I'm happily back at the office, after 20 days, and 2400 miles, spent sailing from Antigua to the Azores as crew aboard one of Sail Ionian's Bavaria 46 sloops.
Departing Antigua
After flying from Chicago to Antigua (via Charlotte and San Juan) on May 3rd, I hung out at Jolly Harbor Marina with the newly assembled crew, getting to know each other and (attempting to) help ready S/V Tranquilizer for the coming trip. We were expecting 16-17 days of travel, assuming a 5.5 knot average speed. So, we played it safe and stocked enough freshwater, food, and fuel for more than 60 days. With a crew of five men, that equated to loading on board quite a few cans and bottles.
We left Antigua on May 5th, around 12:30 P.M. on a sunny, 90 degree day. With prevailing northeast winds expected, the plan was to sail north-northeast for a week and then hope that the winds shifted to the north, or better, northwest. Then, we would be able to turn right and let the wind push us to the Azores for the final 10 days.
The plan mostly worked. After six days of beating into steep, 10-15 foot swells coming out of the north, the winds shifted favorably to the north and then to the northwest. This was fortunate timing because, by this point, the crew was battered and bruised.
Mid-Atlantic

For the next nine days we were able to make fantastic progress sailing and motor-sailing to the east and northeast. First, we needed to get through the Horse Latitudes, which are well known for stranding sailing vessels with little or no wind for days or weeks at a time. Fortunately, we had a working diesel engine, so we were able to motor-sail through the 150 by 300 mile, egg-shaped area in two days.
We did take the opportunity, while becalmed in the Horse Latitudes, to throw some lines over the side and take a dip in 12,000 feet of water. With shampoo and soap in hand, we took a refreshing plunge, while also enjoying nice saltwater baths. I imagine there are spas somewhere selling similar natural, saltwater baths for a lot of money. Since reading about Sir Robin Knox-Johnston taking similar deep water swims while solo-circumnavigating back in the 1960's, I've dreamed of doing the same.
Landfall, the Azores
On May 20th, day 15 of the trip, we celebrated my birthday in fine fashion. The skipper cooked a special dinner of rice, tomato sauce, and canned meat. Better than that, he also used the last box of custard to whip up a nice birthday custard and canned fruit dessert. (And, he gave me extra fruit.)
Unfortunately, the birthday celebration came to a screeching halt the following day when we discovered that the engine was burning fresh cooling water. Over the next 24 hours we realized that the water was getting sucked into one of the cylinders, causing engine overheating, and eventually, rendering it unable to start at all. So, with no engine, we revised our ETA from Saturday, May 22nd to Monday, May 24th. At this point, we still had about 300 miles to go and light, shifty winds from the west.

Being on a sailboat, we knew we would eventually make it to port. And, we had plenty of food and water. The only constraint was the electrical capacity of the batteries. The engine's generator was the main source for charging the batteries, and without that we would be forced to function on the 6-8 amps that the solar panel and wind generator gave us. So, the skipper ordered all electrical devices shut down except for the navigation lights. We used the autopilot only at night and pulled out the battery powered handheld GPS unit.
With that electrical configuration, we were able to get through the next four days and 300 miles sans engine, albeit with dozens of hours of manual helmsmanship. The cherry on top was that the last six hours of sailing into Horta, Azores was the best sailing of the trip. We had a few hours of rain, 20-28 knot winds, dozens of dolphins, land in our sights, and plenty of channel fever to energize our sail handling. We ended the trip by refusing a tow into harbor and sailing up to the dock. We'd arrived!
Visit my Flickr page for more images of the trip.
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