Ponta Delgada & goodbye to the boys

Our passage to Ponta Delgada went as expected - gentle sailing with the wind behind us first with the cruising chute and then when the wind increased, goosewinged with the genoa poled out. We left Velas around 1900 last Wednesday and moored up in Ponta Delgada at around 0500 on Friday morning.

The boys had their flight to catch on the Saturday evening and just had time to squeeze in a Jet Ski session before the left which they thoroughly enjoyed....

It was great having them on the crew for the last couple of weeks and they enjoyed it too. Our Azorean cruise was a big success and the boat felt strangely quiet after they had gone. 

Nexf though we had to get the boat ready for the long haul back to the UK. Our jobs' list ....

[ ] Covid Tests

[ ] Galley drawer

[ ] Navtext

[ ] Seal Galley work top area

[ ] Stern light/stb nav

[ ] Sprayhood zip

[ ] Lee cloths

[ ] Mainsail Clue

[ ] Spreader Protector

[ ] Check pole haliyard strop

[ ] Check rigging

[ ] Check engine oil and checks

[ ] Fill up with Deisel

[ ] Fill up water

[ ] Check Gas bottle

Thanks to the strenuous efforts of the crew which now included my good friend Agustin from Gran Canaria who we met up with in Horta, all but the Povisioning, Deisel and Water top ups have been completed and we are now on shore leave. We are on the bus to one of the islands famous beauty spots - the Sete Cidades - the Seven Cities in the North West of the Island.

In addition to the above jobs we have spent hours between us fighting/playing with, weather routing software, in an attempt to plan our route back to the UK to avoid calms and gales. We intend to leave tomorrow afternoon and a more or less direct route back looks probable. Thankfully it looks like the worst of the weather will pass to the North West of our route home. Of course the live weather we encounter may be quite different from that which is forecast!

Our actual route travelled can be tracked via the yellow brick page.