Day 7, Azores to Ireland

0930Z 07AUG23, Day 7, Azores to Ireland. A week at sea complete! After a slow first half of the day, Zephyros' speeds are (finally) up. It is feeling like the home stretch but there are still a few days to go.

Current Position: 47 37N / 015 59W
24 hour progress: 119nm, 5kts avg SOG. Overall progress for the passage is 836nm, approximately 380nm to Kinsale.

At the start of our day 7, we were in the lead with Saga and Take Five to either side. We were sailing, but the others were motor sailing and quickly gobbled up our small lead, then passed us by.

We then started tinkering to figure out how to get some more speed under sail. The winds were light and not expected to build much over the day, and we decided to deploy our asymmetric spinnaker. As the winds moved around and we couldn't really make the rhumb line course anyway, we decided to try wing-on-wing to get the most out of our sails with a course just east of north

Saga decided to sail as well and set up their kite too. We had hoped to converge a bit for a photo shoot, but it wasn't meant to be and they pulled ahead in the light winds. Take Five seemingly kept motor-sailing and was off the AIS fairly quickly.

It was a very pleasant afternoon that turned quite sunny and warm. Daxton was starting to go stir crazy and making us all crazy as he bounced off of the walls. We baked cookies and played a puzzle / riddle game over the radio with Saga. We could only ask yes or no questions and Daxton ended up especially frustrated (but in good humor) as everyone else slowly figured out the clues. In the end he solved it, everyone had some fun and we passed an hour and a half well entertained. It made the 3.3kt avg over the first 6 hours of the day that much more enjoyable.

In the evening we tried reefing down the main and gybing it across in front of the asymmetric to put us back to a rhumb line course. In higher winds we have been able to use this tactic to go deeper down wind without needing to fully drop our main.

We checked the weather forecasts and decided to keep the kite up past sunset. The winds were supposed to build, but were expected to still be manageable for the kite. As the winds slowly built, this all worked ok, but was a bit slower than Saga's configuration and they continued to pull ahead.

Around 11pm the winds started to build and we decided to bring down the kite. This was easily accomplished. It was Ronan's watch so he helped Jon & Megan with the task. It is really nice to have the extra hands when managing the kite, especially in the dark.

Sailing with the genoa and 4 reefs in the main and just 20kts of true wind, we just couldn't go deep downwind. It tends to work better for us in heavier winds and / or with a poled out headsail. Despite our efforts, it wasn't quite enough wind so we brought our heading up into the wind and settled for a broad reach pointed south of rhumb line. This was all a bit slower than we expected (or wanted) to be, and Saga slipped out beyond AIS range.

At 1am we shook out a couple of reefs to increase our boat speed on the broad reach. The winds were a bit variable but +/- 20kts. We wanted to go closer to rhumb line, but our night time sail setup didn't really facilitate that and slightly south of a direct course was still in-line with the weather routing.

At 8:30am with Jon and Megan turning over watch and the sun up we decided to tinker to see if we could get a better set up and improve our course and speed. We tried a couple of things but settled back into a wing-on-wing configuration. We poled out the genoa to the starboard side and set the main with 1 reef in, out on the port side. This moved our course closer to rhumb line and boosted speeds.

Our morning check-in with Saga showed they had enjoyed a great night and really pulled away at the cost of a little comfort. They were around 14nm to the NNE of us. Well done Saga & crew! So we start day 8 with a mission and a lot of work to do to catch up. They can apparently also move well deep downwind in these building winds.

The weather has gotten chilly and we are all quite happy. The afternoon yesterday was warm in the sun but overnight it really cooled off. We took advantage of being able to close our pilot house door and stayed warm inside on watches. Today is off to a chilly, gray start.

The fishing line is back in with no catches yesterday. There continues to be cargo ship traffic passing us from time to time. This morning 2 energetic dolphins leapt out of the water on their way to play by our bow for a bit.

Day 6, Azores to Ireland

0930Z 06AUG23, Day 6, Azores to Ireland. It was an unexpected day of sailing followed by a very busy night watch followed by some motoring and back to slow sailing.

Current Position: 46 29N / 018 12W
24 hour progress: 117nm, 4.9kts avg SOG. Overall progress for the passage is 717nm, approximately 490nm to Kinsale. On the engine for about 5.5 hours.

As we sailed into the start of day 6, we were soon close hauled and headed east. It was a strange sensation to be close hauled in a following sea. We kept with that tack until the winds moved east. Once we started heading ESE we tacked north, which was around 12:30.

We tightened up our sheets and went as close to the wind as we could. As the winds were still 10-15kts we found ourselves able to pinch into the wind a little extra. It costs some speed, but with the more-than-expected wind it worked out well enough. Saga tacked north shortly after us for the same reasons.

We were back to bouncy, close hauled, heeled over sailing. Soon we found gusty winds pushing our apparent wind over 20kts so we put a reef in the main. We then debated about a second reef and added that as well. Along with being more wind than we expected, the winds were quite variable.

The boys were anxiously watching our GPS display, waiting for our "miles to go" indicator to go below 560nm for the official halfway mark. However our northerly course had the miles made good clicking down very, very slowly much to their dismay.

In the early afternoon Ronan shook out the second reef. Crew training continues on Zephyros making sure that the boys know how to do more sail related tasks. It is kind of like making sure you know how to change the oil and a tire on a car when you learn to drive. You might never have to do these things yourself but it is good to know how to, if you need to. Plus it is good exercise and Jon certainly doesn't mind the option of being able to send someone else out on the deck.

We soon became curious as to what Saga was up to. We had spent the whole day about 5-6nm behind them with each of us going faster or slower from time to time. They were just under 6nm ahead and because the winds were so variable with speed we weren't sure if they were motoring or getting more wind than us. If they had less wind then we wanted to shake out the reef and if they had more we would leave it in. Therefore we made a radio call to gather intelligence from our unwitting scout. As they are our friends, they happily told us they were still sailing and under full sail. They had not reefed at all.

So, Daxton went up and shook out the last reef and we were back to full sails. From there we didn't see the apparent wind go under 15kts and it was often up at or close to 20kts. We finally reached the halfway point and had our little party with loud music and treats of M&Ms, hard candy and dried cranberries (Daxton's absolute favorite treat and often difficult to find). We followed up the party with a delicious curry for dinner and put the 1st reef back in the main in a particularly gusty section of ocean.

Soon we decided to gather more intel and again called up Saga. They said they had turned on the engine but had decided to go right back to sailing. (The winds were really that variable!) We chatted and they hadn't seen any apparent wind over 15kts the whole day where as we were seeing 20kts quite often. We are bigger and have more sail area, so this wasn't really surprising but you usually only have direct information about your own boat and not about other boats along the same passage. It was an interesting conversation.

We decided to shake the reef back out and that we would just manage any gusts by loosening the main sheet to dump air as the weather forecasts suggested the winds should be getting lighter over night. We then stayed on the radio and enjoyed another dice game, before they said goodnight to go have their special "halfway there" dinner.

During the night watches the winds became variable in direction as well as speed. We remained close hauled but as the winds were moving around to the south our course improved and varied from north to near rhumb line. On Ronan's watch he saw a new sailboat join our flotilla - Take Five, a Belgian boat that we believe we saw but didn't meet back in Ponta Delgada. We worked to gain on Saga and Take Five worked to gain on us. We wonder what day they left Ponta Delgada.

Soon after Megan started her watch things got interesting. Take Five was trying to sail rather close to us. With the variable winds Megan was busy falling off, adjusting sails, trying to keep a rhumb line course while trying not to get too close to anyone. Take Five was presumably still sailing an apparent wind direction and potentially annoyed that we were acting "erratic" while Megan was annoyed they kept closing in. Eventually we came to an unspoken understanding where they veered to the east and we veered north. We also gained some distance with good speeds in the gusts.

We found ourselves with 3 sailboats in about 3 or 4nm of each other. Then a new sailing contact appeared! A smaller sailboat, Fettler, joined in on the fun. He was headed east crossing in front of all of us such that there were now 4 sailboats within a 5nm radius in the middle of the northern Atlantic Ocean! Party crashers to the halfway party?

After things had all worked themselves out, the winds stopped gusting and started dying. Saga and Take Five seemingly turned on their engines while Fettler continued east bound. We soon followed suit with our engine on just after 3am once the winds dropped below 3kts and boat speeds below 1kt. Zephyros motors well so we moved into the lead with Saga and Take Five falling about 5nm behind as we motored direct to Kinsale.

In the morning hours the winds seemed to be becoming steady at 8-10kts and we shifted back to sailing. As it was a broad reach the winds were a bit light to move Zephyros, but we secured the engine and are back to slowly sailing in the right direction. How long will it take for Saga and Take Five to catch us?

Yesterday was mostly gray with the sun only coming out occasionally for short spells. Today is off to a similar start. The weather has cooled off. We find it quite pleasant and are in long sleeves and pants with slippers or shoes and often an extra layer at night.

The fishing line has been in but there have been no new catches. There continue to be birds—mostly sheer waters. This morning a cargo ship passed between us and Take Five, right through our 3 sailboat flotilla, passing us at about 2nm. We have visual contact with both Take Five and Saga so it doesn't currently feel very lonely on the great big ocean.

Day 5, Azores to Ireland

0930Z 05AUG23, Day 5, Azores to Ireland. We are just about halfway there! It was a slow progress day, under cloudy but sometimes sunny skies with drizzling rain overnight.

Current Position: 44 56N / 019 21W
24 hour progress: 113nm, 4.7kts avg SOG. Overall progress for the passage is 600nm, approximately 590nm to Kinsale.

We sailed wing-on-wing for a good bit of the day. Saga appeared on the AIS shortly after the log entry around 11nm behind. The winds were mostly 15kts and we did ok with the wing-on-wing setup. They only gained a few miles on us.

Just before dinner we gybed the genoa across and were sailing a broad reach on a port tack. At this point Saga was about 8nm back. They were still too far back for a radio game so we tried over text on the iridium after dinner. It mostly worked but the radio was definitely easier and more fun.

The winds kept shifting north and we found ourselves tightening the sails up and on a beam reach. Saga was starting to gain ground in lighter winds.

Then around 9:30 the winds picked up to about 20kts and Jon woke up to put in a reef. The sky was pretty dark and we suspected some rain clouds were moving in, potentially with gusty winds so we decided a night reef was a good plan. A couple hours later the winds were back to a steady 10kts but we kept the reef in. The fog and rain did show up, and the light winds became rather shifty and variable.

Our reduced sail was an opening that Saga deftly exploited. They started clicking away on the gap. By 03:30 they were passing us about 1.6nm to starboard. We then decided to shake out the night reef on our watch turnover. This allowed us to keep up when the winds picked up, but when they were lighter Saga kept expanding their lead. They are now 5.5nm ahead of us. Well done Lianne & Bernhard and well done Saga!

After a night of shifting winds and sail adjustments, the wind has continued to move around and we are working towards being close hauled. We expect the wind to die off again some time today and to be back on the engine again. This should allow us to catch back up to Saga. It's quite amazing that we have stayed so close over the first half of the passage!

We are all doing well. It was taco night last night which is always a hit. Poseidon continues to be out and about with us often stealing the watch seat in the pilot house, but failing to actually stand watch over anything other than attempted incursions onto his seat. It's an ongoing battle as he doesn't really like to share the space.

We will celebrate half way today! There will be a little party with music and treats. We are hoping for an arrival late on the 9th but if not we should (hopefully) arrive sometime on the 10th. The forecasts look like some better sailing, but only time will tell how we get on for the second half.

Day 4, Azores to Ireland

0930Z 04AUG23, Day 4, Azores to Ireland. We had some lovely weather and a good bit of motoring. Now we are back to downwind sailing under cloudy skies.

Current Position: 43 39N / 021 13W
24 hour progress: 122nm, 5.1kts avg SOG. Overall progress for the passage is 487nm, approximately 700nm to Kinsale, about 14.5 hours of engine time.

We continued sailing close hauled after yesterday's log entry. Around midday we shook out the reef that we had left in the main. Around 2pm the winds were dropping off and the engine came on. We furled the genoa and motor sailed with the full main in light winds.

In the afternoon, Saga reappeared on our AIS, with our paths set to cross around 2nm apart. We were heading along rhumb line and they were pushing more directly north to catch the next wind system. Just before dinner time we had a nice radio chat and agreed to play a dice game after dinner over the radio. We reconnected and ended up playing 2 games prior to sunset. It definitely broke up the monotony of the day of motoring! Daxton was quite happy as he won the first game and he was on watch so it made his watch go faster with something different to occupy the evening.

They continued north and we continued NE with us losing each other off the AIS again in a few hours.

It was a beautiful clear night with the waning full moon and stars. Around 4am Megan decided there was enough wind to sail and we all had, had enough of the engine. So Megan set up on a broad reach, sailing north in light winds. As the winds filled in the clouds also started filling in.

From our morning check in with Saga, they were about 11nm to the south. They were also back to sailing with a more or less direct course to Kinsale with a straight downwind 2 headsail configuration. Megan decided to change from our broad reach to direct downwind with a wing-on-wing (main sail to one side and genoa to the other) setup so that we could also point NE rather than N.

We motor faster and regained our lead overnight, but Saga has a speed advantage in the lighter winds; so maybe we will see them on AIS again sometime today. We seem to start to see them around 8-9nm away on the AIS but need to be around 5nm or less away to talk clearly on the radio.

We are all doing well. Everyone is feeling better. We all enjoyed the poke bowl that the sea provided. Even Poseidon had a little nibble - he usually shows no interest in fish when we catch it so that was a surprise. The fishing line stayed aboard all day after the catch, but is back in today.

We are still seeing birds, distant cargo ships and tankers as well as the occasional SV Saga. Otherwise it is lots of ocean and sky.

Day 3, Azores to Ireland

0930Z 03AUG23, Day 3, Azores to Ireland. Day 3 was an uncomfortable day of close hauled sailing in gray, cool weather.

Current Position: 41 58N / 022 23W
24 hour progress: 123nm, 5.1kts avg SOG. Overall progress for the passage is 365nm, approximately 810nm to Kinsale. 70nm made good down the rhumb line - only about half of the miles sailed made for progress towards Kinsale, but at least we were sailing.

About an hour into day 3 we had a major wind shift. It was expected from the weather forecasts, but it is still quite surprising when the wind shifts almost 180 degrees without much change in wind speed or other signs that it is coming.

We had expected the wind to shift to the north or northeast so had planned to sail east if we could. However, after setting up close hauled on a port tack, we were heading southeast. We soon abandoned that plan as the wind moved further and further towards the east which had us sailing more and more south. We then tacked north and tightened our sails to as close hauled as we can go.

Zephyros heeled over and the boat movement changed as we bounced into the waves and swell. This had some of the crew feeling quite queasy and feeding the fish. Megan's iron stomach was fine and Poseidon surprisingly hasn't drooled or gotten sick.

We continued on close hauled, pointed N to NNW. In the evening hours the winds picked up (they often seem to pick up when it's time to cook!) and we added a second reef to the main while Megan worked to feed the crew.

The winds were up and down but before sunset we shook out one of the reefs, bringing us back to 1 reef in the main. There were enough clouds and shifting winds that we left the reef in the main to simplify overnight watches. When the winds picked up we put a reef in the genoa and then shook it out when they calmed again.

Around midnight Saga tacked east and we lost them off the AIS. We hung on to our NW tack until just after 3am when the winds moved more northerly. Then we tacked and headed east for about 5.5 hours until our course was too southerly again. We are back to a N-NW heading, close hauled and expect the winds to die off sometime today.

Morning updates around our group show Saga about 13nm east of us and Puff about 50nm south. Everyone seems to be doing well - though mal de mar has made its rounds. We are all expecting the wind to go away as we cross through a light wind area before picking up the next system. Until then, we will sail the best we can.

The weather is nicer - sunnier but cooler - again this morning. Hopefully everyone will start feeling better soon. The seas haven't been too large so everyone just needs some time to find their sea legs. There have been lots of birds and even one foolishly determined one that we had to chase away from the fishing line yesterday.

Just this morning (at 0920 and right before the 24 hour end to day 3) Daxton (finally) caught a fish! A small Mahi Mahi. He is so happy that his prized lure finally caught something. We are all looking forward to a nice poke bowl lunch.

Day 2, Azores to Ireland

0930Z 02AUG23, Day 2, Azores to Ireland. We had a lovely day of sailing in warm weather and blue skies. Overnight the clouds rolled in and this morning is off to a gray start.

Current Position: 40 34N / 022 27W
24 hour progress: 139nm, 5.8kts avg SOG. Overall progress for the passage is 242nm, approximately 880nm to Kinsale.

We have been sailing a reach for the past 24 hours with Zephyros moving well. Yesterday in the late morning we turned the engine on for less than 30min when the winds dipped below 5kts. Soon we were back in light but sailable wind and the engine was back off. Perhaps we were a bit too impatient or perhaps the little bit of motoring helped to get us quickly out of the wind hole.

The winds and seas built gradually over the past 24 hours. We adjusted sails and course to stay pointed towards Kinsale. Around midnight the winds built to 20+ kts so we added a reef to the main on watch turnover. This kept everything comfortable.

The overnight watch had the supermoon as company. The skies were cloudy but the moon still kept the night decently bright.

We have been able to see Saga on the AIS pretty much the whole day. They were gaining on us in the lower winds of yesterday morning and afternoon. However, once Zephyros found 15kts of apparent wind she has been doing better. They gain some ground and lose some ground. We seem fairly evenly matched overall.

We have email contact with both Saga and Puff as we all move through these waters. It's nice to know there are fellow sailors just over the horizon even if all you can see on the horizon is blue or gray.

The boys are standing their watches and we are all adjusting. Poseidon has adjusted really smoothly with the calmer start to this passage. He has been taking over the pilot house seat for hours each morning and doesn't like to share.

The fishing line is out - Daxton's lure still isn't catching anything to his dismay. Lots of boats on the AIS early this morning with a cargo ship passing about 1.5nm away in the early morning hours.

Day 1, Azores to Ireland

0930Z 01AUG23, Day 1, Azores to Ireland. It was a great month and a half in the Azores, and now it is time to sail on. The see-you-later's were tough, but the excitement for new adventures in Ireland is high. Both are definitely a part of the highs and lows of this journey.

Current Position: 38 42N / 024 11W
24 hour progress: 103nm, 4.3kts avg SOG, approximately 1020nm to Kinsale. We had about 15 hours of engine time in the first 24 hours.

We got underway at 09:30 in the morning from Ponta Delgada, São Miguel, Azores. There was very little wind so we motored out of the harbor towards the whale watching boats. We figured if we were going to use diesel anyway, might as well join the whale watching groups. We were rewarded with dolphins and Sei whales!

We hung out near the tour boats for a little while and then turned east to start down around São Miguel. We motored east looking for more feeding birds in hopes of more dolphins and whales - we were not disappointed. We found another group and then put up our main and contemplated sailing as our friends on SV Saga and SV Puff were both underway now, also leaving the Azores (and sailing).

We were able to launch the asymmetric spinnaker and were pleasantly surprised with some easy downwind sailing around the island. The weather forecasts suggested we would be motoring a good bit for the first day or so of the passage so we were happy to get beautiful, sunny, calm, pleasant sailing to start off the trip.

As we reached the SE corner of the island we brought down the kite as rain clouds were looming and we figured we would try to keep the kite dry. We ended up on the motor in the lee of the island and saw more dolphins and more whales.

As we cleared the island, we shut the engine off for awhile, sailing a close reach on port tack with full sails and pointed to Ireland! As the internet communications dropped off, we were able to have a radio chat with Saga and they could talk to Puff. It's always interesting to be close enough to other friends to see them on AIS and occasionally have radio chats.

After a lovely sunset the winds died and the engine was back on until around 3 am. The nearly full moon was great company while it was up. The morning winds have been light and we are making slow progress, but it is progress and in the right direction.

We have seen some fishing boats, a couple of tankers and our fishing line is in the water. Now we work on settling into the rhythm of passage making.