Sailing to Lisbon and arrival

I arrived home in Faial just before a hurricane and was busy preparing our and my sisters house for the gales and then came down with flu so been slow to update.

We were fortunate with the wind direction and did not get the full force.  There were some less fortunate with damage and blown down trees.  This was the first storm here in the Azores when I did not have a boat in the marina to worry about.

The last days sailing Nuts to Lisbon were very easy.  Wind between 10 and 20kts from behind till a front passed and then beating in calm seas with the wind slowly going onto a reach.

I was following the Orca reports every few hours and was not happy to discover that they were at the entrance to Lisbon and already sunk one boat and attacked another.

I quickly put 2 reefs in the main and slowed down.  I eventually dropped the mainsail to keep sailing just fast enough for the trimtab selfsteering to work. I watched the Orca.Pt site very often to see what was cooking with the Orcas. 

They moved North to Peniche so all sails up and sailed as fast as I could for Lisbon.  Unfortunatly the wind was dropping all the time.

I was very lucky with crossing the shipping lanes.  I went North of the traffic separation zone but did just cut the corner a little bit as there were no ships.  AIS was a huge help and the alarm kept me alert.  Crossed the main traffic zone during daylight and was surprised to see fishing boats in the middle of the lanes.

Land Ho just before sunset

Sunset with failing wind. Spent the whole night hand steering close to land.  (Very close) I didnt trust the wind direction to stay stable and enough for the wind vane to not crash into land.  Took the whole night to make a few miles to Cascais.  Was doing quite well until the current changed and then went backwards.

Sunrise just passing Cascais. Got a light breeze and was making about 2 kts in the right direction when a little RIB appeared on the bow.  2 tough guys from  Clube Naval de Lisboa had left their marina in the dark to tow me as the current was against and no wind forecast.  They traveled about 10nm to reach me and towed me all the way to Belem Marina.  I did not ask for any help but they did this as a curtesy. What can I say but Im humbled by their hospitality.

I have seen this river many times out of an Airbus window but it is another experience to see first hand.  Very interesting with many historical features.

This is a monument to historic sailing discoveries at the entrance to Belem Marina.  I tied up in the marina at about 10am feeling very tired as no sleep the previous night.  Antonio took me to the Marina office to sign in and get the shower block codes etc. I just had to present the boat registration card, insurance document and my Passport.  (in fact didnt present my Passport just my Portuguese Permanent Residents card)  

Was invited to a lunch at the Club restaurant.  Had a nice hot shower and had a huge mixed grill with a glass of wine then back to Nuts for a sleep.

I was very fortunate to pick a good weather window.  The seas were a bit rough and choppy as I was following a depression but had favorable winds.  My plan was to go to 40North and drop down to Lisbon when I got close  There are normally winds and current from the North on the Portuguese coast and didnt want to end up beating there.

Im very happy to be in Lisbon early to avoid autumn weather from the Azores.  Was actually hoping to be earlier in Portugal but had a very nice sail.  Sailed 1063 Nautical Miles in 12 days with 2 days in go slow mode.  Was very pleased I made the decision to get starlink to check on the Orca situation.  Maybe I would have arrived at exactly the wrong time without.  50w of solar was a challenge using Starlink.  It is plenty for my AIS and Tri color nav light plus a bit of compass light and a little of led interior lights.  Also charged up tablets and phone.  I watched a lot of downloaded video on my tablet and did a lot of reading.  Only connected Starlink for a few minutes 3 times a day to monitor the weather and Orca.Pt.  Also chatted to friends on Whatsapp -voice and video.  Did a speed test and got 460mbs. 

Now going to make more dehydrated meals and get my house sorted for Mrs Nuts over winter.  (firewood etc)

I fly back to Lisbon on the 2nd November and looking forward to meeting other Setka Skippers and starting the adventure.

 Report from week one

14th September

According to the GPS odometer Nuts has sailed 671 miles since leaving Horta last Sunday and has 352 miles to go.

 Mostly Ian has had good weather, although a front with lots of rain and some wind will pass him tonight.  So far (after the first day) he has had the wind behind him, it has been warm but not too hot, enough sun to charge the battery but not so much that he gets burnt.  After the front passes he will be beating for some hours and that will be colder and more miserable but won't last too long. His ETA in Lisbon is Thursday.

The blue dot marks the position of Nuts

This is his report this afternoon 

"I hit a big sunfish this morning. Big bump and a rumble as we slid over but it missed the rudder and stabilizer fins. I saw it surface behind the boat - about 2m diameter. Saw a turtle while having a shower.  Still nice and sunny."  

He also saw 3 ships during the night, the first he has seen in many days.

And he sent a few video clips:

Cruising along

Rainbow

Sliding down the waves

Sunset

Calm seas

A small squid landed on the deck, not big enough to eat

Nuts heads for Lisbon

 9th September

On Sunday morning Ian and Nuts left Horta Marina heading for Lisbon.  The weather still wasn't great with rain squalls, a big swell and wind against tide. He beat up the channel to clear the Northern tip of Pico island.  He hoped to find calmer conditions in the lee of Sao Jorge island, but it wasn't much better, and he was hard on the wind again after rounding the southern tip of Sao Jorge. The first day and night were really rough and uncomfortable but during the day yesterday (day 2) the wind backed and eased off so he could free off.  Now he has a fair wind on the beam, about 8 knots, and really pleasant sailing.

Follow his Garmin tracker here https://share.garmin.com/MJEXV

 Friday 5th September.

Nuts has been loaded up and ready to go for several days now but weather not co-operating.

There is a big depression passing by the Azores at the moment and if I had left a few days ago it would have clobbered me.  Im sure I would have survived but why put it to the test!

According to Windy the depressions for the next week plus should be passing a bit further to the north and give me some more favorable winds.  I dont trust long range weather forecasts (especially at this time of year) and must take what comes but not prudent to head off into gale force winds within the first few days.

Im hoping to head off on Saturday afternoon to get behind the depression and give it a few hours after the front passes and rain and sea calm down a bit.

My plan is to go between Pico and Sao Jorge as the wind will be from the North by then and seas should be calming down to 2m or so for the first night with protection from Sao Jorge.   After exiting the channel the wind is forecast to go towards the NNE which will be on the nose for a day or so as Im planning to get up to about 40N (at least)  for the crossing and drop down when getting close to Lisbon.  After that the long range weather forecast looks OK.  (changes every time I look so decided to stop looking while it is good!!)

Nuts waterline has gone down a lot.  All loaded with food for about 2 months and 92 l of water plus juices, UHT milk, lots of snacks, books, fishing tackle, inflatable canoe, snorkel gear etc etc.

Going to bite the bullet tonight and activate the Starlink Mini for offshore use.  Only for 1 month and straight back back to standby mode.  (Got to spend all my money before it is finished!!)  For this trip at this time of year in the North Atlantic I think it is important to monitor weather and my major concern is the Orca situation as I approach the Portuguese coast.  If they are active in the area where I want to go I will turn around and head elsewhere. (that is why I have lots of food and water onboard).

Info on Starlink Mini.

There was a discount  offer on the Portuguese Starlink site for half price on the mini a while ago. I paid 150E and it took almost 2 months to arrive in the Azores.  It came on the 50Gb roam package (40E/month) which I was supposed to activate 1 month after they posted it to me.  It had not arrived by that time so I put it on the "pause" program which was free but no service.  That program has been discontinued and now there is the "Standby" program.  It costs 5E per month with unlimited data at reduced speed.  I tested it out and it works just fine for WhatsApp Calls but a bit pixilated for video.  Could stream radio no problem and emails were fine.  Took a bit of time to send and download photos.  You Tube also worked OK with a bit of buffering.  Another thing to watch for is your power supply.  It is supposed to work on 12vdc but the cable supplied is very long and thin gauge.  (The supplied power adapter is 230ac to36vdc) I bought a 12v to 24v step up converter and chopped the cable to about 4m to reduce  voltage drop.  Draw from the ships battery starts at about 3A and drops to about 2 once connected.  My battery voltage averages 13.2v so you can work out the watts.

I hope it all works out OK.  So far my AIS has been transmitting nonstop for weeks so that problem has been resolved.  

Some of my dehydrated meals.  Sometimes the plastic vacuum seal bags would get punctured by the dehydrated contents which are quite hard and sharp  so we now we make bags from baking parchment paper to put inside the plastic bags before loading and vacuum sealing.  That protects the bags from sharp bits.

Water is in plastic bottles - 2l, 1.75l, 1.5l, 1l and 500mL.  Also have filled all available space in lockers with secure lids with empty sealed bottles and small polystyrene bean bags stuffed into corners for added buoyancy.   Garmin tracker will be on (hopefully with a link on the blog) as soon as I leave and daily video updates if Starlink works out and weather is not trashing me.

Nice to see other SAC skippers getting their qualifying sails under the belt.

Time is getting close and must get away from the Azores as soon as possible as autumn weather and storms are on their way and the North Atlantic is maybe not such a good place for a 5m boat to hang around.  

Been following Rajmund on his qualifying sail.  He is doing very well and sailing super fast. https://setkahorhe.blogspot.com/

With a bit of luck will do an update from the sea tomorrow.