Atlantic crossing from Guadeloupe to Horta

The anchor is hoisted and the trip begins on June 27th at 10:50LT. We are possibly one of the last or even the last boat of this saison, which leaves the Caribbean towards Horta. A moderate easterly wind is blowing and we have 20 miles against the wind to the eastend of Guadeloupe. We turn between Guadeloupe and Les Desirades to the northeast within the last daylight.

The first 5 days at sea were a life closed to the wind with 20 to 25kn. At our start the east wind area is up to the latitude of Horta. The Azores High lies further to the north at that time. Thus there are no big options about the routing. At day six the wind shifts more astern and was weakening. Our speed droped, so our genacker came out of its sack for the first time, even then we sailed with 8kts again. In the evening we took it in and the wind was freshening-up. We made our best Etmal so far with 173 miles. But as always in life, easy come, easy go, the next day the wind was weakening and our speed drops again. In the night the wind shifted into the wrong direction and at the end of the night we were heading 90°. But we want to come further north to catch the wind. On this course we had the wind direct astern. Because the wind was too light to run before the wind, we used the engine. At the end we used the engine for 23 hours to go further to the north before we came into the wind and set course direct to Horta.

Anyhow Rasmus means well for us. The storm Edouard passed north of us and left a small strip of wind. We jumped on that train which was formed in between two areas of very light wind. The wind in this strip blowed with 15kn from south to southwest, perfect for us. During the next three day we made Etmals of more than 180NM. Also the last two days the wind weakened only a little bit. We were Flying towards Horta and could smell the Gin do Mar from Peter already. On 12nd June the time had come, Land, ho! We sweep further with 7 to 8kn towards Faial.

tbc. coming soon

Leider dreht der Wind am Ende noch und wir müssen bei 25kn hoch an den Wind ran. Schnell ist das Erste Reff eingebunden und die Genua etwas eingerollt. Wir wollen bequem ankommen. Bald gehen die Segel runter und wir fahren in den Hafen von Horta bei schönstem Sonnenschein. Ich hatte Kontakt mit der Marina über Kanal 10, und wir werden an den Quarantänesteg gelotst. Wir sind begeistert, hatten wir doch mit einem Ankermanöver gerechnet. Jetzt können wir anlegen haben Strom und Wasser, können den Müll entsorgen und das Boot klar machen. Der Kontakt ist nett und wir werden informiert, dass am nächsten Tag unser Covid Test ansteht. Wir können es kaum erwarten an Land und zu Peter Cafe Sport zu gehen.