Ummm, we didnt quite get to the Azores......

- we ended up in Bermuda instead.
After finally leaving St Maarten with an extra 35 gallons of diesel and an extra 60 gallons of water in jerry cans (basically doubling what was in the tanks) and heading north, we had very light winds for the first five days, hence did a fair bit of motoring slowly in order to try and get north to find some wind.

By day 6 we had used up almost half of our fuel, and the forecast for the rest of the way to the Azores was not very good (very light winds) so as we were using twice as much water as planned (despite what we thought was careful rationing - but we were drinking a lot, as it was very hot) we decided to divert to bermuda to take on extra diesel and water (and have a look around the island of course).

We then realised that we had some major problems with the engine - a 35 year old Perkins 4-108 - and as we had no alternative means of battery charging (such as wind generator or solar panels) this further confirmed Bermuda as a port of call.

We had a nice S'Westerly breeze though for the last few days (we took 9 days in total from St Maarten, and covered just over 1,000 miles on the log) and were tromping along in fine style on a broad reach with just the No. 1 genoa hanked on, doing 7 1/2 knots.
Until the wind picked up and headed us just as we were approaching the narrow entrance to St Georges harbour..... we had to hastily change down to the No 2 jib and double reefed mainsail and tacked our way up the Cut with the engine helping a bit, but threatening to expire..... we later found out from the local Perkins engineer that our 4-108 needed major work, and as it was beyond the scope of us crew it was decided to let the engineer do it.

We were about 2 weeks behind schedule already by then, after spending extra time in Barbados and Antigua getting the boat ready, and it was becoming apparent that even if we got the engine fixed soon, we wouldnt be able to get to the Azores before the 21st June (when my flight back to Barbados from the UK was booked for).
And I couldnt postpone my flight, as I had to get back to work, to cover for my colleague who was going away.

So as all 4 crew had deadlines, we all hopped on Zoom Airways on different dates and flew back to old Blighty - GBP 200 for a single ticket was pretty good going I thought!

We did however have a week in Bermuda first which was most enjoyable - we saw the famous fitted dinghies racing a couple of days after we arrived, and toured the island on the ferries (excellent) and buses.

And of course we tried quite a few Dark and Stormies (rum and ginger beer) in the White Horse Tavern and the Dinghy Club (and a few other watering holes as well....).
The prices of drinks was quite a shock to the system though as we were used to Caribbean prices which are half or less..... the most expensive was US$17 for 2 D & S, although this was in a rather posh waterfront cafe in St Georges.

One of our crew was (still is) a smoker, and regretted that she didnt buy a few cartons of Marlboros in St Maarten, as they were only 60p a packet there..... especially as she was then faced with almost GBP 6 a packet when she got back to England.....

I had 3 weeks to kill while in England before returning home last Saturday, and managed to do this most effectively by going sailing on various pals boats in Lymington and Gosport, and helping out with maintenance. Would have liked to have stayed an extra week and taken part in the RTI today, but I had to get back.....

Our skipper finally got everything sorted out re the engine and left Bermuda a few days ago with a newly pressganged crew, bound for the Azores - we are getting position reports from him and sending him weather info from RFI by text to the satphone. They have had good S'westerlys the past couple of days, but the forecast is for the winds to decrease significantly in the next few days.... their ETA in Flores is 10th July.

So I still havent managed to get to the Azores...... definitely unfinished business there! I really wanted to go and visit Colros who is ashore on Flores. And see all the paintings on the harbour wall in Horta, and have a look around.....
But maybe next year (or more likely the year after) now we shall go off on an Atlantic circuit with our Challenger 35......

In the meantime I am trying to catch up on 2 months of office work that piled up while I was away.....