Year 3 -15th October 2026 – Faial -Azores for Hamble UK – Day 8– the Last Passage to Home

David and I tried to sleep after our 4.00pm -8.00pm watch. However, there was a lot of roll and the wind strengthened on Mark and Dave’s watch to 32 kts and so they reefed the sails. I got up and checked all was ok.

Watty & the Commodore took over from them and the wind lowered and so they shook out some reefs.

David and I then came on at 2.00am and gradually over our watch the sea state flattened a little. We had a fairly quiet watch but we noticed we were seeing more and more traffic of tankers, cargo ships and fishing boats. It was dark and there was no moon to speak of. However, the stars were out where there was no cloud.

Mark and David took over and as we were so tired we did sleep.

I was woken by the smell of sizzling bacon and Watty was at it again. I was too tired to get up and got up later and made my own breakfast of bacon and egg. David got up later and had eggs.

I checked the weather again and little had changed. The models were following the same course I had set and we were heading for a waypoint some way South of the Scillies before going on toward Land’s End.

It was a greyish day but we were sailing well on genoa and 3 reefed main. In fact the 10.00pm to 10.00am run was 194nm. Stormbird was cracking along about 7-8kts and then we would surf with the large waves behind us at times to 12.2 kts and Mark had one at 15.2 kts.

There was an end of term feel about the boat. We were nearly there and we had just 1.5 days or so to go. The mood on board was jolly and we had the Some Soup for lunch with bread which was good and warming. We are all now in wet weather gear, lots of layers and even hats and gloves. This is after all the UK and it is October.

David and had taken over at 12.00noon and we enjoyed sitting in the breeze allowing Stormbird to plough on powerfully and speeding towards our destination. We had to watch carefully for traffic and one boat Windpower was on a collision course with us and it was their duty to keep out of our way. We called them on the radio but they did not answer. I then called the cargo ship Gelco Resolute which had passed us about 2 hours ago to see if they had heard us which they did. They then helped us by calling Windpower who then answered. He asked them whether they had seen us and Windpower said standby. Clearly they were not listening and had not noticed us. They agreed to pass behind Gelco Resolute and in front of us. We continued to watch them and they did pass about 1nm from us. The next problem was a boat called Tidepower and we called them up and asked them to pass behind us which they said they would and they did. Even though there are the Collision Regulations you have to be on your toes with all this traffic.

The 12.00noon run was 189nm.

The afternoon wore on and the guys slept, read and chatted. Mark made another loaf and we get through one a day. David and I enjoyed watching the waves and our surfing down the waves. I was beginning to get all sorts of messages from people including family who have been following our progress which was nice.

We checked the weather and the cold front will pass over us tonight somewhere between 8.00pm and midnight. This will bring about a 120-degree difference in wind direction and quite a lot of rain so we chatted about being prepared and how we will deal with it.

Mark and Dave took over and prepared some things that we could do now.

Watty with sous chef David prepared a pasta bolognaise supper which went down very well. This will be our penultimate supper before we arrive. The plan is that we are likely to get to the Needles about 8.30pm and we will eat as normal in the cockpit on the way. We will the enter the Needles and the tide should be in our favour by then. We will then go and anchor, probably outside New Town Creek and have a couple of beers and a good night’s sleep. We will then have a good breakfast on the Saturday morning and then go into the Hamble River from where I left on the 18th July 2023.

We hope to refuel and then go to our berth on the A Hammerhead of Mercury Marina. We should arrive there about 10.30-11.00am. Goodness what a thought- as that will in my mind be the end of my circumnavigation.

 The picture of the day is of Stormbird charging ahead toward the Solent some way West of the Scillies.

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