We arrived in Horta yesterday afternoon. Getting decent Internet access remains a challenge, so apologies for not posting our arrival earlier. Later today I'm headed to the library where I hope to have a good session and post some photos from the crossing and Flores.
-Shirlee
We loved Flores except for the difficulty of getting Internet access. Shirlee wrote a blog entry there but ran out of time as she was adding photos (the facility closed). That was Thursday, Friday the Internet facility didn't open at all. She'll post that one from Horta. Meanwhile, we're underway again on a short passage (130 nm) between the islands.
----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see:
 |
| Solstice & Saeta (l to r) at anchor at Lajes das Flores |
 |
| Hydrangeas and the Atlantic |
 |
| Festival fishes and loaf |
 |
| Hydrangeas and village |
 |
| Hydrangeas and waterfalls |
We’re so glad that we were able to stop at this gorgeous island. It was named for its flowers, and flowers are everywhere, especially hydrangeas and wild roses. The roads and stone fences throughout the countryside are lined with hydrangeas. In the towns everyone has flowers in their yard and planters are ubiquitous along the streets. And it’s so clean! There’s no litter anywhere.
We arrived on Monday and learned that Tuesday evening was a festival in
It’s difficult to get Internet access here, so this will be our only post from
We have arrived at Lajes das Flores, Azores. We have been to shore and cleared in with the officials. We also went to the market and got some local bread, cheese, and red wine. All were excellent. Now I'm going to sleep.
By the way, counting days is tricky. The blog counted the first day out as day 1, but in fact, it was day 0 until we'd been out for 24 hours. John counts starting with one, but Shirlee counts starting with zero. So it took us 24 24-hour cycles plus 19 hours to get here, more or less (the time changes confuse things further). That's 25 days when Shirlee's counting, but 26 when John is.
The Atlantic Crossing series will continue when we leave the Azores for northern France in about three weeks. In the meantime, we'll be posting photos to the previous Atlantic Crossing blog entries and posting about the Azores.
All is well aboard Solstice.
----------
radio email processed by SailMail (photo added later)
for information see:
We are 32 miles from Flores. We are so close that we are picking up the local FM broadcasts. At our current speed we would arrive at the port by 1:00 AM. We don't want to enter an unfamiliar port at night, so we are going to heave to when get within radar range of the island. With first light in the morning we'll continue to the port and anchor out.
We currently have a front passing over us and the winds are from the SW. On the back side of the front the winds will come from the NW. The winds after the front are predicted to be 20 to 25 knots with gusts to 30 knots. Fortunately the port we are headed for is on the SE side of Flores island. We should have a nice calm wind shadow for our entry to the port. If not, we'll heave to again and wait for the wind to moderate.
The last 24 hours was the second slowest day of this passage. Last night we had 0.0 knots of wind at times. Thankfully we had a favorable current at 1.3 knots. So even with no wind we did make some progress.
All is well aboard Solstice.
----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see:
Today has had a top speed of 4 knots. We have been on a close reach all day so that has prevented the sails from banging about with the swell. We hope to make Flores before sunset tomorrow. If we don't we'll heave to and wait for sunrise.
Today was our 22nd wedding anniversary. For our anniversary dinner we had grilled burgers with rice and corn and our two last beers. Good times, good times.
All is well aboard Solstice.
----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see:
We were on a close reach tack with the swell on our beam most of the day. It was a wet and uncomfortable ride. It has been difficult to sleep well as the boat drops off a swell and you are lifted off the bed. Or just as you're falling asleep a wave bangs into the hull, jolting you back to full consciousness. To sleep in these conditions you have to be very tired. Despite the uncomfortable nature of the day, we did have our second fastest day on record with an average speed of 6.84 knots traveling 164.2 miles.
The wind has slowed and the swell has dropped this evening making for smoother ride. We should have light winds through Friday. Late Friday the winds should switch to the SW and start to build. The SW winds will work great for getting us through this final leg to Flores.
All is well aboard Solstice.
----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see:
