2. Etmaal 2 - zondag 24 juni 2012

AZOREN-FALMOUTH-NL

For Joke's Blog in English, see below

Etmaal 2 zondag 24 juni

Het lukte gisteren overdag niet om de blogtekst naar Anita te sturen, dat moet per radio (kortegolf) en dat gaat niet als de propagatie (omstandigheden in de ether om het maar kort te zeggen) niet optimaal is. Bij mijn wacht die vanmorgen om 03.00 begon, lukte het direkt en snel. Vandaar dat het verslag van het 1e etmaal lang op zich liet wachten.

We zijn alle drie ingeslingerd ondertussen, ikzelf heb nooit last maar de andere 2 hadden geen trek... Maiscrackers dus en knackebrood. En een neutrale avondhap. Ik mocht lekker wel, gestoomde zalm.

Het waaide fors de hele nacht, tot 30 knopen schijnbare wind. We wisten ervan dus hadden een tweede rif in het grootzeil, en de genua vervangen door de fok. Minder groot zeiloppervlak dus. In de nacht liep het echt als een trein, zowel qua snelheid tot 10 knopen als het gevoel alsof we op spoorrails zaten. Geen gebonk en geen gek hoge golven. Mooie snelheid ook, zie onderaan voor dagafstand.

Bij het radionetje vanmorgen vermeldde Bernhard van Robeyne dat ze een walvis dichtbij hadden gezien, imposant. Na ons bezoek aan het walvismuseum in Horta kijk ik anders tegen een ontmoeting aan... beetje op afstand liefst. Sietske vond dat onze vislijnen wat fleuriger en aantrekkelijker mochten voor de vissen die we willen verorberen, en knutselde wat met kleurige restjes kunststof touw.

We hebben alle 3 een dikke fleecetrui aan, en Henk nam net de bimini gedeeltelijk weg om meer zonnewarmte te kunnen opvangen. En we hebben niet eens meer een kachel aan boord! De door zout water geroeste radiatoren van de cv dumpten we in Venezuela, de Kabola kachel ruilden we eerder al in. Dat wordt wat, straks in NL... Wat moeten we nou als eerste regelen? Een ligplaats, postbus, auto of verwarming???

Inmiddels surfen we in de nacht opgebouwde hogere golven af, zo'n 3 meter schat ik. De golven krullen soms om, en hebben dan een doorzichtig turkoois puntje. De bewegingen van de Zeevonk echter blijven soepel.

Positie om 12 UTC: 41.45 N en 23.23 W

Afgelegde afstand de afgelopen 24 uur: 167,8 mijl

dus net geen record (was 171).

IN ENGLISH

Day 2, Sunday June 24

Posting this blog was belated, because of the bad propagation (circumstances in the ether, so to speak) but when my watch started at 3 a.m., I tried again and bingo!

So, let me tell you of what went on before we left Horta, Faial, the Azores. We spent 26 days there, not the intended fortnight max. But, we had a wonderful time. To say nothing of the officialdom we had to face and combat... As our two outboards did not work when we arrived, we anchored and then were towed by the Harbour Police to a quay and from there we moved to 6 other places... Our engines were taken off by crane, Miguel repaired them (we needed to buy a complete identical diesel outboard Yanmar for spare parts) and then came the notification that we would be committing a crime if we left before the Harbour Police had a declaration in Portuguese that the engines were ok again. Miguel wrote one, but the word "repaired" did not convince the officials, this did not necessarily mean they were ok! So, 2 men came in a rib and filmed the engines while running. So, "please come to the office to get the paper". We did, but "no it must be in the other office. No, we never got one". Some telephoning and then: "you may go, everything is ok. No paper? No, not necessary."

Then Sietske and I put the finishing touch to our painted plague on the pier, as this is said to ward off disaster at sea. Once we are in Falmouth and have internet we will post some photograps of this entire trip.

We left more or less together with Robeyne (Bernhard and Rene) and Zsa Zsa (George and Melanie and their daughters Puck and Lotte). We made friends already in 2005, in the Caribbean.

Horta is wonderful. Its history of a whale-catching community, the scenery, the flowering violet-blue hortensias along all roads, the good food for very low prices, and then the nice people. We rented a car twice and toured the entire island. We did not hike as it was too cold and damp but we looked into the deep crater from the volcano rim. A visit by ferry to neighbouring Pico was postponed and then put off. We would like to come back, and that will have to be in August for the Sea Week that everybody raves about, but another year.

To come back to the Horta people: we were more or less adopted by a group of fishermen and their families. They lent us some ropes to tie up to their difficult (too short for us) pier, invited us for a drink and fish soup one evening. Then a dinner with octopus and bread and cheeses, I played on my squeeze-box and they sang and danced to the Portuguese songs I had practiced especially and to internationally known songs like the drunken sailor. Only Paula and her sister Adelia and Adelia's daughter Cristine speak English (also Miguel, her 11 year old son, he is in school) but food, wine and laughter are an international language! Then Sunday lunch at Paula's place, more music and a lot more wine...

By now we were all Facebook friends and I invited them for dinner on Zeevonk. I had to convince them that the dinghy that would pick them up would not sink or overturn, as the fishermen could not swim. We all had a great time, our friends Jelka and Piet also came and her Portuguese teacher (what a difficult language!!)so we were 15 for my Caribbean dinner. Adelia's husband came into harbour and we were handed a large bag of fresh fish, now partly in our freezer and the rest eaten at the farewell dinner Jelka prepared for us.

Did I introduce our new crew member yet? Sietske, Henk's other sister. She came and sailed with us in the Caribbean twice before. She is wonderful company and great help. She just handcrafted 2 new fish lines, she wanted more colour to attract the fish. The watches we divide among the three of us, each does 3 hours between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m.

Our departure from Horta on Friday was made easier by the constant rain, we even had to don foul weather gear. Holland, here we come! (and we dumped our central heating in Venezuela...)

Our position at noon today (Sun 24) was 41.45 North and 23.23 West

The distance the last 24 hours was 167.8 nautical miles (x1852 meter).