Departure Horta

14 April 2023

News

The first leg of the voyage back to Rotterdam is finished, and the second part has already started. After two busy days in Horta we were (almost) ready again and the new guests came on board. A large part of the group stayed for the second leg, but we also got eight ‘fresh’ guests on board. It is always a bit of a guess who is who, but the mood was quickly set and most guests went into the pub together after the welcome talk and dinner. The crew enjoyed a quiet evening and a few well-earned hours of sleep.

This morning after breakfast and the safety briefing, we shifted to bunker fuel before continuing our journey to the Netherlands. After bunkering we set sail. There was a nice breeze from the south, which made sure that the first miles were done quickly. With only the square rig, we reached eight knots!

When we entered the lee of the islands the wind slowly died down. So we hoisted the mainsail, trying to keep up our speed. But then the wind really dropped completely and we used the engine to get out of the lee.

In the meantime, the wind is slowly coming back, so we switched the engine off and we sail into the night. At the moment our speed is not that high, but it is expected that this will get better during the night.

For the next few days, the forecast is that the wind will continue to blow strongly from the south-southwest and so we expect to be able to make good progress in this first part. That would be nice, because in the long-term things look less favourable. But on the other hand you can’t rely on a long-term forecast. Let’s first enjoy the fact that we are sailing on the Atlantic Ocean and we still have the wind in our backs for the time being. King’s Day, here we come!