Here we are back in Sotogrande. It's been a hectic week trying to catch up with a few things while we were home. Jon & I met up with Clive & Phil (Suncoast) before we left for home last week but haven't had time to post any updates. We are heading for the azores but having consulted the weather gods we are setting off Sat lunchtime for Lagos which will take 24 hrs, we will sit out the first predicted "blow" for a day then assuming the second low doesn't go too far south we will set off for the Azores from there. We expect a 6 to 7 day journey depending on our selected cruising speed .
What sort of boat do you have Col? Must have some range and heavy weather capability!
Not mine It's a Fleming as Solitare says. We are just the delivery crew. In addition to the 3885ltr in the main tanks, we have 2 X 800ltr bladder tanks on the side decks.
Regarding the weather capabilities we crossed the bay of Cadiz last night mean wind speeds were 20-25knts but did go to +30 for a bit (heavy spray went over the top of the fly bridge) The boat handled it with absolutely no problem. Unfortunately it was too dark for photos though.
Actually we now know exactly how it feels to be inside a washing machine, boat behaves beautifully, just the weather, its not the forecast was wrong, just that it keeps changing by the minute - last nights was about 10 knots higher than predicted, but to be honest we both felt the forecast was a touch on the light side, sitting in Lagos now and its blowing hard - dinner and a beer beckons!!
Looking at the weather Lagos to Azores is a no go for the next week, so latest cunning plan is to leave for Madeira, and make the jump to Azores in between the lows that are coming thick & fast this will reduce our passage time to 2 1/2 days to madeira, then 3 to Azores. This gives us a better window between the fronts to aim for.
We checked with Fleming to see if we could load any more fuel but they said no. This means the Canaries to Antigua route is out of our safe fuel range so is off the agenda unless we can think of somthing else.
Will try to update when we have something more concrete.
Weather not looking great, hope you guys are not to bored hanging around, and that boat it all tickety boo for the next stage.
I know. We have system after system at the moment. We are waiting for a "weather window" The Madeira option has been shelved for a while. It looks to be no problem getting there, then we'd be stuck, and when it does blow through we would be in a head sea for 3 days. Re-evaluating our options it seems better to stay put as we have more facilities here, and wait for a window that we can get to the Azores with. We need to allow 4 1/2 days for that.
We shall see.
Thanks to all the well wishers. Jon & I will not be making any rash decisions. Safety for the owners, us & the boat are at the front of our minds.
The next leg.
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