Year 3 -21st September 2026 - Sao Vicente, Cape Verde to Faial -Azores – Day 2

I had the 5.00am to 8.00am watch and we were sailing well albeit a few degrees off course. The stars were out and there was phosphorescence in the water. There was a little bit of chill in the air. The day did not start to appear until about 7.30am with a gradual lightening of the horizon in the East and then the whole horizon became evident. The low-level clouds then had an orange backlight before the sun finally showed its face and the day had dawned. This is always a magical moment and you switch off the navigation lights and turn the instruments to their day setting.  A bit like stretching and getting out of bed. The watch passed relatively quickly and Mark and Dave were up by about 07.45am and took over from me at 8.00am. Mark made a fruit salad with pineapple and bananas and I then made a smoothie with red berries as we needed to eat the bananas up which went down well.

Dave decided to make a banana cake as we had an excess of bananas and followed Keith Winstanley’s recipe and this turned out very well and the smells were so tempting. That warm, sweet, banana caramelly smell that wafts up out of the galley into the cockpit.

I had a rest and then was keeping an eye on the weather. North of us and about 370nm South of the Azores is a Tropical Storm called Storm Fay. This has developed over the last few days and initially was moving Northwest. It is now moving slowly Southwest (away from us) which is good but we will need to watch it. The National Hurricane Centre says.  

For awareness, Tropical Storm Fay is centered near 33.1N 32.2W 

at 21/2100 UTC, or roughly about 390 nm southwest of the Azores,

moving south-southwest at 2 kt. Estimated minimum central 

pressure is 1004 mb. Maximum sustained wind speed is 40 kt with 

gusts to 50 kt. Please visit hurricanes.gov for more info on 

Tropical Storm Fay.

This has been downgraded from 60kt plus winds from yesterday. 

As I have mentioned before this is a time for African Easterly Waves (when the conditions in the Sahara can start a corolis effect) and luckily when we came up to Cape Verde and having left there were none. However, today notification has been given of one forming which will move off West Africa toward Cape Verde by Wednesday. We are moving away from it mile by mile so if it does develop into a hurricane we should be too far North to be affected.   

Tropical Weather Outlook

NWS National Hurricane Center Miami FL

800 PM EDT Mon Sep 21 2026



For the North Atlantic...Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of America:



Active Systems:

The National Hurricane Center is issuing advisories on Tropical 

Storm Fay, located several hundred miles southwest of the Azores.



1. Far Eastern Tropical Atlantic:

A tropical wave is forecast to move off western Africa by Wednesday. 

Environmental conditions may become marginally conducive for slow 

development while it moves generally north-northwestward near the 

Cabo Verde Islands later this week.

* Formation chance through 48 hours...low...near 0 percent.

* Formation chance through 7 days...low...30 percent.

Hopefully we are manoeuvring between these systems and can stay out of their reach. In addition when we arrive at the Azores we start to become effected by lows and systems barrelling across the North Atlantic from West to East.

The 24 hour run to 12.00noon was 179 nm which was not bad. We need to make those miles to move away from Cape Verde and not go too fast to be under any influence from Storm Fay. Lunch was our usual cold meats, cheese and coleslaw!

The afternoon wore on and the weather was lovely with warm, sun and some small white high pressure fluffy clouds. The sea state was not too bad. We had a discussion about trying to maintain on course which means sailing close to the wind and comfort. The closer you sail to the wind the more heel you get and the less comfortable it is doing things down below. This includes of course trying to sleep as the additional heel and sailing into the waves makes sleep more difficult.  We came to a compromise of trying to stick between 50-55 degrees off the wind and at night have a reef in the genoa and 2 reefs in the main.  

The afternoon continued with people sleeping, chatting and resting. We had tea at 4.00pm and some of Dave’s banana cake which was warm, moist and delicious.

At about 4.30pm we crossed the track that Mark and I had made when crossing the Atlantic from the Canaries to Barbados. This must have been about the 5-6th January 2024 so you could say I have now completed a  circumnavigation. However, I regard my circumnavigation will be completed when I return to the Hamble which I left on the 18th July 2023. It is a milestone though to mention at this stage.

We had heard from Julian that he had had his operation on his eye, which was a retina tear rather than a detachment. He now has to stay still for 4 weeks to allow the eye to heal. We rang him to cheer him up and we wish him well and a speedy recovery.  

 I was on watch again at 4.00pm and it was a great early evening.  We were making good progress, reasonably comfortably and it was warm and sunny with a good breeze. It is not going to last though and I expect the wind to start to die out on the 23rd and we may have to motor for a number of days due to a large wind hole.

Mark made a delicious seafood linguine for supper with prawns and octopus which he had managed to buy in Cape Verde. It really was first class and the fish sauce which he had made from the shells etc was delicious.

 The sun did not go down until 7.30pm and I have not had the sun go down so late for a long time. In addition by the time I handed over to Mark and Dave at 8.00pm there was still some light which made it odd going to bed. However, I have the red eye slot in the morning 2.00am-5.00am so I need the rest. I hope we shall have a good night and a good day tomorrow.   

 The picture of the day is the picture from Predict Wind. We are the white dot just above the green dot in the foreground. Tropical Storm Fay is the white and yellow ring above us which looks like a fried egg. The Azores are the islands you can just see above it. Fay should now move Southwest away from us. Cape Verde are the islands below the green dot which the AEW will head toward on Wednesday so we have 2 more days to get hundreds of miles away from that.  

 Need/Opportunity Year Three

I am now on the way to Cape Verde, Azores and back to the UK.  At present I am full and there will be a change of 3 crew in the Azores for the final passage back to the UK.

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