Some Photos from our Last Leg to Portugal

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September 25 - October 3, 2012 Crossing to Portugal, the final leg across the Atlantic


are now aware we are safely in Lagos, Portugal after a 7 ½ day crossing. We had originally thought it would take 6 days to make the over 800 nm (920 mi) trip, but the winds were from the north-northeast so we had to sail into the wind as tight as possible so we wouldn’t be pushed south by the wind and the waves. This made for a fast and “bumpy” ride. Every day we downloaded grib files (weather reports) through the SSB radio and found that we were on the edge of a low and if we continued we would stay with the low and have a very unpleasant trip. If we slowed down and allowed the high that was coming in behind us to catch up the trip would be better one. Needless to say we slowed down even if it would mean a few more days to complete the crossing. We went from a hull speed of 5-6.5 knots to 1.5 – 3.5 knots with winds still between 20 – 30 knots and seas of 10-15 feet. It was hard to believe we could go this slowly with winds that fast, but that is what angle will do for you when sailing! This enabled us to make some good northing so that when the wind finally moved to the north we would be able to get some excellent angle and speed to complete the trip. The ride became a little more comfortable at this slower pace, but still not the best for cooking meals and moving around the boat so we spent most of our time out back unless we were off duty and needed some sleep. We had quite a few clear days but of course we couldn’t have a passage without some rain. Fortunately none of the rain showers were long lived, but did help with giving Tsamaya a fresh water bath which she always needs when sailing in salt water. Our strategy worked! The last 3 days of the trip we had sunny skies and winds of 20 knots from the north which enabled us to put up more sail and pick up our speed. At the same time the wave height dropped to 6-8 feet which made the ride much more pleasant. Boat speed increased up to 6-6.5 knots and we were able to do more than open a can or heat a homemade frozen meal for dinner. Life was good and we were enjoying sailing again – thank goodness for short term memory loss as we almost forgot about the first few rough days of the trip (almost that is!) At one point the self-steering gear broke. While Bob was in the process of fixing it we both realized that neither of us were steering Tsamaya and she continued right on course – once again we appreciate the incredible quality and impeccable design of our Caliber 40 LRC. Throughout the entire time it was never a question of us being in danger, it was just a question of comfort level for those on board. The people at Caliber deserve a lot of credit for building one fine boat. We have found that it seems that on any multiple day passage something will break. As we mentioned earlier the self-steering broke and auto-pilot broke as well. In both cases we (Bob) was able to fix them without too much difficulty.

We had set off from Santa Maria with two other boats and we kept in contact via VHF as we were close enough to do so. Near the end of the 2^nd day one of the boats told us they were returning to the Azores as the ride was not comfortable. The 2^nd boat thought it over and also decided to turn around. We discussed it and felt that from what we were seeing on the weather reports it would not get any worse and our Caliber was up to the task so we decided to stick it out and continue for the mainland. At times we wondered if we made the right decision as it was getting “old” not having a comfortable ride, but luckily with the strategy of slowing down things got better and we were that much closer to Portugal. We still wanted to stay in touch with our friends that returned to the Azores to see how they were doing. Before we left we set up a SSB net (single side band radio) where we determined a time and frequency to check in with each other each day – this worked out nicely. Another contact that we made each day was with the Maritime Net. This is a group of Ham (short wave radio operators) that since 1968 have been handling traffic from maritime mobile units and overseas deployed service personnel. It runs from 1200 noon EST until 9PM EST when this frequency changes over to a net that covers the Pacific. In order to participate you must have your amateur radio license which we both obtained by passing examinations back in the US before we left. Many told us that this license was not necessary before going cruising, but we decided that it would be a good idea for at least one of us to have it. It is very true that it is not essential before cruising but we have found it helpful. One of the main reasons so far has been the use of the Maritime Net. Each day when we are on passage we check in with them. This means we notify them of our exact location, the sea and wind conditions, the heading and speed of the boat and any other concerns or comments that we would like to make. If we request it they will enter this information into a database that anyone knowing our call sign (KC2TIU) can access the website (www.shiptrak.org) to see our position and read any comment that we may have made. It has been very comforting to us to have someone know our position and where we are headed. We also liked having this as an option for anyone back home to check on the progress we were making. Janice’s Mom learned how to access it and she told us how much she enjoyed having this information while we were out of touch regularly on our passage. The Maritime Net also provides other services – one is providing weather forecast, phone patches if necessary and a number of other types of help as requested. During this passage when they heard that we were traveling from the Azores they immediately stated that they would check the weather for us as they knew about tropical storm Nadine and wanted to be sure we were out of harm’s way (which we were). They have a number of people that serve as net administrators, however during this crossing one of them stayed tuned in order to provide us with weather updates daily. It was great knowing that Paul was going to be there waiting to hear Tsamaya call in and that he would have new information for us each evening. We cannot say enough good about the service these people provide and greatly appreciate the time they give to those of us calling in.

With the SSB we also can make contact with the outside world via email, however, it is limited in size of what we can send and receive, therefore we do not use it as openly as our regular email that we use when we have Wi-Fi access. It is however, great to have this option and is what we use to post to the blog during our crossings. We apologize for any inconvenience of changing to a different blog site during that time, but we cannot post in the same way to this one. It would be quite a job to move all of our photos and blog entries to the other blog so will stick with having 2 blogs – one for the majority of the time and the other for when we make longer, multi-day passages.

We had hoped to head up farther north on the Portugal coast to do some exploring of this country before coming to the marina in Lagos, but with leaving the Azores later than we thought we made our passage directly to Lagos. We are glad we made this choice because we were then able to see our good friends from Ithaca who were here on vacation. We also realized that after having almost 8 days at sea with quite a few of the days in less than desirable conditions we were ready to be settled for some time.

The last full day of our crossing, October 2^nd was a great one. It was a sunny day, we were making good time, and we were greeted by a large pod of dolphin that came and played with us for quite some time. Unfortunately we did not have the regular video camera handy and Bob was off duty sleeping, but we did capture a few of them on the camera so will share that with you. This group was very playful and many of them swam under and around the boat numerous times with quite a few synchronized jumps that were difficult to catch on film so you’ll have to take my word for it that there were many more than you can see on the video clip. No matter how many dolphin we see, we still get excited and always take it as a good sign! About 15 minutes later we looked up and saw the outline of the coast of Portugal – another great sign that the journey was coming to an end. Surprisingly though that happened around 4:15PM and we did not make it to the reception dock in Lagos until 1:30AM Azores time (2:30AM Portugal time). It always amazes us how far we can see land and how much longer it actually takes to sail there – at least it shows that visibility was good!

The freighters have a special traffic pattern around the southwest corner of Portugal and along the Atlantic coastline. This consists of several lanes that are marked on our charts showing north and south bound lanes for the large ships. The rules state that smaller boats such as ours must cross these lanes at a 90 degree angle, making the shortest distance across their path. Bob had hoped to get to these lanes at night in order to see the boat lights better. Janice wanted to be here during the day to actually see the ships. Janice got her wish and we found there were many ships transiting this area when we were crossing. Fortunately we have AIS (automatic identification system) which shows the names of ships as well as their course and speed on our chart plotter and it transmits the same information to all ships within 24 nautical miles. At one point we did call one of the ships as it appeared that we were going to be quite close. Bob talked to the ship and he told us that if we continued our course at the current speed he would pass in front of us by 1 mile. In fact when he did pass in front of us he was 1.3 miles ahead of us – very good projection indeed. At the time of this happening another large ship told us they would pass behind us as they were adjusting their course slightly to make that possible. Both of the ships were container ships that were over 250 m in length and traveling at 17 KN. We have always been happy to have AIS onboard, we found that traveling through these busy shipping areas it is worth its weight in gold!

This crossing will be the last long one for some time; Tsamaya will be remaining in the Lagos marina for 6 months. We will travel back to the US for 3 months from mid-December to mid-March. Once we return to the boat we will pull her out of the water to get her ready to sail next season. We still intend on heading north toward the Baltic next season as long as we don’t chicken out. All we keep hearing when we mention the Baltic is “it is really cold there and it is a very short sailing season”. We also hear people say that it's excellent sailing and very friendly for sailboats. Bob regularly reminds Janice that there was a time when we regularly sailed the great frozen north and this probably be the same except for the fact that the sun doesn't go down until 10 or 11 o'clock at night. Great sailing, long days and beautiful country to explore, I think we can put up with a little bit of cold although our blood has thinned out since we left the U.S.

We will continue to update our blog, however, instead of sailing we hope to do some exploring around Portugal by train, bus and automobile. We will continue to share our travels with on land.

Best wishes to all of you in the US and Caribbean from “the other side of the pond” and to those of you in Europe we hope to see many of you while “over here”. Take care and all the best

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Photos

A few waves for you
We find it hard to capture the feeling of the size of the waves - hopefully you can get an idea

Checking Ahead
This location was great for looking ahead, but sometimes it got wet when a wave would come over the side - that is what the foul weather gear is for!

Watching Rainbows Grow
While on duty saw a rainbow develop and quickly saw a full rainbow from end to end - couldn't capture in a photo but did get a shot early on

Sunsets Too
Every night we watched the sunsets together before starting our night duty schedule

The Communications Center
Janice as Communications Officer uses the SSB (Single Sided Band) radio to check in with ShipTrak, get weather reports and put up blog entries from this little corner of our world

Bob Strapped In
We are happy the strap is there in the galley so we can make a meal without being thrown around!

We love the Moonlight
Hopefully you can see how the moonlight helps while on night watches

Light Up Ahead
Under the sail we can see daylight is breaking ahead

Sea Berth
When we are off duty we get a few hours sleep on the setee - something to cover the eyes for those daylight hours when you need to sleep. Sailor enjoys the "naps" too.

Rhumb Line Sailing?
We would always know from our chartplotter where the rhumb line was to our destination, we just didn't always follow it ! Our wind monitor maintains the same angle into the wind causing these twist and turns

Some Rain & Some Waves
Fortunately we have a great dodger to protect us from the rain and waves that hit the "window"