Bye Bye Azores

Our stay in the Azores has been beautiful.  Yesterday we spent the day on the beach in Porto Pim,  about 1 km. away from the marina.  A few of the cruisers that we met are planning to stay longer, perhaps for the whole season, and that certainly has its appeal.

Entrance to the beach

Porto Pim beach

For us, though, we are shoving off and heading for the main land.  It is just under 1000 miles to our planned landfall in Portimao, and it should take 8 or 9 days.  The sailing should be great as we pass through the Portuguese trade winds that blow steadily from the north.  Grib weather files show winds in the 10-25 knots range blowing consistently.  This will be a big change from the gennaker sailing that we did from Bermuda to the Azores.

We will be leaving behind our friends on Ti Gitu and Meredith.  Our other friends on S'ours left last week for the mainland and should arrive there any day.

Mo and Paul (Ti Gitu)

Yoshi and Fumi

Horta

View of Horta from Pico

Beside us on the dock, we met Yoshi and Fumi, two cruisers from Japan who have been cruising for about 4 years now.  It took them 72 days to sail from Japan to Vancouver, where they spent 3 years cruising the coast.  Then they sailed down the coast, through the Panama canal, to Bermuda and onto the Azores - with stops along the way.  I suspect that you will read more about this very interesting couple because they will make the crossing at the same time as us, winter in Spain, and then sail to Croatia next year to cruise the coast there - exactly the same as our sail plan.

Connie and Bob (Meredith) 

I will be posting during our crossing to report on our progress.

Branko