The Azores were fantastic but, after 16 days, it was time to press on. Originally, we planned to make straight for the Cape Verde islands or Dakar, Senegal, secure Brazilian visas, and head west across the Atlantic for Salvador. Plans have a way of changing. Several days before departure, Rob found a single, parted strand on one of our lower shrouds. There is a single rigging shop, Mid-Atlantic Yacht Services, in Horta and it was unable to fix the problem. The owner gave us two recommendations: Lisbon or Gibraltar; and he suggested a way to minimize stress on the damaged shroud during the passage. Considering the duty-free fuel and easier route, Gibraltar won-out.
We looked
at the weather forecast and determined that we would probably be on a port tack
most of the way to Gibraltar. On a port
tack, the starboard side is the leeward, or �lazy� side of the boat, whose
rigging is under the least stress--to minimize chance of failure, we moved the
damaged shroud to the starboard side. Stiff
northeast breezes prevailed, making the passage exceptionally fast, until we
reached Cabo Sao Vicente, Portugal, where the wind died. We spent the next two-and-a-half days
crashing, slowly, into a steep swell from the east. Progress was slow and frustrating.
Making
matters worse, we hit the Straits of Gibraltar at the worst combination of time
and conditions: nighttime and in the
fog. Using radar as our eyes, we hugged
the coast of Spain, no more than � miles from shore, to stay out of the
outbound shipping lane. Adding to the
stressful situation were the booming foghorns, which sounded constantly from
unseen cargo ships. Just after sunrise,
Matt spotted a hilltop in Spain poking through the fog and, several minutes
later, it lifted enough to glimpse the Moroccan coast to the south. An hour later, we passed the Rock of
Gibraltar and treaded our way through anchored freighters on our way to the
anchorage at La Linea, Spain.
La Linea, which means �the line,� refers to the Spanish siege line from the Great Siege of Gibraltar from 1779-1783, and lies just north of Gibraltar, in Spain. The anchorage, which is protected and, more importantly, free, is just a short walk across the airport runway from Gib.
We spent
several days running around Gibraltar and La Linea looking for rigging shops to
fabricate a new shroud and searching out a suitable inflatable replacement for
our fibreglass dinghy. It took a week
but we accomplished both and even managed to climb the Rock. The famed Barbary apes, which inhabit the
upper reaches of the Rock, did not disappoint:
when we broke out to candy bars at the top, one rushed at me and tried
to swipe it. He kept coming back aggressively
until I was forced to hand over the wrapper, which he licked completely
clean!
Before
leaving for Taffies, Spain and the Canary Islands, we sailed the 15 miles
across the Strait to the autonomous Spanish city, Ceuta. We spent two nights at the Marina Hercules,
located on the alleged location of the southern Pillar of Hercules of Greek
mythology. One afternoon, we caught a
bus to the Moroccan border thinking we would cross over and explore the border
town on the opposite side. The joke was
on us when we discovered that the nearest town, Tetouan, was 40 km distant and
taxis were the only mode of transportation!
We finished clearing customs into Morocco, walked down to the beach,
then turned around and walked back across into Spanish Africa.
Obelisk dropped anchor in the harbor at Horta on the island of Faial, Azores just before midnight June 28 after eighteen days at sea--we were all extremely glad to see land again! Our crossing, from the Caribbean went smoothly, with no extended runs of bad weather, but some frustrating periods of light winds. We endured six days with almost no wind to speak of after the Bermuda-Azores High set in and left us rolling in the ocean swell. Tempting as it may have been to crank up the engine and motor towards our destination, we resisted, opting to wait for wind (At that point we had nearly 1500 nautical miles remaining and we only carry enough fuel to motor about 700 miles, plus fuel is expensive!)
We were amazed by the amount of ship traffic we encountered in the middle of the ocean, as we usually passed several ships a day. Regrettably, other signs of human impact were also present; an alarming amount of trash of every variety collects at the edges of opposing ocean currents.
The calm days offered plenty of time to read, relax and create projects to entertain yourself. It was during one of these sultry afternoons that we hooked-up the biggest and most impressive fish yet: The drag on the reel started screaming out, faster than we've heard yet, and everyone raced to the deck where Matt had just pulled the rod out of the holder. Several seconds later, an enormous Blue Marlin, in the 400lb range, jumped out of the glassy water, twice, before snapping the line. We were all in awe! It was the most impressive sight that any of have ever seen fishing and just how majestic this fish was is hard to convey. After the adrenaline died down, it was back to waiting for some wind.
After arriving in Horta and clearing customs, we made the obligatory trip to Peter Cafe Sport, a world renowned cruisers bar on the waterfront for a cold beer and a steak. After 18 days of canned food, a hearty meal lifted all our spirits. We've spent the last ten days enjoying Horta and the surrounding island. We had plans to climb Pico, a 7700ft volcano on the neighboring island of the same name, on the Fourth of July, but the weather took a turn for the worse and we called to expedition off.
We've made friends with a number of cruisers here, especially the crew of Gracie, a 69' custom Concordia that we are rafted to at the marina. They are heading to the UK for the Rolex Fastnet Race in mid-August. We wish Skip, Desmond and the rest of the crew the best of luck and hope that Jenny's arm gets better soon!
It's safe to say that we've enjoyed the Azores more than
anywhere yet and we could spend several more months exploring here, but we need
to head on. Our next destination is
Dakar, Senegal in western Africa. There
we will visit the Brazilian embassy and obtain our visas before heading back across
the Atlantic to South America.
