Year 3 -27th September 2026 - Sao Vicente, Cape Verde to Faial -Azores – Day 8

I was on again at 5.00am and we were still motor sailing (with the main up) although Paul suggested we may be able to sail fully albeit off course. I decided to check the weather and leave it a bit to see what happens. It had been quite a rolly night as we were motor sailing almost into the waves which were about 2m although forecast to drop a bit during the day and to pick up again when the low comes through.  Paul had made a loaf of bread on their 2.00am-5.00am watch.

I went on to check the weather and made a timeline of what we can expect with this low coming through. Essentially there is now little wind until about 7.00pm which is 3-4 hours North of Waypoint 2245. The wind gradually builds up from 13-18 kts at say 20.45pm tonight (Wave height 1.7m) to 21-28kts by midnight (Wave height 1.9m) and by 2.30am on the 28th 25-33.3kts (Wave height 2.2m). It remains like this until about 8.00am when the wind lowers to 23-30kts (Wave 2.8m -note after the wind drops it takes time for the sea to calm down). It then drops down to about 20-28 kts by 12.00noon (Wave height 2.9m) and then there is another wave of wind which increases gusts up to about 35kts at 15.30pm (Wave height 2.9m) and by 21.00pm it passes (Wave height 3.4m) and by 23.00pm the wind is down to 16-22kts (Wave height 2.3m).  We hope to get into Faial by the early hours of the morning.

Whilst this is not ideal we all discussed it and we all agreed we can cope with this and we made sure all the list of jobs I had prepared in preparation were completed.

We also discussed tactics as the wind starts with being Southwest and gradually over the course of the night and day veers to Northeast which means that we are likely to sail in a curve from left to right. We need to start left enough so that when we sail to the right we are in the right position to enter the Canal de Faial which is the channel between Faial and Pico Islands.

We also thought that the greater distance we can make now should reduce the issue with the wind change and curve so that we are not having to motor back into the wind.

I was happy that I knew the boat was more than capable of these conditions (Hallberg Rassy’s are built to withstand them) and I had a good crew with most with a lot of experience so I knew the crew should be able to cope. We therefore prepared accordingly.

I should have said in yesterday’s blog that I also put up the Portuguese Flag, the Azores flag and the Q flag yellow duster in preparation.

My 5.00am- 8.00am watch was quiet in that most were in bed and I saw the dawn break with the orange glow behind the clouds in the East and the moon going down in the West at the same time. It was very photogenic. At about 07.11am I decided to put the genoa out as we had been motor sailing and could now sail at a reasonable speed without engine.

I handed over to Mark & Dave and they went about their daily checks. I made smoothies again as we needed to use by the bananas. Mark and Dave checked the lines and the deck etc for anything which could come loose and I suggested they check the anchor and the tripping line in case we need it when we arrive in Horta. They found the shackle pin had come out so we had to put a new shackle on. It was far better checking this in the light and now rather than 2.00am in Horta harbour when we want to put the anchor down and go to bed. We continued to sail trying to give the engine a rest and to save some diesel.

I had a rest and others went about their business- reading, checking the cabins and resting. Dave set out lunch, which was houmous, cheeses, egg mayonnaise and yes you guessed it the last of the coleslaw.    

Paul and John took over at 12.00noon and our 24-hour run was 150nm about right for the speed we planned to help us get to WP 2245 by the right time. We were still sailing but as forecast the wind veered and died and so we went back on the engine again. I thought we now have a plan so let’s get on with it and we motored at 1300 revs in gori so we made as many miles as we could before the wind arrives and before the swell increases. This meant we were doing about 7-7.5kts. The sun came out from time to time but there was much more cloud and we could see around us the odd rain shower but so far we have missed them.

At about 5.00pm I tried to motor sail with the genoa but it did not work so we continued on just the engine.

I handed over to Mark & Dave and the wind was going to gradually veer and once it had veered beyond 190 degrees we could then set the staysail and reefed (3 reefs) main on a port tack and this was to be our sail plan. There came a time when we could sail under genoa alone and we did this for a period waiting for the wind to veer enough.

I went to bed about 8.30pm as I was on again at 2.00am. I left Mark & Dave set the sail plan when the wind had veered enough. In fact about an hour later in bed I heard the furling and the winches and knew that’s what they were doing.

We all settled down to our plan and the night and we will see how it goes.

 The picture of the day is of a lovely picture of the moon shining on the sea.

 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