Year 3 -10th October 2026 – Faial -Azores for Hamble UK – Day 3 – the Last Passage to Home

David and I were on at 8.00am again and we took over from Watty & the Commodore. I had had no sleep due to the rolling of the boat. The waves were up as was the wind and we had 4 reefs in the main and a Doyle sign reefed genoa. We sailed for a while and I made some smoothies for everyone which was quite a struggle in the swell.

The wind began to increase and so did the waves. I reefed the genoa in further and we were fine for a while. Then I decided to change down to the Staysail again. This put us under more control and we also gybed so we got some westing in before we had to go on to a Starboard tack.

There was quite a bit of cloud and as the day wore on the sun came out and it was warm and sunny. The sea state built as did the wind and we were seeing quite a few 24-28kt winds and gusts of up to 32. Whatty made some bacon and egg which was good to keep us going. I was checking the wind and trying to work out the best route for us.

Mark cooked off the rest of the marlin in special marinade he had created. We put ourselves on the most comfortable gybe and had lunch, which was houmous, meats, cheeses, marinated marlin, salad and coleslaw. Our 12.00noon run was 169nm which was about right as we were on the engine for quite a lot of it.

After lunch I tried to get some rest but it was impossible. Mark had us 170 degrees off the wind and we were rolling a lot and we were on the Staysail only. I suggested we went to 160 which seemed better.

Dave was preparing a pre-cooked spaghetti bolognaise made by him in Cape Town so that we had a relatively easy supper with minimal cooking.

After some hours of tossing and turning I got up checked the weather and Whatty and the Commodore were taking over. It was time to go on the other tack which meant the waves were more behind us as they had built to about 3 m and were due to go to 3.5m. The waves began to look a bit mean like we saw before arriving in Faial but they were not as high as that.

I decided we would go more East of the models to reduce the strength of the wind we were due to get overnight and overnight tomorrow night. Tonight we expect gusts of about 35-36 and tomorrow potentially 40-41. The more East we are the better.  The change in gybe and angle seemed to be less rolly although every now and then we would get a large wave which would roll us but there was nothing we could do about it.

We had the spaghetti bolognaise supper which was warm and filling and the sunset was right behind us.

We settled down for the night which we know will be a little uncomfortable but hope it will be calmer in the morning with more to come tomorrow night.

 It is Watty and Fiona’s 39 the wedding anniversary today so happy anniversary to them. The picture of the day is Watty with his card.

The blog will continue as we continue the journey. If you have any comments or suggestions about the blog then do email me on hine.nick9@gmail.com