Page 18 - Yachter Spring/Summer 2020

18 CRUISING REPORTS
BACK FROM THE AZORES
It all started in January 2018. Keith (past sailing partner on our X332, Pyxis) asked me to do one leg of the 2019 AZAB (a shorthanded race between Falmouth and Ponta Delgada in the Azores and back) on his Sunfast 3200, Nirvana.
Yes!
Remember ‘The Beast from the East’?
That was the day of our ‘get to know the boat’ outing. In preparation for a 1200-mile ocean passage, we wouldn’t let a bit of snow stop us and we sailed on an unusually quiet Solent. Over the next 18 months we did several channel trips to learn the boat in all conditions, including one of 300 miles to qualify for the event.Whilst my pass of the RYA OceanYachtmaster theory examination in the last century hadn’t expired, my memory of it certainly had.Thank you to the Yachtmaster International Academy
for a refresher correspondence course, past Commodore Brian Hinde for the loan of a
sextant, and former club member and Ocean Yachtmaster Instructor Kathy Smalley for a crash course in sextant use on Southampton Common.
Then it was June 2019. Having chosen
to do the return leg, Dave and I first took a two-week holiday in the Azores. After a few days sightseeing on the island of Terceira, on Sao Miguel we visited tea plantations and greenhouses where pineapples grow slowly over two years to become sweet and juicy with no core, swam in the iron-rich hot springs, and ate food cooked in the sulphur- rich calderas before moving to Ponta Delgada to prepare for the race.The food from the nearby market was sourced from
the islands, cheap and excellent.We cooked and froze enough meals for the race in our apartment close to the marina and enjoyed pre-race events; excellent restaurants, good local white wines and outstanding reds from mainland Portugal.
Then we were off, Kirsteen and Keith on Nirvana, Dave by Airbus!
A deep low passed through the Azores
the day before the race with heavy rain, gusts to 48 knots and swell in the marina. Nonetheless, race day dawned fair and warm with light N/NE winds, due to ease under
a ridge of high pressure before backing and freshening on Day three.Thereafter, frontal systems and a further ridge of high pressure were predicted before a deeper low near
the western approaches. Unfortunately, our satellite phone worked for voice calls but not data. Despite many hours attempting
to resolve the issue, we received no further