12/05/04

Where are we going?

We're now poised to enter the Med.  So many places one could go from there.  Barcelona for the winter has a number of advantages, not the least of which is that our friends Ivan and Bev will also be berthing there and are already well-entrenched in the city.  We'll have the opportunity to learn/improve our Spanish, explore the Catalan, Basque and other surrounding cuisines and cultures and maybe a bit of land-based travel to complement or help us decide on which way to proceed in the spring.

From the beginning of May...

We're now sitting at the dock in Falmouth Harbor, awaiting a change of wind and weather before departing.  Have had quite a bit of rain, squalls, and thunderstorms the last few days.  The beginning of the passage is the only time where we can truly choose the weather.  Once we're out there, we can route ourselves this way or that, to better our position or improve our speed or level of comfort, always making the best of whatever whether happens to be coming our way.  While we certainly have sailed many miles in such conditions (just ask Cousin David, our fearless crew on the passage south), it's certainly not something we would choose to submerse ourselves in.  The other consideration upon leaving is the direction and strength of the wind.  Mark has certainly already told you that while we love our ketch, it doesn't point to the wind particularly well, and neither do we.  The great circle course to the Azores is very much northeast from here.  With a strong wind blowing directly from the northeast, along with a 7-9 foot swell and west setting current, actually miles made good towards Horta would be far less than those made towards Bermuda. So we're chilling here with our larder completely full, resting, reading, taking one more walk on solid ground, and enjoying the comforts of our very own dockside cafe.  We expect to leave within the next day or two, as it seems there is a break in the weather and a window where the wind will shift slightly in our favor.  We were hoping for a southeast wind on which to leave, which is normally very common at this time of year, but it seems we'll be fortunate to keep it not too much north of east.  It's been a strange weather year here this past season.

Background from April musings...

The crossing of the Atlantic is fast approaching.  The traditional sailing route from the Antilles to Europe is to first sail north to Bermuda(1000 miles), then up to 38 or 39 degrees north to reach the prevailing westerlies before turning east for the Azores (1800 miles).  The other alternative, often used by professional delivery crews, is to bypass Bermuda and set a course more or less straight for the Azores (2200 miles) and this is what we will do.  We will review the weather data daily (or even serval times a day) to tune our course, taking advantage of the favorable winds surrounding the prevailing Azores high and minimizing our probabilities of being becalmed. The advantages of this path are warmer weather (we are very accustomed to the mild temperatures of the Caribbean at this point and dread the thought of cold northern temps in the 50's or even worse), shorter overall distance (less time on the open ocean, allowing us to complete the passage before hurricane season really gets going), and reduced probability of getting caught up in any of the lows cascading off the East Coast.  The disadvantage of this route is more inconsistent winds and the higher likelihood of being engulfed in calms, potentially for days at a time.  To compensate, we will carry a significant amount of extra diesel to provide us with at least some flexibility for motoring through these should the need arise. 

We will likely spend 3 weeks in the Azores.  Our thought is to make landfall at either Lajes on Flores or Horta on Faial, depending on conditions at the time.  We will likely not decide where we will make landfall in Europe until after we reach the Azores, at which time we hope to have a better understanding of our wintering options (meaning whether we will be granted a berth at the Arsenal Marina in Paris, underneath the Bastille, or whether we will instead find ourselves along the shore of the Mediterranean)  Current landfall thoughts are either Kinsale, County Cork, Ireland (a long, wet, cold passage of 1200 miles) or the western coast of Portugal (800 not quite so taxing miles).