Azores to Scilly Isles

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1^stJuly

Early 0600 Departure from Terceira – finally heading for England. Seems like we've been heading to England for a very long time. Now, we are on the last long passage and we'll actually be there. 1200Nm so should take 8 – 12 days depending on the winds. We know we will have to motor for the first 2 days, as there won't be any wind, but if we don't leave today, we won't get far enough north to ride on the edge of an Azores high! So as expected, motored all day today. Saw lots of dolphins and even some whales, but fortunately not up close – saw lots of spouts too

2^nd July

Sailing by 1400. Didn't expect to be sailing this early on in the passage, so that's a great thing. Quite tight on to the wind, but that's better than motoring. Expecting the wind to change from behind tomorrow afternoon/evening. Still seeing lots of dolphins and today saw spouts of massive whales. Not sure what kind, they were too far away. I was shaking out a reef at the time, so didn't see them, but Phil assured me...'they're right in front'!!

4^th July

Still all good on board, just had to slow down, adjust course to avoid a fishing vessel. Phil was on watch, called him up on radio, but the fishing vessel answered in spanish/portugese or something and couldn't speak English. So we had to go into avoidance mode. Very interesting at 0200!!

5^th July

So nice to finally see the sun again after cloud cover, and lots of constant drizzle (not often that it was actual 'rain' but sometimes) for the last 4 days. John from Boomerang said on the sked tonight... get used to it, this is what you'll have for the next 5 years!!!

6^th July

Didn't email last night as wind was playing silly games and I spent all my watch trying to keep boat on course. So I wasn't very impressed, and wasn't in the mood for writing emails. (also didn't really have time - that's my story). Made a cheesecake the other day and learnt that either I don't make cheesecake in a rolling sea or I ensure cheesecake is FIRMLY secured in fridge. Made base, put in fridge to set - secured by other fridge items. Made filling (just an add milk and stir one) went to get base only to find that it had slipped down into the drinks container, emptying half its contents in the process. Quickly tried to 'rearrange' remaining contents to form some semblance of base and added filling. Stuffed tray even more firmly around other fridge containers this time!! That night phil asked for 'beer with added cheesecake crumbs' and sure enough, as I pulled out beer can, it's covered in crumbs. Oh well that can wait till England to fix.

7^th july

So...last night I jump into bed (stb midships sea berth) and find cushion is wet. On further investigation, very wet and stb water tank is leaking through inspection ports. Never mind, we are running wing n wing so boat is fairly flat and we can sleep in bort midships sea berth. We change water tanks to use up water in stb tank as this is our spare water and not what we use on passage. Then this afternoon, Phil has drink and notices water is salty. Non-return valve has decided to start returning and letting salt water IN the tank from outside....hence the overflowing. OK, so empty that water tank, all fine as it was just spare and watermaker working fine. Bed dries out enough for us to use again with aid of towels and extra sheet - have to use it now as wind has changed and we're on stb lean!! Just so you know our sailing isn't all beer and skittles!!! PS: I am now wearing my fingerless gloves that I bought with me – problem is....they're both right handed. Bit uncomfortable to begin with, but you get used to it.....at least my hands are warm!!!



10^th July

Arrived St Marys – Isles of Scilly. Picked up a mooring – yellow for smaller boats and green for the larger ones. This anchorage is extremely crowded with very little room in between mooring buoys. We were watching as boat after boat came in and there were only 4 green ones left....both D-Jay and Boomerang need a green one. Fortunately they both came in, Boomerang just in time to get the last green buoy. We had to clear in with customs and fortunately they were on the island as there was a International cruise ship in that they were processsing. We met the 'border control' guys in the harbour office and took them out to the boat. The Immigration guy was very concerned to begin with as we couldn't give him a specific time that we would be staying in the UK. We told him it all depended on Shengen, weather etc etc. But he wasn't comfortable with that. We had to take them out to our boat so he could sight our banking details and outgoing tickets from Amsterdam. Eventually he gave us a 6mth visa, but we wont need it for that long. We'll be in and out a few times before that ends. Customs guy was fine.

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