We Made Land in the Azores!!!

We are in the Town of Horta on the Island of Fial in the Archipelago of the Azores. 1700 Nautical miles East North East of the island of Bermuda, on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean (I expect all the school children reading this to be putting push pins into the map in this location) 11 Days with an average speed over the earth's surface of 7 nautical miles per hour! We did it.

Day 7 Underway: Sunday may 13th

Leaving Bermuda 0845 hrs with Southerly breeze blowing 15 kts.

A little "salute" to our sleeping friends in St. Georges harbor on our departure at 0730 hrs!

Great sailing all day long. No real weather surprises here.

Reagan gave out invitations to our firs “mocktail party” the theme was “grub in our scrubs” in honor of our viewing of the last episode of season one of “Grey’s Anatomy”

(We have all gotten hooked on this show, so if anyone would like to volunteer to send us season 2, that would be great)

Day 8 Underway: Monday May 14^th

The weather forcast for today was not so nice as yesterday and during the afternoon watch Pat and I observed the cloud formations and were reading up on our weather forcasting books, just as the wind was coming up behind us. We were overtaken by a weather system that had 35-40 knot winds and the seas began to build. We furled in some sail and rode out the waves that were coming on our beam at this point.

After a few hours of not so fun rolling and pounding, we used this opportunity to practice the “Hove-To” position to keep the boat stationary while the weather moved ahead of us.

We sheeted the staysail to the windward side, eased the main till it was out about halfway, with a preventer. We put the rudder over hard to port and the boat came to a crawlin 2 knots through the water. This position allowed us to hold our position by crabbing to windward and falling off with the backed staysail, without crashin into the large waves that were coming on our beam. The Waves were large

We rode this position from 4PM till the following morning 4AM.

Day 9 Underway: Tuesday May 15th

Beautiful sunrise today!

The winds are steady at 25 knots out of the North. Waves10 feet. Clouds breaking up.

We are going to start watching “Rome” the HBO series today!!!!!!!

Well, We all feel that "Rome" is the TV event of the Trip so far. We have enjoyed every minute of the episodes just following our evening meals. Reagan even organized a Toga Party for us!

Here you can see that we all have plenty of time on our hands during the good weather to have fun and dress up.