oh, these sportsmen 🙂 Once in a while a purple-pink, puffed-up sail passes along my side. The finish line is closer and closer, and I have less and less time. Switching to fighting mode. It will be extremely difficult to beat the Italian’s time, I will probably be a couple of hours short. But as long as there is a chance, there is fun.

 

On the mileage:

27850 miles with an average of 4.5 kts. – 107,5 miles a day

25741 done, AVS 4.1kts. – 99.4 miles per day

1104 miles to the finish line after sailing through 95,9% of the planned route

ETA vs DEADLINE 1 days and 23 hours behind the schedule.

 

 

Artist of the week:

• Arcane

Books:

• Kazans – J. O. Curwood

Behind me:

• Azory