After a 9 day break in Ponta Delgada on São Miguel Island in the Azores, Nakee set off today at 11:00 UTC for the ~1,000 nautical mile passage to Gibraltar. We said goodbye to John Ashworth who disembarked there and welcomed Drew Knutton aboard for this next leg.
Most of the time in the marina at Ponta Delgada was spent carrying out maintenance and repairs aboard Nakee. The local sailmaker, Rui Soares, repaired both the genoa and the main. We also repaired and rebuilt the staysail furler, re-bedded the port cap shroud chain plate and port wiper washer motor to stop some leaks. I also replaced the gasket in the starboard lower port light in the aft cabin to stop a small leak when the boat is heeled over on a port tack and that port light is under water.
On Wednesday we rented a car for a day and toured the West end of the island, visiting a place on the sea where one can swim in the ocean water as the temperature is warmed to 34°c from underwater thermal vents. We also visited a mountain top lake formed by a volcano. São Miguel is very lush green, with lots of agricultural fields separated by stone walls reminiscent of Ireland. There is a tea plantation on the island and they grow pineapples here, which we stocked up on as they are delicious. At last night’s last meal ashore at a popular place called Tasca, we had gin and tonics with local gin and local pineapple as a garnish.
We expect the passage to Gibraltar will be 10-12 days and will be firing up the Starlink at 15:00 UTC each day for about 15 min to refresh the weather routing models and download emails etc.
After weeks of high winds, making the marina berth very uncomfortable with a horrible surge, we now have light winds of 5 knots, so are almost becalmed.
