Another decision was needed to leave Azores today or enjoy further days in Vila do Porto on Santa Maria as the weather window is not bad but certain conditions convinced me to stay.

☝️"Hazardous conditions can occur outside of the cone."☝️

Hurricane Danielle is still mixing up the northern part of the Atlantic. Its movement is a bit unusual turning a small circle over the next few days and then heading east, where it will slowly lose momentum as shown on the chart from NOAA above. At least that is the current 5 days forecast.

The remark above “Hazardous conditions can occur outside of the cone” are evident for an area around mid way between Santa Maria and Funchal. 33kt of wind gusts (excluding the +5kt additional based on experience) and 2.9m waves with 8s wind wave period. On a four days passage, this would be our approximate position.

Although these conditions are in principal managable, I decided to give it a miss hoping that the northern Atlantik will come up with a less challenging window in a weeks time or so.

Skipper Jan from SY Sutje together with his 1st mate Reinhard did finally throw the lines this morning heading over straight to Canary Islands after 2 month of excellent accompany within the Azores. We will try to connect via HAM Radio tonight to see how it goes.

Fair winds…