Year 3 -13th October 2026 – Faial -Azores for Hamble UK – Day 4– the Last Passage to Home

What a difference a day makes. We had a calm and reasonable night.

David and I were on at 8.00am and we were sailing reasonably well and had made good progress in the night. The sun came up as we took over and there was a lot of blue sky. There was a residual swell of about 2m although occasionally a wave would come through of a bigger size. The wind had dropped a bit to about 15 kts and so I shook out the last reef in the main to keep our speed up. We were heading for a waypoint port tack and we had to get there before we could go on a starboard tack and head straight for the Scillies and Land’s End.   

Watty made eggs and bacon again and when Mark got up he cut up a pineapple and there was one mango that was edible. The pineapple was delicious. David and I went about the daily checks. We had noticed one of the battens on the mainsail was coming out the day before but in the conditions we had we could not get up to it. It fell out in the night.

Mid-morning there was a flurry of activity in the galley. Dave made another banana cake. Watty and the Commodore had chatted on watch about making a soup! It was called Some Soup – some of this and some of that! - and all sorts of vegetables and bits and bobs went into it. We shall see what it tastes like in due course.

Mark made some more houmous and coleslaw and he will be cooking his dish tonight he had to forego last night because of the conditions.

I looked at the weather and things keep changing. The aim is to continue to sail on this port tack until about 8.00pm this evening. Then to gybe and head for Land’s End. Most models do a curved route but which takes you into the tail of this big front which is passing up to Ireland to the West of us. This will mean winds up to 31+kts in gusts. I worked out a route which was an inside curve where we would get less strong winds but should give us good speed or that is the plan and I set a different set of waypoints with squares rather than x’s.

Mark and Dave took over at 12.00noon and our 24-hour run to 12.00 noon was 170nm which bearing in mind we had to contend with a Force 8/9 was not bad.

We had lunch which was our usual but this now included houmous and coleslaw and we found some brie in the depths of the fridge which was good.

Despite the conditions we have experienced everyone is in a positive mood and getting on with life aboard with vigour and fun. The sunny calm conditions help but they are a great bunch of guys and I am very grateful to them.

I had a rest and then made some bread as we need to do a loaf a day. Watty and Keith took over at 4.00pm and the sun was still shinning and we had tea and some of the new banana cake which was excellent Mark then started to prepare his Stormbird feast.

I was watching our position and where we had to get to and the wind started to back toward Southwest a little earlier. I had planned to wait until 8.00pm but we were beginning to go parallel and no closer to home which was frustrating.

We suddenly saw a big splash in the water and wondered what it was. Then some black round faces began to appear and we had a whole load of pilot whales come to see us and to jump out of the water a bit and swim behind and alongside the boat. It was a special moment and they stayed for about 30 minutes with us. Watty brought in the fishing line and no fish again today.

I decided about 6.30pm to gybe as I thought we could now make the angle. We therefore brought in the genoa and the main and gybed across. We could make the angle well and were soon bombing along with the waves behind us at 7-8+ kts with full genoa and one reef in the main. The sea and sky had a look that more wind and weather was coming and we should be in the stronger winds by about midnight.  In the meantime it was make hay while the sun shines. In other words to make as any miles as possible toward Land’s End.

Mark served his supper which was excellent and Dave thought it was the best food we had had on board (I get the impression Dave likes his food !!). It was a beef dish of 2 different cooked types – twice cooked and only once. The twice was marinated in ginger, garlic, soya sauce, sesame seeds and cooked in Sesame Oil. This all came with noodles and cooked aubergine and it was all delicious.       

Supper was followed by a break and then we had tinned pears and cream for dessert.

David and I took over at 7.55pm and it was nearly dark. We settled down for the night and made sure we stayed on the line to our waypoint. We do not want to be left of the line but we do not want to be too far right either as we will be pushed toward France or the wind hole of a High.

We aim to cope with the increased conditions and have a good sailing night which makes a good dent in the 400nm or so to Land’s End.  

 The picture of the day is a picture of David and Watty which personifies the attitude of the crew.

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