ships!

Patricia sent this to show us what's ahead. We are in the box.

Showers, Ships and Sailing

It's Shower Day. I've often read that line in other sailing blogs and have wondered, really? What's the big deal? As it turns out this is a real phenomenon out at sea. Showering on a moving sailboat is not easy and quite honestly there is no real motivation to bathe daily.

If you are sailing hot water can be a luxury, if you are motoring it means the wind or the seas are not agreeable. It takes a perfect combination of hot water, sea state and stench to get all crew members into clean clothes and clean bodies. Today was the day! Yes, we all feel better.

We are closing in on mainland Europe, with that comes shipping lanes. We have Automatic Identification System (AIS) on board. Our chart plotter shows a little red triangle for every boat or ship out here that has the same system. It is required by international law for all commercial vessels. Typically on this journey we would see one maybe two a night. Currently on my screen there are 32. They no longer carry names like Rhumb Line, Sophie or Blue Moon, now they are Costa Rican Star, Grande Tema and Zim Qingdao. These ships are bigger than football fields, traveling at 12-14 knots and passing each other within a half a mile. All I can say is freighters, tankers and cargo ships oh my! Gratefully none have come closer than 5 miles to us, let's hope that trend continues.

At this point we are approximately 36 hours away from our destination. We have some of the best sailing conditions of the entire trip. We are on a beam reach, which I am told is a sailors favorite point of sail, scooting along at 6+ knots. We are comfortable, excited and looking forward to "land ho"!

Not much to report here....

We took off from ponta Delgado knowing we would motor some, sail some and arrive Lagos in about 6-7 days.

We motored in flat seas and nearly 0 wind for the first 36 hours then we had some wind but from the wrong direction. The jib went up at 9 pm last night and the mainsail at 6 am this morning.

Instead of the beautiful blue sky melting into the deeper blue water today is all the shades of gray you can imagine. The sea is a deep color of gray with streaks of white from the breaking waves. It appears lifeless.

The sky is a mottled institutional gray. Threatening squalls disappear before we reach their location. When not on watch we are all sleeping. It's that kind of weather. The crew is subdued but happy, we are sailing!

We have started our final leg.......

Pixie Dust is on the move. We would like to say we sailed away from Sao Miguel Island but again we are faced with no wind. The weather forecast says its time start the last leg of our journey acrss the Atlantic. We will probably motor for 36 hours then set sail. The winds will be favorable and the seas calm. We are excited about the next 6 days.

As we departed Ponta Delgado we were once again graced by the presence of Dolphins, twice. Thats a sign of good luck!

These islands are beautiful. Filled with old and new calderas, the hiking options are endless. On Faial we saw a volcano that erupted in the late 50's. It was like walking on the moon. Here in Sao Miguel we saw volcanos that erupted 1000's of years ago, it was like being in a garden of eden. Fresh water lakes fill the calderas and the vegitation is lush.

Sao Miguel has black beaches and surfing on the North side. On the south Whale watching and Dolphin watching tours are plentiful. We didnt see snorkeling but scuba dive tours went out daily. Both islands were clean and the people friendly. It is not crowded. Hotels are scarce but our tour driver said Airbnb is a good option. Our island tour yesterday lasted 8 hours and not one time were we bored or not engaged. These are not your typical islands. We wish we could stay longer. We will make plans to return.

We are off the grid for the next 5-7 days, if you'd like to contact us use pixiedust@myiridium.net.

The adventure continues....

As you all know we made it to Horta, Faial Azores!  Yay!  This is a beautiful place, put it on your list of travel destinations!  The island is diverse, the people helpful and friendly and it is not crowded. We are sad to leave. 

Tomorrow we will set sail for Ponta Delgado, Sao Miguel another island in the Azores. It is a 150 mile sail and will take us between 24-30 hours. We will spend a minimum of Saturday, Sunday and Monday before we hopefully depart on Tuesday June 16. We need a radar repair and that is where we will meet up with the Garmin technicians. 

On Tuesday we hope to start making our way to Lagos our first destination on Mainland Europe. This is a 6-7 day trip so get your trackers warmed up we will be on the go soon.  The rally trackers will work throughout our journey to Lagos. 

You are able to see the entire fleet by going to this link. http://www.worldcruising.com/arc_europe/event.aspx and choosing fleet viewer on the left hand side. We will be at least two days behind. 

Another option is our Iridium GO tracker. This track can be found at http://forecast.predictwind.com/tracking/display/PixieDust.  This tracker updates hourly. 

I will continue to post short blog messages that will be posted to Facebook. If you happen to not be a Facebook type you may find anything we post here:  http://pixiedustsails.blogspot.com

Through our Iridium Go we are able to receive email while underway. The address is pixiedust@myiridium.net 

Thank you to everyone for your continued support. We are having a blast!

Love to all,

Dawn and Joe

Sent from my iPad

Dawn

we have arrived!

Afternoon Playtime

Mid afternoon ramblings....

Everybody is sleeping. After a rolly polly night, with a midnight sail change, things have calmed and the crew is taking this opportunity to rest. We press on with 8 knots of wind basically from the east. The way we want to travel.

While they are sleeping I just had my own personal visit from some Spotted Dolphins. I very much enjoy the visits from the Dolphins, it just adds to and brightens the day.

We've seen whale spouts in the distance, I keep my eyes peeled for an actual breech. I wonder how birds get so far away from land.

We found a rip in our spinnaker two days ago, we fixed it with sail tape. Then later in the night the halyard (the line that holds the sail up) chafed through right above the head of the sail. All 4 of us were up at 4 am dragging this huge sail out of the water. I think we can be proud of how we handled that unfortunate incident. We secured the sail and all the lines safely and quickly. We are not sure what the cause of the chafing was and it will require a trip up the mast by captain Joe. We prefer not to do this at sea.

Most of the fleet has either arrived or will be arriving Horta in the next couple of days. We are still 4-5 days out. The crew is in good spirits, well rested and I must say well fed. We didn't buy too much food for this excursion!

And so it goes....

It has been gorgeous the last few nights with the moon up through the night and shining brightly on the ocean. We can't hardly wait for tomorrow's full moon.

Life at sea with no wind had been peaceful and frustrating. The seas are flat, there is no rolling or creaking of the boat, there is no wind through the rigging, there are also very few miles crossed towards our destination. The captain and crew scratch their heads, try to put together a successful sail plan and check weather multiple times a day.

The Dolphins seem to have a nightly playtime. Just about 6 pm everyday we've had them playing around the boat. They swim with the bow, turn over and show us their bellies then head out and jump in and out of the water for awhile. We look forward to the nightly show. Last night while on watch I could hear the Dolphins chattering.

While the seas were flat I kept thinking I was seeing trash in the water, clear plastic cups every time I looked up. Turns out those clear plastic cups were Portuguese Man of War a form of Jelly Fish that basically puts up their own sail. This is something I will need to Google later as I have no idea if that is accurate.

All the wildlife is wonderful but gets us no where closer to our destination. We are expecting more wind in the next 24 hours or so, here's hoping.

I've been in a bit of a funk as things at Texoma are not good and we feel totally powerless. We have good, good friends who have emptied the trailer (by boat no less) of most of our personal belongings. Unfortunately the furniture remains. It was too late to get it out. Though elevated it will surely mildew as there is 7 inches of water inside the house and of course no electricity. It is very hot inside that home. It looks like our adventure this summer will be cut short as I think it best to go back for the clean up. I suspect once we hit Portugal we will store the boat somehow and head to Texas.

Thank you for all your thoughts and prayers, we are in good shape out here albeit slow.

Pixie Dust Sails

Almost 30 hours of motoring brings us north enough to sail. The sails are set wing and wing and we are sailing east at 5 knots. The boat is quiet again, sleep tonight will be peaceful.

The last two days we have been visited by Dolphins 3 times, we have disturbed a few Sea Turtles basking in the sun and were passed by a pod of Pilot Whales. Tefo has had fishing lines in the water for most daylight hours but we've had no bites.

The water tanks are topped off, we've manage to conserve enough fuel for a possible 4 more days of motoring and the crew is in good spirits. We are hoping to see Horta by Friday. For now we are happy to be sailing again.

Welcome to the Azores High

No, we have not reached the Islands, only the the persistent "high" that carries the islands name.

Now I'm no weather man, but I'm learning. "Highs" are an area basically with no wind while around the high the winds go in a clockwise fashion. So the winds we want are up North of the "high". So we are motoring, north.

We still have approximately 900 nm to our destination. We have approximately 500 nm of fuel onboard. We've got to find wind somewhere!

Once we get to the north side of the high the winds should be very consistent. Until then the crew is in good spirits, the sky's are sunny and blue and the seas are flat. It was one members laundry day.

Good Morning Day 7

We left Bermuda 7 days ago. We've traveled a little over 800 nautical miles, we have less than 1000 to go. Between the generator and the engine we've used approximately 40 gal of our 180 gal fuel capacity. We continue to chase the wind.

We haven't updated much because there is no news. We plod along out here today with blue skies and the blue ocean.

Our thoughts are with our friends at lake Texoma. The flooding there is destructive and disruptive. Thank you to all who are looking out for me in my absence. Denise, Derek, Heather, Bill, Ellen, Mark and Nick. Thinking of you all and praying for some relief!

In search of wind....

We knew it would happen we just thought it would be later in the trip. It started last night, a sailors nightmare, no wind!

Pixie Dust is a heavy boat. She needs at least 10 knots of wind to move her forward. Last night around 8 pm we had 4 maybe 5 knots of wind pushing us South. Not enough and in the wrong direction. We started the engine. At mid night the wind reappeared and we had a beautiful night of sailing.

Then there is now, 4 knots of wind in the wrong direction. Once again we have started the engine and we are headed North to find the wind. It's out there somewhere. We have a sort of wind map I download daily to help guide us. It is called a grib file. So that sudden left turn you saw us make? We are in search of wind.

About last night.....

We had a beautiful sail last night! Winds were 10-15 and we had following seas making our speed a whole 7.5 knots. The skies were crystal clear and full of stars. The biggest and brightest stars were highlighted by a background of black with silver flecks throughout the sky. I've never seen this many stars. The phosphorous in the water coming off our wake was another delightful light show. Joe said the trail coming off the back of the boat looked like a jet engine.

This morning just before sunrise, while I was on watch, the Dolphins came to play with our bow. I was treated to 30 minutes of watching Dolphins swim next to and under the boat. They appear to be such happy creatures! The show was a great way to start the day.

We've settled into a nice routine. Eat, sleep, stand watch, repeat. Only 1290 miles to go!

Rally start Bermuda

Here's a picture of the start of the rally in Bermuda. The start was inside the harbor and all boats went through the town cut to get out to the Atlantic.

The winds are lite today and we have been "wing on wing" since noon yesterday.

Note this is not Pixie Dust in the picture.

Good bye Bermuda!

Hello 14 +/- days at sea.

The rally restarted at noon today. We are on our way to Faial, Azores. I wish I had a picture, the start was beautiful. Several boats had their Spinnakers out. Those colors plus a bright sunshiny day and the crystal blue waters made for quite the sight. My sister Gayle says there are pictures in the ARC rally site.

I've figured out that if you comment on the blog site we will get an email. If you comment on fb we won't know till we land on the other side. We love email at sea! Hint, hint!

Winds are light, but we have following seas, so right now we are gently being pushed across the big Atlantic Ocean.
our destination.

Bermuda

We've enjoyed our short stay in Bermuda. It is a lovely island with lovely people. It's nice when you contact Bermuda Radio to tell them you are entering the harbor and they say "Welcome to Bermuda!"

St Georges is quaint and Hamilton is a city. Both beautiful in their own right. Public transportation is plentiful but wifi a tad scarce. Maybe the wifi is just overloaded with 200+ sailors trying to log on for free.

This is really a test for the blog and fb as our arrival post did not go through to fb. We start our long leg to the Azores on Wednesday, all crew is aboard and ready to go!

Hello Bermuda!

We have arrived! Almost six days exactly between the start from Nanny Cay Tortola to pulling into St George's Bermuda.

The last 18 hours were the longest. We were against both the wind and the high sea. Sleep was hard to come by as the boat lurched with every wave. But that's over now, we are safely moored up to the city dock.

A few days here for discovering Bermuda, some fix it jobs on the boat and to switch out some crew. Wednesday starts leg number 2, it is on to the Azores.

Closer and Closer

We are in the home stretch now. About 12 hours from now we will be pulling into St George's Harbor Bermuda. Wow, where did that week go?

We learned several things in the last six days. I bought too much food, our watch schedule rocks (plenty of rest for everyone) , good crew makes everything easier and our cockpit flooring makes a whole bunch of noise when the seas come from a certain direction. Creak, creak, creak. When you are down below this sounds like the boat is shaking apart. Now we all know Pixie Dust is s good sturdy boat, but it took me 2 days (or nights) to figure out where the noise was coming from, and by that time I was ready to throw them overboard. Wood on fiberglass, creak...

One other thing we learned the Iridium GO has made our communication from sea infinitely easier.

A beautiful day at sea

Today was a beautiful day at sea albeit with no wind. Zero, zip, nada. We restarted the engine about 10 am and dropped the sails about 2 pm.

There is a soft slight swell but the seas are calm. Joe worked all day on little projects, Mike and Patricia read, it was my turn to stand watch for most of the daylight hours. We saw one boat all day!

We were rewarded at the end with a delightful sunset. The winds are not scheduled to change until Friday early morning...just about the time we get to the Spit Buoy which marks the end of this leg and the entrance to the harbor where we will check into Bermuda.

500 miles

We've sailed 500 miles, right into what they call the "horse latitudes".

What we have been told is this is the area where ships would reach and because there was no wind they would start throwing the horses overboard. Sounds horrible. Makes me happy I'm not a horse. Makes me even happier to know we have an engine.

Yes, after 500 miles of good sailing conditions we have turned on the engine. Pixie Dust barely moves with only 5 knots of wind. The swells are high and the wind is lite. That makes for a very uncomfortable ride. The engine makes it better.

Maybe tomorrow the wind will come back. 335 miles to the Bermuda entrance.

Meet the Crew

I keep referring to our awesome crew, but now I realize I've never introduced them. Here they are...meet Mike and Patricia.

We've known Patricia for awhile now and are excited she is on this leg of our Journey. She unable to participate in the entire crossing and will depart the boat in Bermuda.

Mike is with us all the way to Portugal and will be joined in Bermuda by another crew member Tevik.

We feel fortunate to have these experienced sailors aboard!

48 hours = 300 miles

At noon today, exactly 48 hours after the start of the rally, we had traveled 300 miles. That is a pretty good clip for our heavy boat. We are a third of the way to Bermuda! The seas have calmed and currently we have all the sails up. The wind was consistent again blowing 15-20 knots all day.

So far our fix it at sea list is short. We lost one batten from the mainsail at the start of the rally. We (Joe) needed to install a cleat for the mainsail furling line in the cockpit yesterday. Then today just as Joe was attempting to make his second cup of coffee the propane solenoid failed. In true Joe fashion he fixed it quickly and the coffee was only delayed by an hour.

The crew is well rested and well fed. Dawn is feeling better! There was no hurling in the last 24 hours. Lol.

It's a rock and roll start!

The last 28 hours we've had good winds and roily seas. Winds are consistently 18-22 from the east which is providing good sailing.

The seas are 5-7 foot swells on the beam. The boat looks and feels like a rubber duck in a bathtub. Back and forth, up and down, side to side. Lots of sea spray. Most of the crew is handling it well, only Dawn has hurled. Lol. These conditions appear to persist for the next 48 hours.

We are making good time averaging 6.5 knots. We'll be in Bermuda in no time!

Dressed Overall

Pixie Dust is all dressed up and ready to sail! This is a test for the Iridium GO! And picture posting.

Check, Check, Check

We've been making a lot of check marks!  Safety inspection passed ✔️, Crew arrived ✔️, generator tuned up and spare parts acquired ✔️, leaky hatches fixed✔️ electric cockpit wench operational✔️.  This list could go on and on.  The check marks are endless. 

We have one check mark we will not be able to make and that is our Windless motor is not repairable. We will need a new one shipped to Bermuda. It's ok though, we had no plans to use it on the way to Bermuda. ( it is the device that pulls the anchor up and there is no anchoring in the Atlantic). We will save that check mark for later.

T-72 hours......

Tracking Pixie Dust

As I continue to test our Iridium Go here is the link to one of the trackers that we will have on board as we sail from Tortola to Bermuda and beyond.

http://forecast.predictwind.com/tracking/display/PixieDust

We are checked in!

We are fueled up and resting at Nanny Cay Marina