14th August
Sorry for late update but had some personal things to take care of.
After doing the 400nm sail in very mild and slow conditions I felt it was necessary to have a better test for Nuts and myself.
There was a big high pressure system over the Azores with light winds but there was a tropical depression (TS Dexter) passing to the north of the Azores with some wind and waves. I decided to head to the North West towards Corvo to get some influence for a proper test.
Left Horta midday Wednesday 6th Aug. with a pizza and some sandwiches and enough food and water for maybe 3 weeks.
Wind was 10 to 12kts from the North so a beat up the channel to hang a left past Riberinha. Wind eased off once out the channel (acceleration zone between Pico and Faial) and slowly went towards the NW and wind dropped to 7 to 8kts. Sea flat and clear sky with full moon and very happy windvane.
Sailing past our house on the north of Faial with Pico on the horizon - note the bigger wind vane with sailcloth covered holes to make it lighter. This is one of the mods from the last trip.
Beautiful evening with calm sailing the whole night with lots of sleep but wind slowly going lighter. By 1000h the next morning no wind and going in circles. Battery was at 97% at sundown and 86% at dawn and back to 93% by 1130am with high thin cloud and some direct sun and 100% by 1330h. Slow going the whole afternoon with thick grey clouds rolling in from the west.
2nd Night.
Complete cloud cover and no wind but rain squalls visible in the distance. Had several squalls during the night with winds up to about 20kts with heavy rain and no wind in between. No sleep during the night and passed a French yacht quite close on its way to Faial under motor. Got a light breeze at sunrise and managed to sleep from 6am to 10am. Nice long sleep! At midday was heading in the correct direction for the first time in ages.
5.30pm had vodka and orange juice with snacks doing 4kts with eased sheets in calm seas but long swell starting to show up. Life is good!
Friday Night to Saturday Night.
Pleasant sailing for most of the night but died in the morning. Flores and Corvo clearly visible some miles to port. The wind changed direction from SW to W and started picking up. I kept beating NNW for a few hours towards Dexter with increasing wind and the seas started to build very quickly. I eased sheets and went due north for 3 hours by which time I had gone from one reef to 2 reefs and it was getting a bit exciting. By the time the sea was about 3m with breaking crests I decided I was close enough. The wind went toward the NW as the front went through with lots of gusts and rain. Still with 2 reefs and jib I turned back towards Faial in a ESE direction. The windvane was still working very well with lots of action swinging the tiller from side to side as we surfed down steep waves many times.
It was very exciting but on the edge of something going very wrong. Was going between 6 and 8kts with surfs in between. Had big vibrations from the keel on several occasions (vortex from trailing edge?). I was inside hanging on with big eyes looking outside so I decided to drop the main. Easier said than done in the dark but once all squared away and under jib alone it was like xmas. 5kts all nice and stable with relaxed windvane with tiller in gentle swinging mode. Chicken with mushrooms and cheese sauce and pasta for dinner - homemade experimental dehydrated meal from February- delicious! (Mrs Nuts special)
The wind slowly decreased overnight but everything was going so well that I didnt bother to raise more sail. Got lots of sleep and finished my second book of the voyage.
Repaired and modified windvane in operation in brisk downwind conditions. I now have ropes to stop the tiller going too far over and a bungee to loop over the tiller to hold it in position when doing maneuvers.
The sail home was uneventful on Sunday with the wind aft and going lighter. There was still a swell running but not steep enough to surf. Of course at 1am just before arriving at home there was a big rain squall which soaked me without foul weather clothing on and the wind dropped to almost zero 1 mile from the marina. Took me 2 hours to get there and was finally in my marina slip at 330am.
Discoveries from this last adventure.
I still love sailing!! Dont store your sugar bowl where you have to reach over your boiling kettle to reach when making coffee. Some kind of cover over the companionway is very useful to keep things dry inside. When the wind and sea get rough it is very challenging to not get bashed about inside. Lots of small beanbag cushions are very useful to wedge yourself in when sleeping on the floor between the bunks (or even to help keep you from rolling around on a side bunk) A small fan to help keeping cool down below is very welcome. I have 2 small deck hatches which have been open for a lot of my adventure time and make a huge difference to the comfort inside. Olive oil stops squeaks on delrin washers on rudder pintles.
What went wrong...
My AIS transponder and plotter which worked perfectly for my first adventure started to miss behave. There where big gaps when I was not transmitting. I could always receive and was not aware of the transmission failure. It was only through texts on the Garmin Inreach from family that I knew there was an issue. After extensive tests and communication with the agent it is decided there is a failure of the equipment and must send it back for replacement. Time running out but have a simple AIS transponder as a spare to help out in the meantime for passage to Lisbon.
Mrs Nuts has been in cooking mode and busy preparing meals for dehydrating. We have 7 recipes that work well (for me) and can easily make 10 of each so should have plenty of food.
Cant wait to go sailing again!!
Just some info for other Setka sailors - If you have a washer on the pin of the bottom rudder pintle above a split pin - put a rubber washer or something to stop the washer vibrating - it makes an annoying noise. Took me a long time to find where it was coming from.
Garmin Inreach track of last adventure.
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