Our Etmal remains high over the last 4 days. It is close to 175nm. We will keep pushing and remain confident to win the Champagne Challenge 2023. Cross fingers.
Fair winds…
Category: Portugal Page 7 of 24
There were some Breaking News coming in via Pactor Mail today from Uwe/DF5AM but read youself…
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….. Breaking News…..
Ein freundliches Halli Hallo an Alle!
Hier meldet sich der allseits bekannte “Flurfunkreporter” Uwe, der “Ahnungslose”! Und gleich zur Einordnung… der Knabe hat 2 Domiziele, eins in Lanzarote, das andere…man mag es gar nicht glauben, aber es ist in einer Gegend in Bayern, die eigentlich nicht dazu gehören möchte, glaubt man einigen “Sachverständigen”, es ist Franken, Lauf bei Nürnberg!
Schon mal was von Ocean Race, Minitransat, America’s Cup oder gar Vendée Globe gehört? Sicherlich, für eingefleischte Hochseeseglerenthusiasten keine Fremdwörter!
Aber, das ist alles “Nichts” gegen ein z.Zt. auf dem Atlantik ausgetragenen Rennen, der “Champagner Challange”. Man stelle sich vor, 2 Yachten, die wohl kaum unterschiedlicher sein können. Ein Katamaran der Marke Outremer 5x (Hexe), ausgerüstet mit allem “was des Segler’s Herz höher schlagen läßt”, einer gemischten Crew, Cornelia und Volker, gegen einen Einrumpfer, eine Hallberg-Rassy 43 MK I (Hullo Poro), ebenfalls gut für solche Races ausgerüstet, “bevölkert” mit einer Crew, bestehend aus 2 Männern, Bernd und Rainer.
Beide Crews mit Amateurfunkern, oh, korrekt wohl mehr 2 Amateurfunkern (Bernd, DL9BS, Rainer, DO6GO) und einer Amateurfunkerin Cornelia, DL3HEX kennen sich persönlich, die “Hexe” auf dem Weg aus der Karibik zu den Azoren, die “Hullo Poro” von Bermuda ebenfalls in Richtung Azoren unterwegs.
Begleitet werden diese herausragenden Segler (Cornelia, sorry, bin kein “Genderer”…) von einem “Hobbywetterexpertiesemeteorolügen” mit Namen Uwe, auch Amateurfunker, DD1HUR. Dieser, beheimatet in…. Bayern…! ergänzt die lokal von beiden Yachten eruierten Wetterprognosen mit denen von ihm Eruierten und in kompetent klingende Worte gefassten Prognosen :-).
Soweit, so gut! Wohl dank der Kommunikationsmöglichkeit des Amateurfunks wird nun dieses bedeutende, ja sicherlich in diesem Jahrzehnt ev. einmalige Race vereinbart! Wer als erster in Horta auf den Azoren ankommt, hat gewonnen und der Verlierer muss den Champager bezahlen, der dann gemeinsam genossen wird! Man kann sich als Nichtsegler kaum vorstellen, welch eine Schmach dies sein kann 🙂
Aber, wie ist der Stand des Rennens? Nun, der geneigte Beobachter “Uwe, der Ahnungslose” kann nur im Moment berichten, es sind noch einige Seemeilen zu segeln, das Wetter scheint sich täglich zu ändern, gereicht ev. mehr der einen oder anderen Yacht zum Vorteil, somit ist und bleibt es hochspannend!
Wird der Wettergott gnädig sein und beiden Yachten passendes Segelwetter bescheren? Nutzten die Crews alle Tricks und Kniffe, denen sie habhaft werden können, um das Ziel so schnell als möglich zu erreichen? -> Man darf annehmen…JA! Werden die täglichen Berichte, die ausgetauscht werden, immer der “Wahrheit” entsprechen? -> Ein entschiedenes JA!!
So vielleicht zum Schluß dieser “Breaking News” eine Eigenerfahrung von “Uwe, dem Ahnungslosen”… Der Segler ansich…ist fair!
Wir bleiben dran und berichten weiter, wenn von den Crews gewünscht!!
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Uwe is a long time supporter and friend within the Intermar e.V. & HAM community.
Indeed, SY Hexe and SY Hullu Poro, both members of the TransOcean e.V. and Intermar e.V. associations ended up in an ongoing friendly race towards Horta/Azores.
Skipper Volker on SY Hexe and Sailmaster Rainer on SY Hullu Poro are both ambitious regatta sailors. The race is ongoing and I am sure we will get the chance to agree on the regulatory aspects in this David versus Goliath set-up at Peter’s Cafe in Horta, the unmatched sailor’s melting point in the world. Good fun.
Stay tuned.
Fair winds…
Time is getting deluted on these passages and after some 48 hours I do not even know how many days/nights we are out on the ocean. Funny, but what does it matter?!? The routine takes over quickly including some hours with headache and getting used to the boat’s movements again. Once the cooking picks up independent from the sea state, you are there! Body and mind have fully integrated into the chosen environment and have become part of the moving system. You don’t consider the three dimensions of physical movement as something unnormal anymore. You are part of it. The up and down, forward and backward or left and right shifts – in general it is a combination – has just become the new normal and you live with it and in it.
Our routing strategy so far worked fine but we also learned, that weather charts in this part of the world have a meteorological half-life period of 12 hours. The dynamics of the low pressure systems being produced off the American costline is incredible. Their movements are fast, much faster than our lady, which makes it mandatory to check regularly. These systems also decide arbitrarily where to go next, NE, E or SE, the latter one being our biggest threat. If they move too far SE, we are in trouble.
Glad we have our weather team from Intermar e.V. around the two Uwes, callsign DD1HUR & DF5AM sitting in Germany and Lanzarote and Sutje Jan, callsign DFPX2, keeping an eye on the situation currently anchored in Tabago Cays/Antilles. It feels good big brothers watching and advising you to ensure we are not getting into a fight with one of the depressions.
Besides the weather subject we became part of a regatta, the Champagne Challenge, which was not planned but announced by Cornelia from SY Hexe. A complex subject, which will be addressed in a separate logblog entry shortly.
Today’s full moon night is fantastic and I am gratefull that the gusts expected for tonight have not turned up yet giving the moon precedence and us another great scenery at sea, Nevertheless, I am sure the depression is laying its cards and will entertain us sooner or later with some positive natural spectacle. We are prepared.
Fair winds…
We left one hour early after check out at the Immigration & Customs Office in St. George.
Before we passed through the Town Cut to get back on to the ocean, we paid a visit to superyacht Visione, which has anchored in the bay and which we saw earlier in Hamilton, a remarkable yacht under German flag. Very impressive to look at, whatever the running cost might be.
Sails got lifted, a final glimpse back West before our attention turned completely East.
Around six o’clock I started to prepare dinner. Eight o’clock I did talk to Cornelia and Jan on the Marine Radio and shortly after that I felt asleep. As per our routine, Rainer took the watch until midnight and claimed to be fit. What a luxury!
We are now sailing through the first night with good visibility under clear skies and strong moon.
All good, we are back into our routine.
Fair winds…
The second and final night on this passage is behind us. We were kept at relative high speed and a good indication is the amount of electricity produced by the SailGen, which we have installed 6 month ago. We got 50Ah pumped into our batteries over the last 12 hours, when the solar panels take rest like myself. Yes we are back at days with 12 hour daylight and 12 hours night. Obviously the SailGen can produce another 50Ah during daylight, which comes to a total of 100Ah, which is not bad, I think. As said, on a good and fast 24h sailing day.
The night was without any further events. Some other vessels passing by in safe distance and a stronger moon sharing more light due to very less clouds. I prefer a strong moon where you can see the waves and the horizon compared to pitch dark nights, where you can see million of stars provided that there are also no clouds. The worst for me is pitch dark and no stars because of heavy clouds. Just dark. Realy dark. Edding black.
For last night dinner I got served by myself some good Swiss Rösti mixed with vegetables and a can of smoked hering filets. Too my surprise it got served with a little bit of red wine left over since Funchal. I love it. You won’t find it in a receipe book, I believe.
My 20-30min short napping has developed. Other call it power napping. I mange now to get some deep sleep rest during these short cycles and still get on my toes quickly, when the alarm bells and shouts at me. I normally get up for a stretch and take the visual 360° view as I do not want exclusively rely on AIS and Radar, while checking the chart plotter screen only. I could do that by glimsing from the cockpit bench out of my cosy sleeping back up to the screen but seamanship requires the 360° check. That’s my humble view. I also check course, speed, windvane, sails, etc. before taking the next sleep cycle. If you do that for for around 10 hours, a lot of sleep gets accumulated. Therefore I feel quite rested today morning. I have not put up the cockpit tent this time as we still have 23°C during the night.
Our next waypoint sits 6 cable length south of Punta Pechiguera, the southwesterly tip of Lanzarote. Less than 20nm to go and from there on it will be another 13nm into Puerto Calero. Arrival shall be after lunch hours.
I look forward to our arrival and a good catch-up with Elke & Ulli from SY Christina.
Fair winds…
After 3h running under engine the wind came back and is now steady between 15-22kn on the beam. It should stay like this until our arrival in Puerto Calero/Lanzarote sometime tomorrow around lunch time.
The sunrise today was hidden behind some clouds and grey sky. Not sure it will change later on and the sky will clear a bit more. There will be no drizzle, rain, thunder or any kind of adverse weather conditions.
Spoken to Rainer from SY Geronimo just now on the Marine Radio. Very nice to catch up with some close sailing friends while on passage.
Got some Bolo de Caco left, which will be served for breakfast now.
Fair winds…
We were down at 1.5kn boat speeds and sails started flapping around a bit. No brainer, engine on and off we move. The sea is pretty flat by now with only some old swell left. The humming noise will get us through the night for a few hours, not sure how long it takes until the wind is back. We got 350 liter of diesel left in our tank, enough to motor to Lanzarote altogether. Obviously this is not our plan and the passage routing done did not result in any engine hours at all. What shall I say? It’s hard to complain still feeling very fortunate to be out here on the ocean.
There is some good half moon out, which provides excellent visibility. Three other fellow sailing boats are about 3.5nm on our starboard side heading to Lanzarote as well. I can clearly see their navigation lights, which confirms the good visibility tonight. Unfortunately the moon will set around 2am local time and I expect a pitch dark night from then onward up to sunrise at 8am. My neighbours are a bit more patient and still under sail at 2kn.
I spoke to Jan from SY Sutje at 19:00 UTC on channel B3 Marine Radio Band, which is 4Mhz. The connection was not that good to enjoy a long chat but we will give it another try in the morning. Jan and his first mate Reinhard have left Santa Cruz de Tenerife and are heading over to Pasito Blanco on Gran Canaria, where the lady will get hauled out to enjoy some beauty retreat over the coming weeks.
By the way, the tuna steak was delicous and I am glad to have conditions where cooking remains a pleasure and not a pain.
But now, I will have some fresh Earl Grey.
Fair winds…
Finally we got the right weather window for us to throw the lines and leave Funchal. It was not an easy departure from the emotional point of view as I like the city and the island, the marina team around Sergio and also had to say good-bye to Babs, Rene & Rizzo from SY Momentum of Fal. The four of us have spent some time together over the last two weeks, Besides hiking and biking we had dinner together either on their HR46 or our HR43. Preparing tuna steak as a team in a brandnew riffled pan was great fun. My job was the time keeper, which I practised many times with Susan as well. The food was delicous and we spend many quality hours together.
Harbour Master Sergio and his whole team are prefectly organized in this marina next to the town centre. Wether these are Virginia or Heidi in the office or the Marinieros like Bruno, Danilo, Placido, Marko, etc. They are all extremely helpfull, friendly and easy approachable. I will be back, that’s a given!
After some light winds in the morning, which required a bit or motor sailing in the dead zone of Ilhas Desertas, we are now as expected cruising at 145° course over ground (COG) towards the southern tip of Lanzarote.
Winds are around 14kn and shall increase a bit more towards the second part of the passage. I waived my initial plan to go around the nothern tip of the island also due to the fact that refugee boats are still being a reality coming in from that angle towards the island. Wind and waves would probably be an argument towards approaching north but finally a decision had to be taken.
Later tonight I will try to connect on the Marine Radio with Jan from SY Sutje and Rainer from SY Geronimo, both being on passage. I hope we will have the chance to catch up on the latest fish stories!
Fair winds…
